Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some words for you guys on the first two episodes from Season 2 of Star Wars Rebels that were screened for us nerdy folks at Star Wars Celebration today.
I'm a bit of a recovering Star Wars fan. Like many people of my generation the prequels hurt me bad and I didn't want to trust anybody else with my love. I reacted so strongly to George Lucas' prequel vision that anything associated with it, be it imagery or story ideas, was on my shit list. I went into the first few episodes of Dave Filoni's run on The Clone Wars (when it was cut together as a movie... remember how weird it was seeing the WB logo on a theatrical Star Wars movie?) skeptical and had a hard time not being super pissed off at it.
The animation style lacked the retro coolness of Genndy Tartakovsky's shorter episodes and suddenly Anakin had a catch-phrase spewing young girl sidekick and a baby Hutt was farting all over the goddamn screen. It was the worst of the prequels all jumbled into one kiddie story and I wrote it all off.
It was a dark time in Star Wars fandom. I honestly thought I was just going to have to be happy with the 3 laser disc quality transfers of the OT they released on DVD and let go of pretty much everything else Star Wars.
To say it evolved beyond me is accurate, but I felt it lost a certain level of awe and majesty that I responded so fully to in those first three films. I could point out flaws in all of them, but the tone, character work and performances combined to give me a series that shaped me as a movie geek and as a human being. As corny as it is to put it that way it's true.
Weirdly at peace with my place in the greater Star Wars fan community I rejected friends' suggestions to give The Clone Wars another chance. “It gets better,” they said. “Does Anakin's padawan still call him Sky Guy all the time?” “Well, yeah, but...” and I was out.
But the voices grew louder and more insistent and I ended up giving in about year before the series hit Netflix. Very shortly after the craptastic first three episodes there was a scene during a big battle where Yoda comes in and gives a pep talk to the Clones. That scene is the spark that started the fire that rekindled my love of Star Wars. Suddenly the Clones weren't just this mass of CG non-characters. They each had their own personalities, fears and doubts. When Yoda tells them they are all unique, not just cannon fodder and not merely the sum of their genetic similarities something clicked.
It was the first time a hallmark unique to the prequels went from something I disliked to something I liked. And it wasn't the last time. Thanks to The Clone Wars I turned around on much of what was established in the prequels. Anakin and Obi-Wan seemed to like each other! The romance with Padme was more than just infatuation. The delicate string pulling of Palpatine became more impressive. The Jedi order didn't just come off like a bunch of out of touch, pompous tight-asses. I don't like Jar-Jar any more than I did before, but at least the show knew how to handle him. The characters were just as annoyed with him as we were and his loyalty became a defining characteristic.
Bottom line the storylines were smart and the character writing was even smarter. They made me give a shit again.
So when Disney bought Lucasfilm and announced new Star Wars movies I was an early cheerleader. So many people were screaming about the death of Star Wars now that Mickey and his giant corporate masters were in control of the holy saga, but to me the saga had already died. George Lucas is a storytelling genius, no two ways about it, but his vision had moved in a direction I couldn't follow.
I know he was involved closely with Clone Wars and Rebels, but Lucas seems to always be at his best when his crazy ideas are focused, whether it's by a strong producer like Gary Kurtz, a smart dramatist like Irvin Kerschner, a brilliant collaborator like Steven Spielberg or a guy with a funny hat like Dave Filoni. Lucas taking a back seat on new Star Wars movies was a good thing in my book and while we still have 7 ½ months to see if that works out or not I'm almost back to square one as a fan. I get excited about the prospect of new movies, new (canon) books and new TV.
Dave Filoni and crew are a large part of why that is. Clone Wars only got better and better and by the time that final Netflix season came out they were delivering my favorite Star Wars anything since 1983.
As much as I began to fall in love with The Clone Wars, I have a suspicion Rebels might end up being better. And I'm saying that based only on one really good first season and two episodes of season 2. Within a relatively short span of time I've been introduced to a whole new Star Wars family with virtually no leaning on established characters.
The character writing is so sharp on the show that there was almost no acclimatization time for me. The animation style is still not my favorite in the world, but strong writing is the single most important thing for me as a film viewer.
In Season One we meet Ezra Bridger, a young force adept troublemaker making his way on his home planet. He's lost, directionless, but not a grumpy dick. He's cocky, but with a conscience. Thinking about it now, maybe I see more of who I wanted Anakin to be in Ezra and that's why I like him so much.
Over the course of the first season we realize that the rag tag group of space hooligans Ezra falls in with are kind of part of a larger, still-forming rebellion and that one among them is a Jedi in hiding. Kind of. Kanan was never officially made a Jedi Knight, his master killed when Order 66 was sent out.
The main bad guy is also a Sith, but only kind of. The Inquisitor hunts down Jedi, expertly wields a red lightsaber and has strong force powers. That's a Sith, but I guess not officially since Lucas introduced that “there can be only two” rule for whatever reason.
Since Rebels takes place between the Prequel Trilogy and the Original Trilogy there are a lot more benchmarks that hit me deep in the heart-place. Star Destroyers, Stormtroopers, Imperial Officers... all from the Star Wars I don't get nerd-picky about (that's my new term specifically relating to being nitpicky about Star Wars). Hell, they even had a nod to Star Tours in one episode!
Add on to that a feeling of fun adventure with a bittersweet sense of loss underneath it all and you got some primo Star Wars storytelling going on right now on DisneyXD of all places.
Season One ended with a reveal that Ahsoka Tano is part of the forming rebellion. She's come a long way from being the spunky “Sky Guy” apprentice. Over the course of The Clone Wars she became the heart of that series and kind of represented the good in Anakin. She was hope that he would turn out okay and that his inner demons wouldn't push him over the edge.
Her re-introduction promises dark times ahead for this series. Ahsoka got out of The Clone Wars alive, no small feat considering she is not once referenced in Revenge of the Sith. There was ambiguity to her disappearance, though; a hope that she was going to make it out of the Skywalker story alive, off on some distant, solitary planet living in peace.
That hope is no more and I'm both ecstatic to see her back and terrified of what this means for her. By the time A New Hope rolls around the personification of Anakin's good has a new face. From a storytelling perspective she's Luke before Luke comes into the picture so she's gotta be out of that picture and it'd feel like a cop out if she just got to fade away into the galaxy yet again.
Going into the screening today I was most interested in seeing the Ahsoka/Vader angle to this season, but I was just as happy to get to visit Ezra, Kanan, Hera, Zeb and Sabine again. Their chemistry as a group is stronger than ever and yes, that means I'm praising a Freddie Prinze Jr. performance. I know, I'm as shocked as you are, believe me.
If you missed the Season 2 trailer reveal, give it a look here and we'll get to talking about it:
If you're thinking the Vader stuff in the above is going to be sprinkled throughout the next season you're wrong. Pretty much everything in the above trailer except for the return of Rex and the other clones is in the first two episodes of Season 2.
There are two big takeaways I want to stress to you. One, Lando (once again voiced by Billy Dee Williams) does return and we're introduced to probably the coolest droid ever. Looking like the Metropolis-inspired early C3PO that Ralph McQuarrie designed, I don't think we ever got this droid's name, but he interacts with the Rebels crew and is just as smooth as Lando is! If we don't get a whole episode devoted to this droid I'm gonna riot. My personal theory is this sweet-talking droid ends up stealing one of Lando's potential lady friends and Lando kicks him to the curb before he moves on to Bespin.
The other thing is that the guys behind this show did something I didn't think was possible anymore. They made Vader scary again. This isn't the cute little kid who races pods or the moody teenager or the darkly heroic general or the dad who needs to be saved from himself. Vader has been an icon in the public consciousness for almost 40 years now and this is the first time he's been truly scary since probably 1980.
The Vader presented here, in a friggin' Disney cartoon, is the Darth Vader that stalked Luke through the bowels of Cloud City. He's the monster in the shadows. He's smart, cruel and unstoppable. You do not win a fight against this thing. You survive it.
When Vader does confront Kanan, Ezra, Sabine, Zeb and Hera it's not a struggle. There's very little ballet here. The Sith Lord swats the aspiring Jedis like they were flies and almost kills Sabine while only barely registering that she's there. It's no contest.
These days any follow up that's darker than what came before is automatically compared to The Empire Strikes Back. It's the go-to reference, but so far Season 2 really does feel like jumping from A New Hope to Empire. The hard won victories of the last season looks like child's pay in retrospect and that's only after two episodes! The good guys start out immediately getting spanked and you get the feeling it's going to get a hell of a lot worse before it gets better.
However, just because the stakes are raised and the odds are stacked against our heroes that doesn't mean the thing plays grim and gloomy. The fun is still there, as are the light character moments that make you really invest in these guys no matter how desperate and dire their situation becomes.
It's that sweet spot that Empire hit so well, which just makes me that much more in awe of Filoni and his crew. How do you capture that unique mix of ingredients, let alone do it again within the Star Wars universe?
Maybe they'll fumble it along the way, but I doubt it. These guys know what they're doing and no matter what missteps might come (they are only human after all) you can tell that their focus is character first and foremost, which means I have faith that they stick to the path and really give us something special here.
I don't know if Vader is going to be a constant presence this season or if he's just front-loaded to really kick things off with a bang, but it's a great return of the character. When he refers to Anakin Skywalker as if he is someone else it's straight up chilling.
If the press emails are right this two-parter will screen sometime this summer and Rebels Season 2 will officially start running this fall on DisneyXD.
It's a fantastic time to be in love (or back in love) with Star Wars.
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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