Ahsoka Series

I just hope they don't screw it up. The various series haven't been good lately. I love Rebels. It's weird to think that, as someone who saw these movies when they originally ran, I would come to think that this animated series is the best well rounded representation of Star Wars. I'll die on that hill.

The various one-liners don't inspire any hope though. "Something's coming. Something dark". I can't express how generic that is and the delivery is wooden.

I know. I know. It's just one sentence. I just don't want to be disappointed. Again.

New trailer! Looks VERY cool.

Lots for Rebels fans to be happy aboout!

I
AM
HYPED!

Allow me to rant a little first.


SPOILERS!!!!

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-Why do robots need capes?
-Why are there maps to super villains hidden in ancient temples? How does that happen?
-Oh great. Another Indiana Jones search for something or other.
-Why is everyone dour? There's no joy in what I'm watching. I realize Ahsoka is older but I miss the joy and spark that the animated version had. Even at that older age she seemed to still have some bounce to her.
-Qui Gon Jinn must have been one of the weakest beings in the galaxy to have died from a lightsaber wound. Seriously. WTH? Wasn't that made fun of enough in Kenobi that they have to repeat it again???!!!



Ok. Those are initial thoughts. Once again, we have 2 eps with so little development that it could have been covered with room to spare in just one. But when it comes to these series, Disney feels like they need to streeeeeeetch things. I don't know why.


Things I liked:
- Clancy Brown returning as Ryder Azadi. I mean who else??!!!
- Little reference back to Rebels with Jai Kell
- The show looks incredible. This is movie quality visuals. Lothal looks fantastic.
- Chopper. C'mon. It's Chopper.
- Even more of a throwback to Huyang. And not as a cameo either.

I'm gonna place this as a separate paragraph. Baylon Skoll. That last scene with him in the second episode was surprising, the one about being sentimental. There's a hell of a nuance there for a fallen Jedi/not sure if he's Sith. That's intriguing and I hope it gets to be explored. It was the only thing that happened in the 2 eps that I found interesting.

I had the thought like 3 minutes into the first ep(when I saw the robots with capes) that perhaps I had outgrown Star Wars; that I was no longer part of the intended audience, you know, the little kid in 1977 that watched Star Wars on the big screen. 

Oh well. Not terrible but not good either. Just is. Just content.

Well, it looks absolutely incredible; maybe the best-looking of all the Star Wars shows although design is never a shortcoming in any Lucasfilm production. You can tell an artist and visual storyteller is in charge, because it's all so beautifully framed.

It felt really strange to see some of this stuff in (for want of a better term) live action. I mean, I know much of it is CGI, but it was weird seeing Lothal "fully realised," especially Ezra's tower. I kept spotting loads of little details, like his trooper helmet collection. Very cool. 

I think for Rebels fans, a lot of that sort of thing is a thrill, and will continue to be.

What felt off, at least in the first episode, was the pacing and characterisation. Where's Ahsoka? Oh, this is she? What happened to the warm, funny, humane ex-Jedi who never could quite stand on ceremony? Part of her big appeal was that she was just so individualistic and she routinely crashed into Jedi norms. Now she's all mysterious. I know she's much older and more experienced, but now she's written as this super-enigmatic wanderer, and while Dawson looks perfect and does everything she can with what she's been given, I really missed the more talkative, slightly quippy Ahsoka of yore who, even when facing death, had a certain wryness to her. That was present a little bit in her Mando appearances, and as Filoni is essentially the creator of the character, I have to ask, where's it gone? I hope we get all of Ahsoka back. 

Same for Hera - I kept seeing Mary Elizabeth Winstead playing a boring leader and politician painted green and not Hera. Well, she did at least turn up by the end of ep 2 when she gets to do some badass stuff and not be mama and confidante to everyone. When Chopper turns up, she's suddenly much more Hera-like - and I cheered when I saw him. Suddenly everything became good. The whole fight scene on the Corellian dockside and Hera chasing the SSD hyperdrive into space was great; a top-flight action sequence. 

Meanwhile, Sabine seems very much like Sabine, although they should've called this show SABINE as she seems to be the star; the wild hot-tempered underdog with a cool demeanour that you root for. She, like many other victims of lightsaber stab wounds these days, heals well. (Remember when an encounter with a lightsaber was fatal?) 

I also felt some of the dialogue was classic "You can write this shit but you can't say it, George." Some of the scenes in ep 1 especially felt like they could've used some snippier editing and a polish to keep those conversational interludes feel less spaciously long-winded.

Although, this show is, I guess, all about a sense of space, and I did luxuriate in how impeccable everything looked. I loved the Lothal cat. I loved David Tennant's much lower key performance as Huyang - I remember him as being far more, er, animated previously. I loved the villains - some genuine intrigue here, mention of the Nightsisters, and I look forward to further reveals. 

I've seen some online criticism of the whole space map trope, but as Dave Filoni was doing that (and doing it well) before anyone else in Star Wars, it gets a pass from me. 

I am not stopping to think if any of it makes any sense to a fan who has never watched Star Wars animated shows. 

I think I wanted to love it, but I don't think I will until I fully recognize the characters I know from Rebels. So, that's Chopper and Sabine at least, but we need Hera full-time and for Ahsoka to be Ahsoka. 

Maybe next week? Definitely a slow burn, and I'm happy to let them do their thing and find their feet, as Dave Filoni has often proved in the past that he really lives up to the description "longform storyteller." 

Right. Ahsoka on Rebels seemed fully realized, fully rounded. Not above humor or straight-up affection. I fully appreciate that it’s a massive transition from animation to live action and in all cases new actors now embodying the characters and taking them forward; I have faith that the rough edges will be smoothed out in time. I just hope they have that time and fans who have never watched the animated shows are given the opportunity to fall in love with these characters they way we did.

For me, jury’s out on MEW as Hera. I just didn’t see the character at all in ep 1 and found myself wondering if they shouldn’t have cast a complete unknown to ease us in gently. To be fair, MEW wasn’t helped by the stilted, cheesy dialogue in those early scenes which, again, would’ve probably worked in an animated version but here made it all feel curiously lifeless and over-rehearsed. But things warmed up in ep 2 and the presence of Chopper definitely helped - the banter and trust between Hera and her droid felt like it always did and I feel like that would communicate to a new audience also. It was fun and it was exciting and brilliantly shot. Likewise, seeing Ahsoka do some badass ex-Jedi stuff here helped. It needs to warm up some more, but by the end of ep 2 I felt like it was getting there.

No problem there with the villains! I’m just sad this is definitely the last we’ll see of Ray Stevenson. It’s all building to the big reveal of Thrawn, of course. So, it really feels like Rebels season 5. 

After she gets back from Mandalore in the series their relationship has definitely changed from him having the hots to more brother sister.

Besides, that's definitely a Star Wars thing, I mean Luke had the hots for Leia and she WAS his sister

Maybe. I think Kanan's death may have impacted him a lot so that the 'teenage' persona gets squashed. Or in other words he matures through tragedy. Or becomes more focused on liberating Lothal.

But I don't see that this would change his feelings towards her or why Disney would want to change that dynamic. 

Then again, we saw somewhat of a retcon with Morgan Elsbeth now a Night Sister. That should have come in handy with her initial confrontation with Ahsoka. 

But canon it is only episodes 1-6. What do you think about that?

Clone Wars is canon, so is Rebels. Even that other animated show and Bad Batch is also canon.

The only thing not is the EU books and comics and games before Disney bought out Lucas.

Ep 3 [potential spoilers]











Loads of SW lore addressed in Sabine's training sequence even down to echoing Obi-Wan's training of Luke, and the battle was cool, and beautifully choreographed, but yeah, essentially this episode was Ahsoka going from A to B with little actual forward momentum on the story itself except to confirm things we already knew. I did like the scene where she gets out on the wing of her ship to fend off those spitfire-style attack ships. Ludicrous, but fun and this was also the sort of thing she'd do on TCW or Rebels and I felt like it was totally in character. They even gave her a spacesuit that incorporates her lekku. That's what I signed up for. In battle, she feels like Ahsoka, but in conversation with other individuals, I'm like, "C'mon! Be funny! Show some 'snips' and some passion - all that must still be inside you!" They're hinting at it, with HuYang acknowledging that she's completely unconventional, but c'mon, let's see it. 

The scene with Hera addressing the republic council was infuriating. Hera has to lose her cool and any semblance of the intelligence and strategic thinking she's always displayed for this scene to work. Suddenly she can't articulate why it's a good idea to set up a situation of readiness should Thrawn turn up alive. Plot says this has to happen, so the council (including Mon Mothma) all have to be dumbasses; Hera has to be unusually, antithetically dumb, to the point that another character says, "That went well," as they exit the scene. Not what I signed up for. Glad they acknowledged the existence of Jacen through - nice touch. (Is he one of the young Jedi that Kylo Ren slaughters at Luke's training camp? I hope not.)

Where's this all going? We know Thrawn and Ezra will show up - if Ezra, somehow, is now in cahoots with Thrawn; wouldn't that a thing? Maybe henchman Marrock is actually a disguised Ezra. That would be funny. 

I thought episode 1 was frustrating, but it was redeemed by episode 2. I'm back to feeling frustrated by an episode that looked cool but didn't really go anywhere. 

In a broader sense, I completely agree. Yeah, you're right, historically speaking it's in character. 

I always think that because these shows are designed to be watched first episodically week by week and then binged again as a whole, certain scenes are written with that "benefit of hindsight" experience in mind. That is, the writers know something'll take on a different feel when the viewer is privy to knowledge that comes later, and this does feel like a set-up for Hera to be proved resoundingly right. I think that's why it just seemed very obvious and manipulative to me.

I guess I'm frustrated with Hera not being shown in a better light right away; but I guess now she's a general and not just in charge of her own resistance cell she has to abide by the rules. Even if the rules and edicts are stupid. A case of, "Be careful what you wish for." 

(Apparently that intransigent committee member is Kazuda from Resistance's dad!)

Huyang is awesome. Your description is perfect. This is what you get if you don't get your memory wiped and retain centuries of accrued wisdom on top of your programming. Tennant's tetchy / sarcastic but always wearily truthful delivery of lines is delicious. You can almost hear him shrugging.

Episode 4 was really good. Great character moments all around, well except for maybe Morgan who's kind of reverted to moustache twirling although she was doing that in Mando also so no real change I guess.

I'm bored of lightsaber fights. I've gotten to a point that I see a lightsaber ignite and I roll my eyes. There's no weight to them. No consequence to them. You can be impaled and survive now. It's just filler.


SPOILERS!!!!!!
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Hayden Christensen can't act. He is soooo wooden. Back in the day plenty of folks blamed this on Lucas and his lack of directorial abilities. Well....now there's no GL around and Hayden is still awful. However, the difference here is that everyone else in the cast is acting at his level. It's like I'm watching an 8th grade school play. That's an insult to 8th grades I suppose.