Hey youtubers it’s Charlie, hopefully you’ve all had a chance to see the premiere of Star
Wars Rebels.
This video is going to be my top 10 moments.
Disney was really nice and made the episode available early on the Disney XD website,
so I already did a review that I’ll link in the description.
But I didn’t include any spoilers.
So careful if you haven’t seen it but let’s dig into this...I’ll wait just a sec...okay.
Here we go.
Number 10 - The Star Destroyer Intro
Thematically I feel like every new Star Wars video related project has to begin with an
overhead Star Destroyer shot.
It’s an unspoken rule.
It tells you everything you need to know instantly.
The Empire is a looming presence.
Guaranteed this is how we’re going to begin the Episode 7 movie too.
Even in the expanded universe during the rise of the New Republic, the Empire is still very
much a threat.
The other really awesome thing about this intro.
It’s quick and to the point.
No foreplay.
I totally love the title crawl, but if you remember the family guy star wars episodes.
It’s ripe for parody just because Too Long, Didn’t Read.
They’ll totally put it in Episode 7, the movies are a much more appropriate place for
that kind of thing.
Number 9 - Planet Lothal and the Outer Rim Locations
I was kind of glad they didn’t start on Tatooine.
That’s been done enough, it’s a big Galaxy.
And while Ezra is kind of a stand-in for young Luke Skywalker, he’s not that character.
So putting it in a different part of the galaxy helps distinguish the character.
But yes, we were all thinking the same thing.
Young Luke Skywalker meets a version of Obi-Wan and gets swept up in an intergalactic adventure.
There are only so many versions of the Hero’s Journey Tale you can tell.
Which is why I can’t wait for the Boba Fett movie to come.
That will be a very different spin on a Star Wars story.
Rebels is going to to travel all over the Outer Rim, there will be a little overlap
with planets we saw in Clone Wars, like the Kessel Spice Mines.
But the new series will take advantage of some of the places we haven’t seen.
It’s a new show so I’m totally looking forward to seeing new planets.
If any of you are new to the Star Wars comics, the one’s that Marvel will be making, expect
them to visit some new places too.
Number 8 - The Sound Design
The Star Wars Universe sounds very specific and very different from other science fiction
places.
Most other science fiction, not including anime, actually steals a lot from Star Wars.
Or I guess you would say is “Inspired by Star Wars”
Everything from the different types of engine sounds to blasters to doors opening and closing,
it instantly makes you feel at home.
It’s all very familiar in a comfortable way.
In fact, a lot of the big action sequences were sound mapped to sync up with the beats
in the original trilogy that inspired them, like the speeder bike chase or the catwalk
scene from Empire Strikes Back.
It reminds you of how important the technical people on the production are.
There’s an army of Sound Editors and engineers that pick through thousands of sound effects
to add after all the voice over work is done and the score is composed.
The Score too, very awesome in the episode.
It’s a modified version of the classic John Williams score.
I think that’s another law of Star Wars productions.
Anytime you make a new series, you have to incorporate the Classic Williams score somehow.
Number 7 - Team Ghost Rolls Out Central City
You can see from the non verbal way they pull their heist that they’ve been doing this
together for a long time.
They’re a strong team so the wild card is always going to be Ezra.
The heist itself doesn’t really go down as planned, but I always love meeting teams
after they’ve come together.
It’s a lot of fun to watch a bunch of strangers get thrown together and try to figure things
out.
But when that happens you have to hijack a lot of your stories with exposition to show
them evolving as a group.
Where we are in Rebels, the crew of the Ghost is already at their peak.
So now they can have more fun telling “mischief managed” stories.
Number 6 - The Ghost Ship
Yes it is inspired by the Millenium Falcon, technically it’s just a different smaller
model of Corellian Light Freighter.
They haven’t revealed whether it’s been modified as extensively as the Falcon.
I love how the Corellian Freighter design has
become synonymous with galactic piracy and loveable scoundrels.
This is just the first episode so we’ll see more of the ship in the future.
But just looking at the state of things gives you a good picture for how well the crew is
doing.
The computer animation does a good job of making everything feel dirty.
One of the things I didn’t like as much about the Clone Wars was all the surfaces
always looked brand new.
It looks like they make just enough to get by,
they’re not rolling in credits or anything.
It gives the series a much greater sense of urgency when your characters are always searching
for their next meal.
Number 5 - Obi Wan Kenobi Appearance
He’s not a main character on the show, but the Holocron is a good device for future cameos.
In terms of Clone Wars people, they have said Ashoka and most of the other characters are
still canon, so there is potential for them to pop up.
But mostly we’ll be focusing on all the new people we met in this episode.
Number 4 - The Kessel Fight
It was a nice way to callback to the original series and the Clone Wars.
I know some of you were wondering who that young wookie was supposed to be.
It wasn’t chewbacca, in the canon chewbacca is close to 200 years old at the beginning
of the original trilogy.
As far as I know they haven’t changed that.
I’m hoping that situations like this where the Ghost saves groups of people gets paid
off later.
Like the wookies helping them get out of a jam later in the series.
I didn’t think they were teasing any specific characters with these wookies though.
Number 3 - Agent Kallus
One of my favorite new villains and one of the smarter ones.
There’s this tendency to make villains on children’s shows too silly.
It’s done to show that the heroes will always win.
And yes, Rebels is a children’s show, but that doesn’t mean that the crew of the Ghost
always has to win.
You can still do a version of the downer ending like Empire Strikes Back and have it be a
fun show.
The Ezra prison block scene was a good example of that.
He gets left behind, so the stakes go up and when he’s rescued it’s a much more satisfying
payoff.
And it lets you know that Kallus isn’t completely incompetent.
He’s every bit as smart as anyone on the ghost crew, so I think he’ll be one-upping
the ghost crew a lot this year.
Number 2 - The Empire Strikes Back Catwalk Rescue
The big payoff was Kanan rolling up on top of the Ghost.
Very Lando Calrissian of him.
It would have been funny, but I am glad they didn’t go for any “I am your father”
references.
That would have been a little too much.
I totally loved the comedy, “First Jedi you’ve ever seen sir?”
and my number 1 moment - Meet the Inquisitor
Another great nod to Vader’s holo comm with the Emperor in Empire.
We’ll actually meet the Inqusitor in person in the next couple of episodes.
Some of the clips they’ve posted of him fighting Kanan are from much later in the
season though.
I think this one is from episode 6.
He’s being voiced by Lucius Malfoy, which is totally appropriate.
Dave Filoni described him as an evil Sherlock Holmes.
When he said that I wondered why he didn’t just say Moriarty.
But Moriarty and Sherlock aren’t perfect copies of each other.
Moriarty revels in chaos.
So I think by calling the Inquisitor an evil Sherlock, Filoni just means that he’s a
genius detective that loves solving cases.
He’s not out to burn down the galaxy or mass murder civilians.
Darth Vader gave him a case and he’s solving it.
One Jedi at a Time.
We can talk more about him when he actually shows up in an episode for real.
Let me know what your favorite moment was.
And which clone wars characters are you hoping they bring on?
I guess as a bonus one of my favorites was the Obi Wan Kenobi speech Kanan got at the
end.
I already talked a lot about it in my review video so I didn’t want to repeat myself.
My next Rebels video will be a bonus video before the October 13th Episode.
Be sure to subscribe to get it.
It’s going to be a Monday Show starting October 13th and I’ll be doing videos for
all the episodes.
Because Gotham is also on Mondays my Rebels videos will probably post Tuesday Mornings
pacific time.
Let me know if there’s anything Rebels Specific stuff you guys want to talk about and I’ll
add it to my list of bonus videos to do.
Right now click here for my review of the episode and click here for my Legend Of Korra
Episode 1 video.
Who else is happy that just came back too?
Thanks for watching everyone, now let’s all high five and get ready for doctor who
tomorrow