General Star Wars Animated Series

Yeah, I'm going to be honest and say that there are times where Chee's chronology doesn't always work. One example I figured could've been solved easier was the whole thing with the super tactical droid that appears in the Clovis and Fives arcs - Clovis was intended to air in Season 5, so why couldn't it have been made to take place before the Fives arc, where it gets destroyed? Instead we get an explanation that it was rebuilt or something that really wasn't needed. I know this is a rather nitpicky issue, but I feel like they made things more complicated and contrived than they needed to be.

After Season 3 (I believe) they abandoned the idea that the series was out-of-order. It's easier to accept events as they come, rather than having to know "Oh, this happened before this other episode I've already seen." The sole exception to that is bumping up the first episode of the Darth Maul arc to the Season 5 premier (which, let's be honest, is just to get a highly promotable event at the start of the season).

A better solution would be to, you know, put the Clovis arc before the Fives arc, since it was supposed to be part of the previous season anyway.

^ The Darth Maul episode you're talking about is the one with Hondo, right? The one that comes after the Younglings vs Pirates arc but airs before it?

That's really interesting. Though the Palpatine we got was so much better, I'm actually kind of curious about how that might've turned out. Would there have ultimately been an Evil vs. Evil civil war in the Empire? If they had kept that and also gone through with Vader being Anakin, how might that've turned out? What Might Have Been, eh?

Yes.

One of the things that really makes my skin crawl when watching this series is the interactions between Palpatine and Anakin. It starts in the second episode, even — when Anakin creatively interprets orders so as to go looking for Plo Koon, the Council seems exasperated but not really angry. But when Palpatine contacts Anakin, it's "Oh, Anakin, the Council is furious with you!" That pissed me off so much.

I'm rewatching the series, and I love those rare moments where it seems like Palpatine has something close to a genuine reaction to something out of his control. Hostage Crisis is a good early example (you can just see the "oh, you have got to be kidding me" in his eyes when Cad Bane contacts him), but the one that really got me grinning was the Zillo Beast arc. Palpatine's (seemingly) legitimate wonder and amazement at beholding something so powerful that he's never encountered before is really interesting to see.

He seems almost giddy at the opportunity to take control of it, and nearly slips up and reveals his true colors a lot more than usual. He's like a kid in a candy store, except the candy in this situation is a several hundred food death monster...

edited 5th Apr '14 1:09:57 AM by KnownUnknown

I also like those moments. It's really a shame, that the Sith Hunters storyline only came-out as a comic. Seeing Palpatine have a genuine, totally shocked Oh, Crap! moment was pretty funny, but seeing it in the actual series would've been straight-out hilarious.

Pretty sure you can see the exact moment when Ahsoka makes Palpatine's hit list, too. Offhand I don't remember which episode it's in, but I'd swear there's a moment where you can just see Palpatine thinking, "Yup, this kid's got to go."

Palpatine had some really fantastic moments. His duel with Savage and Maul was truly a highlight. I'm pretty fond of how he makes dead sure Maul is watching just before he delivers the coup de grace on Savage.

Another cool thing from the official blog. It includes a rather fascinating look into the mind of a Kaminoan, who ponders why Humans Are Special and don't subscribe to Planet of Hats like so many other species do.

By the way, there was a Darth Maul game in production back at the tail end of 2010 that got canned. The concept art has Maul with his mechanical legs, and Savage, and the early-build video has him fighting Mandalorians, seeming to tie it into the show.

Given that Season 5 was teasing 1313 (another cancelled Lucasarts game; sensing the trend?) it's not entirely clear to me yet whether the Maul game was influencing the show or vice versa.

It'd feature Legacy characters, their presence approved by Big George himself at that, apparently.

If their presence in that time period is still considered canonical, then Talon, and possibly other members of Krayt's crew, are much older than they seem. It'd take some serious Sith mojo to look a comely 27 at 127, I'd imagine...

edited 11th Apr '14 5:28:20 PM by HamburgerTime

Is anyone else amazed that Hondo managed to survive all of his appearances, especially when he was dealing with Sith lords like count dooku?

edited 12th Apr '14 4:16:24 AM by 09Murphym

By the way, I don't know if anyone's heard this, but the new movies will take place thirty years after ROTJ, and star a completely new Power Trio of protagonists. So if anyone's concerned about the EU that should mean everything through the Yuuzhan Vong thing should be safe with a retcon applied here and there. Everything between the Yuuzhan Vong and the Legacy comics is pretty infamously terrible anyway so I doubt we're going to outright lose anything actually good.

^^ It's why I think he's going to die in Rebels - he's a very likeable character who nevertheless managed to survive mainly because the enormity of the situation around him turned him from something to be squashed to a neutral party that no one could expend the effort to deal with.

Now the Empire rules, and if you don't fall in line you get annihilated. There's no war to distract them.

To bring him back, have him go up against Darth Vader and suffer greatly for it (especially if he's harboring Jedi like I kind of hope he's doing), would be a good way to show that the situation is even worse now than it was in the Clone Wars.

No, not really. They already declared all the stuff non-canon, so when the film takes place in relation to those works is irrelevant.

I doubt we'll be seeing any direct adaptations of EU stories or characters, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few name-drops like Quinlan got, such as someone saying something like "This reminds me of the whole Thrawn thing!"

Considering how much of the Clone Wars series was pulled from or inspired by already existing EU material, it seems likely that Rebels will continue drawing from that well.

• Will we get EU stories? Probably not.
• Will we get EU references? Probably not.
• Will we get EU characters? Probably, if the appearance of people like Quinlan Vos in the Clone Wars series is any indication.
• Will we get EU locations? Definitely.

edited 16th Apr '14 4:38:01 PM by CorrTerek

I wouldn't be surprised if Filoni took the opportunity to recanonize some stuff.

Given how popular TCW turned out to be, I think Rebels has real potential to bring the OT period back to the fore in the public consciousness, because, let's face it, the PT period has dominated in that regard for quite some time. Apart from with the critics, of course.

The cover and plot of the third issue of Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir has been revealed. I've got to say, the more I hear about this, the more excited I get for it.

Also, the mention of the elite jedi strike team made me wonder if we will get yet another Anakin vs Dooku fight. XD

WonderCon Rebels teaser and Interview with Kevin Kiner

You know, as many Narmtacular lines as the prequels had, I'm not alone in thinking "So this is how liberty dies... to thunderous applause" was a great one, am I? Creepy and has real-life relevance!

edited 20th Apr '14 9:03:34 PM by HamburgerTime

That is a great one.

Say what you will about Lucas, but I think he definitely knows a lot about how dictatorships work. Palpatine's rise to power had everything: a war under false pretenses, using "national emergencies" to justify power-grabs, a "boogeyman" in the form of the Jedi, his own personal Reichstag Fire-like incident (the Duel in the Chancellor's Office) to finalize the takeover, and of course that line. All have many, many real-world parallels.

edited 20th Apr '14 9:16:30 PM by HamburgerTime