Star Wars Rebels and The Force Awakens

Image from StarWars.com

One of the important aspects of the Star Wars universe since the Lucasfilm acquisition by Disney is the cross-media interconnected canon. This means that everything that happens in Star Wars Rebels affects the greater Star Wars universe, including the upcoming Episode 7. I just saw the teaser for Monday's season finale for Rebels and it got me thinking. Is there a chance for Rebels to directly affect The Force Awakens?

I think absolutely. There have been a lot of rumors flying around about who the character wielding the new lightsaber is. I like the theory presented by the guys at Schmoes Know that he is a Sith artifact collector and that the lightsaber he is using is actually an ancient lightsaber that he found, possibly on the planet Morribad. This brings me to Rebels, and it is being hinted that one of the main characters is going to die in the episode and I have come up with a theory about what is going to happen.

I think that Kanan, a jedi-in-hiding, will be killed either by The Inquisitor or by Darth Vader himself who will be appearing in the episode. The will fall at the end of an epic fight similar to how Quigon Jin and Obi-wan Kenobi both died. The tragic part will be that Ezra, Kanan's young apprentice, will witness his masters death and will be filled with rage and hate. Throughout this first season it has been hinted that Ezra has a problematic affinity to the Dark Side. He has controlled other creatures to do his bidding using the Dark Side and is pulled by its nature more often then not. I believe that witnessing his masters murder will plunge him into the depths of hatred and into the Dark Side. The remaining years of the show will be about his battle with the Dark Side and his goal of seeking revenge for Kanan's death.

Ezra has another personality trait which I think is important to consider. Ezra collects things. Particularly Imperial memorabilia. He has a number of stormtrooper helmets and other things in his spire. What if Ezra, after being pulled toward the Dark Side, starts to seek out ancient Sith artifacts to collect and help him seek revenge. He could travel to Morribad and search through the Sith tombs and find artifacts of power such as Darth Revan's mask (seen in concept art for Kylo Ren, the Sith character in the episode 7 teaser), which would be fitting because Ezra likes masks and helmets, and the ancient lightsaber.

I believe that Ezra is somehow connected to the Sith character in Episode 7. How so I'm not so sure as Episode 7 will be taking place almost 40 years after the events in Rebels. Ezra would be in his late 50's by then and going by the cast no one is the right age who fits Ezra's description. It is totally possible that Ezra is kept young for some reason, like through carbonite or he finds a Sith power which extends his life and keeps him young, something that Vader or the Emperor were unable to achieve but something that Darth Plagueis was able to do. I think it is much more likely that the Kylo Ren character is the son, or daughter, of Ezra and someone else, possibly Sabine, the fiery young Mandalorian girl with a knack for assassination on par with Boba Fett. This child can be trained in the Sith arts by the corrupted Ezra and use the artifacts that Ezra found on his adventures to wreck havok on the galaxy during Episode 7. Or it could be Ezra wrecking havok.

This is all just hearsay until we see the episode on Monday and when The Force Awakens premiers in December, but I think this is totally possible. I really think that there will be some sort of payoff for Rebels in the new movie and I think it is more likely that that payoff will involve the villains more than with the heros, who most likely are connected with the Skywalker family.

Let me know if you agree or disagree with me in the comments below. How do you think Rebels will connect with the new movie.

Stargate: An Under-appreciated Classic

Roland Emmerich's 1994 masterpiece may be one of the most interesting pieces of science-fiction cinema ever made. It was an instant classic. Its premise was unique and had an exceptional cast. I absolutely love this movie and am not ashamed to say that I watch it all the time. It is in my top 5 all-time favorite science-fiction films.

The basic idea of the film is that archaeologists discover a ring-like device on the Giza Plateau in Egypt in the 1920's. During the 1990's a failed archaeologist, Dr. Daniel Jackson, with crazy theories about who actually built the pyramids is approached to decipher some hieroglyphics. He unwittingly deciphers the key to operating the ring, called the Stargate, which opens up a wormhole to the other side of the universe. Jackson, along with a military team lead by Col. Jack O'Neil, travel to a distant world where they meet a local human population under the rule of an alien being who has taken over a human body and took on the persona of the Egyptian god Ra. A battle ensues and Dr. Jackson and Col. O'Neil destroy Ra and save the people on the planet. Daniel stays on the planet and O'Neil and the surviving members of the team return home through the Stargate.

I think that I first liked the idea of this movie because it mixes two of my favorite topics: science-fiction and ancient history. I am currently studying as an archaeologist and the films use of Egyptian mythology was fascinating. I had never seen a movie, and honestly haven't since, that so eloquently mixed both myth and science fiction. The story is gripping  and you connect with the characters from the very beginning.

This film is so good that it is a travesty that it never got a sequel in the 90's. It is a fun space adventure that was ahead of its time. I do not think it was truly appreciated when it was released. It did spawn a great television franchise which included three series and totaled 18 seasons of television. The shows are great in their own right, but they are very different from the movie. The film for the most part takes itself seriously, but the TV shows were wonderfully campy and never took itself too seriously. It really would have been great to see more of Stargate on the big screen before the TV show became a thing.

That brings me up to now. Roland Emmerich has discussed and recently confirmed his plans to completely reboot Stargate. He said that his original plan was to do a trilogy, but the studio decided to do TV instead. Emmerich still wants to do his trilogy, but because of all the TV doing his original parts 2 and 3 wouldn't make any sense, so he is completely starting over. As of February 3rd they even had confirmed two writers, Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods. I am still pretty torn about this. My first reaction is "YES! MORE STARGATE!!" because honestly, Stargate is awesome. But then my second reaction is that they are going to ruin a wonderful franchise with two decades of history. I understand it wasn't Emmerich's original plan, but Stargate continued nevertheless. I'm trying to withhold judgement until I actually see the new movies which are still some years away, but it still eats at the fan-boy in me. Its the same feeling I get when I think about the recent Star Trek films. They are so much fun and are a version of Star Trek, but at the same time they are not. Its difficult to express.

No matter what happens in the future however, the original Stargate is great! I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't already seen it and it should be a part of any introductory to science-fiction. I give this movie a 5/5.