#ahsoka series critical

[nateofgreat]

Hera Syndulla: My son Jacen wants so badly to be a Jedi like his father who we refuse to mention. If only there was someone who could train him!

Luke Skywalker: Actually I'm starting a Jedi Academy so maybe-

Hera Syndulla: If only!

Huyang: I used to be a friend of the Jedi, I remember their ways and respect them. Oh if only there was a way to restore them!

Luke Skywalker: I'd love to learn more about the Jedi! If you join me at the Academy we could work together to-

Huyang: If only!

The New Republic: Oh no we've got rogue dark siders running around trying to bring back Thrawn! Who can save us from this terrible threat?

Luke Skywalker: I guess since no one's joining my Academy, maybe I could help?

The New Republic: How about you Ahsoka?

[lunarspiral1127]

Apologies in advance cause this is a rant and gonna come off as an anti post.

I have to ask. Is Sabine Wren a more likeable character in Rebels? Cause in Ahsoka, she comes off as an annoying brat to me.

The enemy reaching to Thrawn was all her fault. If she didn't take the map to solve it and just stayed and solved it on Ahsoka's ship, Shin wouldn't have found her and stolen the map. If Sabine wasn't so goddamn obsessed with finding Ezra and just did what Ahsoka told her and destroy the map to prevent another war, Baylan wouldn't have gotten it from her by convincing her that he'll take her to him.

And, even when Thrawn or anyone else tries to tell her what her actions have caused, she'd just brush it off and made it about her. Like, god forbid, we can't have her feel any guilt for what she did. I mean, she gave the map to Baylan for him, Shin, and Morgan to get to where Thrawn is and bring him back so that he can start a war on the whole galaxy. Innocent lives would be killed, planets destroyed or conquered, people would be in danger, including Hera and her son. Y'know, her OTHER friends that she still has in her life that she endangered all because she wants to see Ezra. A guy who exiled himself and Thrawn to another galaxy so that Thrawn wouldn't be a threat to his home and friends. He had to leave them behind to keep them safe and be stuck on a planet for over 10 years (I think). Way to undo all of that, Sabine. 🙄

Also, she yelled at a Howler for leaving when bandits shot at them. Like, WHAT THE HELL WAS IT SUPPOSED TO DO?! Seriously, she pissed me off when she yelled at the Howler. I felt bad for the big rat-dog. The big guy looked so sad!

I really really hope someone actually calls her out on her stupidity for real. But, I doubt that's gonna happen.

[skygirlstars]

I have a lot of gripes with the Ahsoka series but probably the biggest is that the only relationship of Ahsoka’s that the show-runners seem to give a shit about is her relationship with Anakin. yes, of course, their relationship is incredibly important and it’s very special to me, but it’s not the only one Ahsoka has. don’t get me wrong, I love Hayden Christensen, I love Anakin, the Clone Wars flashbacks were my favorite part of the series.

but what about all of Ahsoka’s other relationships? what about Rex and Barriss and Plo Koon and Padmé and Obi-Wan? we got a very very brief Rex appearance, but not so much as a mention of any of the others. do they just not matter? it was an 8 episode series, so of course I didn’t expect them to address every single person Ahsoka has ever known, but no one aside from Anakin? really?

Rex is literally her only close friend still alive at this point and he only appeared in flashbacks. where is he? (is he safe? is he alright?) there’s a part of me that’s thankful they didn’t mention Barriss because I don’t trust any of these mfs not to do her dirty. but she still played an important role in Ahsoka’s life and we don’t even know what happened to her. Barriss’ role in TCW is literally why Ahsoka says she’s not a Jedi in Rebels, but apparently now she’s a Jedi again? huh???

it’s not just the lack of other relationships, it’s also how they dealt with Anakin and Ahsoka’s relationship. I know some people were expecting an apology, which I wasn’t because I interpreted Anakin’s appearance as a manifestation of Ahsoka’s subconscious, but the fact that she wasn’t even mad at him in the slightest rubbed me the wrong way. “oh but Jedi aren’t supposed to get mad!!!” 1. that’s an egregious oversimplification and just not true, 2. Ahsoka isn’t a Jedi anymore anyway, and 3. in Rebels, Ahsoka felt more guilt than anger, but that was before Anakin literally tried to kill her!!!! Ahsoka in TCW (and in Rebels, too, though she’s mellowed out a bit as she’s matured) just has so much fire, so where was that in the series? even if she does still feel guilt for Anakin’s fall, she should still be at least a little pissed at him!! I loved seeing them together again. I loved it so much. Hayden and Ariana were phenomenal. but grown-up Ahsoka should not be acting like everything’s all good between them because it’s not. there was so much good angsty potential that completely went to waste.

I could say that about the whole series. it had so much potential. but the lack of mention of any of Ahsoka’s other relationships, plus her interactions with Anakin… it’s all a whole lot of missed opportunities that shouldn’t have been missed.

[heirtotheempire]

TBH I'm kinda just glad Ahsoka is over. I'm glad to go back to thinking and posting about literally anything else other than that show. I hope it gets lost in the tides of the internet and people forget it happened. I'm too tired of it to even make a post about my overarching thoughts.

[inquisitor-apologist]

Look, if we want to go through with the Mando purge of Mandalore backstory, you could do a lot with that! That could be a really interesting direction to take Sabine’s character in! But, uh, making Sabine act ridiculously ooc for all of Ahsoka and then justifying that with a 1-sentence ‘oh her whole family died offscreen that’s why she’s a different character now’ is that also why she’s white, Dave? is uh. Not a good way to do that at all.

Like, imagine an alternate version of Ahsoka where that’s actually an important part of her character instead of a quick get-out-of-ooc-jail-free-card.

Ursa dies on Mandalore, either in the bombings or fighting Gideon, and all of a sudden Sabine is pulled back to Krownest to lead the remnants of her people (because from everything we saw in Rebels, Tristan seems like more of a warrior than a leader) and she’s trying to help her people, to safeguard Lothal, to mourn her mother and Ezra, and she maybe holds it together for a few years—but then Ahsoka comes back, with a new lead on Ezra, and here’s a chance to get away from it all, to get back just one of the things she’s lost. She takes it.

She feels awful about it, because she’s abandoning her people, running away again, but she just can’t deal with it, and she misses Ezra so badly. It’s not forever, she’ll come back this time, she just needs some time. Some space. So she throws everything into getting Ezra back, and it makes her reckless and blind to the threat of Thrawn because all she can see is Ezra. And then it’s an actual flaw, it’s the crux of her character arc, and in the end she’s presented with that choice, destroy the map or get Ezra back, and she chooses right, is able to come to terms with her loss and move on.

And then in the end, she’s able to help get Ezra back with the Purrgil and she’s able to accept everything that happened to her and lead her people. And reclaim the darksaber

Just—you could’ve done something with this, felony, but instead you just destroy her character and shit on all Star Wars?

[lothalx]

I think what bothers me the most about Jedi Sabine is we don't know why she wants to be a jedi.

WHY does sabine wants to be a jedi, Sabine. Not why ahsoka doesn't want to train her or the very obvious reason of "Jedi sell better". Why does Sabine wren want to be a jedi. We literally never fucking find out because apparently thats not an important enough idea thats worth exploring.

[jelly-opal]

I DESPERATELY want the Ahsoka series to make me feel SOMETHING. ANYTHING. I don't know what Filoni is waiting for, or why he is holding the emotions back in this series. Ahsoka has done nothing to convince me that anything she has seen or done has affected her in any way at all. She comes face-to-face with a raging, dangerous Force Ghost Anakin and just...nothing. I don't know what point is trying to be made, and everything feels so empty and inconsequential.

All the time spent setting up setbacks that never happen. How many times have we wasted time hearing someone argue with Hera about something, only for her to do it anyway? What is the point? I think there are better ways to demonstrate dedication and tenacity. If the time is going to be spent presenting the possibility of conflict, only for it to NEVER happen, I don't know why it is included in the first place. Same with dialogue that does nothing more than recite some bromide. The time in these shows is precious. Make it count.

[labrats-and-clonetroopers]

I understand choosing a fifteen-year-old actress(likely at the time of filming, she just turned 16) playing the youngest Ahsoka flashbacks, you know, when she was 14/15. Makes sense. Applaud the choice. Good actress choice. BUT why did they use the same actress for the Siege of Mandalore scenes? There's a lot of development that happens between 14-17 years, and it's a little odd that she doesn't look like Ahsoka's entering young adulthood when she's supposed to be.

They used an actress the same age as a high school freshman, to play a character the age of a high school freshman.....and decided to use the same actress to the play the character at the age of a college freshman...

What the heck?

[indigostars]

what do you mean there’s going to be another season of ahsoka. haven’t we suffered enough

[the-canadian-nerd]

I think the best thing to come out of the Ahsoka show is people realizing that Dave Filoni is not the "saviour of Star Wars" or "George Lucas' Padawan", but just some guy who got control of franchise and doesn't let anyone tell him no

[xan-from-space]

The Ahsoka show is really not selling me on why it has to be live action.

I think part of the reason why it seems so silly as a live action show is because it's shot like Andor, but all the main characters are from a very colourful animated series. So. You have this weird phenomenon where all the background characters and the original characters in the show are wearing these down to earth, grey tinged outfits, and then there's just. Hera with the bright orange pants.

I know that seems like a kind of specific bitchy complaint but I just get the sense that they're just recreating the designs 1-to-1 without really caring about why those designs worked in the first place and I think that kind of explains the way I feel about this show as a whole. It just...feels kind of like a chore?

Maybe it's just because live action Ahsoka has exactly zero interiority and I can hardly recognize her as the same character as animated Ahsoka, but honestly the series could be very good and it would still feel to me like they're only making an ahsoka show for the sake of making an ahsoka show.

And a part of me knows that complaining about the new content just makes me like literally every other generation of Star Wars fans (and I'm already the kind of person who tends to have strong opinions about adaptations and sequels), but as media gets more and more corporatized I don't think it's an unfair criticism. Star Wars is already looking like it's going to be the next mcu.

Star Wars is supposed to be a wierd and passionate space opera sandbox, that's why I love it in the first place, and even if something happens in the franchise that I don't like I'd much rather it be because a creator is trying something new and experimenting than it just being another corporate cash grab.

Live action Ahsoka really does feel like a cardboard box though

[nateofgreat]

Man, I just knew that Dave would never be satisfied simply telling a story about Ahsoka or even (Heaven forbid!) using the opportunity to wrap up her long, convoluted, story. He just has to exalt her over all others; Luke and the Jedi in this case.

He can't just have Ahsoka go on a journey, he has to demonstrate that she can train Padawans who can't use the Force (supposedly making her a better Master despite Ahsoka abandoning Sabine for years) to sneer at the uppity Jedi Order who couldn't. She has to be wiser than them, and therefore Luke who should be the real most important Jedi in the Galaxy right now.

Not to mention there's never any end in sight to this character. She just lingers eternally, and man, the show hasn't even gotten to the World Between Worlds yet. I'm sure that'll be a real treat.

[khentkawes]

Ahsoka, episode 4 - Yay, lightsabers! but... they're kinda meh?

Okay, so, on the upside... how refreshing is it to finally have a piece of Star Wars media that uses lightsabers! After so much Mandalorian and rebel alliance material in the shows so far, we actually get to see lightsabers in action again! Which, let's be honest, lightsabers the single coolest and most iconic thing Star Wars has ever produced.

But, unfortunately... they look kinda lame? Like sequels kind of lame? I mean, they cut through trees, which is good. But... most of the lightsaber battles so far are shot in close-ups, which means you can't really see the battle. I don't need to see Rosario Dawson's face while she's fighting. I want to see the actual lightsaber fight... the whole thing! Which means you need to zoom out more often. I don't remember any prequel lightsaber battles being filmed this way. Close-ups were used sparingly for moments when we needed to see the characters' faces and emotions. Other than that, we got full-body shots that showed the characters' movements.

Does Rosario Dawson look bad when she's doing the footwork, or something? Is that why they did it this way? They're doing it with Sabine and Shin too, but not as much.

And what the force-forsaken fuck was that spinning move from the fake inquisitor-dude and how in the blazes did Ahsoka defeat him just by stepping into his spinning blade? I replayed it five times and I still don't get what happened. I mean, it looked badass at first until I realized I had no idea what had happened. And then Ahsoka just... stood there? With her lightsaber still above her head... for a reeeeaaallly long time. Like an unnecessarily long time. And sure, the not-inquisitor-guy exploding in Buffy-verse Vampire fashion was unexpected and kinda cool. But I still don't know what the bloody hell happened?

*sigh* New Star Wars is still not really doing it for me.

[kanansdume]

It's continuously frustrating that this show REFUSES to condemn Anakin for the things he's done or even really explicitly call him out on them, and they even go so far as to basically decide none of it even MATTERED.

But all they can say about the Jedi is that they failed.

When asked what Anakin was like, all Huyang says is that he was "intense."

The worst Ahsoka says is that he was "more dangerous than anyone realized" and then two episodes later she's calling him a "good master" despite everything he did to her and the rest of the galaxy. She never ONCE condemns him for committing a genocide against the Jedi and hunting them down for over two decades. She never ONCE condemns him for enslaving the clones and betraying their loyalty and using them as weapons against the Jedi they loved. She never ONCE condemns him for trying to personally kill HER.

He jokes with her, he gets to say that he wants to protect her, he gets to guide her into choosing to live, he makes recordings for her that she still uses years later. Anakin gets to be "more" than just his failures.

But the Jedi, somehow, do not. The Jedi are ONLY EVER their failures. Ahsoka never mentions them otherwise, she never remembers them fondly at all, she has no stories or connections about any of the other Jedi, she constantly disregards Jedi protcols as foolish and ridiculous at best.

The best thing they can say about the Jedi is that the "idea of them" had merit. But Anakin gets to be a GENUINELY good Jedi Master, more than just a good IDEA.

And this just feels like the WORST of double standards to me.

[inquisitor-apologist]

finale is not quite "somehow palpatine returned" but it IS distressingly close

Yeah anon I feel you. Watched it yesterday and I would put it at a solid ‘I don’t like sand’ it’s confusing, ridiculous, and utterly fails at everything it tried to do. Felony Dave die in a ditch challenge 2k23. She would not fucking do that. Ahsoka go back to the Malachor character development hole. How the fuck do you think the force works. Who gives a shit about Shin Hati? 3 second scene of whatever the hell she’s up to then BACK to the slowest fight scenes you’ve ever seen. Absolutely terrible how dare you spit on Rebels’s name.

[chissjedi]

this is a PSA from your neighborhood ace asking you not to be an asshole