Star Wars Rebels

Since 1983, before my birth, there have been a lot of movies and TV shows with the title of “Star Wars”, but none of them have felt like “Star Wars”. Rebels does feel like "Star Wars" and it proves that there is a formula for a Star Wars movie. The formula was long forgot by its creator, but the Disney company has rediscovered that formula. Not every fan will be able to tell you why this feels like Star Wars and the prequels did not, but I am going to attempt to do this.

Point 1: Cinema

It is obvious that "Rebels" isn’t simply an average kids television show. The thing feels cinematic. It isn’t just that the music and sounds are lifted right from the original trilogy, or that you have those neat “Star Wars” transitions that wipe and swipe across the screen. The camera angles feel real. It is well paced. There are quiet moments that are well juxtaposed with the action, (which feels liked the action right out of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or "A New Hope"). I don’t know when Lucas or Spielberg forgot how to make these kinds of movies, but someone has remembered.

Point 2: Weight

         Everything in Star Wars Rebels has weight. There are tons of little moments that prove this. The first time we see a walker on screen it creaks and squeaks and appears high above the viewer. And you get this chill down your spine. This small shot is a “set-up” for episode 2. When we see these walkers again. In the “Droids” episode there are two of them! And they are hard to defeat. The characters have to work together and come up with an interesting solution to take down the walkers. It’s like the Hoth battle in Empire Strikes Back. 

If this were the prequels or “The Clone Wars” there might be 700 walkers and some Jedi would use the force to knock them all over or some clone trooper would throw a bomb and they would all blow up. But when things are so easily defeated the threat is eliminated and the thing doesn’t feel “cool” anymore. That’s why I don’t care about any of the droids or ships from the prequel trilogy: everything just blows up. There are like one-million things on the screen constantly exploding and nothing has weight.

Point 3: Characters and Plot

There is a main protagonist in this show and his name is Space Aladdin. There are also five other lead characters: Samurai-Jedi, Pilot-Oola, Sexy Boba-Fett, Aussie-Chewbacca, and Grumpy-Orange-R2-D2. The episodes of this show follow this rag-tag band of out-laws as they steal from the empire and sell to low-life criminals. This show is basically "Firefly".

That’s pretty much the plot. It’s simple. Can you please describe the main characters and plot of the Star Wars prequels? Is there a main character in the prequels? Is it Anakin? He’s barely in the first film. It can’t be Anakin, he’s the bad guy. Maybe it’s Obi-wan. Is there a main plot? If there is one, it’s certainly not a simple one. 

I feel like “Clone Wars” yearns for a main character and plot even more than the prequels. If the main characters are Anakin and Asoka, how come they aren’t in half the episodes?

The characters in Rebels feel real. They aren’t just stiff puppets. There are moments when they are lounging around the ship. They are slouched over or have there arms slung over a chair and you think “Hey, that’s how real people lounge around”. Compare this to how stiff every character looks in any prequel “dialogue” scene.

These small subtleties make the characters feel human. They are more than marionettes that are just there to take part in the action or carry-out the plot. The characters do and say things that feel organic. The dialogue in this show is decent and borderline clever.

Point 4: There are no lessons

Every “Clone Wars” episode would start with a quote, which told us what lesson we were suppose to learn from the episode. Then things would explode and a million blaster shots would be fired and at the end of it all, the characters would basically talk about how they learned some kind of lesson.

There are no fracking lessons in “Rebels”. If there are “lessons” they are much harder to put your finger on. You have to really think about it and even after that, there are no easy answers.

One example is the character Zeb. His species is endangered because the Empire freaking killed them all. If this were “Clone Wars” you might have Padme on the screen saying something like “Genocide is wrong!” and then she would address the senate and they would be outraged but some crooked senator would make some sly deal because he was evil.

Rebels is different. First of all it doesn’t make a blanket statement, like “Genocide is wrong!” It focuses on a character who has been torn apart by genocide and shows us how he is feeling about it. But this isn’t some little helpless alien that we should feel sorry for, this is a big rude brute that we aren’t sure if we have warmed up to yet, and the fact that his race has been extinguished and that he is emotional about it, helps us feel something for him. There is no doubt the Empire is evil here, but it’s not just to be evil. If I were the Empire I might take down this guys species too. They seem ornery and dangerous.

Nitpicky?

Some people might say that I am being nitpicky. But really they are just accusing me of having tastes and standards. Someone who likes beer will talk about the subtleties of the taste, how the flavors are well balanced or how much the malts are roasted. If you give them a Bud Light and they don’t like it and you accuse them of being too picky, then you are being a douche-bag, not them. This is how many fans (and casual viewers) feel about the prequel trilogy and Clone Wars- That it’s Bud Light and they at least wanted a Leinenkugel. Lucas forgot how to make good beer a long time ago, but Disney- Disney has been brewing good beer for children for generations! Hmmm…. my metaphor kind of got away there.

Star Wars On My TV Part II: The Clone Wars

There is a literary device called “In medias res” meaning “In the middle of things”. Often script-writers will use this technique to the get right to the action. If Lucas were worth his salt, Episode I would have started right in the middle of the Clone Wars in the same way Episode IV started right in the middle of the battle between The Rebellion and The Empire.  But instead we got two movies leading up to the Clone Wars and one film set after the Clone Wars. Instead we got a children’s cartoon series to tell us the tales that, by all rights, fans should have got in the Star Wars films. The films are, after all, called “Star Wars”, not “Star Trade Disputes”.

Many adults- real adults older than I, in their 30s and 40s- have claimed that the 3D cartoon series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” makes up for Lucas’ lack of vision in the Prequel Trilogy. They claim that “The Clone Wars” is dark and edgy. One person touted “There are parts that are better than Empire Strikes Back!” One person claimed that it was some of the best stuff on TV right now and that it was “Pushing the boundaries television”. I told my peers that I had tried to watch over two seasons of the show but I found it tedious and pointless. “You just have to get past the forth season”, they claimed, “It gets really cool when Darth Maul’s brother shows up”. 

Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t get "really cool" when Darth Maul’s brother shows up.

Whether you’ve seen the show or not, I am here to set the record straight about “The Clone Wars”. Here are 5 reasons why no adult should take this show seriously.

#1 The Prequel Conundrum

The problem with any prequel is that you already know what is going to happen to the characters. No adult is watching this series without having seen Episode III. We know that every major character (expect for maybe Ahsoka) will survive until Episode III. We know that Anakin will later turn into Vader and that every Jedi will eventually be killed (except for Obi-Wan and Yoda). Every time Dooku and Anakin fight, it is only a precursor to their battle in Episode III. Every time Obi-Wan and Grievous fight, it is only a precursor to their battle in Episode III. Every time Palpatine pretends to be good, you know that the Jedi are not going to discover him, even though he is acting suspicious constantly. Which brings me to my next point

#2 Jedi Pawns

Whose fault is it that the Empire exists? It’s the freaking Jedi’s fault that the Empire exists! Palpatine is using them to take over the galaxy one planet at a time. The Jedi are bringing Stormtroopers and Star Destroyers to every corner of the galaxy because they are pawns! If the prequels taught us one thing it is this. IT’S ALL YODA’S FAULT! He stood toe to toe with Palpatine and never sensed anything weird going on. He lent the entirety of the Jedi forces to the war effort even though Jedi are suppose to be defenders of peace.  And then when the shit hit the fan he ran to Dagobah and hid until he died of old age. The end.

#3 The use of Basic

This one proves that there is a target-audience difference between the cartoons and the films. In the cartoons there are no alien languages. Every alien speaks basic. Even the aliens that spoke other languages in the films, speak basic in the cartoons. Ziro the Hutt speaks basic. Cad Bane the Duros bounty hunter speaks basic. The Rodians speak basic. The Twi’leks speak basic. Not only do they speak basic, but they get weird accents. Suddenly Sy Snootles is a roaring-20s floozy. Kit Fisto is Jamaican. Aayla Secura is French. The Clone Troopers are Australian. The Nemoidians are Chinese.  Watto is Jewish. Eeth Koth is Indian. Even Piell is Russian. Shaak Ti is Spanish. But none of this makes sense. This is bad science fiction. Can you imagine if in the original Star Wars trilogy Chewbacca spoke basic in a German accent? It wouldn’t make sense. Wookiees don’t come from fucking Germany they come from fucking Kashyyk. Bottom line. Aliens don’t speak fucking basic and if they did they wouldn’t have fucking Earth accents.

#4 The Clone Troopers : Can’t have it both ways.

So the prequels tell us that the Clone Troopers will take any order. They don’t ever question what they are told. That’s fine. But this cartoon series tells us that the Clone Troopers are actually individual characters who have a moral sense of right and wrong. They have names like “Hevy” and “Knuckles” and “Crasher” and “Pony Boy” and all of them are loyal, Band-of-Brother, pals. Why would these heroes betray and kill their Jedi commanders? Well apparently at the end of the series they explain that biochips in the clones brains enabled Palpatine to use mind-control to have the Clones kill the Jedi. So which is it? Are Clones mindless drones or good-guys with mind-control chips? The prequels basically teach us that there aren't any bad guys in the Star Wars universe. Anakin is really good. Boba Fett is really good. Only Palpatine is evil, yet he single-handedly took over the whole fracking galaxy. Why would the clones even listen to Palpatine? By the time he gave order 66 he was unrecognizable and obviously unwell. Sorry, I don’t buy this flip-flopping clone bullshit. Let’s get back to the original trilogy. Stormtroopers aren’t clones, they are just men who enlisted for The Empire. They probably aren’t much different from the Americans who enlist in the US army. But no soldier needs a mind-control chip implanted in their brains to get them to follow orders and I doubt a solider is going to betray their commander, just because some hologram in creepy dark robes told them to. I call bull-shit.

#5 Emotional Connections

At the end of the day I have to ask myself, do I actually have any emotional connections to any of these characters? The answer is “no”. If I’m going to be watching animation, I’d rather watch Pixar or Dinsey or a Miyazaki film. I'd rather watch the Toy Story trilogy ten times over. I like Buzz and Woody. When it looks like they are going to get melted into plastic goo, I cry. It’s emotional every single time I watch. When Andy gives them away to Bonnie, I cry again. Darth Maul does not do this for me. His return is not surprising and is totally uninteresting. I don’t care about Ahsoka Tano or Captain Rex. I despise Anakin and Jar Jar. I could give two-shits about young Boba Fett. He’s a little brat.

1999 - 2014

For me the “prequel-era” lasted from 1999 – 2014. “The Clone Wars” is an extension of Episodes I – III. I don’t care about the characters or the plot. If the new “Rebels” series and the sequel trilogy does nothing else, it will at the very least end the reign of Jar Jar, Darth Maul, Count Dooku, Nute Gunray, Boss Nass, Young Boba Fett, Battle Droids, and Clone Troopers. The past 15 years of being a Star Wars fan have sucked and I’m ready to get back to the magic that I felt when I first watched the original trilogy at the age of seven. Fingers crossed.

Star Wars on my TV

On this blog site I have covered everything Star Wars: Movies, Books, Comics, Toys, and Television. I admit that some critics of this blog note that I haven’t covered television in too much detail so far. These critics want to me to acknowledge the existence of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (the 3D animated one) since it is so beloved in the Star Wars community. Don't worry it's coming.

So far, I have reviewed the ill-conceived “Star Wars Holiday Special” and I praised the Emmy-winning classically animated 2D “Clone Wars” produced by Genndy Tartakovsky. But neither of those really count as TV.

Clone Wars by Genndy Tartakovsky

I admit that TV is the least appealing form of Star Wars to me. Maybe Star Wars simply doesn’t work in this medium or perhaps no one has done it right yet. But with the upcoming “Star Wars: Rebels” I’d like to take another look at what I like and what I hate about the television shows that we have been subjected to thus far.

1985 was the year that Star Wars struck back. But instead of a new movie, fans got two ABC television shows. The first was “Droids” that focused on droids and the second was “Ewoks” which focused on… well you know.

I was fortunate enough (or unlucky enough) to catch reruns of both of these shows at six in the morning before school when I was a kid. I don’t remember much, so I did some quick youtube searches before writing this article.

Droids features the voice talents of Anthony Daniels as C3-P0 (because what else has that guy have to do?) and some kind of computer synthesizer as R2-D2. The synthesizer is also present in the soundtrack of the show, as was typical of cartoons of the time.

Over the 13 episodes and one made-for-TV-movie of the show was produced. The two droids find themselves on back-world planets and acquire new masters, who stick around for about four or five episodes before the droids “move along”. 

There is something very “Star Wars” about this show. The universe is not the flashy-clean sci-fi place that we see so-often in the Prequel-era. It is run-down. Characters wear 80s-style hairdos and race landspeeders in Podunk areas of the galaxy. There’s a little bit of nostalgia of an age-gone-by. My childhood perhaps.

The drawbacks of droids is that it’s not very exciting. There are no epic spacebattles or duels between good and evil. There aren’t any stormtroopers or tie-fighters, which is something one would expect from an animated Star Wars cartoon. Overall "Droids" just feels pointless. R2-D2 and Threepio work fine as background characters, but when you push them into the foreground you just have… well, Scooby and Shaggy- always getting into danger and trying to find a way out- but without the mystery being solved at the end.

Ewoks was launched the same year, but it a very different show than "Droids". Ewoks is obviously Lucas-Film’s response to Disney’s "Gummi Bears". The opening song is not as good, but there are definite similarities.

As a cartoon, Ewoks actually works better than droids. Much like The Smurfs, it features small forest folk being pitted against strange evil magic users. Ewoks feels like a kids show, but it feels nothing like Star Wars. Overall two seasons of 35 episodes were produced.

It feels strange that Lucas chose to focus his cartoons on Droids and Ewoks. In the hay-day of Saturday morning cartoons, competing against shows like GI Joe and Transformers, why hold back? Why not just give us the further adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. Why did fans have to wait so long (my entire life time) to finally get these characters back on a screen (large or small) ?

Simply put, for the millionth time, what the fuck was Lucas thinking?

*Star Wars Rebels premiers on October 3^rd