I'll go down with the (star)ship that Kanan got one of the coolest deaths of the entire Star Wars saga, and was an example of the franchise doing something fresh with a Jedi character. Were there some less-than-stellar episodes in Star Wars Rebels? Sure, but I would say that what the show did well was create a cohesive story that enriched the Star Wars universe with original characters instead of just filling in blanks with characters whose futures I already knew thanks to the movies. (Image credit: Disney+) Star Wars Rebels Was A Great Story Rebels set me up to enjoy its predecessor, and therefore make me appreciate the prequel era of Star Wars more than I did before. I would even argue that Rebels was better from start to finish than Clone Wars was, but that's an argument for a different day. I've come to enjoy that show as much as anybody and was thrilled that Disney+ gave it the ending it deserved, but I hope we can all agree that for all the very high highs of Clone Wars, there were some very low lows. Plus, given that I still vastly prefer serialized and even episodic television to anthology, knowing and loving Ahsoka and Rex helped get me through some of the rougher patches of The Clone Wars once I started that series. Rebels invested me in characters enough to want to check out their original series, and I therefore watched Clone Wars once I ran out of the story of the Spectres. And when the former clone troopers appeared in Season 2, I didn't have a clue that Captain Rex had a long history already. (Image credit: Disney XD) Rebels Introduced Me To Clone Wars CharactersĬlone Wars fans who watched Rebels second might be appalled by this, but I had no idea who Ahsoka Tano was, and might not have suspected that she was a huge deal in her first Rebels appearance if the soundtrack hadn't swelled. and ignore what was almost certainly going to happen to Kanan as the Force-sensitive mentor who definitely wasn't around in the original trilogy. These characters and their serialized story had me hooked enough that I was happy to go along for the ride. There was a multi-generation family dynamic, no secret twin reveals, and Chopper with a higher body count than R2-D2 and C-3PO combined. The love story was between Kanan and Hera as the Jedi and the pilot. Plus, for all the general similarities between the Ghost crew of Spectres and the likes of Luke, Leia, Han, and Co., they're not interchangeable to the point of feeling repetitive. Kanan Jarrus quickly became a favorite, which is saying something for me as somebody who often prefers non-Jedi characters! Why else would I love Rogue One more than 2/3 of the prequel trilogy? Like the original trilogy, this TV show focused on a set group of characters against a larger backdrop of rebellion, telling their ongoing stories and building relationships over four seasons instead of jumping around as an anthology. (Image credit: Disney / Lucasfilm) Rebels Focused On A Core Group Of Characters Throw in the animation style that struck me as more akin to the original trilogy than the prequels and the fact that I hadn't seen Clone Wars to give me any expectations, and Rebels had me hooked. There was also a sense that everything would ultimately be okay, since the Empire would fall by the end of Return of the Jedi (and Rise of Skywalker hadn't released yet), even if the survival of most of the show's characters wasn't guaranteed. And also Sabine, and what's not to love about Sabine? The show feels like it belongs in the same world as the original trilogy, with a ragtag group of rebels that included: a former Jedi in hiding as a mentor, a teenager with Force sensitivity, an incredible pilot, a droid with personality, and an incredibly strong crew member with a special weapon. (Image credit: DIsney XD) Rebels Was Set Close To The Original TrilogyĪs a fan of the original trilogy since I was watching the VHS box set as a kid and defending Ewoks to my brothers, I was automatically partial to enjoy a story set closer to that era than the prequel trilogy era.
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