I’ve been looking forward to Star Wars: Rebels for over a year. Last week it finally premiered with the episode “Spark of a Rebellion.”
I enjoyed the premiere and am looking forward to the upcoming episodes. Wikipedia only lists four episodes in the first season but hopefully there will be more.
Here are some thoughts I had while watching the premiere.
- Sinister: The Empire is pretty sinister. The original trilogy showed us how evil Darth Vader and the Emperor were, but we never really saw the Empire impacting an actual society. In “Spark of a Rebellion” we saw the Empire harassing shop owners and enslaving Wookies. We finally got a sense of how the Empire oppressed normal citizens.
- Diversity: One of my favorite parts about the Rebellion is its diversity. The Empire is homogenous, full of white humans from all across the galaxy. The Rebellion is a menagerie, composed of people from various races and cultures. The small group of Rebels in Star Wars: Rebels reflects the diversity of the Rebellion. There are a few humans, a Twi’lek and a Lasat manning the Ghost and sticking it to the whitewashed Imperials.
- Jedi: I’m glad that Rebels has at least one Jedi and a potential Padawan. I don’t think a Star Wars series could make it without a Jedi; I’m very interested to find out more of Kanan’s backstory. I also liked seeing Obi-Wan pop up on that holocron, helping to further bridge the gap from Episode III to Rebels.
- Music: John Williams created arguably the most iconic film score for Star Wars. From the opening fanfare to the Imperial March, the music of Star Wars is immediately identifiable. I’m glad that Rebels has kept most of the Star Wars music, utilizing it to evoke the same feelings that we’ve had while watching six movies.
“Spark of a Rebellion” was a great start to Rebels. Disney must have thought so too, as it already renewed Rebels for a second season. Episode VII is still over a year away (and I haven’t read any spoilers) but Rebels should help pass the time until then.
What did you think about “Spark of a Rebellion?”
I liked it a lot, especially that my whole family could watch and enjoy it together. I thought the score actually relied a little *too* much on Williams’ originals – I kept finding myself distracted by memories of the movie scenes that some cues originally accompanied – but that was my only gripe of substance.
You can read about Kanan’s backstory in John Jackson Miller’s recent novel “A New Dawn.” Unlike EU novels heretofore, this one “counts for reals” (supposedly). And it’s a fun read.
Liked Zeb a lot, including the fact that he was based on McQuarrie’s original Wookiee design. (Two “e”s at the end of Wookiee, Scott – points off your nerd cred! ) Also liked Sabine – apparently she has a whole backstory from “Clone Wars” that I didn’t know about, having stopped watching in season 3. D’oh!
A promising start to the series and looking forward to more!
Oh, meant to commend your point about diversity vs. homogeneity. Great observation and I hope they’ll really play that point up as the series progresses.