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 Series Premiere: October 3rd at 9pm on Disney Channel - Available to stream on https://watchdisneyxd.com starting Friday, September 26th. Regular Episodes: Every Monday at 9pm, starting October 13th on Disney XD. (also streamable a week early via the above link)  Star Wars: Rebels is an animated kids show following the adventures of a backwater resistance cell fighting against the tyranny of the Galactic Empire. The series itself takes place 5 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope and features a similarly varied cast of rogues, rebels, and robots: Leading them is Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.), a reprobate Jedi survivor of Order 66; he serves as reluctant mentor to Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray), a Force-sensitive orphan and ne'er-do-well from the planet Lothal. They are accompanied by the brutish Lasat mercenary Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios (Steve Blum), in addition to a literally-colorful Mandalorian explosives expert named Sabine Wren (Tyra Sircar). The group is ferried around on the modified transport Ghost by the hotshot Twi'lek pilot Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall) and her trusty astromech droid C1-10P aka "Chopper". The group is hounded on Lothal and elsewhere by the Imperial Security Bureau's Agent Kallus (David Oyelowo), as well as his superior, the Jedi-hunting Inquisitor (Jason Isaacs).   Questions and Assorted Space Junk: I hated The Clone Wars, will I like this show? It depends; a lot of the creative and directorial team from that show has transitioned over to Rebels, so it is likely to be at least somewhat similar to that series in terms of general aesthetic tone, as far as both writing and (more obviously) visuals go. However, the same people have gone on record as saying that the gritty war-torn vibe inherent to TCW is gone, replaced by much more of a lighthearted adventurousness similar to that of the Original Trilogy. Generally, if you liked those movies, you have a good chance of liking this show. I liked The Clone Wars, will I enjoy this show? See above. But The Clone Wars was actually legitimately beautiful at times; everything I've seen of this show looks like pastel, texture-less Yes, it does indeed appear that they're going for even more of a stylized approach to the visuals than TCW; the decision to do so can be seen through two lenses: First, it's clear that Rebels is trying to establish a general tone similar to Episodes IV-VI, but at the same time is individualize itself visually and not just straight up emulate the films. To do so, they're going to some weird and interesting sources: For one, Ralph McQuarrie's original concept designs for Star Wars, which have served as the basis for fairly major components like Zeb's character design, but also small details like the foil-like width of Kanan's lightsaber blade. On the other hand, we have quite a bit of inspiration drawn from, of all places, Kenner vehicle toys from the 70s/80s. As a result, you get somewhat of a throwback to pre-Star Wars 70's SciFi; stark, almost-pearlescent visuals with a sort of clean functionality to it all (while yet still clearly retaining that "used-future" feel in the periphery). It doesn't exactly help that this same aesthetic just happens to be shared by other modern CG cartoons, but that's the price of nailing a tone, I guess. Secondly, money, money, money. It's likely not as bad a problem as one could imagine, but it's nevertheless important to keep in mind that, unlike Rebels, The Clone Wars was pretty much George Lucas's pet project, meaning that he personally bankrolled a lot of the series' production costs when Cartoon Network wasn't willing to. Now that he's out of the picture, Disney (as well as Kathleen Kennedy and the Lucasfilm Story Group) is in direct control of the show, for better or worse. Disney's gonna ruin the show/franchise, Space Aladdin kiddy crap, etc. Obviously in the long term, this remains to be seen, but at the very least, the premiere has been tracking incredibly well with both fans and critical reviewers. I really like/dislike the Expanded Universe, will this show (since it is part of the "new" canon) be overriding any of that? It's possible, but unlikely; the relatively small scope of the show compared to TCW creates the possibility of Rebels having its own little "backyard sandbox" to play in (similar to the isolated Corporate Sector in Brian Daley's Han Solo novels), therefore keeping away from any major EU events of the pre ANH-era. In the edge case that something was overrided, well, I all I can say is that it couldn't possibly be any worse than what The Force Unleashed did to the formation of the Rebel Alliance.   Watch the Series Premiere (as well as presumably any future episodes) HERE Cross-Section fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Oct 5, 2014 |
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Sep 25, 2014 21:50
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Really looking forward to the original trilogy era ships!
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Sep 25, 2014 22:26
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I count three separate dreamworks faces in the cast picture alone
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Sep 25, 2014 22:28
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I noticed that too, but wavered in finding a different one due to how goddamn goofy they all look.  edit: Also I just realized I neglected to mention this little viral site that's been running for a while; in addition to being the originator of the thread title, it does a really good job of depicting "normal" life under the Empire, the proliferation of Human High Culture, etc. Cross-Section fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Sep 25, 2014 |
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Sep 25, 2014 22:35
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I'm not sure if I said it in the other thread but I'll say it again, the fact that the Twi'lek is NOT a teenager is a huge plus. After KotoR and ToR both featuring prominent teen Twi'leks it is a breath of fresh air to see an older, more mature one in a major role.
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Sep 26, 2014 05:06
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Aces High posted:I'm not sure if I said it in the other thread but I'll say it again, the fact that the Twi'lek is NOT a teenager is a huge plus. After KotoR and ToR both featuring prominent teen Twi'leks it is a breath of fresh air to see an older, more mature one in a major role. Yea it's sad that one of my first reactions to a Star Wars media project is 'oh cool a Twi'lek who isn't a spunky kid'. Anyway I'm real glad most critics and such are saying this is a solid thing, the whole dawn of the rebellion was always one of my favorite parts of the side stories and junk, I'm really eager to see that play out with good production values and junk.
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Sep 26, 2014 05:24
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Watching now on WatchDisneyXD. It's not on the app yet so I have to watch in a browser. Hoping the show is as good as the reviews!
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Sep 26, 2014 13:07
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drat, my cable provider isn't supported. Really wanted to give this a shot today.
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Sep 26, 2014 13:37
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Excellent OP! I'm really looking forward to this show kicking off what should be a great year(s!) for Star Wars fans.  I'm not having any luck with WatchDisneyXD (the black loading screen comes up and then goes away after a few seconds, although it shows that I have successfully logged in with my provider first), so I guess I'll just have to wait for the tv premiere next week. I'll try to make myself feel better about the wait by telling myself it'll probably be a better experience on the big screen at home than a computer monitor at work. 
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Sep 26, 2014 13:59
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Great, its been a good five minutes since we had a lovely animated SW product that everyone says is great in the ten minutes before its cancelled. How many "street smart kids" are in this one?
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Sep 26, 2014 15:55
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Chupe Raho Aurat posted:Great, its been a good five minutes since we had a lovely animated SW product that everyone says is great in the ten minutes before its cancelled. what is this post
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Sep 26, 2014 16:05
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Chupe Raho Aurat posted:Great, its been a good five minutes since we had a lovely animated SW product that everyone says is great in the ten minutes before its cancelled. From a link in the OP quote:However, I’m not sure that the footage selected to promote the REBELS across the past few month has done the fledging series a great deal of service, or justice. The punky ‘attitude’ evident in early clips - which has put many fans on-edge and raised a few dubious eyebrows - all but dissipates roughly half way through the 40-something minute opening installment, replaced by the kind of inter-personal dysfunction and snarky one-liners for which the ‘classic’ STAR WARS trilogy is so well known. REBELS stops feeling crass, and starts feeling very agreeably familiar. Of course, it's AICN so who knows, but at least it gives me a glimmer of hope that there wont be, as you say, just a bunch of sassy street smart kids being cool and giving a bunch of over the top 'tude.
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Sep 26, 2014 17:59
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Pilot was decent, and the animation isn't as wonky as I feared it would be from early clips. Looks like it may hopefully just go through some of the growing pains Clone Wars had in its first season. Also was somewhat amused by the "new canon" paradigm, which ends up using old EU material, while also then doing new takes on some stuff mentioned in the movies. So we finally get to see the ISB, and then we also get a new spherical-shaped Kessel.
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Sep 26, 2014 21:12
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My mistake, its not "street smart kid" it "Vader level hero that mysteriously vanishes outside series and is utterly forgotten by the time ANH arrives"
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Sep 27, 2014 01:48
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It was cool to see the evolution of the Imperial stuff from Clone Wars to the OT and this series. Like you could see how the equpiment in Clone Wars was made for war, for invading places, while this equipment (AT-ST for instance) seems more along the line of riot prevention and citizen control, which makes for a decidedly different tone. edit: Also the only thing that really bothered me in the animation was hair, which had the fluidity of a Lego head piece. I get that getting hair to look right in CGI is one of the more difficult and intensive things, so I understand, I just think they should have designed some of the characters with that in mind. swickles fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Sep 27, 2014 |
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Sep 27, 2014 04:45
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thrawn527 posted:drat, my cable provider isn't supported. Really wanted to give this a shot today. Yeah apparently mine isn't either, bummer I guess. I saw that the clone wars is on netflix and always heard some good things about it. Was wondering if I should watch it and if I do should I watch the movie first?
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Sep 27, 2014 05:03
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The REAL Goobusters posted:Yeah apparently mine isn't either, bummer I guess. I saw that the clone wars is on netflix and always heard some good things about it. Was wondering if I should watch it and if I do should I watch the movie first? NO. Don't watch the movie, it really sucks. You wont miss anything important to the story, either. Just watch the series. Skip any episode with JarJar in the description, too.
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Sep 27, 2014 05:26
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Clone Wars was awesome, especially the really dark last couple seasons.
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Sep 27, 2014 05:33
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Reinanigans posted:Skip any episode with JarJar in the description, too. Counterpoint: TCW's incredibly self-aware as far as Jar Jar goes, and to that end, does a pretty entertaining job of satirizing the character and making his perpetual state of bumbling idiocy into a actual workable plot point in several instances. He's still annoying as gently caress, but the show makes it work. Another important (and somewhat strange) detail about The Clone Wars is that it's not exactly in chronological order; here's a handy list of the "real" order of episodes, though in general it's not incredibly essential to follow it. Good material for a second run, however. Also I finally got around to watching the pilot (of Rebels) and it's pretty good, guys
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Sep 27, 2014 05:45
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alg posted:Watching now on WatchDisneyXD. It's not on the app yet so I have to watch in a browser. Hoping the show is as good as the reviews! Watching this on AppleTV this morning, so it should be in apps. Disappointed in no native 5.1 sound, boo, Disney. The first half was a bit too "punky kid gets in over his head" but the second half seems decent enough. I'd give it a few episodes to see how it really stacks up. TCW got off to a rocky start and improved considerably. And wow, Kallus kicking that stormtrooper to his death, well... maybe a bit too on the nose. 
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Sep 27, 2014 16:08
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That... was actually really great! It felt like Star Wars.
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Sep 27, 2014 17:35
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I really liked it, I didn't notice the effects of the budget reduction too much. First time you've met a Jedi, Sir? Thom12255 fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Sep 27, 2014 |
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Sep 27, 2014 17:43
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Simon Kinberg had a few things to say as to what we can expect from Rebels.
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Sep 27, 2014 18:59
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Simon Kinberg posted:What we do know is that The Inquisitor is "less of a believer in the Empire and the cause of the Empire than perhaps Darth Vader, and more of a hunting dog." So not a Sith, per se? "I don't know how much I'm allowed to say about that, but no, per se." This actually reminds me of a motif that helped to make the Imperial Agent storyline in SWTOR so good: The tense interplay between the Sith and the Imperial military. There are quite a few instances where a player would run into (or can choose to be) a Sith who doesn't really give much of a poo poo about the Empire, and instead uses Imperial resources for their own secret machinations and rivalries (naturally leading to friction between the two branches). If we see a similar thing going on between Kallus and the Inquisitor (despite Kinberg saying that he's not exactly a Sith), I will be soooo pumped 
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Sep 27, 2014 20:10
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What the gently caress kind of poo poo is this where DirecTV isnt supported to watch this?
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Sep 28, 2014 00:16
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Yeah, it's really strange and somewhat of a bummer that the only "major" providers listed are AT&T and Verizon (and maaaybe Google Fiber if you're going for symbolism) I mean, a bummer for you people because I have Verizon, hehe
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Sep 28, 2014 01:15
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It all comes down to carriage agreements and the posturing/arguing that occurs when they expire; e.g. why AMC or another network is blacked out for customers sometimes.
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Sep 28, 2014 01:54
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This was really great. It felt like a proper self-contained, creative story with interesting characters and a ton of potential for future storylines. It was really weird seeing a mainline Star Wars product that was almost totally free of pandering movie tie-in bullshit; no direct references to the films at all other than Tarkin and Obi-Wan, which both made sense in the context of the story and no "HEY REMEMBER THIS SCENE FROM THE FILMS WASN'T THAT COOL HUH???". It reminded me of the glory days of Lucasarts where they put out stuff like Dark Forces, TIE Fighter and Jedi Knight. It was super refreshing to see such a confident, relatively small-scale take on a franchise that has crawled so far up its own rear end in the wake of the prequels. Even Clone Wars wasn't free of that stuff - Rebels already doesn't feel like a show where they would try to bring back Darth Maul as a spider-robot or have an episode built entirely around Jar Jar romancing some prawn queen. So yeah, I have really high hopes, and I hope they try to maintain the kind of subdued scope and tone of these first episodes. If they succeed we'll have a real winner on our hands for sure.
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Sep 28, 2014 02:04
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I'm really blown away by this show. There were so many little visual touches that called back to the original movies in a way that I thought was fairly subtle, and some more blatant callbacks that didn't go to far. Great first episode and I'm excited for this series. I hated the new movies and I really hated the Clone Wars TV show, so I had low expectations for this show. Completely took me by surprise. Can't wait for more episodes.
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Sep 28, 2014 03:33
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While Kevin Kiner was scoring The Clone Wars, I kept wishing for him to use more John Williams music. Now that he's done that, I almost wish he'd dial it down again a little. Callbacks to the score are nice for the action sequences, and you pretty much need the Force theme for Jedi stuff, but it was a bit disturbing to hear Han & Leia's love theme when the little Wookiee is reunited with his father. All in all, I was really impressed with the whole thing though. It felt like a classic West End Games role playing scenario. All the niggles I have are really really minor points: - Could they make up their minds whether to call the planet LOW-thal or Lo-THAHL? - Is Jabba the Hutt really that well known that a street kid on another planet can just name-drop him? - Kallus... sigh... here we go again with the stupid names in the vein of Plagueis, Savage Opress and Grievous. To balance it out, some favourite moments: - Kanan dodging laser blasts in slow motion - Zeb as the "rare hairless Wookiee" - The name "Tarkintown". - The Wookiees actually weren't Chewbacca, Tarfful, Gungi, Lumpy, Mala or anyone we know.
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Sep 28, 2014 15:27
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Dave Syndrome posted:- Is Jabba the Hutt really that well known that a street kid on another planet can just name-drop him? I would think so. I don't think any one crime boss in the entire SWU has his grubby mitts in as much stuff as Jabba does. Though this goes back to the idea that different planets tend to be treated more like countries, which is how it's always been in Star Wars. Afaik they have an internet equivalent as well, so I'm sure Jabba's name is constantly plastered across headlines and the like. Good point about it feeling like a classic West End RPG session. I definitely got that vibe as well.
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Sep 28, 2014 15:52
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The West End comparison is perfect. Reminds me of a really good game with friends.
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Sep 28, 2014 16:02
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Such excellent storytelling for a SW product. Tons of evident care. I'm totally hooked.
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Sep 29, 2014 12:54
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I'm glad most people seemed to like this as much as I did. You can see a lot of the old OT concept art working its way into this, apart from Zeb. I'm curious about Sabine. Is she a real mandalorian, or does she just like the helmet? Also, did anyone else get a strong Firefly/Serenity vibe from this show? I recently rewatched that series, and watching this kind of eases the pain if not getting a second season of that. edit: In retrospect, the Firefly comparison is probably pretty obvious considering the OT strongly inspired it too. I also recently rewatched Cowboy Bebop. I'm on a total space rebels kick. Any other similar shows I should check out? Nanigans fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 14:20
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Dave Syndrome posted:- Kallus... sigh... here we go again with the stupid names in the vein of Plagueis, Savage Opress and Grievous. I refuse to take seriously this complaint about a franchise that includes a loner character named Han Solo.
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Sep 29, 2014 16:49
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Benedick Cuckold posted:I refuse to take seriously this complaint about a franchise that includes a loner character named Han Solo. Touché.
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Sep 29, 2014 19:25
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Reinanigans posted:edit: In retrospect, the Firefly comparison is probably pretty obvious considering the OT strongly inspired it too. I also recently rewatched Cowboy Bebop. I'm on a total space rebels kick. Any other similar shows I should check out? Space Battleship Yamato 2199. It's not really about space rebels, but it does have a very grungy 70s sci-fi feel (mostly 'cuz it's a remake of a 70s show) and it is loving beautiful.
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Sep 29, 2014 20:20
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Very cool first episode, not terribly crazy about the Jedi once again having a focus but I can deal with it if means more of this Post EP3-Pre EP4 stuff, I got downright giddy with the tie fighter and blaster sounds and seeing stormtroopers again.
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Sep 29, 2014 21:04
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Until Ezra stops using his Space Laser Slingshot I'm afraid I cannot support this show 
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Sep 29, 2014 22:11
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Deakul posted:Very cool first episode, not terribly crazy about the Jedi once again having a focus but I can deal with it if means more of this Post EP3-Pre EP4 stuff, I got downright giddy with the tie fighter and blaster sounds and seeing stormtroopers again. I think the jedi focus won't be an issue. If anything it will be a completely different jedi focus. They are in hiding so won't flaunt their powers, unlike in the prequels and lots of CW episodes where it was like "ok imma just use the force on every motherfucker here" and you have one jedi taking out 9000 people.
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Sep 29, 2014 22:53
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