Thursday, July 23, 2015

The Siege of Lothal

Our family finally got around to watching the Star Wars: Rebels between seasons movie, "The Siege of Lothal" a little while ago. The reason it was delayed was due to the fact that we do, in fact, watch Rebels as a family, so we all have to be in the mood to take the time. (That's never a problem for me, as I'm always in the mood for good Star Wars, but the other two need some convincing now and then.)

Below there are spoilers, so be warned. Also, a lot of what I'm going to say was echoed by Ryan Daly over on "Dead Bothan Spies", but I would still recommend listening to his episode on this movie. And, while you're at it, why not listen to the whole shebang? He's got a great show going on over there and I enjoy listening.

So, what did I take away from this movie? First off, both my wife and I had chills when we heard James Earl Jones as Darth Vader. He's still able to be menacing with only his voice.

Speaking of Vader, we all had a "Holy Crap!" moment at the end of season one, when Vader appeared to take care of the Rebels. This movie definitely pays that moment off. From Vader taking on two (OK, really one and a half) Jedi at once, to Vader in his TIE Advanced taking on a Rebel Fleet, and WINNING! Darth Vader show just how much of a bad ass he is in this movie and he succeeds in driving the Rebels off of Lothal, through a combination of his own efforts as well as making the public turn against our heroes by framing them for the death of the Imperial Minister.

I think that's the most important point of this, really. Vader wins. The Rebels are out classed and they know it. If Vader was to be defeated here, it would take all the menace out of him for the movie. What this does, though, is show just how competent he is, which makes Luke holding his own against him all the more incredible.

Something else that happened was that Vader and Ahsoka felt each other's presense through the Force. Vader is made aware that his, or as he says Skywalker's, former apprentice is still alive. What Ahsoka knows is left unsaid. She either was shocked by the amount of evil in Vader, or she recognized Anakin's mind. Either way, she's now got a mission of her own, and it involves Vader.

A side effect of watching this is now we have gone back and started watching The Clone Wars, which we had seen for awhile but then dropped it. Since Rebels builds on that, I think we're going to try and catch up on the old episodes.

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3 comments:

  1. I loved it. The opportunity to see Vader in his prime, not only as a physically imposing warrior and ace pilot, but also his ruthless machinations (the plot to kill the minister and frame the rebels for it, and torching Tarkintown just to goad the rebels into showing themselves). And he had some of the best dialog in any of the films, live action or animated.

    "If the rebels have fled, then we must draw them back. If they are here, we must draw them out."

    "Their fear has driven them to ground."

    "Your master has deceived you into thinking you can become a Jedi..." Playing on both Jarrus' and Ezra's fears.

    Just perfect.

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    1. Agreed. The writing for this series is just spectacular.

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  2. I also really like the design of the characters, ships, and places. It's obvious they're taking a lot of inspiration from Ralph McQuarrie. For instance, look at this concept art for Chewbacca and tell me it doesn't look familiar. The show is stuffed with homages like that to his work.

    http://static1.squarespace.com/static/4f209325d09a4f024c85b060/t/5149f3f2e4b0896b363324a4/1363801075320/chewoldlarge.jpg

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