Suvudu Universe

At the New York Comic Con Star Wars Rebels panel, host Pablo Hidalgo went through a long presentation featuring character, weapon, vehicle and planet designs.  He showed off both ground and space vehicles that are part of the Imperial force.  Included in the Imperial Navy portion of the presentation was the Star Destroyer, the Freighter and the TIE Fighter.

The interesting thing is that there was another ship that we have seen in concept art being attacked by the Ghost as well as being pictured with the other Imperial vessels.  This ship was not discussed at the panel.  But it can be seen prominently in concept art released from Lucasfilm via the LA Times’ Hero Complex Blog in an interview they did with Dave Filoni that was posted soon after the Comic Con panel ended.

Now lets look at the concept art of the Ghost attacking this type of ship.

Now there are no obvious gun emplacements visible on the hull of this ship. It also appears the Ghost may be trying to disable rather than destroy the vessel because they are targeting the engines.

If this vessel was Imperial and we saw concept art of it, why didn’t Pablo include it in the panel presentation?  This leads me to an interesting train of thought. If this ship isn’t Imperial than what could it be and why would the “heroes” of our show be attacking it?

The most logical answer is that it is private shipping either freight or passenger.  It could be a ship owned by Sienar Fleet Systems or another firm that is transporting goods through or from Lothal.

It would make sense for these ships to show up among Star Destroyers and TIE fighters if the Empire after an attack by pirates was to start providing more protection for shipping.

Is there any other circumstantial evidence that the Ghost may be a pirate ship?

We know that pirates love to decorate their crafts with the emblem of their particular group.  The Ghost features to images on its hull. Neither of which I can find previously existing in canon.

There is also the fact that the Rebel Alliance Starbird logo that HASBRO has revealed as part of its packaging looks different from the traditional Alliance Starbird and has some interesting stylistic similarities to the Novahawk which was the emblem of Rebel Privateers.

 

Privateers are basically pirates that operate under legal or quasi-legal authorization by way of letters of marque and reprisal.  These “good” pirates would raid groups that were working with the Empire such as Sienar Fleet Systems. They would split the cargo with the Rebel Alliance and be allowed to sell their share to the highest bidder. They were suppose to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and avoid taking civilian prisoners.

It would be an interesting introduction to the series to see some of the heroes of the show as pirates.  I could be way off but it is always fun to speculate.

SOURCE: Hero Complex