I recently have had the time to sit down and binge through the Star Wars cartoon "Rebels", which now is in its 3rd season on Disney XD. Prior to jumping into the show I had always tried to immerse myself into as much Star Wars expanded universe material I could find. I read books, comics, watched other cartoons, video games and even the fan made you tube videos. The big difference with Rebels and its predecessor Clone Wars is that its considered cannon. meaning it was recognized in continuity by all other Star Wars after it. I'll get into it in a second. Between the large gaps of years in star wars films and trilogies there was A LOT of material that was made of content. So after Lucas sold the rights off to Disney a lot of work was cultivating to make a new trilogy of movies and other content. One of those things was this show Rebels. Rebels takes place in between the times of episode 3 and episode 4 and tells the tale of how the rebellion was born. Now normally I'am a skeptic of any of the prequel material that took place in the cannon universe. Meaning; the prequel trilogy that told the tale of Anakin Skywalker was taken with a grain of salt as "New", when we all knew what happened. We just got to see it played out. I am not going to get into clone wars right now but it did a better job telling a story about the time before episode 4 than the prequels did. It could be attributed to the fact that it was spanned over 6 season and 3 series in early 2005 that were amazing but not part of the final store component. But I'm talking too much about clone wars this is about my adventure with Rebels. So, I figure I should explain what finally made me get my galactic shit together as a Star Wars super fan and watch this show in 2017, considering it came out in 2014.In all honesty it was Rouge One, because Disney had the expanded universe balls to include so much cartoon content into a major live action Star Wars motion picture. So this will be my first Blog as the notorious "Star Wars guy" among my friends and for season 1.
The Characters. Let's start with Ezra Bridger.
Ezra is for the most part the main protagonist of the Rebels show. He is a Human from the planer Lothal, which ends up playing a part in a lot of the Rebels episodes. He is in his tweens to teenage years maybe 13 when you first meet him. He has a very Luke Skywalker feel to him, He is clearly there to grab the relation of the younger audience but the do it very well. Ezra is a survivor like many heroes in the star wars universe and he stands out among a lot of characters as someone you can relate to regardless of your age.
Ezra is discovered in the first episode/pilot (which is about an hour or so long)of season 1 by the crew of the Ghost.Which is lead by Captain Hera Syndulla.
Hera is the no nonsense pilot of the Ghost and the leader of a rag tag group of characters who you fall in love with over the course of the 3 seasons. She is an excellent character for the series and I feel the writers hit a home run with the question "What would happen if we combined Princess Leia with Han solo who would we get?" you would get Hera Syndulla. She has all the charm and leadership of Leia and she is the best pilot I've seen since Solo. Plus, who doesn't love the Twi'leks? and if you pay attention in Rouge One they call for "General Syndulla" over the rebel base comm in a scene. Awesome Job on the promotion Hera!
The Next member of Ghost squad that has to be mention is Kanan Jarrus. Kanan is clearly the second in command of the crew of the Ghost and also the assumed love interest of Hera.
A lot of story line and reactions make them an item with out it being a plot point on the for front. which I like. its almost unspoken. they care for each other and its not a major story point. When you meet Hera's father in an episode its very endearing to see Kanan go from Jedi Knight to nervous boyfriend. Oh, Yeah. Kanan is a Jedi! They do a good job in the pilot leading up to it because Kanan feels like a smuggler at first but the moment shit gets real he pulls the saber out. Kanan also ends up taking on the relucant task of mentoring Ezra once he discovers he is force sensitive. surprise.
Garazeb Orrelios or Zeb for short is a Lasat mercenary companion of the crew of the ghost.
Zeb is a great character that you really see evolve over the 3 season. I'll get into the relation of it more later but he really reminded me of Jayne from Firefly. But, Zeb is also the Chewbacca character in a sense of being the muscle side kick. His species, Lasat have a history with the empire. The interaction between Ezra and Zeb in the first season was a very older/younger bother that I feel is relate-able to a younger audience or even an older one like me who used to pick on his little brother.
Sabine Wren is the specialist of Ghost squad. She is a teenage Mandolorian girl who has a artistic flair and is just as dangerous as Boba.
Sabine has a lot going on. She is a Mandolorian first and for most which has a lot of clout in the Star Wars universe. She carries a dual pistol blaster combo like Jango and has very customized Mandolorian armor. As the episodes go on she changes her armor style with her art work and her hair. She is a very dynamic character that definitely speaks to a generation and I feel like she is a perfect addition to the show to have a relate-able character for a younger female audience.
The last member of the Crew is Chooper or C1-10P (Chop) their Astromech droid.
Chopper is clearly the R2D2 of the group and he offers much of the comic relief but always comes out in the right. Chopper can also be seen in Rouge One in the background at the rebel base.
So this is the crew of the ghost. The rag tag group of characters who decided to take harassing the empire to a full time job. It takes a few episodes but they join the small growing rebellion. Season 1 does a great job of getting you to fall in love with all of these characters and hope they can thwart the empire. The show does a great job of bringing in villains such as Grand Moff Tarkin and Lord Vader himself (voiced by James Earl Jones) to create a real sense of threat and tension for these new characters and place them on playing field with Luke, Han and Leia. Each episode builds on the legacy of the rich history of Star Wars with new characters you fall in love with as some of the stories stand alone and some bring you back into a world already flushed out with characters like Captain Rex and Ahsoak Tano returning to the fold to tell their story after the Clone Wars. At 22 min an episode it is a must watch for Star Wars fans.
Passion
Strength
Power
Victory
The Force shall set you free.
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