Author: Ben Wahrman

As the first season of Star Wars Rebels draws to a close (and lack of pre-viewing prospects prevents us from writing a piece involving the finale just yet) “Rebels Revisited” is looking back at the setting for a majority of the show’s events thus far. When the show was first teased to Star Wars fans, via propaganda posters and images at conventions, the creators told us that, unlike The Clone Wars that hopped from planet to planet on an almost weekly basis, Rebels would be much more focused and grounded, with a central base for the heroes and villains alike to operate from. Thus, we were introduced to Lothal.

The planet itself is not as visually striking as many planets within the GFFA, it does not have Tatooine’s stark wastes or Felucia’s vibrant life, but its origins as concept art by Ralph McQuarrie lend its landscapes a watercolor feel and texture. It is certainly beautiful in its own way, a very sparse and restrained beauty, with lone structures rising to the sky here and there and mysterious mounds studding the landscape. The sense that this is a large, and largely unspoiled planet permeates almost every outdoor shot of the show, be it the Ghost sitting by itself in the middle of a field that stretches from horizon to horizon, or Ezra resting his chin on the rail of the lonely communication tower he called home. Read More

The ideas of parallelism and the end of a story referring back to a way it began are, of course, hardly new or innovative concepts. Many great books, films and other forms of media close much the way they open, be it visually, thematically or even straight-up repeating themselves. A few weeks ago, I was make aware of a superb (and lengthy) article/essay that speculated on the circular storytelling model that united the Star Wars film saga into one united narrative. Whether you agree that such a pattern was George Lucas’s intention or not, the idea of parallelism is riddled through the Star Wars universe, a franchise where references to past material is expected far more than a wholly original concept.

When Kanan was captured, it meant that the Ghost crew had a decision to make: leave Kanan in the hands of the Empire, laying low somewhere until the pressure brought on by Grand Moff Tarkin blows over; or come up with some way to track him to where they are holding him and stage a daring Death Star-style rescue. It was a test of loyalty for the entire crew—loyalty to Kanan measured against loyalty to their mission; loyalty to their crew measured against loyalty to the greater good of Lothal, the sector, even the galaxy as a whole. Read More

Ben: Rebels has been a show made up of character moments and slow burning plots thus far. Many episodes have avoided doing any action that seemed massive or important in the long run in favor of dropping hints about things outside of their scope and giving us character moments and development. This storytelling strategy has been paying off in recent weeks as a number of those hinted plots have started to tie together in close succession, each one bringing more drama to the characters we have gotten to know without seeming overwrought or premature.

The storytellers have, in essence, been playing poker with the audience. Each week they play a hand, laying small bets, a plot point here, a character moment there, while teasing a much larger pile in their corner of things yet to come. From time to time, they have raised the stakes, pushing more “chips” into the pile, but not going so far as to exhaust their entire stash of hints and ideas, or to push the audience into giving up the game. Teasing a story out is a hard line to walk for any show; say too much and the drama fizzles early, say too little and the audience gets frustrated and bored. Read More

Star Wars Rebels’ cast is the show’s great strength. Every character has their own layers, depths beyond the stereotype they might be pigeonholed into if it were a different show. Nowhere is this better seen than in the relationship between Kanan and Hera and who the leader of the rebel group is. The assumption is, looking over the crew of the Ghost, that Kanan would be their leader. He is, after all, a former Jedi who has been living in the rougher part of the galaxy for years, a cunning warrior experienced in the dealings of the Rim and with the Force on his side. In practice, though, Hera is the one not only calling most of the shots, but also keeping the team from flying apart due to mistrust, differences and the simple friction of five (six counting droids) beings rooming together and constantly in each other’s faces.

Take the case of Ezra’s tutelage in the larger galaxy. Despite Kanan’s good intentions, he is still a rough and tumble man completely unaccustomed to being a teacher, much less a Jedi Master. There are times where he simply doesn’t see or know how to help Ezra with the questions he has. In those instances, Hera is usually the one to step in, as she does several times during “Vision of Hope”. She is the nurturing and encouraging maternal figure that Ezra very much lacked in his life until crewing aboard the Ghost, urging him to not give up on hope, even with setbacks like the betrayal of someone he trusted, and stepping in when an enemy tries to goad him, helping him to avoid edging toward the dark as he had at the end of “Gathering Forces”. Read More