Entering the Escape Pod of the Ghost

I’d like to think that here, at The Cantina Cast we are an opinionated lot, and a lot of the time, we don’t agree with each others opinions. It’s one of the reasons the podcast is so entertaining and why the blogs are so riveting; they involve a wide array of different people and varying opinions. This opinion, however, I don’t expect to go down that well. I have become uninterested in Rebels.

It’s something I’ve been struggling with the past while and ever since I got a busier schedule, I have noticed myself not watching Rebels episodes, and not caring that I was so far behind. The last episode I seen was when Ahsoka fought the two inquisitors. Now, before you click off and think this is going to be a personal attack on Rebels. Stick with me, because I can assure you, it’s not.

This is more about when you are so involved in a fandom, when is it “okay” to just take a step back and say, “this isn’t for me”. This isn’t going to be like one of the blogs which attacks the prequels or them guys/gals that constantly berate Disney for getting rid of the Expanded Universe. No, this is just going to be me explaining: why I might be pressing the eject button on the Escape Pod of the Ghost, even when I had aspirations to Captain the ship.

When Rebels came along, I was excited for a new show to finally, fill the gap left by Clone Wars. It started off slow, but the main characters and villain, were interesting enough to keep me going. Then the second half of season 1 came along and I was impressed, the slowness of the show had picked up from a walk to a sprint. The action sequences were awesome and Kanan was quickly becoming my favourite character in a long time (he still is).

The season finale of the first season was absolutely amazing and it blew me and my friend away. At the time, it furthered my liking for Kanan. The season finale left me excited for the future. With Ahsoka, and even Rex poised to return, the problem was that Rebels follows a formula. The first half of a season goes slow, and tries to introduce characters, and set up stories. While the second half is more action and feels more ‘Star Warsy’ — and while I am not complaining about that formula, it’s just not a formula which works for me. I need every episode to keep me engaged or at least every second episode.

That’s something that I found in a show like Mr.Robot, where every episode I was engaged in and felt the struggles that the characters had to go through. It’s also something I found in Clone Wars, but it’s not something I have found with Rebels. I haven’t been excited at all by Season 2, except for the last episode I watched (thanks to Ahsoka).  I feel that the new Inquisitors are a weak follow to the amazing protagonist from the first season. The second half of season 2’s trailer did get me excited with a look at the Sith Temple, Maul, and some other interesting aspects, but it still hasn’t been enough to get me back watching.

I have not, however, abandoned Rebels. As I said, I am in the “escape pod,”but I’m yet to hit eject. I do plan on catching up on Season 2 when I can find the time. As I said, I’ve recently got a much busier schedule and the free time I do get, I spend 3D Modelling or watching one of the other shows I like, such as The Flash or Lucha Underground. Hopefully I can find a few spare hours to sit down and watch the end of Season 2. I really hope Rebels can reel me back in because I really do want to like the show, but I won’t force myself to watch something just because it has Star Wars on it and that brings me back to my original point, just because you are engaged deeply in a fandom, doesn’t mean you have to watch/play/read everything attached to it. It’s okay to not like something from your fandom. It’s bound to happen eventually, and when it does happen, just know that it is fine to take a step back and say, “This one’s not for me”.

The Cantina Cast

The wretched hive your Jedi Master warned you about!

 

As always, if you want to discuss anything Star Wars related or geek related, then you can find me at

 

Féadfaidh an Fórsa Bí Le tú

 

Andy