Time to (Legally) Binge-watch Star Wars Rebels

If you haven't caught up yet on the excellent Star Wars Rebels, now is your chance. Star Wars.com has been nice enough to put the entire first season online from now until Monday, leaving your weekend with only one goal: Binge watch all thirteen episodes. As the episodes are only 20 minutes long, that leaves you at less than seven hours. So you can cram in a watch of the original trilogy right after and still not have taken up an entire day. Trust us, it's worth it, and you'll want to be caught up when Season 2 launches later this year.

Go watch the full season here!

Star Wars Celebration Day Three:

Saturday of Star Wars Celebration was an incredible experience, but it was also the most crowded - while days Zero, One and Two  felt a little smaller and more intimate, Day Three was the full-on Comic-con experience. Lines were doubled in length, crowds were everywhere...and it was maybe the most fun we've had at the con all week. Check out our X-wing Experience, the newest news on Clone Wars, and panels with James Arnold Taylor and Mark Hamill!

Episode 141: Live Long and Prosper

This week, Jarys is out moving into their new apartment, so Mike and Mae Linh take over. Leonard Nimoy passed away just last week, and we spend some time discussing his life and legacy. Plus - being yourself in the workplace, the mid-season premiere of Agents of Shield, and the season finale of Star Wars Rebels!

Episode 141!

Is Star Wars Rebels a Worthy Successor to the Clone Wars?

Warning: The article will contain spoilers for the Star Wars Rebels season finale.

I never cried watching Revenge of the Sith, until the last time. Although it's the best of the prequels, any moments of emotional drama are fairly ruined by the lackluster acting and directing, and I never felt enough of an emotional connection to Anakin's story or any of the Jedi Knights to really feel anything other than morose watching their tragedy play out.

Then came Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Dave Filoni and Lucasfilm's take on the Clone Wars started as a semi-goofy children's movie with farthing Hutts, and over the course of six seasons developed into a treatise on the nature of war disguised as an animated series with Jedi. When I came back to Revenge of the Sith after watching Clone Wars, I found myself watching the deaths of old friends, instead of a random collection of alien makeup. I broke down.

After the unceremonious (but still potent) ending of the Clone Wars, we found ourselves looking to the now-Disney-owned Lucasfilm's successor, Star Wars Rebels, to fill that hole in our lives. So now that it's first season is up, did it live up to its predecessor?

Star Wars Rebels Premiere Report!

With the release of Star Wars Rebels coming up tonight (the pilot movie, "Spark of the Rebellion" airs on the Disney Channel on October 3rd, with the first episode airing on the 13th) Disney has been pushing Star Wars: Rebels into the forefront of every fan's mind with "secret showings" at movie theaters throughout the US. We were able to snag tickets to one of the last showings at the AMC Metreon Cinemas in San Francisco last Saturday, and it was a very fun event.

Star Wars: Rebels - First Episode Report. by Horatio

San Diego Comic Con International 2014 has been a great time already for Star Wars fans! Thursday night we attended the Star Wars: Rebels panel with Dave Filoni (writer and director), Simon Kinberg (creator and writer), Freddie Prinze Jr (voice, Kanan), Vanessa Marshall (voice, Hera), Steve Blum (voice, Zeb), Taylor Gray (voice, Ezra), and Tiya Sircar (voice, Sabine). I live tweeted the entire panel @horatiolikestoy on twitter, so coverage of anything said in the panel can be found there. 

It's what we did after the panel that warrants review and discussion. After attending the panel we buzzed across the Gaslamp to Reading Cinema for a private showing of the first episode of Star Wars: Rebels. This was the first showing available to members of the public, and it was not easy to access. We were invited as part of Saber Guild, a costuming group that we work with. 

For this review, I'm going to avoid spoilers, but still give details, so anyone who doesn't want to know anything about the episode should leave now. The episode opens on a tight shot of Ezra looking down on a Lothal (The name of his homewold. -Ed) street, while a group of Imperial Officers are harassing a fruit peddler. From the very beginning we're shown a very specific side of imperial tyranny. It's smaller than the wholesale destruction of a planet, and left in the hands of officers saying, "What are you going to do to stop us?" as they steal from the proletariat. At first I felt the inclination to describe my first impressions of Ezra as a Robin Hood type hero, but I very quickly identified him more along the line of Disney's Aladdin. Ezra rescues the fruit peddler, but takes a little extra fruit for himself. Hardly a major theft but definitely a notable character development. 

It becomes clear that Ezra is a conflicted character, he despises the Empire and everything they stand for, but is more interested in his own well being than acting as a Robin Hood - at first. "I'll stick it to the empire, but who's going to stick there neck out that far?" He asks Hera, who replies "We do." 

 
Hera acts as a mother type figure. She looks out for her crew and waits on the ship during missions to monitor the first signs of trouble. One of her most memorable quotes from the episode is "If you only care about your own life than your life means nothing." She is selfless, matronly, and commanding. 

Kanan is a stern character with not an exceptional amount of emotional development in the first episode, at least alongside the other characters. He is quick to act in the face of trouble, a strong lightsaber duelist, and an intriguing teacher. During the Rebels panel, Freddie Prinze Jr suggested that Kanan had a "adolescent dark side," and I'm curious to see how this develops. As far as the first episode goes it ends with the mysteries of a Jedi surrounding Kanan.

 Zeb is a gruff but lovable character, somewhere between Chewbacca and Jayne from Firefly. He tries to come across much crueler and hard-hearted than he actually is, and for a single episode he becomes a very sympathetic character for me. He chooses Ezra as a character he can pick on a little bit, but there is a burgeoning respect hidden behind the mild bullying. He picks on Ezra but respects his strength and character. I look forward to the development of Ezra and Zeb's relationship most of all. 

 
Sabine is a delight. There's a definite flicker of potential romance between Sabine and Ezra, which is clear with Ezra's clumsy flirtations, and by the end of the episode we can see Ezra begin to grow on her. My favorite trait of Sabine, and possibly one of my favorite moments of the entire episode, is when we see Sabine's propensity for tagging an Imperial ship... With a surprising result that to my knowledge had not been shown in any previous footage. I refuse to ruin the moment for any readers, but it definitely elicited applause from the audience. 

 
And finally, of course, we have Chopper, who primarily acts as a comedic foil for the other characters (especially Ezra in this episode). The only way I can describe Chopper is as a somehow sassier version of R2-D2. 

During the episode there are several name drops of characters and locations that we know, like Jabba the Hutt, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Kessel. These serve as a bridge to the original trilogy. We are introduced to a new recurring villain, Imperial Agent Kallus, and see minor character development with him. 

Overall the episode was fantastic. While we were told that it was technically unfinished, I saw few signs of this in the episode. The music is well paired with the scenes, the voice acting is ace, and the animation is stunning. Rebels was everything that I expected it to be, and I can't wait to watch it on Disney XD. 

 Horatio is a dorky toy reviewer who can be found on YouTube, Twitter, and Tumblr where she runs a Stargate SG-1 blog.

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