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of course they didn't bring back the best character from those earlier series |
Normally I don't write about this kind of topic, but it has been interesting catching up on some Star Wars background related to watching the new Ahsoka series. The main background is two cartoon series, Clone Wars and Rebels, beyond a lot of other books and such.
I never did review earlier related content when watching the other shows (Mandalorian, Obi-Wan, Boba Fett), even though the broader Star Wars story lines relate to those stories and characters too. I'm temporarily living in a different part of the world than my kids just now, so catching older Star Wars content works out. I'm running a lot too, and meditating, but still there are some extra quiet hours.
Youtube channels cover how individual characters or story components relate to what is being told week to week now, so I don't really plan to duplicate that. I'll just pass on some thoughts and background, so that someone who has mostly only ever seen the 9 movies--10 or 11?; maybe something like Solo doesn't count--and limited tv show series content can better place Ahsoka themes. More than for those other series the background enters in as relevant.
To place how much one could appreciate the show with no awareness of earlier related story lines it works to consider what it would be like watching Return of the Jedi without seeing the original two movies (#4 and 5 in that series, now). It's fine, it stands alone, but it would lose a lot of story-value impact for dropping out all the earlier story line and character development.
Ahsoka seems a little different because they really emphasize dramatic beats that are almost entirely cross-references, so pacing and meaning would seem odd if you watched it without knowing who Ahsoka even is. She was briefly in a couple of Mandalorian episodes but that didn't describe cover her background. They're not exactly getting her character right, but then since in earlier cartoon shows she was 13 or 14 or so and now maybe on towards 40 she would be different. That's part what I will cover, what works and what doesn't.
Is it good?
Let's start there; yes and no.
Yes: if you are really into Star Wars and watched a good bit of The Clone Wars and Rebels (series), or if you've just liked all of the series on Disney+. Never mind liking all the movies; after the first 3 the rest were hit and miss. Ahsoka characters and story extend most directly from the Clone Wars and Rebels series, with the latter series slightly better than the Clone Wars, I thought.
No: it's not too "woke" to be ok, pushing some agenda, but if you thought the other Disney+ series didn't tell great stories or build characters effectively, and you aren't already familiar with these ones, you should probably pass on this one too. It's much more interesting based on the earlier story development, and these characters are fairly one-dimensional, at best.
Ahsoka was a more compelling, personable, and dynamic character in the other two cartoon series; it just is what it is. Rosario Dawson delivers her lines so, so slowly, I guess mimicking the serious demeanor of the older Obi-Wan character (the Alec Guiness version). It doesn't work.
What should you watch to catch up?
Youtube fan channels tend to suggest a half dozen specific Clone Wars and Rebels episodes; catching one of those and watching what they say to would work. That's if you subscribe to Disney+; I don't think it's worth it otherwise, but then you wouldn't have access to this Ahsoka series either without that. Just catching the very last Rebels episode is probably enough (or maybe that was in two parts?; they often are).
There is a Clone Wars cartoon movie; if cartoons are of interest that's probably a shorter and more integrated story, easier to catch up on than watching a few dozen short episodes. The end of the Clone Wars series tells the story of Anakin's change to becoming Darth Vader from a different perspective, very indirectly, but to me it was almost more moving than the live action "Attack of Clones" direct story.
Skipping the Mandalorian episodes Ahsoka is in makes sense; she isn't developed at all in those. Maul--formerly Darth Maul, later just Maul--is the most compelling character in both cartoon series, but he's not around in the Ahsoka show time-frame. Anyone going back to watch just a little of all of it might catch only what he is in, and the two Mortis Gods related episodes, and the relative end of Rebels where Ezra visited the World Between Worlds (I think it was).
The main characters carrying over, Ahsoka and Sabine, and later Thrawn and Ezra, are different enough that catching a lot of Rebels would be overkill. Those Youtube commentary channel content producers would say that you really need to understand who Thrawn is, and the witches (Night Sisters), but catching only the last Rebels episode covers Thrawn, and there's no need to sort out the Night Sisters, since they barely do anything in Ahsoka. To me that was quite interesting background, so I'd recommend it for other reasons, if watching cartoons works for someone.
What gets extended, beyond those earlier shows
Most of the show content is about new directions. There is earlier "expanded universe" Star Wars content in the forms of other cartoons, books, video games, and whatever else, and surely parts of all that relates more directly than Rebels or Clone Wars. Since the main characters all were in Rebels (Ahsoka, Sabine, Ezra, Thrawn, and earlier on Hera) their intro is there; I mean related to where the story goes after the first couple of episodes.
Baylan is more or less a grey Jedi, it would seem, or perhaps dark Jedi (the extra categories get confusing), one turned away from the most positive "light side of the Force" range. He is probably the main character addition, but since that actor (Ray Stevenson) died since filming not one that will probably continue on. Morgan is a "Night Sister," a witch, and others turn up. The range of their magical abilities varies; they can shoot energy blasts, make up some sort of force shield, enhance others' powers, and extended the furthest they can raise the dead as zombies. It all works better than it sounds. The plot in this show will determine what they need to be able to do, which isn't too much until the end.
Most of the first half of the season is build-up; they visited where Thrawn (the bad-guy Empire military leader) was transported with Ezra, a Jedi in training. What is going on in that place is only hinted at in the first episode there. Star Wars, and Marvel and other series, tend to all often commit the error of using most of the season to build up a solid, compelling story base, and then conclude that in two episodes at the end, speeding pace of progression tenfold. Looking back half of what happens in the first third of the shows is filler, directionless content that sets up the world and characters but should've done so faster.
On to the series conclusion (with some spoilers)
They did finally wrap up initial intro and build-up in episode 7, finally re-uniting the main characters, and all that was left is for them all to return back to where they started in the 8th and last episode. That's really the core of the plot: Thrawn and Ezra, the main antagonist and protagonist in Rebels, were relocated to a distant place at the end of that series, resolving Thrawn's initiative to end the rebellion, and this whole series is about them coming back, with anyone getting left behind as a starting point for later.
As to limitations or problems the story lines with Baylan and Shin just drop. They must have cut out a lot related to the actor not being around to continue the role, since he died after filming, but it still just completely hangs at the end.
Half of what happened in the 8 part series happened in the last two episodes, and it wasn't all that much. All the main characters only met each other in #7. For people who have been following these story lines for the last 17 years, or whatever it has been, with related books out since the 80s, every cross-reference and hint at a new direction could be meaningful and much appreciated, but for anyone else it would just seem slow.
I've watched all of the movies, Clone Wars and Rebels, and every Star Wars show (so I guess I'm a fan?), but for me the shows need to actually move a story along more, they can't just reference old ideas and hint at what might follow. It was nice seeing Hayden Christianson fill in some largely unnecessary scenes as Anakin; that worked, even though it is only a reference, not an actual part of the story plot. If you go back and watch every two-part episode of the Clone Wars and Rebels cartoon series more happened in every one of those than this entire show series.
Does this work to re-start new Star Wars direction?
I think so. The earlier Mandalorian, Boba Fett, Obiwan, and Andor weren't set up to do that, although Mandalorian comes the closest, by far. It's problematic that they're telling stories mixed within different parts of the timeline, so that Andor leads directly to Rogue One, but stops there (kind of; there is plenty of gap to add a couple more series in between). Here's that timeline order (listed in references like this one):
- Episode I: The Phantom Menace
- Episode II: Attack of the Clones
- The Clone Wars (TV show and movie)
- Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- Bad Batch
- Solo: A Star Wars Story
- Obi-Wan Kenobi
- Star Wars Rebels
- Andor
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
- Episode IV: A New Hope
- Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
- Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
- The Mandalorian
- The Book of Boba Fett
- Star Wars Resistance
- Episode VII: The Force Awakens
- Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
- Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
So Ahsoka is after Rebels, and even after Return of the Jedi, after the Empire was defeated. Probably Star Wars channels could place it better in relation to the Mandalorian and Boba Fett, or maybe there aren't enough timetable markers in the movie to make that clear.
Since the last three movies were so badly received that throws off developing the most natural themes, going later than all of it. Starting well before the prequels is possible. Folding in completely different scope is the most natural direction, as Clone Wars and Rebels did, adding Night Sisters, Maul, and Mortis Gods story lines, or linking to pre-history, which the entire other location in Ahsoka points towards. It looks like there's a time-gap between 13 and 14 on that list.
They had really set up Baylan, the character based on the actor that died, as the next main center of that story line, so they'll need to work out a story shift to account for that, or re-cast the role, which Star Wars tends not to do. Obiwan was played by two actors, but in different parts of the character's life, and the Baylan Skoll character was already old. They could make him young again, a Gandalf returning from death sort of theme, but radically changing the rules to the universe in the sequels is part of what fans hated. They should probably bring back Mark Hamill as a grey Jedi, later on, while he is still around; that could all link together, and back-story leaps that actually work would be better accepted.
Ahsoka would've worked better as its own series, standing alone, if it was made to actually do that, to tell a unique and distinct story. Since it only carried forward the last stopping point and introduced new directions it was ok for that. It limits the potential audience, since it wasn't an interesting enough stand-alone story to work as that for people who have only seen the nine main movies (or 10 or 11; however you count them).
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