Review of Ahsoka, Season 1

“Once a rebel, always a rebel.” — Gen. Hera Syndulla

With the recent finale of the first season of “Ahsoka”, it is time to review this latest streaming offering from the Star Wars Universe.

As I believe I have previously mentioned, I have yet to watch “The Clone Wars” or “Star Wars Rebels” animated series. So, other than skimming parts of Ahsoka’s entry at Wookieepedia, I have little background knowledge of the character outside of her recent live-action appearances. This puts me at a disadvantage, of course, since I’m not all that familiar with her personal history, relationships with other characters, traumas and other experiences, etc.

So, it feels like I’m going into this review with one arm tied behind my back, and maybe one eye missing, as well. Nevertheless, I’ll try to make a few worthwhile comments…

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

Casting: Dave Filoni was right to pursue Rosario Dawson for the central role, especially after she had expressed her interest publicly. She did a great job, though the character was occasionally annoying to me. Getting Lars Mikkelsen to reprise his role (after voicing Thrawn in “Rebels”) was considered a bit of a coup, and it certainly gave some continuity to the franchise. His strength is in playing Thrawn’s seeming unflappability and always being in control. However, based on my reading in “The Thrawn Trilogy”, I expected the character to be more intimidating and with a stronger sense of menace under the surface.

The rest of the roles seem to have been cast very well, though I’m hardly the person to comment on faithfulness to the physical appearances and personalities of previously established characters (e.g., Sabine Wren, Hera Syndulla, Ezra Bridger). I enjoyed seeing Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll, even though I was left a bit confused by a few of his character’s actions and intentions. (It will be interesting to see who they get to replace the late Stevenson should a second season be produced.) Shin Hati proved to be one dangerous young “lady”, and I hope we find out more about her in the future. Ivanna Sakhno’s acting, on the other hand, seemed a bit stiff. (Maybe that’s just the character?)

It was fun to see Captain Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) return in supporting roles. David Tennant’s voicing (and mo-cap?) for Huyang was great, and his interaction with Ahsoka and Sabine was a lot of fun. (I didn’t realize he also voiced Huyang in two episodes of “The Clone Wars”.) Even Mark Rolston and Clancy Brown got cameos! And Wes Chatham (“The Expanse”) got to play Thrawn’s right-hand man, Captain Enoch. (Cool character!) Claudia Black’s role as one of the witches was fine, though I’m not a huge fan of hers, so it wasn’t as big a deal for me as for some others. Diana Lee Inosanto returned as Morgan Elsbeth, too, but I disliked the character — not just because she was in league with Thrawn — and was happy to see Ahsoka finally kill her. (Not before she got to show off some fine work with the sword, though.)

Writing: The writing was… OK. I don’t know if I can put my finger on why, but it seemed a bit uneven. There was a decent plot and some cool action scenes, yet it just didn’t hold the sense of wonder that most Star Wars material does. (Same could be said of some writing in recent SW films and other SW series, to be honest.) Part of it may be because of my unfamiliarity with much of the characters’ histories. Otoh, while I made a point of not reading other articles on the subject, I heard/saw enough to know that I’m not the only one expressing disappointment in this area.

Sights & Sounds: For the most part, the visuals were quite good — from desolate planetary landscapes and the creatures that inhabit them to spaceships and those cool space-whales. VFX for weapons was pretty good, but the fight choreography was occasionally a little lame. I note that the “Ahsoka” music has certain notes and other characteristics in common with “The Mandalorian”, yet different. It was nice but not memorable/notable. (The theme music for “The Mandalorian” is the only one that sticks with me, really.)

Miscellaneous: There were a few instances during the series which made me wonder why a certain character did something foolish or didn’t do something that seemed to make better sense or how someone knew a particular thing. But, rather than harp on that stuff, I’ll stick to the following…

1) Sabine was obviously out of practice re her Jedi skills for most of the series, so how did she level-up so quickly in the final two episodes?! Ezra, on the other hand, must have kept in practice during his years on that far-away planet. He kicked some serious butt!

2) Which will be a bigger hit as the cute critter of the series: Sabine’s Loth-cat (who hopefully won’t starve to death in her absence)? Or the snail people?

3) Huyang’s got some combat moves of his own! (Have we seen two droids punching it out before?)

4) I wasn’t thrilled with — even a bit disappointed in — the Ahsoka and/vs. Anakin in the World Between Worlds scenes. But, at least we got to see & hear some of their shared history, etc.

5) Why would a story from the multi-volume History of the Galaxy begin “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”? I recognize the A New Hope scroll connection (and the title of episode 6 of “Ahsoka”), of course, but this makes no sense unless part of the “home” galaxy itself — i.e., where most of the Star Wars stories take place — and/or significant people within it somehow began in a distant galaxy.

6) How is it that people like Sabine and Ahsoka automatically know how to ride whatever semi-domesticated beast they need on whatever planet they are on? (Similar issue on other SW and non-SW shows, e.g., main characters on “Fear the Walking Dead” just happen to know how to ride a horse.) Same question regarding knowing how to pilot a ship, regardless of its design or planet of origin.

7) I understand Mon Mothma and others’ reluctance to accept without more concrete evidence that holdouts from the Empire pose a threat or that Thrawn might be returning. But, I also have to wonder if Sen. Xiono has ulterior motives for being such a stubborn jerk about the whole thing.

Overall, I really wanted to like the “Ahsoka” series more, but I can only say it was OK. Maybe a second season will be better…?

Review of The Mandalorian, Season 2

Grogu, Mando, Dune

Given all the controversy surrounding Pedro Pascal (supposedly walking out) and Gina Carano (and her non-PC views), along with rumors that some episodes would focus on characters other than the titular star (the Mandalorian, aka Din Djarin), I was expecting a rather “uneven” season. But, I am pleased to report that that doesn’t seem to be the case. Also, despite a few notable guest-stars, there were no episodes in which the Mandalorian didn’t figure as the central protagonist.

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!

Carano was back as tough-as-nails Cara Dune, a major player and ally to our hero. Giancarlo Esposito returned (as expected) as the primary villain, Moff Gideon, but he didn’t have quite as much screen time as I thought he would. More than Carl Weathers did, though, since Greef Karga was only in one episode this season. It was fun to see Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris) and her repair droids again, as they appeared (however briefly) in two episodes this season, as did Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi). Even the imprisoned Mayfeld (Bill Burr) managed to join the “team” for an episode, and I’m actually starting to like him. Surprisingly, Ming-Na Wen returned as Fennec Shand for three episodes; plus, it appears we will be seeing more of her in “The Book of Boba Fett” spinoff series. Yesss!

The Child (aka “Baby Yoda”) was back, of course, and as cute as ever. We now know that his name is actually ‘Grogu’, which is certainly helpful. But, his continuing role in “The Mandalorian” is in question. The reason for this, however, is very cool, as seen in the terrific season finale.

Now for the characters new to the show…

Mando and Bo-Katan

I liked seeing Timothy Olyphant appear as Cobb Vanth (aka Marshal of Mos Pelgo), a character I was not familiar with — not having read the Aftermath trilogy novels — but whom I ended up liking. I hadn’t seen Olyphant in anything since I finished the “Justified” series a few years ago, and it was good to see him as another sort of “Western” lawman. I also enjoyed the Tusken Raiders and finally getting to see/”experience” a ginormous Krayt dragon on-screen. Of course, Vanth’s use of the Mandalorian armor — which happened to have been Boba Fett’s — led to later story developments.

Since I never watched the animated Star Wars series, Bo-Katan Kryze and Ahsoka Tano are new characters for me — though, of course, I have heard of them before. But, it was still a thrill for me to see these fan-favorite characters show up “in the flesh” in “The Mandalorian”. I understand that they were pretty true to the originals, too. Of course, Katee Sackhoff has been doing Bo-Katan’s voice in “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels”, and I think she did a fine job here, too. As for Ahsoka, Rosario Dawson had campaigned to play the live version, got the role, and she didn’t let Lucasfilm/Disney or the fans down. She looked great and obviously trained for the lightsaber fighting scenes. And it looks like she’s getting her own Disney+ series, too! The fact that I have enjoyed Sackhoff and Dawson in other genre series, too, made their appearances here all the more special.

The characters of Magistrate Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) and Lang (Michael Biehn) made for decent minor villains. It is unclear whether or not Ahsoka killed Elsbeth or what the latter may have told her about her master, Grand Admiral Thrawn. I understand that they were created for this series, but the connection to Thrawn (from the old SW novels and animated series) is intriguing. Regardless of whether Elsbeth shows up again down the line, it seems likely that the Ahsoka Tano series will focus on her “business” with Thrawn.

Boba Fett in & out of armor

I think it was a great idea to bring back the presumed-dead Boba Fett. He’s a bit older and worse for wear, of course, but he still kicks butt! (Plus, he has the aforementioned Fennec Shand riding shotgun.) The fact that Temuera Morrison (who played Boba’s clone father, Jango Fett) has jumped into the role makes it all the better. I saw a brief behind-the-scenes vid that explained how he was able to adapt some traditional Maori fighting moves into Fett’s style, and at his request they made a Maori-like staff weapon for him. Cool!

What can be said that hasn’t already been about the epic season finale and Luke Skywalker’s rescue of our trapped heroes and taking Grogu off for some proper Jedi training? (I had heard or read something about a clue that Luke had made contact in the images at the Seeing Stone, but I couldn’t see anything to that effect.) The whole episode was really good, as the team executed their infiltration plan onto Gideon’s ship. Great gun battles (as in earlier episodes), and the scenes with the Dark Troopers and with Gideon were particularly good! But, when Luke showed up out of nowhere and just devastated the entire platoon of Dark Trooper droids? Awesome!

Overall, I enjoyed this season at least as much as the first. I was pleased that the ongoing plot continued smoothly, with even side-missions connecting to and moving the story along. The usual moments of humor injected here and there helped to balance the more dire, stress-filled scenes. The fantastic visual F/X and soundtrack also maintained their superior quality, making each episode feel almost like a mini-movie. (See my review of Season 1 for more about the music and concept art.)

A few questions and observations:

• Was anyone else puzzled that neither Mando nor the frog-lady seemed concerned about the Child eating some of her young? I mean, that is a sapient creature consuming other sapient creatures, which is at least a form of cannibalism. It was done in a cute/funny way, but it’s actually rather sick, when you think about it.
• Interesting twist to the Mandalorian lore, learning that Mando was raised as part of “The Watch”, a fundamentalist “cult” trying to re-establish the ways of ancient Mandalorian society.
• Mando was so bad at answering Valin Hess’s questions. Mayfeld was a little better, but the two of them still acted suspiciously. Knowing what they were walking into, they should have had at least a basic plan of what to say and how to act if they were confronted or otherwise needed to improvise.

Ahsoka Tano and Grogu

• What happened to Dr. Pershing? I’m assuming that he was on Fett’s ship when he “escaped” Gideon, and I’m assuming Fett didn’t want to keep him around when he and Fennec went back to Tatooine. Would Fett have killed Pershing?
• What will our heroes do with Gideon? Also, who is Gideon’s superior? Thrawn? A Sith-lord?
• They are going to have to be pretty creative to work around the requirement for who can wield the Dark Saber, since I’m guessing it has to be won in a real battle and not a mock battle or one for sport. Does it have to be to the death?
• Will Mando get a new “mission”? How will he get a new ship? Not like he can afford to buy one. Unless, of course, he becomes the new ruler of Mandalore….
• Then, of course, there is the matter of Grogu’s training and whether or not we’ll see him again. Maybe Luke will need to go on a mission of his own and ask Din Djarin to babysit? 😉

My only real gripe is that several episodes in both seasons were under 40 minutes, the shortest being under 32 minutes! With so many “cable”/streaming series having episodes typically in the 48-60+ minute range, I really wish “The Mandalorian” had a minimum length in the 40+ minute range like most TV series these days. But, given the enormous per-episode costs for this series and the terrific quality they are putting out, I really can’t complain too much.

With all of the new Star Wars series being developed, we may have to wait a little longer than before for the next season of “The Mandalorian”. But, if the others are as entertaining and high-quality, I can deal with that. 🙂