Star Wars: Ahsoka

[ScoutingForToys]

Then you'd better be careful. Andor season 2 might not only destroy the first season but Rogue One as well...

True but it'd have to be pretty terrible. As bad as Mando season 3 was...

 

[choombaz]

If Andor season 2 ever finishes I highly doubt it will be bad on those levels. Or remotely related to any other SW. Gilroy just doesn’t work that way.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Andor's two seasons will be looked back on with such high regard when it's over. Sad it's back to Filoni and his obsession to convert animation to live action.

I get that people enjoy Ahsoka, but the tone and quality shift is so drastic between Filoni and Gilroy's skill levels and world building. There's no feeling of stakes with Ahsoka, no gravity to events happening. With Andor, you feel events building to something and it's sad because you know the Death Star is coming and will kill your main character. Ahsoka just moves and talks so slowly and blandly and I find her so dull on screen.

Baylan and Shin are far more interesting, but will likely be wasted and not fleshed out as the season goes on.

 

[jye4ever]

I think Ahsoka’s conversion with Luke about Thrawn will be what saves the galaxy from this great threat….

Wait….

 

[Khev]

I think Ahsoka’s conversion with Luke about Thrawn will be what saves the galaxy from this great threat….

Wait….

Yeah I was thinking after the first two episodes with her being all "we need to find him to prevent another war!" that all it appears they're doing is setting her up to be the next "double loser," one of the only living people to watch both the Old and New Republic fall, all on her watch. Yeah you better help Rey stand up at the end since apparently you aren't good for anything else, lol.

 

[RavenAsh]

Can we get a separate thread for fandom ennui, nihilism, and despair?

Most of this thread is more about people needing to find a new hobby rather than the tv show.

Genuinely one of the funniest posts I’ve read on this site for a while, especially coming off the dourness that has made its way into this thread

I think the reality is that Filoni is just simply not for everyone, and that‘s okay. Even PT Lucas is, very overtly, not for everyone. I also think the reality of the ST’s existence is a very real barrier to immersion that I can completely empathise with.

I think what got me personally on both my first viewing and rewatch is the way in which characters are introduced. It felt very akin to the way Lucas introduced us to characters throughout the prequels and the OT.

Firstly, we don’t need to immediately see the origin story in the case of Baylan and Shin, just as we didn’t need to see Qui-Gon’s, or Maul’s, or even someone like Palpatine. Hell think about the first time seeing Vader, seeing Boba and even Han with Chewy’s life debt. I like that Filoni is letting our imagination run wild with the two of them which invites immersion. For me, it’s the same for the Rebels characters as I’ve never seen that show, and again that’s cool to me. But I legitimately would read a novel on Baylan and Shin right now, they’re some of the most interesting characters I’ve seen in Star Wars, especially since Disney took over.

Secondly, the change in Ahsoka may currently annoy some, and I get it. She’s not as interesting here as she has been in other shows thus far, but i think there’s payoffs coming. Filoni usually has ideas about actual character arcs, evolving and changing. I don’t think he’d not give one to Ahsoka and I think this is just the beginning. Plus it doesn’t feel completely out of character, she’s been through a lot at this point, not the least of which finding out Vader was her master. She absolutely blames herself for that which you can see when she’s talking to Hera after Sabine takes off. Again, this is kind of similar to the way character dynamics shift in Lucas’ work between his movies.

Could all of this be wasted, and I’ll be sitting here with pie on my face? Sure. It’s very possible. But I’m going to be hopeful for now because it does feel like it has focus, and knows what story it is trying to tell. It’s not Kenobi inserting Reva far too much, it’s not BOBF portraying a babyface Boba and it’s not Mando S3 bringing Grogu back immediately. This was all prominent in the first two episodes of those shows. This one seems to ’spin’ a different ‘thread’ to borrow a line from Shin. I’m eager to see where it goes personally, and am very excited for the next episode.

 

[e30ernest]

Posted on another site:

"So Ahsoka refuses to train Grogu but does start to train Sabine but then ‘walks away’ from her but then decides to train Sabine because Sabine dresses up in her Mando gear and says ‘I’m ready’.

Great writing Dave!"

I actually liked this because it gave context on why Ahsoka would not train Grogu: she already had a Padawan.

It seems Ahsoka would have been training Sabine from the end of Rebels through the events of ROTJ and then there was a falling out of some sort before she appears in Mandalorian.

That captain was the dumbest **** to ever be on screen: "They're not Jedi, but **** it, let them come on board anyway when we have a highly sought after criminal - and, I'm such a dumb-*** I'm going to go down there and confront these vile imposters and see for myself what type of fool would dare do such a thing!"

The fool was the captain, all his crew, and any audience member that was okay with this opening.

What a ridiculous, idiotic, inane, unintelligent, sad excuse for writing.

But hey, it's got the SW brand on it, so it must be good!

I think this is a very consistent portrayal of the New Republic, and likely why they failed and allowed the First Order to rise. They become too overconfident of their victory, too focused on bringing back the galaxy to how it was prior to the Clone Wars.

They are showing this in Andor, Mandalorian and BOBF as well so yes, the captain and his crew were meant to be dumb.

 

[DarkChocobi]

I genuinely hope Hot Toys's releasing some Andor figs to wash away the negativity and antagonistic perspectives of certain people here towards the Ahsoka. Some plastic dollies might proven to be the antidote for their unreasonable hatred.

I never liked the Rebels series, it's just not my thing...and that lightsaber stab scene I find it completely moronic too. At least aim it on the shoulder just to make it looks convincing. But besides that, everything was pretty Ok .

 

[xipotec]

I genuinely hope Hot Toys's releasing some Andor figs to wash away the negativity and antagonistic perspectives of certain people here towards the Ahsoka. Some plastic dollies might proven to be the antidote for their unreasonable hatred.

I never liked the Rebels series, it's just not my thing...and that lightsaber stab scene I find it completely moronic too. At least aim it on the shoulder just to make it looks convincing. But besides that, everything was pretty Ok .

Yea getting stabbed once is stupid...

Much better to get cut in half , fall down several hundred foot shaft....have a resurrection from some witches, get mechanical legs put on, and get totally accepted when you return as a major character across the SW universe of stories.

 

[Ramatuelle]

Yea getting stabbed once is stupid...

Much better to get cut in half , fall down several hundred foot shaft....have a resurrection from some witches, get mechanical legs put on, and get totally accepted when you return as a major character across the SW universe of stories.

We're not endorsing that either, and I actually like Maul.

 

[davejames]

I think Ahsoka’s conversion with Luke about Thrawn will be what saves the galaxy from this great threat….

Wait….

As much as I love Luke, I really hope they resist the urge to have him swoop in and save the day again at the end of the upcoming Mandoverse movie. As it would just make Mando, Ahsoka, Boba and the rest look even more pointless and ineffectual. Plus I'm not sure that's something you can do more than once.

 

[The Buffinator]

I was thinking after the first two episodes with her being all "we to find him to prevent another war!" that all it appears they're doing is setting her up to be the next "double loser," one of the only living people to watch both the Old and New Republic fall, all on her watch. Yeah you better help Rey stand up at the end since apparently you aren't good for anything else, lol.

I was thinking that she shouldn’t be trying to find Thrawn at all. If she hadn’t found the key to the map then the ONE Nightsister alive capable of using it wouldn’t have been able to locate him. Heck, if she had just killed Morgan Elsbeth in Mando Season 2 there would be nothing to worry about at all. A Thrawn stranded in an unreachable location isn’t a threat to anyone. But I guess finding Ezra is more important than the fate of the galaxy lol.

I still enjoyed the first two episodes, but Morgan’s being this key Nightsister figure sure makes Ahsoka look bad for not sensing it during their Mando confrontation, and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t Filoni’s intention.

 

[Space Jockey]

I saw both episodes over the weekend, very much enjoyed it.

 

[The Buffinator]

I was thinking that she shouldn’t be trying to find Thrawn at all. If she hadn’t found the key to the map then the ONE Nightsister alive capable of using it wouldn’t have been able to locate him. Heck, if she had just killed Morgan Elsbeth in Mando Season 2 there would be nothing to worry about at all. A Thrawn stranded in an unreachable location isn’t a threat to anyone. But I guess finding Ezra is more important than the fate of the galaxy lol.

I still enjoyed the first two episodes, but Morgan’s being this key Nightsister figure sure makes Ahsoka look bad for not sensing it during their Mando confrontation, and I’m pretty sure that wasn’t Filoni’s intention.

OK, in retrospect I do recall that they mentioned Ahsoka got the location of the key's hiding place from interrogating Morgan, so not looking for it wouldn't have made any difference in the end (i.e., Morgan, Baylan & Co. would have eventually found it without her involvement). But it still feels like Ahsoka should have sensed she was more than just someone loyal to Thrawn. I distinctly remember Ahsoka telling Din Djarin that Morgan Elsbeth was not to be underestimated, and yet that appears to be exactly what she did in not personally escorting her to some high security prison.

 

[Mondragon]

Yea getting stabbed once is stupid...

Much better to get cut in half , fall down several hundred foot shaft....have a resurrection from some witches, get mechanical legs put on, and get totally accepted when you return as a major character across the SW universe of stories.

They should have had the Mando mod-squad guy fix her up, and install one of those neat storage & cell phone charging compartments like Fennec got.

 

[Ramatuelle]

Hopefully in the next 23 minute episode many of the pacing issues will be resolved.

This post is a masterpiece of truth-based irony. I dont know whether to laugh or cry.

 

[Asta]

 

[davejames]

Wait that was supposed to be the same ship? It never even dawned on me while watching, probably because it was lit in such a different way.

 

[Asta]

Wait that was supposed to be the same ship? It never even dawned on me while watching, probably because it was lit in such a different way.

Yes, it was Ackbar's Home One.

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/star-wars-home-one.html

 

[MeatHookGekko]

It's finally happening. I have hit the wall of apathy with Disney Star Wars. Happened quite a while back with Marvel and I had really hoped it wouldn't happen with Star Wars but....here we are.

I could only (barely) make it through the first episode. It's......so.....slow. And dull. Nothing new here. At all. It's the cartoon come to life (a word I use VERY loosely here). A cartoon I never personally watched or engaged with when it first ran. It's fan ****, written, produced and presented in such a self-reverential fashion that the casual viewer may stumble on it and feel like they're interrupting something private. It's a huge, glaring example of the shortcomings of the director. Weather he wants to admit or realize it or not, animation and live action storytelling and presentation are two different styles. What works for one may not necessarily work for the other. No offense to Filoni here, but he needs more "apprenticing" by real filmmakers and storytellers on how to make that leap. If he is handed a theatrical release right now, it's toast except with a very small, vocal and passionate fan base of his work. I'd guess the studio is going to be looking for a bigger return.

Cut the budget

It's the most practical path to clean up a lot of the core storytelling issues in the current Star Wars slate. Something I observed about Rings Of Power is that just one episode's budget likely covered the entire cost of The Last Kingdom as a full series.

"Here's 40 million dollars total, go get me a full 10 episode season out of that. 600 minutes. Can't disrupt canon elsewhere but do what you want as long as we don't get into any scandals or bad press."

There's no way you can have a budget like that and afford Ewan McGregor. So don't. Can you afford Joel Edgerton? Maybe if he's a huge fan and this is a passion project but that's still doubtful. So now you don't have an Obi Wan show anymore, you have a show about Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. Or maybe you can't afford that, so now you have a sinking Star Destroyer on the Mon Calamari planet, and you have a bunch of no names trying to escape drowning to death. But one of them is saboteur. Sounds like Poseidon Adventure. OK, so it's derivative. So you can't get any big name stars. And you can do any super crazy special effects. And you have to make trade offs to hit the budget. Probably have to do a location shoot in a super budget friendly place in Europe. Maybe mix in more practical effects instead of CGI/SFX, etc, etc.

The point being - Throwing money at the problem by the trainload clearly isn't helping the creative process. So gut it instead. Tighten the purse strings until there's nothing left but innovative story telling.

Felt the same way about Dial Of Destiny. Make it a 60 million dollar budget. Well, no one is going to afford Harrison Ford on that. OK, so kick him out. No one can afford all these chase scenes and location shoots. OK, so cut them out. Guess you'll have to rely on something other than star power and action set pieces. Guess you'll have to actually write a hell of a script instead. Young Indy has to choose between saving a town of poor far flung farmers on the outskirts and an artifact. Then he recruits 6 more treasure hunters to make a last stand. Sounds like The Seven Samurai. OK, so it's derivative. Lucas stole so much from Kurosawa, so it's not like it's heresy to talk about lifting plots from established films.

You cut the dollars, you force the issue. You force yourself to cut out big name stars to anchor these shows. You force yourself not to rely on massive SFX. You don't buy yourself some margin of error that doesn't exist for non Big Mouse stuff.

IMHO, Star Wars is at a point where it needs to stop being a "product" before all else. Andor is a labor of love for Tony Gilroy. George Lucas gave up inheriting his family stationary/printing/etc business to be a writer and do Star Wars. He had to love being a storyteller above all else. Reset the conditions so that no one will want to be involved in a pure grind unless it's a true labor of love.

Disney has taken your childhood and nostalgia and tried to convince you that it can be packaged and sold like an energy drink. No wonder it tastes like garbage in your mouth when they try to force it down your throat.