Ahsoka

⭐ 5.0/10

(Originally written by Tim)

It's not a hot take to say that Star Wars is struggling, but here I am, watching another Star Wars show. Jess and I both really love Rebels, the animated show, and this is basically the continuation of where that show ended. It ended with quite a cliffhanger, so it should be easy to make a satisfying next season, but this sucked.

I feel like this show tried to be like Andor, which is the only good Star Wars show. The opening episodes are so slow and methodical, and seem to try to emphasize world building. Well I hate to break it to Dave Filoni but drawn out shots and serious characters is not what makes that show good. The first two episodes are so forgettable, and any time they try to pull in politics it is so lame. A meanie senator not believing what we know to be true, oh no! I actually think this series would have been a lot better if it had been condensed.

Seeing animated characters in live action is fun, even if Hera looks kinda funny, and I thought Ezra and Sabine were actually pretty good. But this show takes interesting characters and shoves them into the master/apprentice mold we have seen a million times. Sabine has tons of unique traits, does she need to be a jedi to have a good show? They seem to think so. The titular character is so uninteresting, and shows so little emotion. Do all jedi need to be stoic? Her main plot is fighting Anakin because Star Wars is obsessed with him and the fans lose their minds when he shows up. Does it matter at all that he is, I don't know, dead, and him showing up doesn't progress the story at all or give Ahsoka anything new? We have seen all this before, and if fans just want to see animated characters in real life go use AI imaging. I was just rolling my eyes through every episode.

Well, I will say I actually enjoyed the finale, because the action was pretty cool. There was a part in the finale where it is "revealed" why Ahsoka started training Sabine then stopped (all of which happens before the show and we don't see). They play it like this big moment, but you know what would have been cool? Actually seeing that! What Ahsoka says in that 1 sentence would have been a way more interesting show that this fan-service machine.

Here I am, classic angry Star Wars fan. If Andor wasn't so good I would have nothing to complain about. There is just such a large divide between what they think makes good Star Wars and what is actually compelling. I like that Hayden gets to cash another cheque, but honestly get AI to write the next show, it would probably be more inspired than this.