The Siege of Lothal

[Brandon Rhea]

Star Wars Rebels: The Siege of Lothal is the upcoming television movie premiere of Star Wars Rebels Season Two. The episode will air on Saturday, June 20th on Disney XD.

I saw this episode at Celebration Anaheim and I liked it a lot. It's pretty intense, and a big step up in its intensity from the first season. The rebels are in a much more desperate situation than they were last season, and it'll be interesting to see where that goes.

A preview clip has also been released for the episode:

[video=youtube;4ipRiCrD03g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ipRiCrD03g[/video]

 

[Kiro]

Oh my.

Also, I love the fact that Vader just did to Sabine what every Jedi ever has done to Stormtroopers and Droids.

 

[Phil]

I'm looking forward to this and realized that it's this Saturday.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

This aired tonight. Shared your thoughts!

 

[Flying Blind]

DAT. WAS. AWESOME!!!!! I have to organize my thoughts...

Spoiler: POTENTIAL SPOILERS

1) I was surprisingly sad to see the Imperial blonde blow up, felt sorry for her actually.

2) What could possibly have drawn the Empire to Lothal? I can't wait to see that explanation!

3) I still don't like Chopper. Just sayin

4) I like how XD was brave (to a certain degree) and not make a 'hero always wins' show, which was something I liked about Clone Wars. Kanan n Ezra got their butts handed to them on a Sith platter.

5) Ahsoka lying, hmm didn't see that one coming, lol. Hope to see more of her interactions with Anakin/Vader

6) WHO SHALL BE THE NEW INQUISITOR?!? Do you have any theories? New character, or maybe pull out an already canon character? I wanna know!

Guess all six points are pointing in the direction of the rest of Season Two, so can't wait to see more of it!

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Spoiler: POTENTIAL SPOILERS

2) What could possibly have drawn the Empire to Lothal? I can't wait to see that explanation!

I believe the hints of that are in a past episode.

Spoiler: Potential Answer

Giant kyber crystals beneath the crust of Lothal, which will be used to power the superlaser on the Death Star.

 

[Phil]

I feel like every time Chopper enters a scene, everyone needs to hit the deck.

That aside, Vader was everything as I suspected in him to be. Calm, yet utterly ruthless and knows precisely what he is doing. Loved seeing him pilot his new Tie Advanced.

Though I can't help but wonder that...

Spoiler: If we...

are getting another Inquisitor, are they just going to start being the Sub-Boss before Vader or Tarkin show up again to get stuff done?

Spoiler: Also...

I was not suspecting that Vader and Ashoka would, in a sense, discover the fate of one another, and yet it seems Vader is more surprised that she is alive, and can't help but wonder if he might see her as a possible apprentice to him once more, just on the path of the Dark Side.

 

[Bee]

Word of God states that Vader wants to destroy her, as she's a reminder of everything he's lost. It was in one of the interviews up on YT, but I'm too lazy to find it.

 

[Green Ranger]

I love seeing a crushing defeat.

 

[Ral]

I love seeing a crushing defeat.

This. Really enjoyed the episode. I'm going to need to collect my thoughts, but I loved how much of a beast Vader is. Can't wait till Season 2 officially starts up in the Fall.

 

[Flying Dutchman]

I saw it on Disney XD. In Dutch. Which sucked, because I wanted to hear James Earl Jones and Billy Dee Williams. So I did, and it was way better in English.

Anyway, I absolutely loved Vader for obvious reasons. And I can't wait until the next episode. Yet I was kind of dissapointed they didn't hire Ian McDiarmid to play the Emperor. That eas the only complaint.
I can't wait to see the rest of the season.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Word of God states that Vader wants to destroy her, as she's a reminder of everything he's lost. It was in one of the interviews up on YT, but I'm too lazy to find it.

Yup, this. Vader wants to forget that Anakin Skywalker ever existed. To him, Ahsoka is a threat, not an opportunity. He wants to destroy her. She is now tied with Yoda for the #2 spot on his hit list.

 

[Srota]

Dayuuuuuuuuummmmmmm.

*turns and walks away*

 

[Kiro]

Just saw the episode, and most of my thoughts can be summed up as "SQUEEEE!!!!"

But yes, Vader was everything I wanted him to be. James Earl Jones did a masterful job.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

I don't usually like sharing Devin Faraci tweets, but this was a good tweet:

https://twitter.com/devincf/status/612697846228254720

The tweet for those who may not be able to see it: "STAR WARS REBELS' Kanan's attitude towards war in light of his Clone Wars experience is the most nuanced shit I've seen in this franchise."

That will only continue into the next episode when he meets the clones, and has to see the same faces as the men who killed his master and everything he ever knew.

 

[Phil]

I don't usually like sharing Devin Faraci tweets, but this was a good tweet:

https://twitter.com/devincf/status/612697846228254720

The tweet for those who may not be able to see it: "STAR WARS REBELS' Kanan's attitude towards war in light of his Clone Wars experience is the most nuanced shit I've seen in this franchise."

That will only continue into the next episode when he meets the clones, and has to see the same faces as the men who killed his master and everything he ever knew.

That only sounds like the ingredients for a good episode.

 

[Clayton]

omg when Vader did the thing with the walkers and then the thing in space and Ahsoka and omg this was an awesome episode.

 

[Vulpes]

Yup, this. Vader wants to forget that Anakin Skywalker ever existed. To him, Ahsoka is a threat, not an opportunity. He wants to destroy her. She is now tied with Yoda for the #2 spot on his hit list.

I don't recall for sure, but...

Spoiler: Lords of the Sith Spoilers

Didn't Vader still have sympathies and think a lot about Ahsoka? I don't have a physical copy to double check, but if I recall Palpatine used this to torment him.

Like I get that Dave Filoni talked about it in an Interview (between Vader & Ahsoka screenshots), but is this an example of possibly conflicting canon/different portrayal?

Just wondering. I may even be wrong about Vader in LotS, or there has been quite a few years between the events.

 

[BLADE]

Eh. Pretty mediocre episode. They kept trying to sucker me in with the fanservice (James Earl Jones! --yes he's perfectly fantastic-- MY MAN LANDO CALRISSIAN, Ahsoka knows it's Anakin! And Vice Versa!)

But for good or ill, this was a bog standard episode of Rebels.

Stray Thoughts:

- Apposite but inconsistent worldbuilding (Minister Tua, hardly a presence one can say much about both defects and is offed within the span of five minutes.)

- An impressive villainous plan which works... when you don't think about it. How did Vader know they'd show up there anyhow? Did they trigger a trap? Why even have a functional shuttle if you know they're going there? You can easily use the Force to rip information out of people's minds (TCW establishes this.) And so on.

- Minor character sighting! The bartender!

- ALL EMOTIONS MUST BE VOCALIZED.

"I want to go back to Lothal... because it's home. Even though no other episodes have established this."

"Pointless conflict about a military operation versus Robin Hood."

"We are part of a bigger battle!"

"Repetitive dialog about how my Hero's Journey is often rocky and winding, wending towards disaster and possibly slap and tickle with the Mandalorian girl."

- The animation has gotten better, and is it me or is Ezra's hair more subtly colorized? Ditto Sabine's armor. Zeb still looks stupid though.

- I did really dig the chitinous Vader design. In honesty though, I could just watch a whole show of Vader Vadering in space. He even made Kallus (as like his sardonic hype man/fascist Alfred) pretty interesting.

- Why does the Empire keep military grade shield generators right out in a hangar bay? I kept hoping there was some kind of trap on them (or maybe that was how Vader tracked them) but that just struck me as kinda silly.

- Everything Lando is great, including his C3PNOPE who I swear sounds like Lindsey Graham if he spent a weekend learning Mongolian throat-singing from Daft Punk. Points also for calling out Hera on her poor haggling skills. Though Kanan's hostility given the situation was a bit over the top.

- The Vader Fight. Good stuff (the pacing, the way Vader moved, the staging with the walker.) Really gave us a sense of the villain's agency and power... which was really let down by the fact that this wasn't so much a crushing defeat (no one died, lost a limb, etc.) as a thematic setback (yes yes, from a intradiegetic POV a bigger defeat for the Rebels, but we also know they have a fleet by ANH so whatevs.)

- Neat reference to the Empire not being quite as totalitarian as we expected. I wonder if Minister Tua saved the list of Rebel sympathizers? That'd be a perfectly serviceable objective for the crew this season.

- Ahsoka didn't get to do much, but Eckstein sold me on her not so much lying to Kanan and Ezra as lying to herself/being unsure. I don't want her entire arc to be overtaken by this, and I think there's a danger of making her too waifish/fragile in the encounter(s) with Vader.

- Mind you I think Vader was introduced too early, but meh.

- I would like to introduce Prospero's Imperial Admiral Guy Death Clock Advent Calendar. Every episode, we mark off another day on the calendar that Sideburns Not!Kallus Imperial Guy lived.

- Some nice banter and the crew dynamic felt more natural.

- Hey another Inquisitor. This totally won't feel like a step down in threat level after Darth Vader.

- Speaking of which, not that it was a surprise, but it was neat to see Vader monster his way through the Rebel Fleet.

- Finally, they still haven't fixed the threat issue. Better, but as I mentioned above no one not even Commander Sato (perfect candidate for offage) died. The gratuitous Tarkintown stuff aside (and wouldn't the Empire wanna milk the REBEL ASSASSIN angle more before doing something so mustache-twirlingly evil? *Throws up hands in defeat* Oh well) the Rebels didn't lose anything, and in many ways were strengthened.

- How? Well this episode sets up some conflict between Kanan and Hera and then sorta wipes the board with it. Hopefully we get more and it makes more sense/has proper build up.

Overall? Pretty standard episode with some neat moments. Some of the character stuff was a bit obvious, but some of it is kind of smart (Kanan representing doubt while Ezra is more certain; hopefully they run with it.)

On the Système International Tina Turner Scale I give it a "Addicted to Love" out of "We Don't Need Another Hero."

Take it away Tina.

[YOUTUBE]57lnRz3lwpE[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Brandon Rhea]

I don't recall for sure, but...

Spoiler: Lords of the Sith Spoilers

Didn't Vader still have sympathies and think a lot about Ahsoka? I don't have a physical copy to double check, but if I recall Palpatine used this to torment him.

Like I get that Dave Filoni talked about it in an Interview (between Vader & Ahsoka screenshots), but is this an example of possibly conflicting canon/different portrayal?

Just wondering. I may even be wrong about Vader in LotS, or there has been quite a few years between the events.

I don't recall if she was mentioned in Lords of the Sith, but she was mentioned in Tarkin as a continued point of contention between Vader and Governor Tarkin. But those books were also set 10 years before this episode, so that's 10 years worth of Vader character development where Anakin Skywalker is pushed further and further into the abyss of his mind.