What's shakin, Rebels pals?
It's Andi Gutierrez walking and talking to you for the last time for a few weeks.
But don't worry I have a fun-filled episode ahead that I'm sure you're gonna love.
So, are y'all ready to talk about some X-wings?
Good because rebels recon starts right now.
Starting the attack on Lothal, Hera leads a squadron of X-Wings against the Empire
but quickly realizes that they are no match for Thrawn's forces.
Phoenix Leader, I'm picking up enemy fighters at point three.
Witnessing the destruction of Hera's group, Kanan decides to lead a rescue of his own.
But not before getting stopped by a mysterious Loth-wolf
Dume
I understand.
Narrowly escaping, Hera sacrifices herself to save Chopper and Mart.
Leading to her capture by the hands of the Empire.
Such a small victory.
This week the Rebels teamed up with Mart Mattin again - minus the rest of the Iron Squadron.
I sat down with the crew to talk about the whereabouts of the Iron Squadron,
how X-wings finally, finally made it into Star Wars rebels,
and settled an age-old question: who's a better pilot Hera or Poe?
Check it out!
Mart makes his return in Rebel Assault but I've got to ask where's the rest of the Iron Squadron?
Where's Gooti? Jonner?
So, we had a discussion about this
a serious discussion about this and Lieutenant Terez...
Oh! Okay, cool!
Okay, alright? She actually was probably the brains of them.
She's the most reasonable one.
She knows what's going on.
Mart's the hothead who has something to prove.
Jonner just wants to space pancakes, let's face it.
They're back at Yavin.
Just chilling?
Yeah, going over very important Rebel plans.
Mhmmm.
If you think about it too.
If we'd put them in other planes they would have been shot down
and might not have made it through because of character count issues.
X-wings make their first appearance in this episode.
Mhmm.
Where have they been?
For the longest time the idea was that the X-wings
were gonna be a version of the clone fighters that were gonna be ending the Clone Wars
because we saw their ARC-170s
We saw stuff that was pointing in the direction that the X-wing was gonna come had the Clone Wars continued
but they ended and then the Empire was in power.
There actually was a little bit of thinking to the X-wings because we did start without geometry not mesh
but then because we changed the TIE fighters to sort of have that more 70s toy vibe
the question came up, well should our X-wings be exactly the X-wings that you see in the movies?
Or would it be better if we just tweak them a little bit so that they flow with everything we've seen before?
So we did tweak it. It's a sort of a two-step thing where you look at what it really looked like
then you figure out how can you slightly play with those proportions to have it feel like it fits into Rebels.
And then from there you have to figure out strategically which bits of all that sort of detail to take off to simplify it down.
It's another one these things you can't stray too far from.
Even when you see the X-wings in Ep. 7, you're still like they're different but it's still the same thing.
You have to still present it in a way that everyone's gonna recognize it immediately.
It was so cool to animate X-wings.
It's like a dream come true.
It's like you grow up with it and you see the trench run and everything and you're like finally.
I think the biggest thing X-wings will do is a lot more of the spins and things.
So we have a lot more of those barrel rolls.
They also have obviously the wings that can open and close and stuff depending on what they're doing.
But I think also their cockpits, we went right back to the Originals
and looked at all that stuff about how much sort of movement there was in the cockpit
and tried to kind of emulate that so there's a lot more sort
of a herky-jerky kind of feel.
Which I think just kind of throws it back which is pretty cool.
It still has this feeling of, yes I've been waiting for this and now have Hera in it makes it even better.
If they had just shown up and it was somebody else flying it
that'd have been okay.
maybe Gooti
but when it's Hera, I think everybody was excited and I think it's the right way to do it.
Hera pulls some impressive moves in her X-wing, who's better pilot her or Poe?
Oh, man.
Oh boy.
Oscar Isaac, please turn off this video, don't don't look at this.
Hera.
Yeah?
Hera's better.
In my opinion Hera has more experience than Poe.
Hera has been flying a transport with the skill of a fighter pilot and beating multiple fighters.
It's probably cuz I know more about what she does and what she's done
and I've seen her pilot in some pretty amazing things so I have to go with Hera.
I think she's just talented. I think she's gifted.
She works hard of course and trains but she loves flying it's when she feels the most like herself
and I think in life one of the goals is you have to figure out what you love to do and then go after that.
And so she did and she would love flying whether she's a fighter pilot or just flying.
So I think that's kind of at the core of who she is.
Not only is Hera flying an X-wing but she's leading a whole X-wing squadron.
What is it about Hera that you think makes her the right person for this role?
There's something innately fearless about her.
When she's doing something for the right reasons, she knows no fear.
Her ability to fly so well and remain so focused
I think gives her that ability to sort of bark out directions
and help save everyone's lives and I think some people are just born with that innate ability
and she is a pilot through and through I don't think anyone's better qualified.
She was born to fly.
On his way to rescue Hera, Kanan is stopped by a white Loth-wolf
and seems to understand its purpose.
Can you give us any hints as to what this means before your hiatus?
You start to get an understanding that Kanan is learning about what these wolves are and how they relate to him.
The hero sometimes just needs a bit of a guide or a way to focus his thoughts and understanding
and that's what the wolves are doing.
So he already knows the truth of what's going on in his life
and what he needs to do to be the person he's meant to be.
Guides can only get you so far and then you have to take action you have to own the action.
So there's a bit of all that going on.
Woah!
Ah, man!
What a great episode!
I love X-wings!
X-wings are cool!
Get him little guy!
Yeah, I know that's you.
Zap him!
Oh!
Oh, no! That sucks!
[R3-A3 beeps]
Oh gosh, are you okay?!
[explosion]
Wow!
That was weird!
That was really weird!
[Chopper sounds]
[Chopper laugh]
I can't believe we only have a few more episodes left
for me to bug the Lucasfilm story groups, Pablo Hidalgo with your pressing Rebels' questions.
I'm gonna miss those times we share
but now is not the time to get misty eyed about it.
You need Star Wars answers.
Let's go!
Aw, man. Where's Pablo?
Hmm.
Oh, hey Pablo!
I just walked past here and didn't even see you.
What's going on, Andi?
So I've got a question from Camlbell Taylor.
Oh, okay.
Well as far as stormtroopers go, it kind of depends where you are in the galaxy but for the
most part at this point in the timeline they're joining up because they actually
believe in the Empire because they don't see the stories that we see.
Now as far as the Death Star goes remember it's not fully operational until A New Hope
so the Empire is not ready to advertise it quite yet.
Okay, fair enough.
our next question comes from Jeb Hoge
You know hauling a heavy object over a long trek through the wilderness
I don't think that's something Ezra's capable of.
I feel like that would require like a ton of strength.
Not many Jedi could do it.
No, you could lift it, you could put it down
but in terms of long-distance hauling that's when you rent a truck.
Alright, well thanks Pablo. See you around.
Have questions about Rebel Assault or anything else about Rebels that you want answered?
Tweet it to @StarWars using the hashtag #RebelsRecon
and we'll answer what we can online.
And now I know this is normally the part in the episode where I give you a sneak peek of next week
but I felt like it would be wrong to tease you for that long.
So I'm just gonna smile at the camera uncomfortably until we cut away.
Okay.
That's good
Thanks for watching Rebels Recon.
We'll be back in a few weeks with a brand new episode
but if you need more Rebels info in the meantime
check out the episode guide for Rebel Assault on StarWars.com right now.
Thanks again and May the Force be with you!