Online Series: Star Wars: Ahsoka (August 23rd)

Bowski

GO LEAFS GO!
Sponsor
Jul 5, 2004
1,401
1,868
Kitchener
Zombie Stormtroopers.
The last of George Lucas' table scraps have finally been devoured by the mighty D+, and then German Scheiße'd weekly into our mouth.

Why are we as an audience made to care about any of this when the First Order obliterates all of it several continuity years down the line?
 

Dubi Doo

Registered User
Aug 27, 2008
19,387
12,880
Overall, it was a pretty good. I'd give it a solid 7.5-8/10. I think it peaked mid-season. I was really hyped, but it lost its steam a bit. I did enjoy the finale, though. There are some intriguing storylines developing.

It's going to be interesting to see how it goes from here. There's a decent chance I lose all interest. It wouldn't be the first time. Hopefully, the show hits the next level.
 

Scandale du Jour

JordanStaal#1Fan
Mar 11, 2002
62,238
28,953
Asbestos, Qc
www.angelfire.com
Zombie Stormtroopers.
The last of George Lucas' table scraps have finally been devoured by the mighty D+, and then German Scheiße'd weekly into our mouth.

Why are we as an audience made to care about any of this when the First Order obliterates all of it several continuity years down the line?
Why would people care about Anakin fighting in the Clone Wars when he ends up dying on the DEath Stars 25 years later?

Your question (and mine) makes absolutely no sense.
 

#37

Registered User
Dec 29, 2004
1,735
322
If you haven't watched this show yet, the good news is that you haven't missed anything. Though, you will find out the bad news if you try to binge watch this...

Eight episodes of boring, flat, and pointless content that lacks a payoff.

Thrawn has been turned into, quite possibly, the least interesting villain in history. Feel free to point out a less interesting villain, if you can.
 

ItsFineImFine

Registered User
Aug 11, 2019
3,538
2,265
Empty calorie TV for me. I finished it but out of a compulsion and due to the fact that it was short.

I felt everything about it was cheesy and while the dialogue tried to be serious (to a painstaking degree where they all talked slow), it was childish too. I rolled my eyes so many times like at the end where the witch suddenly becomes a masterful swordswoman. I think they tried to use a lot of action here to fill in a poor thin plot and Thrawn was pretty lame too.

Mandalorian was sometimes cheesy as well but it was more focused in its spaghetti-westernish style and the story always felt more compelling, unlike here where a central part of the story is trying to find some long lost character who the audience has never seen.
 

HanSolo

DJ Crazy Times
Apr 7, 2008
97,301
31,975
Las Vegas
Empty calorie TV for me. I finished it but out of a compulsion and due to the fact that it was short.

I felt everything about it was cheesy and while the dialogue tried to be serious (to a painstaking degree where they all talked slow), it was childish too. I rolled my eyes so many times like at the end where the witch suddenly becomes a masterful swordswoman. I think they tried to use a lot of action here to fill in a poor thin plot and Thrawn was pretty lame too.

Mandalorian was sometimes cheesy as well but it was more focused in its spaghetti-westernish style and the story always felt more compelling, unlike here where a central part of the story is trying to find some long lost character who the audience has never seen.
What do you mean suddenly?

 

Richard

Registered User
Feb 8, 2012
2,902
2,023
I just don't get how Disney doesn't get how you cannot create drama when there is nothing at stake. Why wasn't the hanger filled with Thrawns stormtroopers?

Why did no hero (again not even a lobster) get killed?

Why do we care when this is as safe and vanilla as anything I've ever seen.

Gosh, how BORING.
 

LarKing

Registered User
Sep 2, 2012
11,786
4,631
Michigan
I just don't get how Disney doesn't get how you cannot create drama when there is nothing at stake. Why wasn't the hanger filled with Thrawns stormtroopers?

Why did no hero (again not even a lobster) get killed?

Why do we care when this is as safe and vanilla as anything I've ever seen.

Gosh, how BORING.

What do you mean nothing at stake? Thrawn can now potentially start another galactic civil war in the regular galaxy.
 

Hivemind

We're Touched
Oct 8, 2010
37,096
13,612
Philadelphia
Thrawn has been turned into, quite possibly, the least interesting villain in history. Feel free to point out a less interesting villain, if you can.
I agree that this version of Thrawn in heavily watered-down and I have tons of gripes with him.

But there are plenty of even more stale, white-bread villains out there. Just look at most of the villains in the MCU, especially in the earlier phases, for example (and, somehow, the DCEU villains were even more bland CGI monsters).
 

StreetHawk

Registered User
Sep 30, 2017
26,185
9,751
Overall, it was a pretty good. I'd give it a solid 7.5-8/10. I think it peaked mid-season. I was really hyped, but it lost its steam a bit. I did enjoy the finale, though. There are some intriguing storylines developing.

It's going to be interesting to see how it goes from here. There's a decent chance I lose all interest. It wouldn't be the first time. Hopefully, the show hits the next level.
When people follow something for so long their expectations are unlikely to be met.

If you didn’t watch Rebels you probably aren’t too amazed by this series. Wished we got more Baylan and Shin. And more focus on Ashoka. Thrawn very stoic and intelligent but nothing about his presence should really inspire troops to go to the end of the moon for him. Maybe has they required the actor to be in better shape but not much you can do about the voice. It’s his voice like Bale in Batman. He’s no Kevin Conroy.
 

Bounces R Way

Registered User
Nov 18, 2013
34,275
54,184
Weegartown
Once again, this is a cartoon they made live action. You can not like that they did that, that's fair and valid, but criticizing it just for being what it is doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Cartoons mean space whales and friendly crab people and zombie stormtroopers and that there aren't a whole lot of realistic action sequences or deep thoughtful dramatically powerful dialogues. That's more or less what it set out to do.

Finale was about what I expected, although there was no X-factor Baylan plot tie in to the main plot. Not great but good enough. The fight between Ahsoka and Ellsbeth was cool, one of the most feared Star Destroyers in canon not being able to take out a couple wolves right below them was not. Imagine next season will be split between the two galaxy plots, Ahsoka and Sabine duking it out with Baylan and Shin building on the Master Apprentice relationship, and Ezra and Hera engaging Thrawn. On Thrawn, he may be a little underwhelming so far but to be fair his tactics did work. The half hour he bought himself to get out in the last episode made the difference. Sucks they basically have to recast Baylan now, wonder what the tie in to the Mortis gods is going to look like. All in all it didn't wrap everything up in a nice little bow and I'm just fine with that. There's more layers to it than you would realize just doing a cursory watch. The ScreenCrush YouTube channel did a good video on some of those layers if you're interested.

I'd give this first season a 6.5/10
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Pranzo Oltranzista

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,284
9,746
I, too, found the series unengaging and boring. I didn't care about any of the characters or what they were trying to do. Ahsoka was so low energy and lax that it felt like she wasn't taking anything seriously, and Sabine didn't seem to care about much, either, except for finding Ezra for reasons that were barely explained.

I'm not a fan of J.J. Abrams' mystery box storytelling and Filoni's admiration for it really showed in this series. Ezra was a lot like Luke in TFA (the exiled Jedi that we spend most of the show trying to find), Thrawn was like Palpatine in TRoS (the rumored dead super villain that's back from defeat and also exiled) and the star map was like the devices used to find Luke and Palpatine.

Ezra was very underwhelming. The guy who supposedly defeated the mighty Thrawn and drove much of the plot for 6 episodes ended up being a space hippy who was living happily with his turtle friends. Ahsoka wasn't sure that he was even alive, but, in the last episode, she knew that he got off of Thrawn's ship and was "home." If she could sense that he was alive and safe in episode 8, maybe she should've known that he was alive and safe in episode 1. She then could've convinced the council to take the Thrawn threat seriously because, if Ezra was alive, then Thrawn could be, as well. Also, the Ezra actor wasn't very good.

Thrawn was a cooler reveal, but ultimately wasted. He didn't really do anything to earn our respect as a villain and then did nothing but lose and run away while trying to fool himself and others into believing that he outsmarted everyone and won.

For some reason, Baylen and his apprentice didn't even factor into the finale. I looked it up and Ray Stevenson didn't die until six months after filming wrapped, so that wasn't the reason. I suppose that the explanation is that they had already done their job as mercenaries, but it's odd and not very satisfying storytelling for your primary antagonists for most of the story to just disappear before the end.

I wasn't a fan of the witches. I don't want magic (beyond the Force) in Star Wars. It just makes the Force feel less special and Star Wars more fantasy like, which isn't the direction that I want to see.

The one thing about the show that I did like was the space visuals (with the exception of the space whales). For the most part, whenever the characters weren't on screen, it looked cool.

Overall, I don't have as strong of feelings against it as with 'Boba Fett' and 'Kenobi', but that's because I didn't care about the characters or what was going on. I'd say that it's still on their level in terms of writing, acting and directing. I certainly didn't find it as entertaining as The Mandalorian or as engaging as Andor.
 
Last edited:

sdf

Registered User
Jan 23, 2015
2,236
393
Rostov on Don
I found andor kinda meh and lacking true star wars atmosphere, but everybody are excited of it, so it's scary to think what the level of shitiness this show hits if everybody say that it's suck ass
 

Hivemind

We're Touched
Oct 8, 2010
37,096
13,612
Philadelphia
Thankfully A New Hope killed off major characters like Biggs and Porkins to have real stakes.
I agree with you in principle, but you picked a poor example here. Obi Wan dies in ANH.
As opposed to the other series or movies where which main characters were killed? And why does a main character have to die for there to be stakes anyway?
I don't think people have to die in order for there to be stakes. Drama can results from all sorts of different stakes. The problem is that the primary stakes for this show are essentially set as being life-or-death, yet the show actively undercut those stakes not once, but twice, with Sabine surviving being stabbed by Shin and Ahsoka surviving her defeat against Baylan. So it's not particularly hard to see why viewers might not be entirely on-board with these life-or-death stakes in the later episodes when the writers had previously made it very obvious that the main characters wouldn't die. You can argue there are internal stakes to each character as well, but this show isn't nearly well executed enough to be a true character drama.

That being said, this isn't even close to the most offensively stake-less show in the Disney Era. That title belongs to the Obi Wan show, easily. "Leia is kidnapped!?! I wonder if she will survive?"
"Oh man, Reva abducted Luke now!?! I wonder if he's gonna be okay?"
That show was offensively bad in terms of really poorly constructed drama.
 
  • Like
Reactions: I am not exposed

HanSolo

DJ Crazy Times
Apr 7, 2008
97,301
31,975
Las Vegas
I agree with you in principle, but you picked a poor example here. Obi Wan dies in ANH.

I don't think people have to die in order for there to be stakes. Drama can results from all sorts of different stakes. The problem is that the primary stakes for this show are essentially set as being life-or-death, yet the show actively undercut those stakes not once, but twice, with Sabine surviving being stabbed by Shin and Ahsoka surviving her defeat against Baylan. So it's not particularly hard to see why viewers might not be entirely on-board with these life-or-death stakes in the later episodes when the writers had previously made it very obvious that the main characters wouldn't die. You can argue there are internal stakes to each character as well, but this show isn't nearly well executed enough to be a true character drama.

That being said, this isn't even close to the most offensively stake-less show in the Disney Era. That title belongs to the Obi Wan show, easily. "Leia is kidnapped!?! I wonder if she will survive?"
"Oh man, Reva abducted Luke now!?! I wonder if he's gonna be okay?"
That show was offensively bad in terms of really poorly constructed drama.
Yeah that's true. I guess I view that death as less of a loss because it was practically intended by Obi Wan that doesn't create dramatic stakes as much as it serves as a formative experience for the protagonist.
 

kingsfan28

Its A Kingspiracy !
Feb 27, 2005
39,871
8,916
Corsi Hill
The fanboys are really upset because their savior Faloni didn't create the version THEY all thought up in their heads. Who couldn't have predicted that? Zombie stormtrooper, really? How about just cutting them all in half instead of some badly designed fight that ended in one lame beheading. And with Ezra just leaving his helmet on, trying to build up tension just to reunite him with Chopper in the final scene fell totally flat. Sorry Dave, that was weak.
 

Pranzo Oltranzista

Registered User
Oct 18, 2017
3,843
2,704
Once again, this is a cartoon they made live action. You can not like that they did that, that's fair and valid, but criticizing it just for being what it is doesn't make a lot of sense to me. That means space whales and friendly crab people and zombie stormtroopers and that there aren't a whole lot of realistic action sequences or deep thoughtful dramatically powerful dialogues. That's more or less what it set out to do.
Don't forget about the creep who keeps asking for more sex in Star Wars...
 

trojansoilers

Registered User
May 4, 2022
231
313
I was watching the Netflix One Piece the other day and thought the guy who played Garp looks a bit similar to Ray Stevenson
VincentRegan.jpg

They can explain that Baylon got injured while looking for whatever he was looking for and give him a half mask like Malak, Malgus, and Arcann from the Old Republic series so the difference isn’t so obvious.

Or go full mask like Vader, Starkiller, or Kylo Ren
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad