- Based on Star Wars created by George Lucas
- Series created by Dave Filoni
- Disney+
Cast So Far…
- Ahsoka Tano-Rosario Dawson
- Young Ahsoka-Ariana Greenblatt
- Sabine Wren-Natasha Liu Bordizzo
- Hera Syndulla-Mary Elizabeth Winstead
- Baylan Skoll-Ray Stevenson
- Shin Hati-Ivanna Sakhno
- Morgan Elsbeth-Diana Lee Inosanto
- Huyang-David Tennant (voice)
- Ezra Bridger-Eman Esfandi
- Jacen Syndulla-Evan Whitten
- Mon Mothma-Genevieve O’Reilly
- Senator Hamato Xiono-Nelson Lee
- C1-10P “Chopper”-Dave Filoni
- Grand Admiral Thrawn-Lars Mikkelsen
- Anakin Skywalker-Hayden Christensen
- The Great Mothers Klothow, Aktropaw and Lakesis-Claudia Black, Jeryl Prescott and Jane Edwina Seymour respectively
- Anthony Daniels-C-3PO
With the end having finally arrived, it is clear at the minimum Dave Filoni wants another season of Ahsoka. I can’t say I totally hated Ahsoka-Season One, but it wasn’t the saving series of Star Wars as some people put forward. It was okay but not great in comparison to other Star Wars efforts.
Why? I do not say this without a reason or reasons. Let’s take a look.
Stupid decisions are repeatedly made by characters in order to get things going. That started with the first episode where Captain Doofus (Mark Rolston) brought the unknown vessel onto his ship even though he knew it was possibly dangerous and then brought the smallest possible security force he could to greet the passengers knowing that they could quite possibly be dangerous. This wasn’t some intelligent decision but really quite dumb. Nobody brings obvious danger as close as possible.
Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) lets the baddies have the star map even though that will take them right to Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) meaning Thrawn can get right back to Galaxy Star Wars meaning they are imperiling all civilization to MAYBE get back their friend if he is still alive.
Another stupid thing that was done was Ezra (Eman Esfandi) having spent years on Peridea waiting for some help never questions how Sabine got there yet he knows Thrawn is around. He is very conveniently okay with no answer. Stevie Wonder and Helen Keller could both see that it was all very suspicious yet he just rolls with it.
Thrawn is built up as this big bad and the most intelligent villain that any Star Wars character has ever faced. First of all he spends 10 years on a planet regularly visited by creatures capable of traveling in hyperspace but can’t figure a way to get back to his home galaxy using those same creatures? He doesn’t even have to arrive at a particular spot in Galaxy Star Wars. Just at a familiar general area. He had 10 years to work on the problem and just hung out with the Night Sisters instead on the chance he MIGHT get help?
And why the abrupt desire to kill Ezra after 10 years of letting him alone? Thrawn had no clear idea when or if help was coming so rather than be prepared he let an issue linger until the last minute. Again I have not completed Rebels so maybe it was covered there but it comes off as stupid.
When help does arrive and he gets around to do something Thrawn sends the bare minimum of forces to deal with them each and every time because he’s supposedly concerned about his depleted resources. At first blush that sounds intelligent, but when you think about it a little bit it becomes increasingly stupid. He knows just how dangerous these people can be based on his own experience so he should want to crush them and not hope they’re inconvenienced enough to not be able to stop him.
Some have said his goal was to escape the galaxy he was in. While true, if somebody is there just to stop you it might be a good idea to stop them rather than just hinder them. Then again a character is only as intelligent as the person writing it. That’s a real problem if you are the ONLY person handling the writing and/or have final say in what makes it to the screen. Without going back and watching the credits. I can’t quite say Filoni only had ultimate power but as the hot commodity in Star Wars it’s unlikely anyone was willing to say “No” to him or bring up any of the issues I brought up.
Want to see a master class in creating an intelligent villain that is one step ahead of all the other characters? Check out Farscape. Starting at the end of Season One and all the way into the climactic miniseries, Scorpius (Wayne Pygram who subbed as Tarkin in the closing seconds of Revenge of the Sith) was a major antagonist to the crew of the living starship Moya. He had plans within plans and was always one step ahead of them. The point being it can be done but not by one person alone.
And in many of the episodes a lot of nothing happened. There was padding to stretch out the runtime into whatever into the randomly decided length they thought it needed to be rather than presenting something shorter and tighter. There was a lot of walking and events generally were unnecessarily extended out.
The cliffhanger finale resolved very little other than that to get Ezra Bridger back in Galaxy Star Wars and Ahsoka and Sabine into Galaxy Night Sisters. Eight episodes for the characters to switch places. We could not even get a token payoff to give the illusion of finality even with dangling threads. Eight episodes and nothing.
Let’s not forget Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) getting increasingly pushed into the background of her own show as the focus of the narrative changed from her stopping Thrawn to getting Ezra back in Galaxy Star Wars. She barely factored by the end.
Characterization was incredibly thin. Then again, the actors didn’t have much expression on their faces. It was as if they read the lines rather than actually acted. They were expected to coast on whatever had come before but nothing new was added. The characters didn’t change or grow or experience anything much.
Plus Ahsoka created an inconsistent bit of characterization when Hera (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) goes off halfcocked on an unauthorized mission to stop Thrawn and gets some people killed. C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) shows up on behalf of Leia (Carrie Fisher) to lie in order to protect Hera during a committee hearing where she could be stripped of command. Fast forward to the sequel trilogy and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaacs) goes off on a mission on his own and gets some people killed but actually accomplishes something yet Leia is furious and does nothing to protect him. That strikes me as a little inconsistent. However the Leia in Ahsoka felt more like Princess Leia than the Leia in TLJ felt like Leia. But you still can’t ignore the contradiction.
I have no idea behind the motivations of Baylan Skoll’s (Ray Stevenson) apprentice Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno). No defining characteristics. She is absolutely nothing. There are are all these theories floating around about her but the show itself did nothing with her.
Sabine spent seven episodes supposedly being trained as a Jedi but demonstrating no Force ability. In episode eight in order to get Ezra on the ship she demonstrates some Force ability a little earlier in the episode when she pulls a Luke Skywalker to get her lightsaber. After that she had a great deal of skill and power to force push people which is just the right thing needed to get Ezra back into Galaxy Star Wars to have a heartfelt look at Hera. She was ultimately a plot device and not a character.
Often Ahsoka relied on the good old days glories of the past to create special moments. In small doses that’s fine, but if that’s your go to thing that’s a problem. You need to reward the long-term fans with acknowledgments of the past, but also create new special moments and special characters to keep those fans of old sticking around for more and this really didn’t do that. We got name drops of Leia and an appearance by C-3PO and live action appearances by legacy Rebels characters but what new did we get? C-3PO and Anakin (Hayden Christensen) provided most of the better moments with the others not so much.
The action was generally slow. Aside from Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth, everybody moved slowly with the battles feeling like a walk rather than exciting. Even the lightsaber moments felt slow. Dawson moved like a senior citizen with her lack of speed being real evident when she as her character fought the older Inosanto. There was little intensity to any of them.
It’s not saying it’s bad. It’s just flawed and not nearly as significant as the hype would think will make you believe. People were saying Ahsoka was going to save Star Wars. Before that people were saying when The Mandalorian came out that was supposed to save Star Wars. Yet here we are. The problem is Disney doesn’t know what they want Star Wars to look like. They don’t know what they want it to be. They’re throwing item after item at the wall and hoping that something will stick and everything will fall in place with little to no direction on anyone’s part. That’s not how things work.
I didn’t hate Ahsoka, but it was heavily flawed. So much could’ve been done better or in a way that wasn’t as imperfect as what you got. Will I take in Season Two if it happens? Definitely but I will hope they improve upon the issues of Season One.
Warren Watched A Movie 