Category: Feature Articles

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

The theory behind any social Darwinist system is that not only do the fittest survive, but society is purportedly better off when competition encourages innovation and achievement. “Always Two There Are” demonstrates how rivalry and competition not only serve as the basis for advancement within the Inquisitorius, but as the fundamental organizing principle of the Galactic Empire. Already in this episode, the audience sees that this competition might sow the seeds for future conflict within the Imperial ranks: conflict that might not actually bring about the results that ambition demands.

In this episode, we learn that the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother are Inquisitors seeking the same quarry. They’re competing for the same prize in a few ways, as Dave Filoni explained in Rebels Recon: the Inquisitors are not only chasing after Ahsoka and her Jedi entourage but they’re also all competing for the now-vacant position of Grand Inquisitor. Pablo Hidalgo added another detail: even the very numbers in their names might signify some sort of status, or at least another basis of competition. Even without these behind-the-scenes details, we see that the Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister are surprised to see each other and that they’re refusing to share credit or information with each other. I don’t blame the Seventh Sister, as she’s much cooler than the Fifth Brother so far (SMG’s voice acting and the character animation and design knocked it out of the park — she’s described as a thinking man’s villain, and I’m looking forward to seeing what that entails) but she’s clearly willing to pretend she has knowledge that she doesn’t, just to make a play at withholding information from the Fifth Brother. That’s not very productive. 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

Ben: A number of TV shows, especially the successful ones, have a problem with the status quo. Once a show is established, the easiest thing to do is leave things as they are, repeating a successful formula ad nauseam until the ratings stop coming in. This is especially true about typical kid’s cartoons, where the stakes are microscopically low and conflict is played for laughs. A list of examples would take up most of this page. But right from the beginning of Season Two, Star Wars Rebels proves that it is not one of those shows.

“Siege of Lothal” is an intense and dramatic story about the consequences of the actions taken and done through the show’s first season. The heroes thought that they had won, if not a war, at least a very great battle. They had defeated Grand Moff Tarkin, destroyed his flagship, saved Kanan’s life and united with a larger rebellion than any of them had known even existed. But the realities of what little good their action had actually done, how little they had accomplished, came crashing back down on them throughout the events of the hour-long season opener.

How willing Rebels is to shake up and alter its own status quo has been subtly working its way through the first season, with neither characters nor plots staying stagnant. But there has not been a point where more has changed in such a short time as this two-parter. The foremost agent of these changes is, of course, Darth Vader, a foe far above and beyond anything that the Ghost’s crew has ever faced. He wipes out their allies, destroys their hiding places, and sends them on the run to somewhere, anywhere that is not Lothal. There is nothing they can do to stop him, or even slow him down, they can only run for their lives and hope that he does not follow. Read More