“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…?
Heroes and Aliens 