The series is better with each episode. I'm not a huge fan if some of the animation but I'm really curious to see how this eventually ties into Episode VII.

My best guess is that Ezra is involved and most likely on the Dark side.

Last ep was the best so far. They're starting to nail the original star wars feel.

Agree.

I think Kanan and Ezra are both interesting... more powerful naturally than they realize (Kanan broke out some impressive displays of power during the duel with the Inquisitor).

Solid show.

This new tact with the Jedi is interesting. They're showing Ezra as far more powerful than we saw Luke in the OT, who was the son of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy.

Kanan and Ezra also appear to be much more powerful than Qui Gon and Kenobi. Are they setting us up for Episode VII?

I think so...

I was really hoping they weren't going to try and tie this in to what Abrams is doing...

Oh yeah, that's been the plan, all along. Rebels will somehow play a role in the new trilogy. They're unifying the entire Star Wars Universe with the goal of making it way bigger than the Marvel Universe.

The new books "Tarkin" and "A New Dawn" and everything moving forward will all be canon and take place in the Star Wars universe.

Sigh.

Personally, I think it's a great thing. All of the movies, TV shows, books and video games will be set in the same exact universe. No more of this "Oh, well if it wasn't in the movie, it's not canon" nonsense.

While I enjoyed some aspects of the EU (especially the Zahn Duology and a few others), most of it was pretty hokey. The trilogy of shitty books where Luke & Leia are searching for their mother was awful and of course, wiped out by the Prequels. The Ysalamiri were just dumb and so on.

Yeah, I agree. Everything needs to be tied together moving forward. It will make for an even better product.

I don't "dislike" Rebels and I really dig that they're using Ralph McQuarrie's original art as the the basis and look of this series (which was at the forefront of tonight's episode and looked amazing) but in many ways, this feels like "Star Trek: Enterprise" during its first season.

The introductions, the sub-plots, which help to define the characters to the audience, seem clumsy and awkward. It might be because they're trying to introduce unknown characters into a "known" universe (or galaxy, as it were) or maybe it's just that: Clumsy writing.

The Clone Wars was like this in the beginning, if I'm not mistaken, and the animation was not as good as it would become, so maybe there's hope that this series works in the long run. But I stopped watching The Clone Wars early on because the stories and animation were annoying but apparently, it improved quite substantially over the years.

I hope it doesn't take that long for Rebels.

Agreed. I stopped watching Clone Wars in the middle of season 2, which IMO was pretty horrible. On the advice of others here, I picked it back up and it started to take off in season 3. I'm glad I did, because seasons 4 & 5 were incredible and washed away the dreariness of previous seasons.

I'm trying to give Rebels the same chance, but I have less patience this time around.

Rebels may actually require more patience. They're doing world- and character-building that early Clone Wars didn't really have to do, since most of the cast were characters familiar from the movies. Other than the occasional cameo everything with this show is new (and may be setting the foundation for some portion of the new trilogy - sort of the opposite of Clone Wars). I haven't watched monday's yet, but it looks to be expansion on Sabine and Hera. That covers everyone I think, and it may mean they can finally start moving more toward whatever over-arching arc there will be. In any case, I've liked what they've done so far, and it feels to me like it's getting stronger as the season progresses.

At this point, the Rebels Wookie episode was the worst Star Wars product I have ever consumed. Bar none. That animation abomination just destroyed it for me. I still can't get over it. Overall however (with that episode removed from the tally), the season has not yet been as bad as Clone Wars season 2, and it is getting stronger, if very slowly. I will exercise my patience!

Unfortunately, since this is canon, I feel obligated to watch it. As you pointed out, they are introducing characters and back-stories that we will likely see in the new trilogy. That pressure to watch already makes it a little less appealing, so for me, I hope they improve soon. Need to watch this latest episode myself.

The animation is rough. It takes adjusting to, especially after Clone Wars. Add in that the episodes (that I've seen) so far have been disjointed, and this show has been a tough sell.