Star Wars: Rebels at 10: A newcomer's first impressions

Several years ago, I spent a weekend at Disneyland with a fellow Star Wars fan and heard all about her favorite TV show. She quoted the Jedi Master, told me how nice the actors were behind the scenes, and showed me wonderful fan art that she had done. Since I had yet to see a minute of Star Wars: Rebels, I watched the first three episodes before I had to catch the shuttle to the airport. And then I sporadically watched some of the series as the years went by.

Of course, things piqued my interest. I heard Timothy Zahn's thoughts on the inclusion of Thrawn when he came to FanX in Salt Lake City and I inevitably overheard a lot of spoilers in the lead-up to Ahsoka. With the 10th anniversary, here are some independent thoughts as a returning newcomer to the series.

The boy

Star Wars has always been most interesting to me when the great conflict is writ small and the setting of this insurgency on Lothal is a great one. It reminds me of Luke who wants to oppose the Empire, but complains that it's "just so far away." Ezra Bridger is a kid with an agenda but in this beginning, it seems completely unlikely that he'll ever be involved in something more controversial than spraying graffiti on the local Imperial garrison.

But we wouldn't be meeting this teenager if he were destined to be a local nuisance. One of the fun things about Ezra is that, while many protagonists are presented with a past, we only see his future at first. And that is a great place to start for this local.

The man

Every Luke Skywalker needs a Ben Kenobi and while Ezra's story turns towards the future, Kanan Jarrus is the man with the past. The opening scene of the show sees Lord Vader issuing orders to the Grand Inquisitor to stop the Children of the Force from becoming Jedi and orders action against those who would train them.

Any question of how that's relevant is answered by a musical cue that might not be obvious at first. When Ezra sees Kanan in the distance, there is a six-note musical pattern played by violinists and it is the introduction to "Binary Sunset." That is the music most commonly associated with the Force and the Jedi, so it immediately portends that one or both of these characters are under threat from the Grand Inquisitor. It sets the stage well and provides high stakes from the start.

The Crew and the War Machine

The modus operandi of the titular rebels seems from the start like a cross between Indiana Jones and The Italian Job. As they say in Hamlet, "Though this be madness yet there is method in it." It's hard to distinguish at any point who takes responsibility within the crew since they work with remarkable flexibility. Yes, Hera is the den mom at times and Zev is definitely in the same vein as Chewie, but Sabine has an adolescent capacity for character growth that is offset by her street smarts and Chopper is the must-have agent of chaos.

The Empire, on the other hand, is hindered by its own rigidity and addiction to power. The need for a greater threat is there in the storytelling because the big Imperial fish in Lothal's little pond really cannot be expected to stop treasonous criminals. They are menacing, but also petty, and I enjoy the way this works for everyone

Star Wars: Rebels is built from a place of narrative strength because no one person has a clear path forward. I look forward to finally seeing what comes before the ending I already know.