Star Wars: Ahsoka [Disney+]

The Moist Buddha

another thing, when they reappeared in the new galaxy i presume they were still together on the bridge (ezra and thrawn) ? what happened, did Ezra just run off and meet the Ninja Turtles?

🤔🤔🤔

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121136932#Comment_121136932

I have to be honest, the reliance on having needed to have watched the cartoons has been a real drag on this show. They're making such little effort to accommodate those who haven't watched the cartoons.

That's a real shame, cos I've kept reading this thread to see if perhaps the show improved in terms of its existence as a nominal sequel; it's so odd Disney greenlit this show without any studio notes to make the thing more accommodating for those who hadn't watched the cartoon - cos it wouldn't have taken much.

There any sense how this show has been doing, ratings wise?

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121142934#Comment_121142934

I really think they should have edited together a prelude with certain clips from the animated shows and maybe a voiceover by Ahsoka to get people up to speed. Just hit some of the main points with narration by Ahsoka to say "Here's the background stuff you need to know".

Maybe in the next episode or two they'll fill in more of the backstory, but it's making some of these first few episodes a frustrating watch.

Flinty997

Never watched the rebels only some of the clones wars.

I'm mildly enjoying it. The plot is a little baffling. Luckily I have a padawan watching it with me to explain the rebels and clone and book references. Not sure I could follow it otherwise, except in very broad strokes.

Relikk

One thing I despise about The Mandalorian is that they made Beskar out to be nigh on invulnerable, and anyone who wears it only gets shot by blaster bolts on the areas it covers. We know these characters have literal plot armour, but it's insulting when they keep putting these characters in the middle of a firefight and they're constantly being shot only on their Beskar armour.

A decent episode again, besides that. It's a solid series. I just hope the finale isn't nonsensical shite and doesn't end on some stupid cliffhanger.

Midnight_EG

It shouldn't be a cliffhanger, because it's a limited series meaning no S2

EltonJohn69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121166381#Comment_121166381

Cliffhanger for the movie, Thrawn gets out of the galaxy, meets up with Vader and both start break dancing. Post Credits scence where Jar Jar Binks reveals himself to be not just a Sith Lord but also Palpatine's master.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121168114#Comment_121168114

Post credits scene of just some random guy standing in a field, where half the audience go apesh*t and half the audience have no idea what's happening, because the guy is from the animated series.

EltonJohn69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121168186#Comment_121168186

That sounds great

CastorTroy

Even better. Have that guy be played by Temuera Morrison so while those who only watch the live action stuff think it's Boba Fett those who watch the animated shows knows it's one of the clone troopers like Rex.

AMKC

This was an OK episode. I got some LOTRs vibes off it at times do.

Slydice

7: Ah classic Thrawn

Spoiler Warning

Well, setup for Leia being around and chopper. Possible setup for Ahsoka not being around. Though I guess the Purrgils could come back. Maybe. Or maybe she could still catchup and get on Thrawns ride back. Dunno. All maybe.

Homelander

Enjoyed the show mostly until now but it seems to have become slightly nonsensical in the last two episodes.

Certain things just make no sense whatsoever and stretch the limits of credibility. I don't mean the need to be familiar with the likes of Rebels and Clone Wars, more in its own internal logic.

That whole storyline about the Senator being rabidly against General Syndulla and the X-Wing pilot leader just makes zero sense. "The new republic faces a grave and serious threat and we've seen it with our own eyes. We lost good pilots to bring this information to you".

"No it doesn't, also that never happened, why r u lying for personal gain, you will be court martialled"

Also Sabine's armour covers about 20% of her body and she's been shot about 50 times in those exact spots.

Still watchable, but I found ep7 was a bit of a drag and I didn't find any of the action particularly weighty or of any real consequence. The hermit crab people, Ezra, found them both thoroughly unlikeable.

Completely stupid story as well. "I fled to this galaxy to destroy Thrawn but now I live openly as a shaman/druid like figure in a commune of defenseless, primitive hermit crabs who wear tiny suits. So anyway how have you been, don't ask me anything about my plans"

It was in "reasonably good" territory for the majority of Ep1-6 and Ray Stevenson in particular is great, but after Ep7 I am kinda concerned it'll turn into another Book of Boba Fett and spectacularly crap the bed.

Star Wars was always for people of all ages to appreciate but with the likes of Mando S3, Book of Boba Fett, Obi Wan, they seem to have heavily leaned into tailoring them for younger audiences first and adults a very noticable second. Which I find strange because at least in Filoni's case he wrote a lot of Clone Wars which is a hell of a lot better a story, and much better told, than Ahsoka.

Relikk

I mostly "enjoyed" the series, in that it wasn't utter shite like Obi-Wan Kenobi and it was a decent continuation from Rebels, but it's well past time to move on and leave this no stakes timeline behind, but we all know Disney/Lucasfilm's pride of trying to make sense of the awful sequel trilogy's original set-up with tie-in stories won't let them do so. The sequels were already an indicator of this, but now I really dislike what they've done with Star Wars, to be honest. Apart from Rogue One and Andor there's little value or actual quality to their productions, and they're throwing in nonsense that would never happen in George Lucas' version.

The two most interesting characters got a total of, what... a minute of screen time in that finale? Ray Stevenson's character surviving means a recasting, also (ugh), and the significance of his final scene will mean absolutely nothing to anyone who hasn't seen The Clone Wars, which is most of the series to people who haven't seen that and Rebels anyway.

Sabine using the force is a major eye-roller. In a character that never, ever showed any aptitude for it before. "The Force Awakens" eh? No thanks.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121142846#Comment_121142846

Okay f*ck this stupid dumbass. She abandoned Ahsoka so she could save Ezra, and then completely abandons Ezra to save Ahsoka, all while trapping herself and Ahsoka in another galaxy and allowing Thrawn to return and rebuild the Empire. The only thing she's good at is getting shot repeatedly in the wrist which is exactly where she's wearing beskar armour.

And two of the best characters in the show, Skoll and Hati, their stories amounted to nothing. Hati just joins some bandits, and Skoll finds some big statues and a mountain, which (and I only know this due to googling to see what the f*ck it means) have deep ties to obscure Force lore from pretty much one episode of one of the animated shows, but meant absolutely zero if you haven't seen it.

It's a real shame, because Ray Stevenson was undoubtedly the best part of the entire show, and I would have loved to have seen what became of him and that part of the story in another series or second season of this. Maybe they'll recast, but really big shoes to fill because Stevenson was just terrific. But again, I had to google what it was about because absolutely no context or explanation is given for it in this show.

I get that even Lucas himself has said that only the films and the Clone Wars show were considered canon when Disney bought the rights, but Filoni should have realised that not everyone who likes SW watched the animated shows, or would go back and watch them. You have to give viewers enough info that they can understand what's happening in this show even if they haven't watched a different show.

Brief_Lives

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121192858#Comment_121192858

just turn it off. walk away.

Agent Coulson

They really should have said fcuk the movies and just made the Expanded Universe instead.

Very average overall for me.

My one major issue with the Disney+ set of *series is we know nothing major actually happens as there is no mention in episodes 7,8 & 9 of any really major events happening in the 30 years between episodes 4/5/6 & episdoes 7/8/9 which these series are set inbetween

Thrawn reappering would be a major event that would send ripples through the Galaxy for decades after.

*Andor is the exception of course as we aleady know it's major event.

astrofool

I think people are over-egging the whole clone wars needing to be watched aspect, never saw any of the animated shows and this was very easy to follow.

It suffers from the usual star wars (and most tv shows it must be said) mechanics of no urgency, like, run up the stairs, jump onto the ship, a person trailing behind you with a sword can't stop that, hey, we got rescued by a ship, lets gloat over those not on the ship and then apparently miss the window to catch the enemy by a few seconds.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121196206#Comment_121196206

I never watched the cartoons either, but the problem I had before I bailed was like that feeling of walking in a room after a story or joke is told. Everyone's laughing, reacting and while I could piece together the broad strokes - like, Ezra was some dude lost to the main characters - I had no sense of emotion or context to pin things down. Was Ezra a lover? Brother? Business partner? Who were these people to each other? Indeed. Why was he linked with Thrawn - and who the F was that guy? There in particular I suspect was the cause of most confusion cos I only knew him from the old EU, having read a couple of the old books. Good luck figuring why he was a big deal if you were a casual watcher.

Agreed fully about the lack of urgency though - these SW shows have been so very, very tedious to watch. You'd think a series famed for their blockbuster pace would have energy. Formulas and cliches exist for a reason and the chronic lack of oomph and urgency in these shows has made them a chore. And they look like shít too: stand in a room, coverage, coverage, exit room. Even the lightsaber battles have been a bit dull and perfunctory, like they have to throw in some sword play for the sake of it.

I think they're trying to write these like novels and it ain't working. Especially if they're to be released weekly and not as something to binge.

ejmaztec

Even though I've always been into Sci-fi, I've never watched any Star Wars movies, nor seen any animation series, it just didn't appeal to me. I just saw Star Wars as a fairy tale in space, and even called the whole thing Disney in space decades before Disney bought the whole shebang.

I've only ever watched the recent batch of series, and they were watchable. However, I was bored to tears watching Ahsoka, but did hope that it might have a decent ending.

Unfortunately, it turned into 8 episodes of people going round and round in circles, and getting nowhere fast.

ZV Yoda

Ahsoka was a load of rubbish. Boring doesn't even begin to describe it. What a sullen bunch of characters. Sweet baby Jesus, does nobody crack a smile in these galaxies? Another ridiculously convoluted storyline. It's like watching paint dry. Andor was marginally better, but that's not saying much.

I've been a Star Wars fan since the original trilogy. These Disney series are generally woeful. They learned nothing from the mistakes of the prequel trilogy (too long & drawn out, unnecessarily complicated storylines with very little in the way of likable characters). Don't get me started on the sequel trilogy... they were even worse with the added problem of inexplicably changing storylines with each movie. At least Rogue One was more in keeping with the spirit of the original trilogy.

The Mandalorian is the only series worth watching and I think that's down to Pedro Pascal. He does an amazing job bringing Din Djarin to life. Which is even more impressive given that he's wearing a mask almost the whole time. It's easy to get invested in the character & to see where his story goes next.

fritzelly

Waste of time watching that, the simplest of stories stretched to infinity

pixelburp

Am too lazy to Google: but what schedule of shows in Star Wars land are we to look forward to from here? I know Bob Iger has supposedly pumped the brakes a little on Disney's Content Shotgun, and obviously the 2 big strikes have put a stall on a lot, but do we know what was coming all the same?

(with the exception of Andor Seasoan 2 I might add)

AbusesToilets

I feel the show suffered from issues common to all the Disney shows. They have really poor pacing, where the already too short episodes spend far too much time on filler. Leads to rushed and incomplete finales. The Mandalorian is pretty poor overall, really carried hard by about 3 or 4 episodes over the entire series imo. Ashoka was similarly poor, Baylan and Shin, along with Anakin's scenes being the only standout elements. The plots overly rely on characters making obviously stupid decisions. Thrawn continually putting his enterprise at risk, for what? Let's Sabine go just to turn around and order her death. Drags out loading of his cargo, brings the hyper-ring down to his ship instead of moving it away from the only point of ground access. Not casually floating his star destroyer a few miles down the road to blast his enemies, and instead sending troopers to get predictably smacked by 3 Jedi. Not blasting the tower once he'd secured the cargo and the Jedi we're heading that way. On and on with stupidity. A far cry from how Thrawn is meant to be.

Another major issue is the lack of danger to the characters. As mentioned previously the utter invulnerability of the characters robs the stories of any tension. Sabines John Wick esque ability to block shots get more and more egregious. The scene in the last episode of the the posse storming the tower was groan inducing for me. 3 of them casually standing statically, blocking everything with ease. A scene that should have been dynamic and frought with tension was boring and predictable. It's made all the more glaring when you think back to the scenes of Order 66 from RotS, when the clones gunned down Jedi en masse. A lightsaber isn't a magic shield, able to perfectly block a company of trooper's shots with ease.

I know it's a trope to say Star Wars fans hate Star Wars. There's certainly a toxic community that spews shite about "woke" ideology and should rightly be scorned and ignored. I just want a good TV show, it shouldn't be so hard to make one. It's not like Disney can't afford to pay for talented creators.

Relikk

Skeleton Crew and The Acolyte are up next, I believe. Then Andor season 2. There are still no confirmed release dates for any of them, though.

Tony EH

'Skeleton Crew' sounds like kiddie focused coming of age meh, and 'The Acolyte' is going to be yet another load of po-faced Jedi spouting boring nonsense. That's part of the reason I haven't watched 'Ahsoka' beyond episode 2. The Jedi are just so, so, dull.

So I guess that leaves Andor 2. Hopefully they can repeat the excellent writing from the first effort.

thegreengoblin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121200905#Comment_121200905

I just cannot fathom how anyone could think Andor was only marginally better than this nonsense. Andor is leagues ahead of it.

Flinty997

Same here. Andor was much better show.

ZV Yoda

It’s all relative. The last episode was decent enough, but let’s keep some perspective here - Andor was not a great series by any stretch of the imagination!

EltonJohn69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121200905#Comment_121200905

Ezra was smiling the whole time