Author: Ben Wahrman

One thing that we’ve known about Hera right from the get-go is that she is a fantastic pilot. She’s taken the Ghost to some places that should be utterly impossible to go, and saved the lives of her crew a dozen times. We’ve also seen that she’s a compassionate leader, a true team mother, wholly devoted to the welfare of those with her and around her. She can wrangle even the most extreme of loners and rally them to a cause: the cause of freedom and justice.

As captain of the Ghost, she’s served in both capacities for the first season and now into the second. But as Rebels has evolved and the scope of the story expanded, the status quo has been shaken numerous times and in several ways. But the most realistic thing is how actions and choices made have had consequences that are both good and bad. The Grand Inquisitor was killed, but that caused two new Inquisitors to take a great interest in hunting down those responsible. The Spectres were chased off of Lothal by Darth Vader, but they joined up with a larger, more formal rebel task force shortly thereafter. What “Wings of the Master” did was present an opportunity for the status quo of the show’s most steady character to be shaken up in a way that may not necessarily be either one. Read More

The underworld of Star Wars is a lively place, full of colorful characters and the sort of imaginative creatures that fully exemplify what a galaxy far far away might look like. From the moment we step into the cantina in Mos Eisley and see creatures talking, laughing, drinking and playing music, it’s been a part of the franchise’s DNA. What sort of characters exist beyond the edge of the galactic spotlight, where the shadows are thickest and the promise of adventure, debauchery and profit are strongest?

In Rebels, the underworld has hitherto been represented by Vizago and Azmorigan, two crime lords with differing methods but similar goals. Vizago is subtle, willing to play any and every side in order to gain himself the largest profits. Azmorigan is more bombastic and demanding, but no less unscrupulous, demanding what he sees as his and willing to kill to get it (and to avoid having to pay for it). Of course, we could bring up Lando, but he is more of a business person who happens to deal with unsavory sorts.

Added to the list this season is Hondo Ohnaka. Enthusiastic about everything and frightened of nothing, Hondo fit right into the underworld of the Clone Wars era he was introduced in, taunting Sith Lords and making “friends” with Jedi Masters. Hondo is a sort of idealized underworlder, not truly amoral, just selfish and out for profits. He has a sense of honor and a healthy respect for the Jedi, and his antics are far more fun and entertaining than menacing or sleazy. For all of the hard times that Hondo has fallen on without a ship or crew of his own, he still represents an interesting counterpoint to Vizago and Azmorigan, and delivers an intriguing offer to Ezra. Read More

How often does a franchise allow its characters to grow old, to mature, or even to have their characters legitimately become damaged, irreparably changed? Character development isn’t always a positive thing, necessarily. Sometimes, something develops that isn’t positive at all, and that takes a certain level of determination and daring to do. The characters that the audience loves might suddenly become the ones that they hate, or pity.

When Star Wars Rebels started ramping up promotions for the beginning of the second season, they let us know that there would be returning characters from The Clone Wars appearing, namely, three of the clones themselves. Before any footage came out, it was easy to assume that the years had been relatively kind to the trio. Wolffe, Gregor and Rex looked older, grayer, a bit heftier, but not too much worse for wear for coming through as much conflict as they did.

Of course, once footage came out and once the episodes themselves had aired, appearances turned out to be deceiving.

Gregor, who suffered from amnesia in his initial appearance, had apparently suffered some degree of brain damage either in the explosion that had seemingly killed him, or some time thereafter. He still has his inbred ability and the skills driven into him by his training, but his rational mind is a babbling, bubbly mess. The implication that such a mentally disturbed man had, at some point, returned to service under the Empire is almost as disturbing as the idea that he is conscious of his condition and doesn’t really care. Read More

Ben: Sometimes long-form storytelling doesn’t work out. For example, when The Clone Wars was canceled after five seasons on the air and a movie, it still left many plots and characters hanging. Many fans assumed that there would be no resolution to these things, and not without reason. With new movies in the post-Return of the Jedi era emerging and Rebels taking TCW’s place, a new focus on the original trilogy era seemed poised to doom characters like Ahsoka, Ventress and Rex to obscurity, perhaps not for forever, but for a very long time.

Fortunately for the legions of TCW fans out there, there has been a steady, if much slower than previously, flow of information, references and details from TCW postmortem. Starting with the “Lost Missions” from the unaired sixth season being released on Netflix, we’ve had story threads picked up by a comic series, a novel, and now in Rebels, each one giving us a few clues as to what would have happened if the show had continued into seventh or even eighth seasons.

But what about after the end of the show? Even if the show had continued, there would still have been an end, likely corresponding with the events of Revenge of the Sith. So what would become of those characters in the years after the Republic and Separatist Alliance had collapsed? Read More