Ahsoka Live Action Series | Disney Plus | August 23

[George Parr]

Visuals look great, and the rest was also fairly enjoyable, but the chase sequence just dragged on and on for no apparent reason, hampered even more by the villains being completely non-threatening as ever. What did those fighters even have guns for if they are that useless?

 

The episode was fine as a filler, but the usual mix of incompetent New Republic and harmless villains doesn't really cut it for me. You could pull off the troubled New Republic quite easily, yet somehow they always opt for the most stupid way to deal with it. And if you make enemy fighters that harmless, don't drag out the chase for all eternity.

 

Outside of that, at least the characters have coherent storylines that aren't all over the place, and the dialogue for the most part is also flowing smoothly when not dealing with the issues mentioned above. That still puts it quite a bit ahead of much of the other shows lately.

[Porthos]

Speaking of Starkiller/the old EU:

 

 

(no lies detected meme go HERE)

[Inceptionzq]

13 hours ago, Liiviig 1998 said:

Hera's plotline didn't work at all. New republic just sucks and it just pains me after how good Mon mothma was in andor , she is flat and the republic under her is just kind of incompetent   but the ST tied their hands oh well.

Say what you will about the New Republic by the time of the ST, but honestly they are making sense for the most part right now.

The chancellor title has, unsurprisingly, been stripped of a ton of power. The Senate basically has all the power. If the people don’t want another war, and there’s no evidence of a real threat from Thrawn(who have no reason to believe he’s alive), why would the Senators get involved? Plus, there are most certainly Imperial sympathizers that are using the excuse of war fatigue as a cover to allow the Remnants to rebuild/recover.

 

We have 20/20 foresight of course, but if you really look at the current evidence, it really doesn’t support a full scale response. They just stopped an operation by Morgan. Not to mention, they believe the most prominent threat (Moff Gideon) to be captured, on the loose again, or dead. Depends where on the timeline Mando season 3 is in concurrent to this.
 

They definitely could’ve sent a small force of X-Wings and/or A-Wings along with Hera though, which may end up happening since we never actually heard the end of that discussion.

[Porthos]

11 minutes ago, Inceptionzq said:

Say what you will about the New Republic by the time of the ST, but honestly they are making sense for the most part right now.

The chancellor title has, unsurprisingly, been stripped of a ton of power. The Senate basically has all the power. If the people don’t want another war, and there’s no evidence of a real threat from Thrawn(who have no reason to believe he’s alive), why would the Senators get involved? Plus, there are most certainly Imperial sympathizers that are using the excuse of war fatigue as a cover to allow the Remnants to rebuild/recover.

 

We have 20/20 foresight of course, but if you really look at the current evidence, it really doesn’t support a full scale response. They just stopped an operation by Morgan. Not to mention, they believe the most prominent threat (Moff Gideon) to be captured, on the loose again, or dead. Depends where on the timeline Mando season 3 is in concurrent to this.
 

They definitely could’ve sent a small force of X-Wings and/or A-Wings along with Hera though, which may end up happening since we never actually heard the end of that discussion.

 

Also, as story tellers, you have to factor the bolded in.  The New Republic making fundamental errors with the best of intentions (the classic case of "path to hell") has been baked into the plot. That it makes sense on more than a couple of levels is what makes it work, IMO.

 

Also, sadly or not, War Fatigue is real.  As is people sticking their heads in the sand. Too many historical parallels to count, even if we don't go for the low hanging fruit of the period from WW1 to WW2.

 

So, sure, it would be swell to have an actually functioning New Republic with at least decent foresight and forward thinking.  Alas, Darth Plagueis wasn't the only person in the GFFA to have their story be about the classical definition of "tragedy".

 

(or, if one prefers, the series is known as Star Wars, not Star Peace, so having a slightly incompetent/naïve/doomed-to-repeat-mistakes government is par for the course)

((and that's not even getting into the other low hanging fruit of examining through art dissatisfaction with Modern Day Elites and how they seem incapable of dealing with Big Problems)) 

[4815162342]

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

Speaking of Starkiller/the old EU:

 

 

(no lies detected meme go HERE)

 

Yeah but dude on left isn't going to go out suicide bombing tens of thousands of Vong

[Liiviig 1998]

10 hours ago, Inceptionzq said:

Say what you will about the New Republic by the time of the ST, but honestly they are making sense for the most part right now.

The chancellor title has, unsurprisingly, been stripped of a ton of power. The Senate basically has all the power. If the people don’t want another war, and there’s no evidence of a real threat from Thrawn(who have no reason to believe he’s alive), why would the Senators get involved? Plus, there are most certainly Imperial sympathizers that are using the excuse of war fatigue as a cover to allow the Remnants to rebuild/recover.

 

We have 20/20 foresight of course, but if you really look at the current evidence, it really doesn’t support a full scale response. They just stopped an operation by Morgan. Not to mention, they believe the most prominent threat (Moff Gideon) to be captured, on the loose again, or dead. Depends where on the timeline Mando season 3 is in concurrent to this.
 

They definitely could’ve sent a small force of X-Wings and/or A-Wings along with Hera though, which may end up happening since we never actually heard the end of that discussion.

 

9 hours ago, Porthos said:

 

Also, as story tellers, you have to factor the bolded in.  The New Republic making fundamental errors with the best of intentions (the classic case of "path to hell") has been baked into the plot. That it makes sense on more than a couple of levels is what makes it work, IMO.

 

Also, sadly or not, War Fatigue is real.  As is people sticking their heads in the sand. Too many historical parallels to count, even if we don't go for the low hanging fruit of the period from WW1 to WW2.

 

So, sure, it would be swell to have an actually functioning New Republic with at least decent foresight and forward thinking.  Alas, Darth Plagueis wasn't the only person in the GFFA to have their story be about the classical definition of "tragedy".

 

(or, if one prefers, the series is known as Star Wars, not Star Peace, so having a slightly incompetent/naïve/doomed-to-repeat-mistakes government is par for the course)

((and that's not even getting into the other low hanging fruit of examining through art dissatisfaction with Modern Day Elites and how they seem incapable of dealing with Big Problems)) 

Some fair arguments and maybe by the end new republic will handle the issues with Hera. 

 

Just because it's called starwars doesn't necessarily mean incompetence for reasons.

 

In the PT and Clone wars . Republic and Jedi are so blind to palpatine's machinations and why do I think it works better ?

 

The separatist and republic war which palpatine uses to his advantage and clone program is initiated which later culminates to order 66 and dissolving of the republic .

 

Sure PT and TCW have some flaws but the the whole theme of the story is that the republic has become inefficient and bogged down in conflict  that palpatine uses that to his advantage .

 

Empire as the ruling entity in the OT until Rotj  and in andor was fairly  efficient.

 

Having the republic incompetent is not the problem it's the reasons why they are. Don't feel the story is giving us enough story on why the new  republic is so inefficient like we got for the PT. 

 

ST had the same issues .

 

In mando S3 it was at it's worst for the current shows. The scene where they refused to extend even the smallest help in the pirate invasion in episode 5 was infuriating tbh.

Episode 3 at least tries and honestly could have been a good pilot to another show or the canned rangers show.

 

Who knows maybe they will explore it in the future or it was meant for the canned rangers of the new republic show?

 

More telling than showing kind of storytelling basically which just cripples the stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Porthos]

[Porthos]

Note, that gif could also be applied approx a few seconds later. 

[Porthos]

Got to admit, I wasn't sure Dave Filoni would have the balls to

 

Spoiler

go FULL FILONI and bring in the World Between Worlds.  Or at least something very very similar to it.

 

But the crazy SOB did it.

 

And then to throw in what appears to be Anakin Skywalker in TWBW?!?

 

Man, will there be Discourse.

 

So so soooo much discourse.

 

...

 

Gonna try to ignore almost all of it, honestly.  

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Porthos

[Porthos]

One last comment FOR NOW.

 

Spoiler (though good luck remaining unspoiled about this)

 

Spoiler

The de-aging on Hayden Christensen is SO SO SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than it was for Kenobi.

 

Like a quantum leap of three above it.

 

We'll see if it stands up with scenes in motion, but for now I am highly impressed with it.

 

...

 

Okay, one more:

 

Spoiler

Decent chance, if not exceptional chance, that Ahsoka is either dead or on the border between Life and Death (like, what's up with the Vader music at the end?!?).

 

Which means Ahsoka the White incoming eventually.

 

Zero.

 

ZERO PERCENT CHANCE Filoni doesn't go down that road at some point.  Especially after introducing it in the first place in Rebels.

 

[Inceptionzq]

I really really wonder what Baylan's motive is

Spoiler

He's doing something for the greater good? And what does he want to create after the destruction? Previously, he talked about unimaginable power being out there with Shin, but right now it doesn't seem like his intentions are truly evil...

 

[Porthos]

9 minutes ago, Inceptionzq said:

I really really wonder what Baylan's motive is

  Hide contents

He's doing something for the greater good? And what does he want to create after the destruction? Previously, he talked about unimaginable power being out there with Shin, but right now it doesn't seem like his intentions are truly evil...

 

 

Spoiler

Sounds like a purer version of the motivation that seduced Anakin:  Peace Through (Dictatorial) Order.

 

The New Republic is flailing about.  The Empire Remnants are causing chaos.  From his PoV I suspect he wants an Iron Hand to settle things down... After the inevitable destruction that such Order would bring.

 

Maybe he's one of those fools who believes that once Order is established it'll slowly melt away into Security.  Believing that is a running theme of SW.  Or maybe he just doesn't care about it ever evolving.

 

Does seem to be an Idealist (if one whose prior ideals have been thrown away [see his comments about losing faith]).  Unfortunately, some of those can be the worst types of people to pursue their plans.

 

isn't a Mustache Twirling Villain, I'll grant you that.  Makes him all the more dangerous, then.

Edited September 6, 2023 by Porthos

[Menor the Destroyer]

Best episode so far. This is what I've been waiting for.

[4815162342]

These past two episodes really should have just been condensed into 1. Episode 3 had an overlong space/atmo battle and ended abruptly, and this episode while action packed was also pretty short.

 

I don't mind short episode lengths if the episodes still tell complete stories within them, but these were basically partial episodes.

[Cap]

I gasped so hard I woke the dog

 

Spoiler

and then I cried, because like what did they do to my beautiful boy’s face. It looks dead inside. Stop with the CGI shit. The robot battle looked really great. You should focus on that.

 

[Liiviig 1998]

Getting out some small negatives .

 

Marrok LMAO. 

Editing was weird agàin and the pacing was -2x normal speed and kind of ruined some immersion in the light saber battles.

 

Ashoka continues to be the least interesting character into her show but the ending of this episode ,think will get more from her.

 

Jacen didn't need to be in this episode. Felt like Disney kid mandate rearing it's head again.

 

Putting that away really enjoyed this episode. Best episode so far.

 

Sabine  continues to be the one of the best characters on the show. Is the dialogue with her the best, not really but the show is doing a decent job developing her In regards especially to her training . Understood her choice at the end but won't lie wish there was more emotional resonance but the scene steal works due to how good baylan is.

 

Balyan is no doubt the most interesting character just wish we had a little more. Very ambiguous ,there is definitely an ulterior motive just hope the rest of the episodes bring it to the forefront to solidify his character.

 

Light saber duels though still with some issues esp ahsoka scenes were the best so far. Liked that the force was used more.

 

Yeah if your going to have jumping into hyperspace affecting other ships. Do it like in this episode were it looked more plausible and maintained stakes unlike another virtually striking  scene in another movie I shall not name that comes out of leftfield and completely destroys any stakes .

 

Overall like where we at 4 episodes. First 4 eps were basically set up for the main premise of the show(thrawn) and they could have been 3 tight episodes with better editor. 

 

Still better than current batch of live action SW shows.

 

  Lots of intriguing threads and Hope this  4 episodes  deliver 

so this  stands alongside Mando S1 and Andor and to a smaller extent Mando S2 as good SW shows so far in my book.

 

Ep1  2.5/5

Ep2  3.75/5

Ep3  4/5

Ep4. 4.25/5

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Liiviig 1998

[Ozymandias]

Major points docked for having that kid in there for no reason whatsoever other than Disney being Disney.  I know, I know...maybe its not a big deal in of itself but my brain alarm naturally goes off whenever I see blatantly corporate decisions like that...especially in the aftermath of baby Leia being shoehorned into and derailing what was supposed to be the Obi-Wan/Anakin show

 

And while we're on that topic, how does a green tentacle head alien woman have what appears to be a completely human looking child? Yeah yeah I know nothing in Star Wars has had to make much sense for 40 years now, but I did find that distractedly odd even for Star Wars.

[4815162342]

3 hours ago, Ozymandias said:

 

 

And while we're on that topic, how does a green tentacle head alien woman have what appears to be a completely human looking child? Yeah yeah I know nothing in Star Wars has had to make much sense for 40 years now, but I did find that distractedly odd even for Star Wars.

 

Dad was human 

[Ozymandias]

6 hours ago, 4815162342 said:

 

Dad was human 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtmXrbf09HI

 

[George Parr]

That was a really good episode, apart from being 90% fighting again. I would agree that the last one and this one probably could have been one longer episode instead, especially if you cut down on the way too long space-chase sequence from the last one.

 

The overall feel of the show is really solid. It seems more cohesive than Mando S3, Kenobi and Boba Fett. It's not nearly as jumpy, characters have solid reasoning in their actions. Visually it looks really good, even if some of the action and editing is a bit off at times. The soundtrack rocks. Right now I have it pretty firmly in the middle of the seven seasons of tv we got from all the shows so far. It's quite a step behind Andor and Mando S1 and S2, but also quite a bit ahead of Mando S3, Kenobi and Boba Fett.

 

That being said, the CGI-face didn't look that good to me. And I don't really need to see more of those anyway. Not a fan of the TWBW in any form either.

 

 

11 hours ago, Liiviig 1998 said:

Yeah if your going to have jumping into hyperspace affecting other ships. Do it like in this episode were it looked more plausible and maintained stakes unlike another virtually striking  scene in another movie I shall not name that comes out of leftfield and completely destroys any stakes .

Those were completely different things. One was a head on collision, the other was ships being affected by a "wave". This time around they were inside the ring, hence no direct impact.

 

Not that I could see how either would destroy stakes at all. Crashing headfirst into an enemy is nothing but a hail mary, you don't win, you just might be able to temporarily prevent a loss. A superior force has no use for such a tactic as it already is the superior force, and an inferior force can't afford to trade losses. The only time such a tactic is ever useful, is if you have the choice between being doomed entirely and saving at least a few people. It is not, in any way, shape or form, something you could or would use under normal circumstances.

 

Both scenes are perfectly fine as they are.