I thought it was good, Andor to me is still better, but this is lighter fare.
But there were some interesting things.
Spoiler!
Ewings, nice to see them make an appearance.
Mercenary Jedi, its interesting that even though Baylan knows that he's not a jedi or acting as a Jedi that he has the traditional Padawan braid and all at his side. Shin has a very good look.
I thought that Dawson was a bit wooden, hopefully she gets more comfortable in the role.
Chopper the serial killing war criminal in all his crabby glory.
Baylan and Shin were on the planet and we heard the rumbling in the sky, could it be the return of Bendu?
A mercenary Inquisitor, is it someone we know under the mask? There's always the rumbles of Barriss returning.
Good to see Clancy Brown as Azadi making a live action appearance.
Aliens from a far away galaxy, could it be a hint of the Yuuzhan Vong?
Sabine really soundly got her but kicked by Shin who was just playing with her.
Not a bad establishing two partner and we know what's going on.
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They were great set up episodes. Pulling the proverbial slingshot back you could say.
Not at the heights of Andor or the best of early Mando yet but given the purpose of these episodes you wouldn't expect that. The important part is that it has set thing up for them to hit it out of the park the rest of the way and hopefully they do.
I wouldn't have minded these episodes being trimmed down just to have the final product a little tighter and quicker moving. There wasn't much need to stand around like they did at a few points and drag our certain scenes. Felt like there was dead air in multiple scenes where Hera's hologram was just staring at Ahsoka or Sabine and it served no purpose. Cutting those bits would've kept these episodes firing at a high level from start to finish.
That was pretty solid IMO. I agree, it's not quite up there yet with Andor or the first 2 seasons of Mando. But it was very enjoyable. Loved the John Williams-esque music score.
Yeah Star Wars needs a canon reset in the worst way.
Wipe out everything not in the OG trilogy and start over. Everything. Rule of two, order 66, etc. DC and Marvel do it all the time. Keep what you want, discard other stuff, whatever works. You don’t even have to be consistent. Wipe out one character’s history but keep another’s fully in tact. Whatever works to tell better stories that aren’t so limited by terrible decisions made earlier and years of canon.
They kind of did it once when Disney took over but they half assed it and kept all the worst parts.
Pretty decent. The pacing really felt off sometimes. Baylan felt like the best acting, but that might be because it's a new character rather than having a history of what I think a character should be like like Ahsoka or Sabine. But I'm certainly more interested in Baylan and Shin at this point.
Hopefully Ahsoka learning to become a good master isn't the extent of her character development in this series.
As always seems to be the case with these shows I find it serviceable and mildly entertaining but wishing it was more.
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Thoroughly enjoyed the first two episodes of this show!
I am getting sick of people being stabbed and then not dying, though. Qui-gon just needed a med bay and a bacta tank to survive, right? No reason Kenobi couldn't have just saved his master the same way.
Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati are interesting Jedi, maybe leaning towards Dark Jedi but not quite Sith... very compelling so far.
I read a cool lil tidbit about their last names related to norse mythology; Skoll and Hati are wolves who seek the sun and the moon until they devour them during Ragnarok.
Then you have Rebels where they had several wolves involved in the world between worlds and you wonder if they might be playing with the audience a little bit.
Pretty decent. The pacing really felt off sometimes. Baylan felt like the best acting, but that might be because it's a new character rather than having a history of what I think a character should be like like Ahsoka or Sabine. But I'm certainly more interested in Baylan and Shin at this point.
Hopefully Ahsoka learning to become a good master isn't the extent of her character development in this series.
As always seems to be the case with these shows I find it serviceable and mildly entertaining but wishing it was more.
Yeah. For the most part we haven't been "blown away" by anything in the live series aside from Luke showing up in glorious fashion. A lot of the shows have played it safe. Entertaining enough but not doing much to get you out of your seat or going back to rewatch it.
Hopefully moving to an entirely new galaxy gives them the opportunity to take more risks in a good way.
One thing they could do is make lightsaber impalements lethal again. Would help elevate the stakes and suspense.
It came off like a flesh wound the way Sabine was ready to jump back into action. Hardly a wince, and she took a saber through the midsection. Can we make these female characters a little less invincible lol?
The duel of the fates is a forgettable clash if Qui Gon bounces back two days later like nothing happened. Stakes are important in leaving a lasting impression.
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Thoroughly enjoyed the first two episodes of this show!
I am getting sick of people being stabbed and then not dying, though. Qui-gon just needed a med bay and a bacta tank to survive, right? No reason Kenobi couldn't have just saved his master the same way.
Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati are interesting Jedi, maybe leaning towards Dark Jedi but not quite Sith... very compelling so far.
I read a cool lil tidbit about their last names related to norse mythology; Skoll and Hati are wolves who seek the sun and the moon until they devour them during Ragnarok.
Then you have Rebels where they had several wolves involved in the world between worlds and you wonder if they might be playing with the audience a little bit.
No way! Lean into it! They should have a fight where a Jedi gets stabbed a dozen times and its like being pricked with a toothpick!
They could have an episode that is a 'Naked Gun' ripoff!
I'm going to re-watch it, but man alive the dialogue was so clunky and Ahsoka was actually the weakest link in these two episodes...both Dawson and the character.
Andor made you invested, in these two episodes I didnt really 'buy in' or at any point feel invested.
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Andor made you invested, in these two episodes I didnt really 'buy in' or at any point feel invested.
My wife stopped watching within the first 20 minutes.. The Mandalorian's first season had very simple emotional stakes.. protect baby Yoda! Then it grew from there. Good early hook.
In Ahsoka if you hadn't watched Rebels I think it'd be really difficult to feel any emotional stakes, at least so far. I mean who is Ezra Bridger and why should I care about him so much?
Still lots of time left and there's been too much great Ahsoka character development in past shows to believe that this series isn't going to get there.
And hopefully looks like there'll be new things.
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I dunno. I felt like there was a strong early hook here too. For me this is better than Mando season 1 as far as the set up for the rest of the show. Mando got better as it went on and added more lore and characters to the show.
The mystery around the two fallen jedi, their masked friend, the prospect of a whole new unknown galaxy, Thrawn's fleet and Ezra's whereabouts is providing a LOT of intrigue for me.
If we need Grogus as a focal point to draw in normies then #### em, I prefer this.
I don't mind a more stoic, ponderous ahsoka here. Someone has to be that character, otherwise the whole thing would be chaotic female energy.
I just don't know how they'll make the show Ahsoka centric when there is much more going on with every other character. She kind of had her arc in the earlier shows. Now it's just stop thrawn and watch every one else undergo character development.
Maybe the show needed to be called something else to be more fitting to its content.
Last edited by TrentCrimmIndependent; 08-23-2023 at 05:27 PM.
Curious to hear from people who have never watched the Clone Wars or the other animated series she spawned from (Rebels?) -- is this show accessible without that background?
Last edited by Finger Cookin; 08-23-2023 at 05:38 PM.
Curious to hear from people who have never watched the Clone Wars or the other animated series she spawned from (Rebels?) -- is this show accessible without that background?
I never watched Rebels and didn't really understand the background for any of the characters at all. Watched the two initial episodes and they did not really have a recap of things that have happened before. You don't really get what was going on, why Thrawn is so important to Ahsoka, what Sabine, Chopper, Ezra, Hera, and Ahsoka's past dynamic was at all so some of the character and motivations aren't really clear.
I watched this recap and it made wayyy more sense afterwards. Wish I watched recap before starting these two new episodes. This series really does just seem like a live action Rebels S5