Online Series: Star Wars: Ahsoka (August 23rd)

[LarKing]

Oh to be clear I'm mostly a blank on Clone Wars/Rebels, so it just stood out to me as a 'Chekov's Helmet' and as I have/had no idea what actually happened to Ezra my first impression was 'hey that's probably that Ezra guy'. Like the other person replying says it can just be some generic 'inquisitor', I'm just not that familiar with them either so I wouldn't pick up on that.

Ohhh I gotcha. Yeah that makes more sense then. I really recommend watching both if you can find the time. The Clone Wars pretty much redeemed the prequels by adding a ton of necessary context. There’s also guides out there with only the absolutely necessary arcs if you don’t want to watch all of it.

 

[MadDevil]

I thought it was clear it was a fallen Inquisitor that the Nightsister gal reanimated.

I did find it amusing he literally went up in smoke after all the "he could be Starkiller/Ezra/Kanan/Barriss" speculation for the last couple weeks.

 

[Jumptheshark]

I did find it amusing he literally went up in smoke after all the "he could be Starkiller/Ezra/Kanan/Barriss" speculation for the last couple weeks.

If it was Ezra I would have been unhappy

 

[Dubi Doo]

Woah...



Have you seen Clone Wars/Rebels?

I've watched bits and pieces of it. Is it crucial that I've seen those shows to understand this one? I know the very basics (Order 66, she was Anakin's trainee, etc...).

 

[Sad People]

I've watched bits and pieces of it. Is it crucial that I've seen those shows to understand this one? I know the very basics (Order 66, she was Anakin's trainee, etc...).

To understand the show Ahsoka or episode 5?

Youll be a little lost but nothing thats a little overwhelming. I can see people getting confused with the world between worlds though.

 

[MadDevil]

Apparently Hera has a picture of Kanan on the Ghost's controls...

Damn it just got dusty in here all of a sudden.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

To understand the show Ahsoka or episode 5?

Youll be a little lost but nothing thats a little overwhelming. I can see people getting confused with the world between worlds though.

Yeah, I just hope they do not make it to complicated. Heck, I'd be fine if they just use it as a form of "heaven". I do not want Ahsoka to time travel

I'd also be fine in using it in a "Christmas Carol" way.

 

[Tawnos]

Yeah, I just hope they do not make it to complicated. Heck, I'd be fine if they just use it as a form of "heaven". I do not want Ahsoka to time travel

I'd also be fine in using it in a "Christmas Carol" way.

It feels to me like it’s going to be the mechanism Ahsoka uses to get to the other galaxy with some character building arc happening along the way. Maybe she’ll even get there before Sabine does, which should be a fun moment to see her reaction.

But who knows what’ll happen.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

It feels to me like it’s going to be the mechanism Ahsoka uses to get to the other galaxy with some character building arc happening along the way. Maybe she’ll even get there before Sabine does, which should be a fun moment to see her reaction.

But who knows what’ll happen.

Makes a ton of sense actually.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Chills? That episode was a major letdown. The lines drawn with rebels are cool but this has been bad overall.

Sabine’s character was a 1000x better on Rebels. No chance that sabine gives up the map.

 

[RandV]

It feels to me like it’s going to be the mechanism Ahsoka uses to get to the other galaxy with some character building arc happening along the way. Maybe she’ll even get there before Sabine does, which should be a fun moment to see her reaction.

But who knows what’ll happen.

I mean there's the space whales. Don't know exactly how they work but I'm assuming they'll just catch a ride with them.

 

[Tawnos]

Chills? That episode was a major letdown. The lines drawn with rebels are cool but this has been bad overall.

Sabine’s character was a 1000x better on Rebels. No chance that sabine gives up the map.

Sabine was always going to do everything it took to get to Ezra. Giving up the map in that moment was literally her only way to do that.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Sabine was always going to do everything it took to get to Ezra. Giving up the map in that moment was literally her only way to do that.

Literally that isn’t sabine from rebels. They changed her character to generate a story line

 

[GabeTravels]

I've watched bits and pieces of it. Is it crucial that I've seen those shows to understand this one? I know the very basics (Order 66, she was Anakin's trainee, etc...).

I think if you are aware of Ahsoka's character you'll be able to understand fine, but may get more out of the show if you watch a few key arcs from the two animated shows.

Literally that isn’t sabine from rebels. They changed her character to generate a story line

Yeah she's not the same character... It's been years since she lost Kanan and Ezra. Hera was probably quite busy as well, and she had a falling out with Ahsoka over losing her parents in the destruction of Mandalore. Plus she just saw her last remaining friend fall off of a cliff. I can totally buy that she's so lost and alone now that she'd give up the map.

 

[HanSolo]

I never really committed to fully paying attention to Rebels. I think I got as far as Ashoka's encounter with Vader and started watching other things and never went back to it. Clone Wars had the childish silliness but it was interposed with some pretty solid storytelling. I just never felt compelled enough by Rebels outside of a handful of moments and there was just way too much silliness targeted at kids that wasn't balanced right (like Avatar the Last Airbender is my favorite animated show ever, plenty of childish silliness in the show, but most of it is still funny/amusing as an adult).

So Sabine being Ashoka's 'jedi' apprentice caught me off guard a bit. I knew Kanan died thanks to social media but was unclear on what happened with Thrawn and Ezra (actually I did see a few Thrawn episodes so I guess thats the point I stopped). And overall it's not like I'm going into this with some deep affection for the characters of Sabine and Hera where just seeing them in live action is a thrill. There's familiarity, and that's about it.

All that out of the way, I've enjoyed it quite a bit so far. The first couple of episodes were a little flat but they served well enough to get the story started.

Episode 4, like many others did, I thought was great. At least by the Disney Star Wars standards. Episode 3 was pretty good as well. I have a lot of thoughts so I'll just share general ones:

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a good actress and I don't think there's anything wrong with her performance so far but there's something off about the look of Hera that I just find distracting. I don't know how to describe it. I think it's the eyes. Like I can tell looking at her that she's wearing colored contacts.

Baylan has been rock solid as a stoic but physically imposing sort of baddie. What I've enjoyed most about his performance (aside from commendable use of the 'bad guy thinks he's doing bad things for the greater good' trope) is that you can tell from multiple elements of his performance from line delivery to physical stance and lightsaber forms that this isn't just some evil sith, you can tell he's a former Jedi from the way he carries himself. I think that's going to go a long way to making him a memorable character that makes the links between the prequels and post OT feel alive and filled in.

Rosario as Ashoka I still think is solidly suited for the role of an older and more experienced Ashoka. I've seen a few people say she's not credible in the role but I don't have that concern. My concern is between her appearances in Mando and now four episodes of this show, especially given that this is *her* spin off show I haven't felt like Ashoka is central enough to any story to where she's anything more than a stand in for *the* Jedi for this era of the Star Wars timeline they can use without CGI de-aged Mark Hamill appearing as Luke Skywalker. So far, this very much feels like Sabine Wren's story. I hope that now with the whatever force heaven thing they just showed us with Anakin they can put the focus back on the titular character a bit.

As for Sabine, I always kind of felt like the character in Rebels was a bit of an out of place cliche who was manufactured to appeal to "rebellious" pre-teens and teenagers and given that I wasn't an active viewer when I tried to get into Rebels, my ultimate impression was that she was boring to annoying. I still got a bit of that vibe in the beginning but I think as the episodes unfolded I started to appreciate her more. She's not a traditional Jedi or even mandalorian (as presented in other works), she's flawed both in her capacity to use the force and in her decision making. All told and objectively speaking, she's a big factor in why the bad guys are ahead right now. But her poor decision making comes from a place of caring, of wanting to find her lost friend. I think her handing the map over to Baylan is a lot more compelling than if she'd destroyed it. As to not being capable with the force yet, it felt like they were setting her up to have some revelation in her fight with Baylan's partner. And yeah she held her own better in a lightsaber duel but the big moment I was dreading of the force flowing through her at a crucial moment never came. I'm glad they took a more mature storytelling approach there instead of some cheesy destiny moment that wouldn't have been earned.

The one thing that sticks with me that I'm confused about it the fuss over Thrawn as heir to the empire to the point that there's a big mystic map showing where he is and Hera and Ashoka are so worried, like...I remember that Rebels established him as a superb military mind and you can extrapolate that the remnants of the Empire might rally around him, but...they're remnants. The Galactic Empire pre battle of Yavin had dominion over an entire Galaxy's resources. Yeah another war would suck and we know from the sequel trilogy that remnant eventually grew to the First Order but I think within the context of what these characters know, I think it's a lot more of a to do over one remarkable figure than it's worth.

Anyway. That's the end of my rambling. I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would and I'm looking forward to more. Not better than Seasons 1 of Mando (yet) and Andor, probably on par with Mando S2 (so far), and better than everything else in the Star Wars Disney+verse.

 

[MadDevil]

It does make me sad to know that Ray Stevenson never got to see how much love he's getting for his role in Star Wars. It would have been so cool to see him show up at a Celebration after this show aired. I know he was at this last one, but that was before the fans got to see how good he's been. Somebody said Baylan is like a dark Qui-Gonn and I think that might explain why I like him so much. Hell, I'm pretty sure he even had the same stance as him at one point in his duel with Ahsoka.

 

[RandV]

The one thing that sticks with me that I'm confused about it the fuss over Thrawn as heir to the empire to the point that there's a big mystic map showing where he is and Hera and Ashoka are so worried, like...I remember that Rebels established him as a superb military mind and you can extrapolate that the remnants of the Empire might rally around him, but...they're remnants. The Galactic Empire pre battle of Yavin had dominion over an entire Galaxy's resources. Yeah another war would suck and we know from the sequel trilogy that remnant eventually grew to the First Order but I think within the context of what these characters know, I think it's a lot more of a to do over one remarkable figure than it's worth.

Makes perfect sense to me. I don't know how 'canon' it is with Rebels but in the books that created Thrawn for the idea of 'so where were the Grand Admiral's before?', it was written that the rest of them were on that big super star destroyer that the rebels targeted and took out at Endor, crashing it into the death star.

So the idea is Emperor Palpatine is all powerful, so when the super star destroyer and the death star are blown up there's no succession, no one powerful enough to step up and take charge. The rebel's cut off the head but they don't exactly annihilate the imperial forces at Endor, so they all break apart into a bunch of different factions. No single one dangerous enough to directly threaten the burgeoning New Republic, but still with significant firepower that it would be costly and bloody to wipe them all out.

So simply put the threat of Thrawn is not only is he an exceedingly dangerous military mind, but he's the one guy left in the galaxy with enough clout to unite all the Imperial remnants behind him. The king is dead, long live the king!

 

[Tawnos]

Literally that isn’t sabine from rebels. They changed her character to generate a story line

Doing anything and everything to help her friends? Yeah, that’s exactly Sabine from Rebels.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Doing anything and everything to help her friends? Yeah, that’s exactly Sabine from Rebels.

while helping the empire in the slightest? yea, no.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

while helping the empire in the slightest? yea, no.

Let me guess... Luke wasn't your Luke either, right? ;-)

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Let me guess... Luke wasn't your Luke either, right? ;-)

Are you referring to new old luke vs old new luke?

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Are you referring to new old luke vs old new luke?

I have no idea what's all that about. I was referencing the fans reaction to TLJ.

 

[Hivemind]

Sabine notices Ezra sneaking out (presumably to his likely death or capture) and chooses to distract Hera in order for Ezra to do so. It does seem somewhat out of character for to help the Empire, who she has deep personal loathing towards for multiple reasons, in order to aid Ezra.

 

[HanSolo]

Makes perfect sense to me. I don't know how 'canon' it is with Rebels but in the books that created Thrawn for the idea of 'so where were the Grand Admiral's before?', it was written that the rest of them were on that big super star destroyer that the rebels targeted and took out at Endor, crashing it into the death star.

So the idea is Emperor Palpatine is all powerful, so when the super star destroyer and the death star are blown up there's no succession, no one powerful enough to step up and take charge. The rebel's cut off the head but they don't exactly annihilate the imperial forces at Endor, so they all break apart into a bunch of different factions. No single one dangerous enough to directly threaten the burgeoning New Republic, but still with significant firepower that it would be costly and bloody to wipe them all out.

So simply put the threat of Thrawn is not only is he an exceedingly dangerous military mind, but he's the one guy left in the galaxy with enough clout to unite all the Imperial remnants behind him. The king is dead, long live the king!

I mean I kinda get that I guess it's more the mysticism behind it and the grim worry. Like yeah a war against the Remnant would not be a good thing but it almost has the same tone as if "somehow Palpatine returned."

Ill admit that while I love Star Wars as my favorite fictional narrative universe, I never really develed into the old EU much. When I was younger I felt more like reading classics and keeping the fun stuff to movies, TV and games. When I got older I held off from worry that things would be narratively dissonant and inconsistent.

So I knew the name Thrawn and had a general sense of his story from Wookiepedia but my only real familiarity is the little bit of him I saw in Rebels, so maybe I did myself a disservice not broadening my Star Wars horizons more.

Speaking of though, Hera's kid being named Jacen threw me for a loop considering my knowledge of Jacen Solo. Doubt they'll go the same route but still amusing. (post note aren't Rey and Kylo basically loose adaptations of Jacen and Jaina?)

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

I have no idea what's all that about. I was referencing the fans reaction to TLJ.

I generally don’t read fan reactions to the movies so i m not even sure what the compliant is about. Those movies were bad enough that carrying about “not my luke” isn’t really on the radar.