Quarantine Binge-watching: Star Wars Rebels

The Force is definitely strong with this one. While procrastinating during this quarantine, I've recently finished binge-watching Star Wars Rebels on Disney+. First aired in 2014, this animated series was Disney's first contribution to the franchise, after re-branding the Star Wars Expanded Universe as Star Wars Legends. This basically meant that all the books, comics, video games, and other media produced up to that point is no longer part of the series continuity. The official "canon" would consist of the theatrical films, the Clone Wars animated series, and anything subsequently produced under the new management, starting with this series.

Star Wars Rebels takes place roughly fourteen years after Revenge of the Sith, and five years before Rogue One and A New Hope. We follow Ezra Bridger, a teenage con artist getting by on the Outer Rim world of Lothal. While attempting to steal supplies from the Imperial garrison, he ends up competing with a band of freedom fighters after the same supplies: Kanan Jarrus, a Jedi who escaped the Imperial Purge; Hera Syndulla, a Twi'lek ace pilot and captain of the Ghost, a freighter which serves as their base of operations; Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, a Lasat warrior who acts as the team's muscle; Sabine Wren; a Mandalorian gunslinger, mechanic, and artist; and "Chopper", an irritable astromech droid. Ezra promptly joins the crew as they sabotage Imperial operations on Lothal and further afield, while also studying the Force under Kanan's tutelage. They also make friends with various other freedom fighters, gain new ships to form "Phoenix Squadron", and eventually help to establish the Rebel Alliance.

This show is like a blend of two of my favourite TV shows: Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Firefly. The show's creator, Dave Filoni, actually worked as a director on the first series of Avatar. The crew of the Ghost are a rag-tag bunch of misfits, but also fit a family model, with Kanan and Hera having an almost parental relationship with the others.

The show's animation helps produce some great action sequences, while some episodes provide a chance to delve into the emotional depth of the characters. For example, Kanan has had Jedi training, but he's not defined by it (a pitfall for a lot of Jedi characters in the prequels). There's also a chance to have encounters with characters from the films. I especially like the fact that it doesn't present the characters as entirely black and white. For example, the Ghost crew have several encounters with Saw Gerrera, a Clone Wars veteran who leads a band of rebels whom the Rebel Alliance actually regards as too extreme.

All four seasons are on Disney+, and I recommend checking them out.

Star Wars in Role-playing Games

Happy Star Wars Day! A holiday observed today because some once said "May the fourth be with you."

Anyway, to commemorate this, I'd like to discuss Star Wars in relation to role-playing games. I've often made the argument that role-playing games was what got me into writing in the first place. And my first experience of running a role-playing (as a host rather than a player) was the Saga Edition role-playing game developed by Wizards of the Coast (the company behind Dungeons & Dragons). First released in 2007, to commemorate 30 years of Star Wars, the Saga Edition provides baselines for running campaigns in any era of Star Wars. Unfortunately, the product line was discontinued in 2010, as Wizards of the Coast gave up their license.

While spending this lockdown at home, I found my old source-books, including my favourite; Scum and Villainy. This has material and adventures for working on the fringes of society, creating a Firefly-esque campaign where characters attempt to get by, while dealing with the Galaxy's criminal elements.

I'm interested in running such a campaign once I finish my assignments. However, instead of running them using the d20 system they're made in, I'd like to use my favoured Savage Worlds system. This is because that system is good for handling more cinematic adventures. There isn't an official source-book for running Star Wars in Savage Worlds, but there are plenty of fan-made guides, the most comprehensive of which is this video from The GM Table.

The main struggle with running such a game is the races. There are far too many to make a dedicated race list, so I'd follow GM Bobby's advice and just build them during a dedicated session zero. While he's teaching how to run with just the core rulebook for the Adventure Edition of Savage Worlds, I'm also looking at the using the Science Fiction Companion to help develop equipment and other setting rules. I'm also using a blog post by Rodney Orpheus to convert non-player character stat-blocks from d20 to Savage Worlds.

Well, it gives me something to look forward to once I finish my second year work. And thanks to the move to virtual tabletops, I should have no problem finding interested players.

Happy writing, and may the force be with you.

The Mandalorian

Yep, I'm still around. Still writing. Still procrastinating. I must admit that I've been getting a bit of a Star Wars vibe recently, especially after getting hooked on Star Wars Rebels (at the time of writing, I've just finished the second season). It's Star Wars Day on Monday, and Disney are planning to commemorate this by releasing Rise of the Skywalker on Disney+. Which reminds me, I never did that review of Solo.

Anyway, today I finished the first season of Disney's live-action series, The Mandalorian. Finally we Europeans can get some context to all those "Baby Yoda" memes of yesteryear. So, I figured I'd share my thoughts (I'll try and keep spoilers to a minimum).

The Mandalorian takes place roughly five years after Return of the Jedi. The Emperor is dead, the New Republic has been established, but there are still plenty of Imperials around. Pedro Pascal stars as the eponymous Mandalorian, known colloquially as "Mando". A member of a proud warrior clan, Mando travels the Outer Rim in his ship, the Razorcrest, and predominantly makes his living as a bounty hunter for a local guild chapter on the planet Navarro led by Greef Karga, a former magistrate played by Carl Weathers.

In the first episode, Mando is recruited to find a valuable asset for an unnamed Imperial client played by Werner Herzog. Said asset is The Child an infant who hails from the same race as Yoda. Mando soon finds he can't hand The Child over and goes rogue. The rest of the series follows him as he travels the Outer Rim looking for work, while also trying to keep The Child safe from the Bounty Hunters' Guild and opportunistic criminals.

Pedro Pascal does a great job as Mando. He doesn't say much, and his face is concealed behind his helmet, but it's still fun to speculate what's going through his head during his dealings with people. It's also nice to see that The Child is an actual puppet and not CGI. It's almost like a Mogwai from Gremlins.

I love the visual style, which adopts a "Space Western" aesthetic. There's even an episode lifted right out of The Magnificent Seven, in which The Mandalorian is hired by villagers on a backwater planet to protect them from raiders who have access to an old Imperial walker. Also hired is Cara Dune, a former Rebel shock trooper played by Gina Carano, devises a plan to disable the walker. The episode is actually quite poignant, because Mando contemplates leaving The Child at the village where they can grow up amongst other children whom they befriended. But then Cara ambushes a bounty hunter who's been tracking The Child, meaning they can't stay.

I also love some of the humour the series incorporates. You can tell that the writers are long-time fans. Another episode has Mando being recruited for a break-out job by his old associate Ran Malik. Malik's point man for the job is Mayfeld, a former Imperial sharpshooter. Upon learning this, Mando quips "That's not saying much." to which Mayfeld snaps "I wasn't a stormtrooper wise-ass!" What makes the scene funnier is the fact that Mayfeld is played by Bill Burr, who has openly stated he isn't a fan of Star Wars. The show's creator, Jon Favreau, stated that's why they cast him.

Well, I feel like I've caught up now. It was worth the wait, but I'm not in favour of such long gaps between American releases and European releases. It creates a demand that's potentially ripe for piracy. Making the wait a little more painful was the fact that they only released the episodes gradually, putting up the first two when Disney+ was released in Europe, and then releasing new episodes every Friday. Although that does make sense: it stops people from getting a free trial, watching all the episodes, and then cancelling. I think Disney+ needs to be a little more clear about when they're going to post the episodes.

Overall, I enjoyed The Mandalorian, and am looking forward to the next season, which premiers in October.