SWNN Review: Star Wars Rebels – Wings of the Master

bwing2rescueEpisode 5 was all about the origins of the B-Wing starfighter, which was a key component of the Rebel fleet on Endor.  The backstory given in this one establishes a new direction from the earlier canon. The designer is still a Mon Calimari, but it’s not Ackbar. Read on for more and as always beware of SPOILERS 

 

 

We start things off with our rebel crew in communication with an official from the planet Ibaar. The Ibaarians are starving and suffering, being isolated from the rest of the galaxy by an Imperial blockade. Phoenix Squadron make an attempt to punch through the blockade and deliver desperately needed food supplies, yet fail, losing a ship in the process. After the fleet retreats into hyperspace, Rex comes up with an idea to potentially break through the Imperial lines and make the food drop.

blockadebustA Mon Calamari ship designer named Quarrie has been working on a blockade busting starfighter, hidden away on the planet Shantipole. Kanan is able to convince Hera to lead a mission to seek out the secretive Mon Cal ship builder, despite her reservations of flying to a planet that is considered a death trap by pilots.

moncalUpon arrival, Hera reveals that ships are unable to maintain power while flying in the atmosphere. After a rough landing, where the Phantom teeters over a precipice, the crew meet up with Quarrie. The designer agrees to help our crew with repairs on the Phantom, yet is reluctant to allow Hera to take the B-Wing out for a spin. Eventually, he agrees to let Hera engage in a test flight, after we get some interesting backstory on the Twi’lek pilot. Hera talks about how know matter the situation, good or bad, she feels most comfortable when she’s up high. Her love for flying and ships started when she used to watch Republic ships coming to try and help liberate Ryloth.

bwingdebutHera takes the prototype starfighter through some rather nifty maneuvers and tries out the craft’s multi-canon. The weapon is quite powerful, yet drains so much power that hyperspace travel isn’t possible after the canon’s usage. Hera comes up with the idea to attach the B-Wing to the Phantom, which will tow the starfighter to Ibaar.

The B-Wing does it’s job well and breaks through the blockade, leaving Agent Kallus in disbelief. The rebels are able to make the food drop and Hera gets a promotion to become Phoenix leader.

 

The Light Side 

 

B-Wing baby!

bwingrescueSince the first time I saw them in use during ROTJ, the B-Wings were one of my favorite Star Wars ships. Despite seeing them in the film, we didn’t get to see them do a whole lot. This episode not only provided us with the fighter’s backstory, but also allowed us to see gyrating cockpit, which always keeps the pilot upright.

 

Fantastic space battles! 

missioncompleteThis one featured some really nice action in space. We’ve seen a few space battles on Rebels, but this was the first major one in season 2. There were some particularly well-done shots of the dogfights seen through both Rebel and Imperial cockpits. Rex proves himself a beast with the Ghost’s guns.

 

Character background and motivation. 

One thing Dave Filoni has teased that we’ll get on the show this season is a more in-depth look at the past of our heroes. We learn a little more about Hera here. She makes a nice reference to the Clone Wars and we learn why she likes to fly. It’s revealed that she left her homeworld at a very young age.

gyratingcockpit

 

The Dark Side 

 

Why is Ibaar important to the Empire? 

One thing that I did find a bit strange was that we didn’t have the Imperial’s strategic interest in Ibaar explained. A complex explanation wasn’t necessary, still it would have been nice to understand the planet’s importance in the bigger picture. The Empire is massive, but the galaxy is more so and they can’t set up a blockade at every planet.

phoenix

B-Wing’s weaponry a bit over the top. 

While I loved getting some info fleshed out about the ship, I did feel that how strong it’s multi-canon was to be a bit much. The starfighter was able to single-handedly destroy a larger cruiser. What we see in ROTJ doesn’t contradict the power of the ship, yet I never got the feeling it could do as much damage as it did in this one.

 

Parting Shots 

roughlandingAll in all, I thought it was a fun and exciting edition.  We got some nice backstory, technical info and space battles. The 22 minutes seeemed to go by in the blink of an eye.

I was a little surprised when Hera was talking about her past on Ryloth, that we didn’t hear anything about her father, Cham. He was the leader of the resistance effort there. I imagine we’ll get something involving her relationship with Cham this year. In fact, we simply don’t know right now if he’s alive or dead.

At first, I was a bit sad that they changed the Mon Cal who designed the B-Wing. During the opening moments, I thought that perhaps we’d get a special guest appearance by Admiral Ackbar (maybe Captain still at this point in time). It would have been nice, but I like the fact that Filoni and company are trying not make the galaxy appear to small. So, it was actually nice to get a new character here.

 

What did you think? Did you like the space battles? Were you sad not to see Ackbar? Sound off in the Cantina or in the comments below.

 

+ posts

54 thoughts on “SWNN Review: Star Wars Rebels – Wings of the Master

  • November 16, 2015 at 12:28 am
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    I liked the story. I never did invest too much in the Extended Universe so I had no idea that Ackbar had been the designer in the EU…

    • November 16, 2015 at 4:56 pm
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      This doesn’t really mess with the EU that bad. Ackbar wasn’t involved with the B-Wing until later (after Battle of Yavin), so it’s very possible that the B-Wing stays in prototype stage until Ackbar contributes to the design to get it just right for the Rebels’ needs. It’s clear that this prototype is nowhere near the version we see in RotJ (gunner’s seat, multi-cannon, no hyperdrive, etc.).

  • November 16, 2015 at 12:38 am
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    good story but they do have to explain this new weapon for the B-wing or risk a major contradiction for the movies. i mean just a hand full of b-wings with that weapon would have carved up the imperial fleet at endor.

    • November 16, 2015 at 12:45 am
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      Not really. When weapons are designed, the final product is usually a far cry from its prototype. Like in this case, the weapons were so powerful, it left little power once fired. I would imagine that a weapon system like that is probably not easy to get your hands on in a galaxy as regulated as the Empire seems to be. Concessions would need to be made, and I would think a cheaper, and therefore probably less-powerful weapons system would be installed on the production model.

      • November 16, 2015 at 12:51 am
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        thats what i said, they’ll need to clean it up. besides the b-wing(as i remember it from the games) was plenty powerful to begin with with the ion cannon and torpedoes backing up its blaster cannons. turning them into a mini death star seems unnecessary.

        • November 16, 2015 at 4:43 pm
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          You missed my point: There really is no need for an explanation as the model we see in the episode is a prototype and one can infer that the production model was not able to be as powerful without having to have an explanation for it. Explaining that is a waste of time when there are other important things for this show to address.

    • November 16, 2015 at 1:27 am
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      Agreed. My thought is, since the whole fleet needs to be able to jump to hyperspace they probabbly had to tone down the multi-canon in order to prevent frying the hyperdrive with every shot. So for that reason and for cost effectiveness, the finalized B-Wing was probably had much less power then the original Blade-Wing.

      • November 16, 2015 at 8:52 am
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        exept we only ever see the B-Wing in ROTJ and only as a part of a captial fleet. it is possible that the B-wing was required to dock in a captial ship to get to and from combat just like a tie fighter.

        that is why so many rebels used X-wings instead. it had hit and run capability and could operate over long range. While the B-wing was super powerful but could only fight in fleet actions… and TBH the B-wing seems designed solely for anti-capital ship actions so you would only really want it in a fleet battle

  • November 16, 2015 at 12:41 am
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    I enjoyed the episode but I agree that the ship’s firepower was over the top. And could see the multi cannon being abandoned if it pulls too much power.

  • November 16, 2015 at 12:44 am
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    interesting how they kept Shantipole as a planet of origin but axed the Verpine’s manufacturing involvement (or existence even)

    • November 16, 2015 at 4:54 pm
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      How has that been axed? This is just a prototype. The Verpine could very well be involved in production later. Also, people saying that Admiral Ackbar is not involved: maybe he’s involved in a later prototype? That would make sense because the original designer was also Mon Cal, so I’m sure he would take a special interest in it.

  • November 16, 2015 at 1:01 am
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    The reason for the blockade of Ibaar was definitely explained. The purpose was simply to draw out the rebels into a conflict. This was backed up by the fact that they cut the rations even further back after the first failed attempt at a rescue. Kalus stated that the rebels couldn’t resist helping out people in need and so he reduced the rations to zero, knowing that the rebels would have to come back and help, even though they’d be in a weaker position having already lost a cruiser.

    • November 16, 2015 at 2:11 am
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      I see what you’re saying. They already had the blockade up and then Kallus was telling his crew that the Rebels would return because they wanted to help people. I thought perhaps there was another reason for the blockade. Perhaps it was just to draw out the rebels as you said.

      • November 20, 2015 at 8:17 pm
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        so they were wiling to let the people STARVE just because the Rebel Network wanted to give them some food WHAT THE FUCK!

  • November 16, 2015 at 2:23 am
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    So 1 B-Wing can take out an entire Star Destoryer? Was that super ray thing only available to that 1 starfighter, because It probably could have been useful, you know AT ANY OTHER TIME IN THE REBELLION!

    • November 16, 2015 at 3:44 am
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      Wasn’t a Star Destroyer…

    • November 16, 2015 at 4:18 am
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      That B-Wing is a prototype and obviously the B-Wings in RoTJ have hyperdrive capabilities so they don’t outfit the non prototype ones with the giant cannon.

      • November 16, 2015 at 8:47 am
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        “obveously have hyper drive”

        isnt it possible seeing as this is now cannon. that the B-wings require a mother-ship for hyper-drive travel? X-wings are long distance and are used in all kinds of recon and extended range missions however the only time we see B-wings is dureing a fleet battle around a moon where the rebels believed they were fighting a lone space station. The rebels did not plan a hit and run strike on the death star in ROTJ. They saw an opportunity to flee but decided to stay and fight to the last- hense useing B-wings which are strong but cannot run.

        • November 16, 2015 at 8:59 am
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          Nice idea, but I’m pretty sure we see some B-Wings jumping to hyperspace on their lonesome.

    • November 16, 2015 at 9:37 am
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      That was a mini Star Destroyer, & in the McQuarrie concept art it showed squadrons of B wings taking out star destroyers… though I’m not a fan of the multi canon. Bring back the Photon torpedoes.

    • November 16, 2015 at 8:50 pm
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      In official canon, a small group of B-Wings (Blade Squadron) took out Vader’s old Star Destroyer “Devastator” during the Battle of Endor. They were designed to take on capital class ships, so yes, it’s easy to imagine one taking out a much smaller ship in the episode.

  • November 16, 2015 at 2:32 am
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    I think the “new” multi-cannon is stupid. The lower gunner station has no purpose since the lower gun only shoots straight, and if the pilot can use the multi-cannon gun then why bother having a gunner.

    I feel like with the new cannon they are trying to add more non star wars sci-fi, in an attempt to attract a browder audiance, even though star wars is probgably the biggest IP in history.

    • November 16, 2015 at 4:54 am
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      it would disable the hyperdrive also since that would be hard to do hit and run misson’s with so i guess they took it out for a better hyperdrive

    • November 16, 2015 at 9:36 am
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      I agree… I’m used to the B wings in the X wing PC game, I didn’t like seeing the multi cannon at work. I’m really not digging season 2 🙁 Fantastic start… lame first 5 episodes.

    • November 16, 2015 at 12:50 pm
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      I too am curious as to why they chose to have another gunner on this prototype unless the station can actually pivot and shoot in different directions but we just don’t see it used in this episode. It was still kind of pointless to have Sabine in the gunner seat while Hera flies it, because like you said Hera can still shoot it flying solo.

      If you watch the episode closely it does look like the beam is being shot at an angle though while it flies past the blockade and that could be thanks to Sabine’s shooting. I guess the real reason as to why is because it gave Sabine something to do in this episode lol

  • November 16, 2015 at 3:15 am
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    JJ don’t forget the B-WINGS!!

  • November 16, 2015 at 4:23 am
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    People, this B-Wing is just a prototype it’s not the finalized version they go with during RoTJ. Those ones have hyperdrive capability and this one has a large cannon but no hyperdrive. Basically, you sacrifice the hyperdrive for a stronger cannon. During the battle of Endor they don’t need the strong cannon and it would have been pretty pointless considering it probably takes a while to recharge after each shot and it doesn’t look like it has a strong enough cannon to take out an entire Star Destroyer. So, they decided to make the B-Wings with hyperdrive instead and focus more on anti-starfighter capabilities.

    • November 16, 2015 at 8:42 am
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      exept that the B-wing in the show HAS hyperdrive and CAN go to warp. the only reason it dosen’t according to the dialogue in the show is that the designer hasnt figured out how to solve the problem and thinks he can do it in a few weeks.

      what i think is far more likely than your hypothesis is that the empire starts seriously engaging in an arms race with the rebels. ie. Kallus’s surprise at the destruction inspires him and the empire to build better meaner ships. so that by the time the battle of endor comes around, impirial ships cannot be as significantly damaged by the B-wing.

      i find it interesting that this show is set many many years before the death star is built and that the B-wing fetures a multi lasor that is very similar in function to the death star’s. i bet kallus steals the B-wing and that the empire use it as the inspiration for death star’s main weapon.

      • November 16, 2015 at 12:18 pm
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        It has a hyperdrive but the weapons system killed it. So, unless Quarrie or any of the other ship design engineer discovers a way in the future episodes how to implement a hyperdrive onto the B-Wings along with a powerful laser cannon system, all we know so far is that this current prototype design cannot have both which is what I meant by my first post. Secondly, we go 9 years into the future and we see the B-Wings used during the Battle of Endor. They are equipped with hyperdrives but no super cannon weapon system like the one shown during this Rebels’ episode. Unless the Lucasfilm story group wants to show the B-Wings of the future actually having a hyperdrive and a powerful laser cannon then I am going to make an assumption that the ship design engineers could not equip both when they finalized the classic B-Wing we see during the Battle of Endor.

        • November 16, 2015 at 5:33 pm
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          Why is this so hard for people???

  • November 16, 2015 at 8:23 am
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    I kind of wish this was about the A-Wing, The B-Wing is much cooler but that fighter’s origin is rooted in more mystery and they could have done a lot more without contradicting the old EU.

    • November 16, 2015 at 12:20 pm
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      That’s why they threw the old EU out the window. So, they didn’t have to be constricted by it and they could have the freedom to tell their own version of the story in this show and any future movies, games, novels, or comics.

      • November 16, 2015 at 1:07 pm
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        Actually it was all about money so Disney could profit off their own material rather than reprinting old stories. Thing is that this new canon is as convulted and as much of a mess as the old canon was. See the whole Imperial Shuttle Tydrium quagmire.

        • November 17, 2015 at 9:26 am
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          Well one would think that making money off a $4 billion purchase would be a given. If I paid a lot of money for an IP or franchise I’d want to make a profit off of it too, but that’s not the point. The new canon is just getting started so it can’t possibly be as much of a mess as the old EU. Granted, I liked the EU just as much as the next person and was sad to hear it go, but I understand why Lucasfilm and Disney decided to go that route. I don’t hold resentment over their decision and since they have managers (aka. the Lucasfilm Story Group) whose jobs are to keep the continuity as seamless as possible, the new canon should benefit from having oversight that approves of an author’s, game studio’s, or director’s directional choices.

          My knowledge of the shuttle Tydirium on the new canon is purely from Leia’s Junior novel Moving Target, and all that happened in there was Leia was part of the team that helped steal the shuttle. There is no other continuity issue that I’m aware of as of now.

          • November 17, 2015 at 11:48 am
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            They had no choice but to get rid of everything after Jedi due to what TFA was about but everything before Episode VI should have remained canon because none of it would have affected Episode VII in any real way. Rebels would be nothing without Clone Wars and a lot of the new novels could have benefitted from what came before the end of the OT.

            Someone brought it up on here a few days ago about how she was part of the strike team but ignorant about other parts of the mission at the same time in Jedi. I’ve yet to read it but the commentator who did outlined why it was contradictory and someone else tried to make sense of it but it was still a flimsy explanation and not canon.

          • November 17, 2015 at 2:46 pm
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            Yeah I read that too, she says: I wonder who they found to pull that off?Then Madine says: General Solo, is your strike team assembled?

            But, it doesn’t break the canon because she is referring to the mission on Endor to destroy the shield generator, not the Tydyrium shuttle theft mission.

        • November 20, 2015 at 8:14 pm
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          How would they explain Chewie being alive in TFA if he is dead in the War with the Yuuzvhon(Sorry for spelling) War

          • November 21, 2015 at 4:32 am
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            I’m okay with them decanonizing everything after Jedi EU-wise since it’s mostly crap outside the Thrawn/X-Wing books but they should have kept everything that happened prior to Episode VI.

  • November 16, 2015 at 9:57 am
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    That multiweapon looks a lot like the death star laser’s formation. perhaps that is where the empire got the idea to increase a laser’s damage exponentially. As for the B-wing we never actually saw it attack in the movie specifically but the toy and concept art showed a Bwing taking out a standard star destroyer. This video link has the original box art from long ago:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvIlALXd3Hs

    • November 16, 2015 at 12:28 pm
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      Great post, but I think the Death Star’s weapons system is already being built during this time. There could be many reasons as to why the Blade Wing’s laser cannon shoots like it does but I think the most obvious is that Dave Filoni and the director’s of Rebels just decided to use one like the Death Star because it looks cool and it fits right in with what we’ve seen already. Story wise, it could be coincidence that Quarrie’s design is similar to the Death Star’s or perhaps in Star Wars this is the only way or the best way to make a laser cannon beam or perhaps Quarrie also helped design the Death Star’s laser weapon system as well??? The possibilities are endless and speculation runs rampant hahaa

  • November 16, 2015 at 10:16 am
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    Remember that people like you and me (that didn’t even take a look at the SSD to figure out it had to be at least 11 miles long) made up the myth that Admiral Ackbar designed the B-Wing while General Dodonna (sic) and a certain ‘Walex Blissex’ supposedly designed the A-Wing.
    In one of the original ROJ sketches it clearly said “alien starfighter”, thus it’s a good thing that the original premise was acknowledged, although I would have believed the B-Wing to be of Sullustian design.
    While the ROJ VFX model featured a human pilot, the deleted cockpit scenes from the attack run on the Star Destroyers’ power trees (apparently the spheres on the conning tower) only featured actors dressed as a Mon Calamari and a Sullustian.

  • November 16, 2015 at 5:08 pm
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    This doesn’t really trample the EU that much. This is the very first prototype of the B-Wing, designed on the planet Shantipole. Quarrie himself calls it “Project Shantipole” at the end of the episode. The EU called the B-Wing development program “Shantipole Project” but that background story takes place much later in the timeline (after Battle of Yavin). It would make sense that Ackbar would get involved once the project was picked up by the Rebellion. Slayn & Korpil ended up producing the B-Wing in both the EU and canon, so the Verpine could very well still be involved in this new canon timeline. They also very well could have moved the design team to the asteroid “Shantipole” as it appears that Quarrie is leaving the planet “Shantipole” at the end of the episode. So this really doesn’t trample the EU at all. The EU can just be understood to show the later stages of development. This Rebels episode can be understood to show the very early stages of development.

    • November 16, 2015 at 6:13 pm
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      Great post. This is part of the reason I don’t like the that the A-Wing and B-Wing are introduced so early in new canon, I feel like now we have to make up reasons that they weren’t used in the battle of Yavin. An A-Wing would have been the perfect ship (being faster & narrower but still having proton torpedoes) to fly through the death star trench. So in RotJ when the EU said the new wings were being tested after being developed more recently it made more sense.

      • November 16, 2015 at 6:40 pm
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        Agree on the A-Wings. I think introducing them so early is a mistake. Maybe they explain it away by having the Empire destroy the A-Wing factory or something? They should just stick with X-Wings and Y-Wings. In fact, it’s interesting that we haven’t seen X-Wings yet. They must be saving those for a huge reveal later.

      • November 16, 2015 at 8:45 pm
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        According to Pablo Hidalgo, the reason the B-Wing didn’t take part in the Battle of Yavin was because General Dodonna didn’t have the B-Wings and A-Wings in his cell of the Rebel Alliance. He had the older Y-Wing along with X-Wings. He said the B-Wings were out there, but in other parts of the Rebel Alliance during that time.
        So the canon explanation is that different Rebel cells had different equipment or didn’t have access to all equipment. It makes sense and considering that the Battle of Yavin happened so quickly once the Death Star followed the Falcon back, they might not have had enough time to coordinate getting more equipment and pilots.

        • November 17, 2015 at 5:32 am
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          Thanks! That makes sense

        • November 17, 2015 at 9:03 pm
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          I would agree with the different cells. However, Rebels seem to be suggesting that A-Wings were first developed, then B-Wings, making what was the ‘older’ Y and X- Wings the latest in development.

          • November 17, 2015 at 9:17 pm
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            Well, according to StarWars.com, Y-Wings had been used since the Clone War era (why I called them older).

            The X-Wing haven’t shown up yet in Rebels so they are either newer or simply not available to this particular cell (which why I said “along with”).
            No updated canon information has been given about the creation date of the X-Wing yet. I suspect we’ll see it revealed in Rebels in the future.

            http://www.starwars.com/databank/y-wing-starfighter

          • November 18, 2015 at 11:14 pm
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            Cool – thanks for the explantation.

  • November 16, 2015 at 8:09 pm
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    also being curious.. at that time maybe the B wing fire power inspired the empire for the Starkiller base design? those converging beams sure look the same…

  • November 17, 2015 at 8:15 am
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    It’s a trap!

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