Ahsoka

For months, I held off from watching Ahsoka. I had read the reviews, watched the snipes, gripes and story breakdowns on YouTube. I knew that the fanbase was split between diehard Filoni fans and those who've had just about enough of Disney SW. And then I set it all aside, and I watched the entire season in a two-day binge.

And the funny thing? Everybody is right about this show.

As far as negatives go, there are many. It's often stunningly poorly scripted. SW fans are usually pretty forgiving to clunky dialogue and goofy plot contrivances, but Ahsoka routinely pushes this tolerance past the limit. It feels like we're watching a hasty second draft, and not a cohesive, completed screenplay.

It's also too often poorly directed. Why would anyone allow their main actors to so often appear so lifeless, constantly folding their arms, puffing out frustrated sighs and pausing for interminably long breaks between dialogue exchanges. It's not for lack of talent - the main cast is excellent, but the direction of their work is amateurish at best.

So why a seven? Why give this sorry little show such a reasonably solid score? First, let's be honest. Disney has probably lowered our expectations. For all of Ahsoka's faults, it's light years ahead of The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mandalorian Season 3. If you love SW, these can be strange times. We get a lot of content, but not a lot of very good content.

But second - and here's perhaps the most important factor to me - Ahsoka is sincere and genuine and very Star Warsy. It's a space opera. It's optimistic. It's occasionally quite rousing and fun. And while the direction and script are flawed, the visual and sound effects and musical score are virtually flawless. This FEELS like Star Wars. The LOOKS like Star Wars. This SOUNDS like Star Wars. Filoni clearly cares about this universe, and in Ahsoka, he and his crew gently begins to expand it.

Ultimately, I enjoyed Season 1 - much, much more than I thought I would. Sometimes, an earnest attempt at something great still wins the day, star warts and all. Recommended.

Ahsoka may not the best thing from Star Wars that I've seen but it's still worth watching. I was really looking forward to this when I first read about it and the even more so after I saw the trailers. It did not disappoint! I don't consider myself a huge Star Wars fan but I'm a normal fan who does enjoy most of them. Like by most, I really liked The Mandalorian and Andor. I thought those two are some of the best things Star Wars has put out since the original trilogy. I even thought The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi were both worth watching. I don't understand most of these negative reviews, it's like most of the people writing them didn't want to like this. What were you expecting that you didn't get? Anyway, if you're a fan of Star Wars I definitely recommend you give this a try.

I'm a big fan of the Clone Wars and Rebels animated series so I was doing backflips when I heard about a live action series based on the characters.

Overall, the casting is good and where Rebels left off, the series has a strong premise. The production design is all right (not quite as good as Andor's though) and the lightsaber fights and well choreographed.

The writing is where it's falling down. Dave Filoni has to take the blame since he wrote every episode and clearly needs a writing staff. Perhaps he's spent too much time writing for five year olds, because he is writing the characters as too bland and not grownup enough, and not thinking some things through sufficiently.

Take Ahoska for example. She's being written as too zen and serene, without an inner conflict that a lead character needs. She is being written as an Obi-Wan-ish mentor figure, but the series is named for her, so why isn't she written as the lead character, with inner conflict and complexity to match?

Maybe the true lead is a character for whom Ahsoka is the mentor? That could be Sabine or Ezra. But Sabine is the worst-written character of all. She must be pushing 30 by now, yet she still acts like a rebellious adolescent.

And don't get me started on "everyone is Force sensitive." It's far too late in the game to retcon Star Wars like this. If it only was a matter of trying to get a little telekinesis or mind control, it would be as common as superpowers are on The Boys, with societal upheaval like you see on that show.

Why doesn't Jabba the Hutt have a minion who can influence rivals in negotiations? Why aren't there background characters who can levitate a glass from across the table, or take an unusually large leap to avoid a mud puddle in the street? We'd have been seeing this all the time long before now. They just need to drop it.

Sabine is being retconned with the Force so she can serve as an apprentice figure to Ahsoka but Ezra is the more natural apprentice. But I'm no happier at his writing.

Okay let's recap here. He made a huge sacrifice while still a teenager to save his friends and the galaxy from Thrawn. He's spent a decade on a bleak planet, surrounded by enemies, with only some turtle people as companions. He has no reason to believe he will ever be rescued.

Then Sabine shows up and effectively invalidates his sacrifice. How does he respond? Oh hi Sabine, nice to see you. That's ALL? He isn't overjoyed to be rescued while at the same time, infuriated that the last ten years were all in vain? Why isn't Ahsoka equally angry at Sabine? Why is Sabine being written as an unstable moron?

It's like Filoni is scared to show the "grownups" being angry at each other because it would upset the presumably childlike audience. If you assume the audience is largely grownups, having conflict and drama is not only all right, it's necessary so we won't all doze off.

Since this series isn't yet over and hopefully won't be for a few years, I may be back to edit this review later on. Hopefully to bump up the score to an 8 or 9 because the writing has improved. Fingers crossed for season 2.

I actually enjoyed Ahsoka a lot more than I expected to. After reading all the mixed reviews I was expecting a slow moving, boring show but this was anything but. I was very entertained from the very first episode to the last. I was actually wanting more episodes when it was all ove he r. I know they're already talking about renewing this for another season so I hope they go through with that. The cast here is terrific. Obviously Rosario Dawson is great as Ahsoka but it's the supporting cast which makes this show that much better. It is extremely talented cast with Natasha Lou Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Wes Chatham, David Tennant, the late great Ray Stevenson, and many more. You can tell they put a lot lot of love into this because the attention to detail is very obvious. While it's I not as good as the Mandalorian or Andor, it's still a good show in its own right.

Firstly, I want to say that I do enjoy the series. I don't think it deserves any awards but it's fun to watch. Nor do I think it's a "masterpiece" as some have called it. Far from it.

I like all the characters but one. Syndulla. I don't like how the show portrays this character at all. How this character became a general is a mystery. The character feels that being a general she can do whatever she wants. Being a general does afford a person a great amount of latitude in many things but you simply can't do whatever you want. She has a flippant attitude and acts like a petulant child while shirking her duty. Her childish attitude caused the death of a few pilots at Seatos. She should be arrested and charged with conduct unbecoming, disobeying orders, utilizing Republic property without authorization, dereliction of duty, and involuntary manslaughter. This character is an annoyance and detracts from an otherwise decent show.

Like some others have stated I would also like a little more backstory to the characters relationships with each other. I get that the writers want to keep an air of mystery and reveal things slowly but at a certain point I am going to stop caring about the relationship dynamics and lose interest in the show. And by the way, leaving things open to audience interpretation is lazy storytelling.