Star Wars Rebels

By Nick

Followers of this blog, (thank you) will have noticed an increase in Star Wars articles over the last couple of months. There are several reasons for this. I've been a Star Wars fan since the original film came out in 1977.

When the original trilogy was re-released, followed by the prequels, I re-discovered my love of the films, and, yes, even liked Episodes 1-3 despite their many shortcomings.
 
With Star Wars Episode 7 coming out December 18th and my recent visit to Walt Disney World during the first of their annual Star Wars Weekends, my enthusiasm for the franchise has been renewed.

Before my trip down to WDW for the Weekend, my wife and I watched the first season of Star Wars Rebels, which premiered on the Disney Channel October 3, 2014 as a 44 minute film, before moving over to Disney XD.
The episodes are played frequently, and I was able to DVR them all easily.

Rebels takes place fourteen years after the fall of the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Council in Star Wars Episode III.

The series follows an assortment of individuals aboard a freighter starship called the Ghost.

The small Rebel cell consists of Hera Syndulla, the Twi'lek owner and pilot of the Ghost, Kanan Jarrus, a human who was a Padawan before the Jedi Purge, Sabine Wren, a Mandalorian artist with expert combat skills, and Zeb Orrelios, a member of a race, the Lasat, who were among the first to rise up against the Empire, which responded by decimating their homeworld. This, as you can imagine, has left a bad taste in the Lasat's mouth.

They pick up a young man who reminds me a lot of Aladdin named Ezra Bridger who displays strong Force abilities, and is taken on by Kanan as his Padawan.

Both my wife's and my favorite character, however is C1-10P "Chopper" an astromech droid built and owned by Hera. Think an edgier R2D2 with an attitude.

Together, the group conducts operations against the Imperials, primarily on and around the planet Lothal.

Speaking of Imperials, 2 are of note. The Inquisitor is a practitioner of the Dark Side of the Force, and Agent Kallus, a high ranking agent of the Imperial Security Agency.

Several familiar characters from Star Wars also make appearances.

My love for the show has led us to watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which is available on Netflix.

As I delved further into the Star Wars Universe, I discovered that all the books and comics previously released, known as the Expanded Universe (EU), will now be re-branded as Star Wars Legends, and that it is no longer "canon."

The EU was very expansive, and even though I did read some of the books and comics, it was so overwhelming and convoluted, I quickly lost interest.

There is now a new canon, and the first novel released in this new timeline just so happens to be based on Rebels! Upon discovering this, I couldn't get the paperback fast enough, and was happy to see it had arrived on my return from WDW.

The new timeline of Star Wars was printed in A New Dawn, and I've already ordered other books that have been released, and pre-ordered the rest.

A New Dawn is a really entertaining read and a great introduction to 2 of the primary characters in Rebels, Kanan and Hera, as well as Hera's ship, the Ghost which I suppose should also be considered a character because of it's prominence in the show.

Star Wars Rebels Season 2 will premier a special event June 20th on Disney XD at 9pm, and will feature Star Wars and Clone Wars characters.