***** SPOILER WARNING: COMPLETE OPEN SPOILERS FOR ALL SEASONS AND RELEASED STAR WARS MOVIES AHEAD *****
Apologies for the title, it just came to me and was stuck in my head so I figured I'd use it.
So I totally slept on Star Wars Rebels because, I mean honestly, I wasn't about to be watching a DISNEY KIDS show. Despite that, I've been a HUGE Star Wars fan mostly my entire life. I got a Star Wars tattoo in 1998. I read all the (now "Legacy") EU novels, played all the games, devoured most of the media out there, though less and less as time went on. The death of the legacy EU stuff really put a dent in my enthusiasm for Star Wars in general. I wasn't about to pick up a ton of new books/media/etc to re-read stuff I'd already supposedly known about. The Force Awakens came out, and I liked it, it was enjoyable, and I walked out of the theater pretty happy. I think I got one of the Aftermath books, but never finished it. Rogue One came out, and wow.. yeah that was some good Star Wars right there. I snagged the Catalyst book and blew through it pretty quick. Maybe the Nu-EU wasn't going to be terrible? Ended up walking out of The Last Jedi feeling very unfulfilled. I didn't hate the movie, but I didn't love it either. I got the Bloodline book to try and fill in some of the info gaps, but haven't got around to reading it yet..
With all that being said.. I'd heard things here and there about Rebels over the years.. that they (re)introduced Grand Admiral Thrawn, had a lot of cool cameos, and had Time Travel (!!). It all SOUNDED interesting, but I was like 4 seasons behind, and I hate coming into things in the middle so I just shrugged and went along with life.
That all changed a couple of weeks ago. Disney decided to show a marathon of ALL the prior Rebels episodes (mostly back to back to back to back), and I happened to be flipping channels when the FIRST episode (Spark of Rebellion) was on. I was home with the kid (He's 5), and we watched the first episode. It was actually really good. The art style was unique, but not as exaggerated as The Clone Wars. The sound/music/etc was all top notch and really FELT like Star Wars. We watched a couple more, and the quality held up. I was a little worried the teenager characters (Ezra, Sabine) would grate on me.. but they were never put in stereotypical annoying 'teenage' situations, and never got on my nerves. I ended up setting the entire series to record, and over the next couple of days my DVR recorded every episode, including the finale.
Slowly but surely my son and I worked through the episodes (THANK YOU commercial fast forward!). With only like 20 minutes of show per episode, we could blast through 5 or 6 after work/school. He was exciting, I was getting invested. We powered through the first season. Yoda! Lando! Tarkin! The Inquisitor! So many TIE Fighters! By the time we got to the last episode, "Fire Across the Galaxy", we were hooked. Mustafar! Light saber duels! The ending sequence when they're escaping in the TIEs and all hope seems lost and the Chopper and the Ghost show up.. followed by OMGWTF Rebel Blockade runners! Senator Organa! Fulcrum is Ahsoka! Seriously, the scene of the reinforcements showing up gave me goose bumps. My son was jumping up and down he was so shocked they came to save the day. It was a great moment. Cap that off with MOTHER F'ING VADER showing up.. whew, lads.
Season 2 was more of the same, great Star Wars stories. Seeing Vader be badass Vader.. interacting with Ahsoka.. tying little things together. Rex! The Clones! B-Wings! It all felt so natural. It felt like Star Wars. There were some dark moments too, with the Inquisitors causing all kinds of havok & finding out Ezra's parents had died. My son was sad to hear that, and asked me about it. I thought it was handled in a really good way. Following this up with our first meeting of Princess Leia was great too. "The Honorable Ones" was a really good episode, seeing Agent Kallus and Zeb stuck together.. it laid some good seeds for the future too. Ending with the return of Maul was perfect. Such a good, emotional battle at Malachor. The cross-guard lightsaber reference (from TFA) was really neat as well.
I thought the small time-skip for Season 3 was well done. It was nice seeing the "kids" a little older and wiser. Seeing Thrawn on my TV was as amazing as I'd hoped. I was a fan from the novels way back, so it was very cool to see him in action. The continuing Maul saga was really interesting, and I got giddy with the "two suns" reference. I liked that they did not toil too much on the light side/dark side struggle with Ezra. I felt like it was just enough to convey the point without having to take up multiple episodes. Lots of great Thrawn action in the season, oh, and TIE Defenders! So many little things just add up to great Star Wars goodness.. the Dark Saber.. Saw Gerrera.. Geonosis.. I really liked Kallus being the new Fulcrum too. There definitely were a few filler episodes with the 22 episode order.. but they were all, at the very least, entertaining, and most of them had some sort of information which added to the overall Star Wars lore. Then "Twin Suns".. wow.. I knew this was coming, as I'd seen a clip of it somewhere before, but it was all the more impactful now, having followed the story from the beginning. What a perfect ending (one and for all?) for Maul. Great seeing Obi-wan as well (Hello there!).
Season 4 was a blur.. I was in full hype mode now, only 16 episodes to go! I needed to see how this all ended.. how were all the strings going to get tied up? The Mandalorian stories were good, it felt good seeing more of them. Finally to the meat of the season.. Rukh was a nice surprise (though sad his people didn't get to end Thrawn). Loth-Wolves?! Normally I don't think I'd enjoy some of the absolute Force-weirdness we see in this season, but somehow, for some reason, Rebels just sells it. I think perhaps the focus on Lothal for a lot of the series, combined with the different Jedi powers we see here and there helped make it all 'make sense'. By the time I got to Jedi Night.. oh man. The torture of Hera was pretty brutal (especially for Disney!), and drugging her.. But so good finally seeing Kanan and Hera connect.. and then.. he dies. But what a death it was! The next couple of episodes had the perfect pacing.. of being sad for Kanan, still needing to fight, but having to deal with the overwhelming grief. I really liked how they altered the beginning/end logo throughout the series for special occasions. The "World beyond Worlds" was crazy as hell, but again, the show sold it to me, and I didn't really doubt any of it. It felt impactful, it taught a lesson, and was really entertaining. It was also cool to see the Emperor doing his evil Emperor things too.
The final two episodes were just magnificent.. so much action.. horror (bombarding a city!).. emotions.. yeah maybe I teared up a little bit. It felt like such a fitting end for everyone involved. The damn space whales were even cool.. and I'm happy that Thrawn and Ezra's stories are not definitively 'finished' yet. The epilogue.. with Hera and Rex being at Endor.. Kallus and Zeb going to Zeb's home world.. and Sabine and Ahsoka leaving to find Ezra.. all awesome.
The show has really reignited my interest in Star Wars, I ordered a couple of the new books, looking forward to the new Tarkin novel coming out this summer.. and finding out what is next to come in the galaxy far far away. Everything about it just felt 100% right, which is frankly amazing. I suppose Rebels hit the sweet spot for me, nostalgic for that time period in SW history, great cameos, but not being beholden to any of that.. they told their own story, and never let the other things overshadow it. Ultimately it was the story of freeing Lothal & it's people.
Seeing this become reality...
... was really awesome.
