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OK, I see what you mean.

Thrawn can track rebel activities by the Ghost's presence. It is unique enough to be notable, something that would be mentioned in Imperial reports about it. He knows about its captain and her as a leader. If you want to predict somebody, you need to know them. He does now. He can now make sense of why Hera does things, he can figure why rebel activity takes place wherever she is involved. To him, this defeat was a partial victory.

He'd probably also try to plant tracking devices on the Ghost.

Thrawn is interested in solving the rebel problem properly, to tear it up from its roots. Shooting down the Ghost would be tearing a few leaves off.

Watched the episode (it's on Watch Disney XD's website), loved it. The musical callbacks, and the Rebels logo done in TCW style, it really feels like this is the finale that the show itself never got. Thank you for giving that to us, Filoni and crew.

Liked the Imperial competence on display here. Remember back in season 1 where they'd stare stupidly at Sabine's bombs and get blown up? Well here you can see them jumping away from the grenade before it exploded at the feet of the walker. Also kept up the Empire as a threat, as it took capital-grade munitions to bring down the one AT-AT and they still barely escaped, while the Imperials were quite able to deal with the battledroids. Also the reference that this is not the first time they've done these kinds of "clean up" missions, which makes sense given how widespread the Clone Wars were. Even now, nearly two decades later, this is still a common enough situation that the Imperial military expects it and knows what to do.

On the character front, it gave a lot of development to Rex, as well as having the cast say things that the audience has known all along. One wonders what thoughts were going through Rex's mind, what he was recollecting ("Fives was right" anyone?) while Ezra was talking about the lack of a conclusion to the Clone Wars. Also the bit where Ezra kind of tunes into "like a droid" with Rex's single-minded determination and focus.

You know, I kind of wish this was a Netflix Original Series now, because those would tend to run the full 30 minutes or there about. Makes me wonder what they could do with those extra 5-8 minutes of run time, especially delving into the hints of the character motivations and thoughts as we get now.

Yeah, a great episode. I hope that's not the last we've seen of Kalani. I mean, the Alliance has 1% of success, but what will a bunch of Separatist battledroids do in the Galaxy controlled by the Empire, what are their odds? Maybe they will visit some more forgotten outposts gathering more forces?

Maybe a Separatist fleet out of nowhere is the element Thrawn's plan doesn't account for?

Yeah, the tactical droid calculated a 1% chance of success based on that battle, but that battle wasn't representative of anything; it told him nothing of the wider Rebellion. I mean, he's right that the Rebellion is much weaker than the Empire, but he drew that conclusion without a shred of information actually telling him so.

eMeM wrote:Yeah, a great episode. I hope that's not the last we've seen of Kalani. I mean, the Alliance has 1% of success, but what will a bunch of Separatist battledroids do in the Galaxy controlled by the Empire, what are their odds? Maybe they will visit some more forgotten outposts gathering more forces?

Maybe a Separatist fleet out of nowhere is the element Thrawn's plan doesn't account for?

I'm actually imagining Kalani fighting Thrawn. "Admiral, I have no artistic preferences, no personal weaknesses."

Wasn't there a reference in the old EU to the rebels getting a TF doughnut and attacking the still-being-tested DS? Got one shotted I believe :p

Yes, in Death Star, but I do not think it survives except as in part of Legends now.

An incident with rebels using Separatist warships and droid fighters appears in Tarkin, which is in the new EU.

Totally forgot that Season 3 started! I've caught up now and a few things to add:

(1) Why the hell was that AT-DP out on the ledge of that landing zone area in the first episode? There was literally no good reason for such a walker to be deployed there. None.

(2) It's really cool to see Ezra delving deeper into his dark emotions. I want to see him fall further. He's becoming more interesting.

(3) The Bendu...pissed me the fucking hell off. What a waste. The Dai Bendu monks could have been brought in, but instead we're given this strange, muppet, Alf. (*goes to rage*)

(4) Regardless of the muppet, the fact that they brought the terminology of "Ashla" and "Bogan" back into "canon" is pleasing.

(5) Thrawn...they're actually doing a decent job. I am pleasantly surprised by the manner in which Thrawn is being portrayed.

(6) The holocron lore that they're creating is rather disturbing to me. It's like they're making them into mcguffins and not the tools of power and lore storage (and sometimes lifeforce storage) that they are, historically speaking.

(7) It was fun to see Rex and Kalani meet and gain some closure. I'll be interested to see what they plan to do with Kalani. I was half-thinking that they'd recruit him into the Rebellion.


Over all, I'm enjoying this season. Let's see where it takes us.

eMeM wrote:Yeah, a great episode. I hope that's not the last we've seen of Kalani. I mean, the Alliance has 1% of success, but what will a bunch of Separatist battledroids do in the Galaxy controlled by the Empire, what are their odds? Maybe they will visit some more forgotten outposts gathering more forces?

Maybe a Separatist fleet out of nowhere is the element Thrawn's plan doesn't account for?

I was hoping Kalani would join the rebels. He'd be an interesting recurring character, especially if he occupied a leadership role.

It'd be both interesting and amusing to see him having difficulty adapting his strategies to command living troops versus expendable battle droids.

NecronLord wrote:I'm actually imagining Kalani fighting Thrawn. "Admiral, I have no artistic preferences, no personal weaknesses."

That would be rich. A droid could actually make a good foil for Thrawn.

I really hope they bring back Kalani. Seeing the Separatist droids on the Rebel side would be really neat. I also see Kalani's reasoning for not joining them immediately as "You do not have sufficient probabilities to win this battle. Therefore, I am establishing production of Separatist droids to increase your chances. You are now sufficient for me to join this rebellion."

Only reason I don't see this happening is that the OT didn't include any battle droids in the Rebellion.

So the creators think Kalani could be hired as some Hutt's advisor, and "also thought that once Kalani sees that the Rebellion destroys the Death Star and starts actually making it a fight with the Empire, he might reconsider, join them"


Basically, we won't see Kalani in Rebels

Is it just me or were some of those droid deaths a bit more gruesome than the usual ones in The Clone Wars?

Zor

I was impressed by the fire power of destroyer druids they were hurting the AT-DPs

eMeM wrote:

So the creators think Kalani could be hired as some Hutt's advisor, and "also thought that once Kalani sees that the Rebellion destroys the Death Star and starts actually making it a fight with the Empire, he might reconsider, join them"


Basically, we won't see Kalani in Rebels

I'd actually love it if Rebels continued running past Episode IV. It would be interesting to see the fallout of Yavin from the perspective of other characters than the film characters.

FaxModem1 wrote:I really hope they bring back Kalani. Seeing the Separatist droids on the Rebel side would be really neat. I also see Kalani's reasoning for not joining them immediately as "You do not have sufficient probabilities to win this battle. Therefore, I am establishing production of Separatist droids to increase your chances. You are now sufficient for me to join this rebellion."

Only reason I don't see this happening is that the OT didn't include any battle droids in the Rebellion.

This sort of attitude seems to crop up a lot, that if it didn't appear in such and such previous work, then it can't exist in that era.

I don't buy it.

Galaxies are fucking big. Their's plenty of room for things we don't see in the OT. Up to whole armies, potentially, though that admittedly might be a bit of a stretch.

Maybe Kalani prefers to run his own cell, rather than mixing his troops in among the forces at Yavin/Hoth/Endor.

The Romulan Republic wrote:

FaxModem1 wrote:I really hope they bring back Kalani. Seeing the Separatist droids on the Rebel side would be really neat. I also see Kalani's reasoning for not joining them immediately as "You do not have sufficient probabilities to win this battle. Therefore, I am establishing production of Separatist droids to increase your chances. You are now sufficient for me to join this rebellion."

Only reason I don't see this happening is that the OT didn't include any battle droids in the Rebellion.

This sort of attitude seems to crop up a lot, that if it didn't appear in such and such previous work, then it can't exist in that era.

I don't buy it.

Galaxies are fucking big. Their's plenty of room for things we don't see in the OT. Up to whole armies, potentially, though that admittedly might be a bit of a stretch.

Maybe Kalani prefers to run his own cell, rather than mixing his troops in among the forces at Yavin/Hoth/Endor.

Or maybe the Rebellion itself didn't want to have anything to do with a Separatist droid general and his battle droids? It is quite plausible: if the galaxy was wrecked by the Clone Wars and the Separatist war machine committed enough war crimes, having actual honest-to-god Separatist droids among your insurgency group would be pretty bad PR. And it would give the Empire a major propaganda tool. "Look, the Rebel scum are nothing more than Separatists trying to bring back the Confederacy and droid armies!"

That is an excellent point, although it didn't stop the Rebels in the old EU from using CIS ships- they couldn't be picky about where they got their gear early on, I suppose.

However, their seems to be quite a bit of prejudice against droids in general in Star Wars, and while most people might accept the Rebels using old CIS hardware, that might not extend to a droid army commanded by a droid. Their'd probably be fear of a droid uprising.

I could maybe see a sort of informal allegiance developing, however, if Kalani is sympathetic to the Rebels. Kalani does his own thing, they stay out of each others' way, maybe quietly share intel. to a degree, but don't openly coordinate or endorse each other's actions.

Considering that people from the Clone Wars are officially part of the Rebel Alliance now that Saw Guerrera has actually appeared in a live action movie, they may be extremely reluctant to ally with their former enemies anyway. Hell, Kalani was running the show on Onderon, so Saw would be a *direct* former opponent! I can't really see them accepting a droid army into the Alliance. It would be far too easy for the Imperials to paint it as a resurgence of the Separatists and use that excuse to crush it with overwhelming force.

Also for most people the B1 and B2 battle droids would be the symbol of the CIS and its brutality.

There's also the thing that if the rebellion used battledroids, the empire could use that to dismiss they're strength, "they use battledroids against the empire, how much support can they truly have, show your loyality to the empire rather then tie yourself to this small insignifigant group of the thugs who found some left overs from the Clone Wars and think that is enough to challenge the might of the Empire!"

There is also the more practical fact that the Empire likely has all the security codes for the droids. Maybe not on-hand everywhere, but the possibility is still there. When the Seperatists ran the army they ran it from their own infrastructure, so creating software security breaches would be difficult. That infrastructure and security is gone. Even if the Rebels found intact droids they can use, the Empire would likely have the same or better resources to command the droids. Using a droid army anything other than a surprise is a liability waiting to happen.

That and the fact that the droids are stupid and inflexible. Not really suited for the complex, aggressive, hit-and-run tactics the rebels favor.

Another thing to consider- droids require complex machinery/factories to construct in large numbers. Not really viable for a guerrilla group that cannot take and hold territory.

Well, the commando droids *were* pretty good from what little I recall of the Clone Wars series. But yes, the Empire probably has enough of the old Separatist droid-control infrastructure in their control that the Rebels would basically have to rewrite the control programming from the ground up, and I doubt they have the time and resources for that.

I mean, it would be hard for the Rebels to pass up a decent opportunity to use some military hardware laying about ready to use. But there are decent reasons why they wouldn't make it a *general* practice.