Category: Simple Tricks

Ben: When Star Wars Rebels started, we were privy to a very small knot of rebellious souls. A former Jedi turned drunken gunslinger, a Lasat with a chip on his shoulder and temper to match, a Mandalorian who loved to paint as much as fight, a street-rat orphan who stole for a living and a cranky patchwork astromech droid, all held together by a Twi’lek pilot who kept them pointed at the Empire instead of each other. The season went on; we got to see more of their personalities and hints of backstory, and caught occasional glimpses of a wider picture, of a bigger plan than just the group on Lothal. It wasn’t until the finale of the first season, however, that we finally saw what that meant.

We had hints from the beginning that the Lothal rebellion was just one of many in existence. Agent Kallus’ report to the Inquisitor at the end of the show’s pilot told us as much. The segmentation of the organization, keeping each cell separate with as little knowledge as possible of the others, is intelligent strategy taken from real-life resistance groups, such as the French Resistance in World War II. You cannot betray what you do not know. While Lothal seems a rather unimportant backwater world, the Empire is there, and that is (seemingly) enough for Hera. But this would be far from a normal cell, and their impact would be far larger than Hera would ever have guessed at the beginning. Read More

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