Ahsoka TV series!

[alhoon]

Ahsoka is getting her TV series pretty soon. I try to keep my enthusiasm in check so that I wouldn't be disappointed, but it's not easy. I am a big fan of Ahsoka for the past 15 years.
Rosario Dawson looks sooo much like Ahsoka that it is a perfect casting. Unlike my other favorites (like Bo Katan), Dawson is also at the age that Ahsoka would be. And since Ahsoka is not a human they could have used different ages. I will always treasure Eckstein for the "voice of Ahsoka" but Dawson is a much more well known actress on top of looking exactly like Ahsoka.
Another favorite of mine is Sabine, from Rebels. There the casting was a bit less on-target IMO, but still I don't mind.

Now, that said, I am kinda worried by all the "signs" that people need to have watched Clone Wars and Rebels to properly follow the new show. I know many that haven't. Some recent movies and series have made a good impression by being appealing to both newcomers and hardcore fans. But... Mandalorian Season 3 kinda had its first 2 episodes in the book of Bobba Fett...

So we will see.

[conon394]

Interesting watched the clone wars some of Rebels but skipped the Mandalorian so I guess I'mm issing something last I saw the temple collapsed only Vader walked away... but so she survived?

[Pinarius]

I misread that as"Ashoka".

[alhoon]

Interesting watched the clone wars some of Rebels but skipped the Mandalorian so I guess I'mm issing something last I saw the temple collapsed only Vader walked away... but so she survived?

That episode shows Ashoka hiding in the ruins of the temple. Ezra saved her in some surrealistic sequence.

[Dismounted Feudal Knight]

For the sake of people who like her character I hope it's good, but I've honestly always considered her a shoehorned fan character who never quite fit and so I'm rather biased from the start. If it is in fact contingent on having watched other stuff for it to stand up properly then it's already lost on that front too, but I can't judge that one as I don't see the signs hinted here.

[conon394]

For the sake of people who like her character I hope it's good, but I've honestly always considered her a shoehorned fan character who never quite fit and so I'm rather biased from the start. If it is in fact contingent on having watched other stuff for it to stand up properly then it's already lost on that front too, but I can't judge that one as I don't see the signs hinted here.

I don't I think works out pretty important in clone wars. Her closes to anakin means the Jedi order turning on her so easily, and than her walking a leaving him alone is some good back story for seeing Anakin fall so quickly when he is sort of left alone with Palatine.

[Halie Satanus]

Maybe there's just too much Star Wars at the moment. It doesn't help that the quality, story wise, has been all over the place. Kenobi was terrible, Book of Boba meh, Andor was good, Mandalorian, brilliant in parts, meh in others.
This might just be a step too far.

[conon394]

Not a bad point. Its not people are going to forget the franchise overnight or something.

[alhoon]

For the sake of people who like her character I hope it's good, but I've honestly always considered her a shoehorned fan character who never quite fit and so I'm rather biased from the start. If it is in fact contingent on having watched other stuff for it to stand up properly then it's already lost on that front too, but I can't judge that one as I don't see the signs hinted here.

Dude, that's like saying "If Star wars movie III is contingent on having waving watched movie II, in order to know who Padme is..."
The series builds on Ashoka. It also builds on Sabine, Hera, etc. It builds on ~15 years of movies and easily 30 hours of material. Ahsoka was not in the "main" movies but is one of the most well received characters from the canon.

Maybe there's just too much Star Wars at the moment. It doesn't help that the quality, story wise, has been all over the place. Kenobi was terrible, Book of Boba meh, Andor was good, Mandalorian, brilliant in parts, meh in others.
This might just be a step too far.

Oh come on, Kenobi was not good but it was not "terrible". It was meh. The book of Boba Fett was meh in parts and good in others - especially the hidden Mandalorian episodes that Bobba Fett doesn't play a single minute in.

[conon394]

Oh come on, Kenobi was not good but it was not "terrible". It was meh

I would differ is was bad. Breaking continuality with Kenobi hanging about with the little princess, the Darth fights and Luke almost being butchered by a force user... More or less stupid. A story of Kenobi loosing and then regaining his faith could have happened without any of that. And would have explained why he was secretly training luke from a young age the way the Jedi believed was the proper way to do it.

[alhoon]

Watching The first episode... I love it so far.
I don't get why the "meh" reaction from some critics. This gives me major rebel vibes so far. It could have been an episode of Rebels (a good one) if it was during the rebellion. Well, judging by the size of these episodes, two episodes each.

The only sliiight issue I have, so far, is that it is a bit more slow-paced that Rebels episodes that were 21 mins. But the scenery is beautiful so I don't mind if a scene goes a minute longer than it should.

What is not an issue for the show but does throw me off is... how much Dawson looks like Ahsoka, although she has actress expressions that I was not used to see. She kinda talks like Ahsoka too despite being like 15 years older than the least time we saw Ahsoka.
All in all the similarity is so great that it is kinda feels strange. This is not "someone playing Ahsoka", this is "Ahsoka with different expressions and slightly more mature dialogue, although she jumps around less".

slight spoilers:

If there's a shift that took me by surprise is the change of Sabine. So far (half the episode) people drop strong hints she may be a force sensitive. Another surprise Ezra in a recorded message says he sees Sabine as a sister... when he was hitting on her for like the first 3 seasons of Rebels. Although by the final two seasons they indeed seem to fall into more of a sibling relationship.
Considering I always thought Sabine was ... playing for the other team, I like that. In season 2? 3? of rebels there was a Mandalorian woman that I always thought Sabine had a thing for. I don't remember her name, but with my sister we always referred to her as "Sabine's girlfriend".


EDIT: Loved episode 1, I don't understand why some critics consider it "meh". Of course I haven't read the negative reviews nor I will till I watch the 2nd one to avoid spoilers

=====================

Episode 2:
I am getting more used to Ashoka looking like Ahsoka with different facial expressions and voice. And I do see some changes like I expected to see in how a 40+ years old veteran would act compared to a 25-years old agent-on-the-run: Less patience for foolishness.

[conon394]

I enjoyed the first two episodes. Better than Old Ben for certain. But have to admit to be spoty on cannon for the post rebellion wins and rebels so ... upsot is I got no criticisms like I do for Kenobi that said one quibble...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Given how given easily Asoka handled an inquisitor in Stories sans a light saber seems like she should have been able to knock off both the droid and the (ex?) inquisitor and still loose the ship - although given the end of clone wars should have at least tried a force pull on that I would think. I dunno maybe she pulls and is winning but inquisitor guy seeming knocked out iterfers and that is whacked? Or at least graped his light saber

[alhoon]

I do not agree that something Ashoka did in the past would equally translate to the situation you present.
More specifically:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That inquisitor, or that person acting like an inquisitor, may have been better combatant than the other one. Furthermore, the presence of the droid should not be underestimated IMO.
Last but not least, force pull a gun is easier than force-pulling an inquisitor from a spaceship. And while Ezra was able to move large LARGE things in Rebels, Ashoka ... not so much. Sure, she pushed Ezra through a door, but I wouldn't consider that enough. She is better in the "Softer" side of the force, like her connection to Anakin and the nightmares she had before his fall, or sensing things like she does on the battlesite between Sabine and that other girl.
Ezra was, as far as I recall, the best in taking control creatures. Including the space whales, that huge, HUGE bat and coming into contact with Bentu and the wolves etc.

Anyway, back to Ahsoka not pulling or pushing the guy off the ramp:
Honestly, she may have simply not thought about it. It is not like it's not possible to make a mistake and pick a suboptimal choice in a two-second opportunity and lose your (very short) window.

As a note: Poor Sabine seems to be, as that droid put it... scrapping the barrel. She is not force-sensitive enough to have been made a Jedi during the Old Republic. And in the 10+ years since she had some real fight with a lightsaber, her skills with it seem to have deteriorated.


EDIT:
So, I have been thinking. There's a bunch of new characters we know very little about and all sound interesting. There's also a returning villain from Mandalorian raised from 1-episode-villain to major antagonist.

I think either ep 3 or ep 4 will be slower and contain an info-dump on those characters as well as explore Sabine's and Ashoka's post-Rebels past.

And some thoughts, with modest spoilers:
Morgan is a Dathomiri Witch. Dathomiri Witches were wiped out by General Grevious - under orders from Count Dooku. I doubt the Empire was any softer on whatever remained of the Dathomiri witches than they have been to any other force sensitive - i.e. they were probably marked for extermination or subjugation.
And yet, Morgan worked for the Empire?! And wants to help bring Thrawn back? Interesting.

Thus, I suspect either:
- Morgan is not aware that the Emperor is co-responsible for wiping out the Dathomiri witches.
- She doesn't put Dooku's, Grevious and Palpantine's crimes on Thrawn who for all we know, may have protected her.
- She wants to bring Thrawn back just to betray and kill him.

About the new Dark Jedi...
Sure, sure they are not the good guys. But so far, they don't act that bad either. The way the older guy (I forget his name) puts it, they are mercenaries doing a job. They kill some soldiers (and a gal with a lightsaber) that get in their way as part of the job. The old guy even seemed reluctant to kill Ahsoka unless she gets in their way. All in all... they are antagonists for sure, but at least from what we have seen so far I wouldn't call them evil.

[Kyriakos]

I am not interested if this doesn't have the Holdo maneuver

[Halie Satanus]

First two were okay, these things live or die on the quality of the bad guy. Much as I have a love for Ray Stevenson (RIP), as per Star Wars tradition, baddies who show themselves early don't tend to fair well. I'll reserve judgment for when things heat up...

[alhoon]

First two were okay, these things live or die on the quality of the bad guy. Much as I have a love for Ray Stevenson (RIP), as per Star Wars tradition, baddies who show themselves early don't tend to fair well. I'll reserve judgment for when things heat up...

As I said, I am pretty sure those "dark Jedi" are not the bad guys. They are antagonists, but honestly, they seem more reasonable than most of the mercenaries we've seen. They were hired to do a job. They are not bullies or cruel and they did try to avoid bloodshed when they went to save Morgan.
Sure, they don't see violence as "last resort" but they don't use violence as the first approach either.

Morgan is a villain, at least so far. These two... antagonists. So far. The young one seems less level-headed than the old guy but again: These two are much better than your run-of-the-mill mercenary or pirate.

[Lord of the Drunk Penguin]

I like the Maximilian pattern helmet on the Inquisitor.
I have no love or attachment for the good guys in this.
May the Dark Side win!

Also, am I the only one who can actually understand Chop?
I hit pause a couple of times but I could really understand what it's saying.

[alhoon]

Episode 3 is a bit short. I honestly suggest to people to wait for episode 4 and watch them together to get a good experience.
If you worry about reading spoilers in the internet, don't be worried. For starters, learn to not read spoilers on the internet. Then, keep in mind that while the episode is good it has no real upsets.

Ahsoka and Sabine need to start playing on each other's strengths. They don't work badly together but they divide tasks in a suboptimal way in the first part of the episode till they finally do what they are good in doing and leave the other woman do what she's good in doing.

This episode does not require to have watched Rebels, but it is clearly meant for people that have watched Rebels. As I said, the women do things suboptimaly at first and if you know Ahsoka and Sabine you would go "Eh... that could be better the other way around". And you would be right as they find out.

[conon394]

Episode 3 is a bit short. I honestly suggest to people to wait for episode 4 and watch them together to get a good experience.
If you worry about reading spoilers in the internet, don't be worried. For starters, learn to not read spoilers on the internet. Then, keep in mind that while the episode is good it has no real upsets.

Ahsoka and Sabine need to start playing on each other's strengths. They don't work badly together but they divide tasks in a suboptimal way in the first part of the episode till they finally do what they are good in doing and leave the other woman do what she's good in doing.

This episode does not require to have watched Rebels, but it is clearly meant for people that have watched Rebels. As I said, the women do things suboptimaly at first and if you know Ahsoka and Sabine you would go "Eh... that could be better the other way around". And you would be right as they find out.

"This episode does not require to have watched Rebels"

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Possibly not but my glory days of playing X wing and Tie fighter during graduate school and RA-ing after tell me six fighters can take out a transport unless rebels tells me it is super bad ass. And if can survive 6 fighters than a few slow as f tubo lasers that won't matter and an ex- jedi should be able to fly better than me and more or less avoid them. Particularly without having to manipulate energy between shied and trust with no fighters following you... IN any case sure the fighter look no better than a tie fighter or tie interceptor in terms of no shields but Asoka ship absorbs a crap ton of hits not misses more than I would recon it would survive. I mean I'm now just old guy ranting but what killed me in trying to a sensor pass on a star destroyer in the Lucasfilm's games was trying to stay fast enough to doge the tubo laser fire and sill keep by rear shields up because of annoying tie fighters following me. Seemed a bit weak to have the fighter turn away.

[alhoon]

"This episode does not require to have watched Rebels"

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Possibly not but my glory days of playing X wing and Tie fighter during graduate school and RA-ing after tell me six fighters can take out a transport unless rebels tells me it is super bad ass. And if can survive 6 fighters than a few slow as f tubo lasers that won't matter and an ex- jedi should be able to fly better than me and more or less avoid them. Particularly without having to manipulate energy between shied and trust with no fighters following you... IN any case sure the fighter look no better than a tie fighter or tie interceptor in terms of no shields but Asoka ship absorbs a crap ton of hits not misses more than I would recon it would survive. I mean I'm now just old guy ranting but what killed me in trying to a sensor pass on a star destroyer in the Lucasfilm's games was trying to stay fast enough to doge the tubo laser fire and sill keep by rear shields up because of annoying tie fighters following me. Seemed a bit weak to have the fighter turn away.

Yeaaah about that. I haven't played X wing and Tie fighter but:
Ahsoka was never a good pilot. She was a passable one, same as Kenobi. Why would she be a well-trained fighter pilot when they had Anakin on the team and practically every clone trooper was better than her?
The rest goes into spoilers...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You are not the only one to notice that 6 tie fighters led by a force-sensitive should make short work of them and didn't. Especially since Ahsoka and Sabine practically treated that fight as a "warm up" and training! I mean, COME ON. If you notice, Morgan also seems suspicious that Shin's forces didn't do much better. And while most of the pilots with her seem crap shooters, they were able to very deftly fly around the space-whales.
That ship has some impressive shields, obviously, but of course they can't hold against a turbolaser hit and as you said, if Ahsoka was not on the wheel, they would not have to worry about the Turbolasers. They are not point-blank weapons, they are meant to target ships an order of magnitude bigger than this one.

Now, if Hera, Anakin or Solo was on the wheel, they could have slept right through the entire thing. Sabine makes some impressive maneuvers but she's simply an academy-trained pilot with some experience, nothing close to Solo, Hera or Anakin.

As for 6 tie fights being an issue... when the Rebellion attacked the first deathstar in episode 4, Vader got out alone, in his modified Tie-fighter and took down squadron after squadron of X-wings without breaking a sweat. 20+ veteran pilots were simply throwing their lives away to buy time for Luke to bomb the Deathstar and it still came down to Solo hitting Vader with another tie-fighter.
That is not to say that force sensitives are awesome - force sensitives that know how to use the force while piloting are awesome. Neither Sabine nor Ahsoka fit that bill and Ahsoka never had reason to be awesome or even good pilot.
When I see her taking command and sending Sabine back to use the guns as if she was Zeb I was ? And then we learn that Ahsoka "trusts in the force" so she deleted the guidance and presets for Sabine and I go
At first, I thought it was a mistake to be honest, but then I see Sabine fixing staff (She's a mechanic / explosion specialist that is very good but still not awesome with pistols - I expect Rex to be better than Sabine with pistols) and Ahsoka being a jedi. Till Ashoka had Sabine turn the wing for Ahsoka's magnetic boots to attach as if Ahsoka the jump-and-move specialist could not use the force to draw the ship to her or her to the ship... that was plain weird.


To surmise: No, I don't think an ex-jedi should be able to fly better. She never had reason to become an awesome pilot when she was surrounded by much better pilots. Every clone was a better pilot. Why would she train or practice? In the Episodes she has to chase people, she either hitches a ride or takes a train or something.