Ahsoka Live Action Series | Disney Plus | August 23

[ZeroHour]

I definitely enjoyed this episode but also put me in the camp of people worried about how well they're going to land this ship next week. If I didn't know any better, I'd think this show was going to run for five more episodes this season based on the pace these last few episodes. It does feel like at this point that Baylan was conceived as a multi-season character (I would've guessed he was a one season wonder even as late as last week) and that makes Ray Stevenson's passing even more tragic since he's been the breakout character of this show. I'll be most interested to see what happens with him in the finale.

 

On a separate note, now that we've had two episodes of him, I can't help thinking that Thrawn looks...kinda bad in live action. His uniform seems ill-fitting and the makeup and wig are just not visually compelling in the way this character probably needs. I wish they had spent more time finding a look that better compliments Lars and works in live action instead of so slavishly trying to recreate his look from Rebels. It seems like it's detracting from Lars' performance instead of enhancing it.

[George Parr]

The episode seemed pretty fine to me. Thrawn was compelling enough. Even though the "time" bit just screams it won't be much of an issues for the heroes at all.

 

Now if only they could have stayed away from their usual failure to do fights against henchmen...

 

Spoiler

Seriously, they were doing just fine for the most part, until they got to the "stormtroopers surround the heroes bit". Then it went off the rails again. Ahsoka comes in, and somehow they just curb stomp everyone. That's just stupid and so devoid of tension it is unbelievable.

 

[Avatree]

On 9/27/2023 at 4:18 PM, ZeroHour said:

I definitely enjoyed this episode but also put me in the camp of people worried about how well they're going to land this ship next week. If I didn't know any better, I'd think this show was going to run for five more episodes this season based on the pace these last few episodes. It does feel like at this point that Baylan was conceived as a multi-season character (I would've guessed he was a one season wonder even as late as last week) and that makes Ray Stevenson's passing even more tragic since he's been the breakout character of this show. I'll be most interested to see what happens with him in the finale.

 

On a separate note, now that we've had two episodes of him, I can't help thinking that Thrawn looks...kinda bad in live action. His uniform seems ill-fitting and the makeup and wig are just not visually compelling in the way this character probably needs. I wish they had spent more time finding a look that better compliments Lars and works in live action instead of so slavishly trying to recreate his look from Rebels. It seems like it's detracting from Lars' performance instead of enhancing it.

Yeah this feels very much like Mando S3 in that respect. The ending feeling very rushed. I remember when Mando S3e7 dropped, the D+ description said "The penultimate episode", and both me and my housemate yelled "WHAT??!!" at the TV. We assumed there must be like 4+ episodes left from where we were. The ending just came out of nowhere, after the series spent 6 episodes doing nothing.

 

At least the content of the Ahsoka episodes is more interesting than Mando s3 but still, I definitely feel short-changed here. Like, what is going on with the pacing? I do generally trust Filoni but this feels really badly paced. They should have done more with this season. This entire 8 episode season is literally just the characters travelling to Thrawn planet. Thats it. Are we really gonna have to wait another 2 years for season 2 (or, a different show) to see Thrawn in action? It feels like episode 7 should have been half way through the season.

 

I guess the pacing may feel better if they killed/stopped Thrawn next week but that seems very unlikely. (I think its a safe bet that Thrawn will escape to rebuild the Empire.)

 

Also the pacing of this episode felt off as an individual episode. Seemed to end very abruptly.

 

 

Edited September 29, 2023 by Avatree

[poweranimals]

Just finished episode 5 last night and that was pretty epic. I never watched Clone Wars and while I'd probably appreciate it more if I had, I know enough about it to understand the basic context of everything and enjoy it. Hayden's voice sounds a little different now. I had to double check IMDB to make sure it was him. I know he's older but I didn't really notice it in Obi-Wan. Maybe it was just because he had more of a dialogue in this.

 

Also a little bit praise that I want to give this series is that while I was personally a fan of Obi-Wan (I know I'm in the minority here), it's refreshing that there's an actual story here that's expanding every week.

Edited October 1, 2023 by poweranimals

[jedijake]

I would say that the way things have been set up, the Witches of Dathomir could/should be a contender for villains that tie together all 3 projected movies projects (Dawn of the Jedi, Filoni, and Rey).

 

However, with the viewership of Ahsoka being as weak as it is, I am not so sure many would know what was going on.

 

The story has been decent as a set up. The visuals are stunning and the lightsaber duels have been mesmerizing. The dialogue and scripting, on the other hand, are absolutely PAINFULLY DREADFUL and exhibit why AI should never be used for scripting.

Edited October 2, 2023 by jedijake

[Porthos]

7 hours ago, jedijake said:

I would say that the way things have been set up, the Witches of Dathomir could/should be a contender for villains that tie together all 3 projected movies projects (Dawn of the Jedi, Filoni, and Rey).

 

However, with the viewership of Ahsoka being as weak as it is, I am not so sure many would know what was going on.

 

It's.... not that weak. 

 

In fact, there's a decent chance it surpasses The Book of Boba Fett when all is said and done. 

 

(that doesn't say that much but it isn't exactly doing badly in terms of viewership)

[Cappoedameron]

Y'all wanna know what the main problem is with Ahsoka? It's S5 of Rebels. It's asking the general audience to have an emotional attachment to characters from a cartoon series that aired a decade ago. If you don't have an emotional attachment to these characters you're not gonna give give a shit about them. 

 

Also the way they completely ignore characters like Zeb and Kallas is ridiculous. Ezra also is unrecognizable. The show sucks.

 

It had two great episodes and IDK why in episode 7 we are still dealing with filler nonsense.

 

 

Quote

 

It's.... not that weak. 

 

In fact, there's a decent chance it surpasses The Book of Boba Fett when all is said and done. 

 

Yeah I'm sure these are the numbers Disney was banking on when they put all this money in Ahsoka and are building up to the Mando-verse Star Wars movie...

Edited October 2, 2023 by Cappoedameron

[Porthos]

15 minutes ago, Cappoedameron said:

Yeah I'm sure these are the numbers Disney was banking on when they put all this money in Ahsoka and are building up to the Mando-verse Star Wars movie...

 

If they expected Obi-Wan Kenobi level viewings, never mind Mando level ones, for a spinoff of a spinoff (and if one squints of a spinoff) staring a character introduced in an animated series then they... They should have done a rethought at the planning stage.  And this isn't just me saying this now, as I have a pretty lengthy posting history as to what my expectations were when it came to viewing numbers.

 

As it is, we don't know yet how good the numbers are when all is said and done, as we literally only have two weeks of info.  What we do know suggests that it might become as popular as TBOBF, though that is a more than a little uncertain given the boost Fett got on the back half of its schedule with the Mando crossovers.

 

Everything else is personal taste, and as such I won't cover here. 

 

[Arlborn]

On 9/27/2023 at 12:18 PM, ZeroHour said:

On a separate note, now that we've had two episodes of him, I can't help thinking that Thrawn looks...kinda bad in live action. His uniform seems ill-fitting and the makeup and wig are just not visually compelling in the way this character probably needs. I wish they had spent more time finding a look that better compliments Lars and works in live action instead of so slavishly trying to recreate his look from Rebels. It seems like it's detracting from Lars' performance instead of enhancing it.

I don't mind his wig and makeup, but that uniform looks really bad on him, the cut of it just doesn't fit his body well. Are you really telling me Disney couldn't have spent more time and money into making the uniform fit the actor better?

 

Anyway, this is just a small nitpick, it doesn't truly detract from the quality of the show itself for me, which is great, although I am also worried about this last episode for all the reasons already mentioned in this thread.

[4815162342]

Going to have to go dark on the Internet for around 120 minutes at least since the Phillies postseason game starts at 808 est tonight 

[Potiki]

A little disappointing to not get a resolution on a few things

 

Spoiler

Particularly Shin and Baylan only getting a few seconds in the episode each, also not really explaining what was happening with each of them and no Thrawn confrontation with any of the members of Rebels/Ahsoka kind of sucks giving the marketing of the big return of his character, however that I'm will happen in the future.

Overall after a great first 5 episodes, the final 3 were a bit weaker still some cool moments but felt like an anti-climatic ending. Hopefully season 2 or whenever these characters show up again remedy's that some and this becomes a ESB ending setting up future things similar to what @Porthos mentioned a while back. 

[Porthos]

You know, I think that really worked... as a season *one* finale.

 

They didn't try to cram too much in and they satisfactorly settled at least three plot threads.

 

Spoiler

Though Ahsoka really shouldn't have been that surprised at the reanimation, but I digress.

 

The one thing that really really sucks, and was 100 percent unforeseeable 

Spoiler

is punting the Baylan Skoll plotline to a future season/series.

 

I hope to hell they decide on a recast here instead of radically reworking things.  As tough as it would be to step into Ray's shoes, they really need to, IMO.

 

Don't have much faith that they will, but I live in hope.

 

Some nits here or there, but  all in all, a very satisfying series.  And one that is obviously screaming for some sort of continuation.

 

 

[Porthos]

2 minutes ago, Potiki said:

A little disappointing to not get a resolution on a few things

 

  Hide contents

Particularly Shin and Baylan only getting a few seconds in the episode each, also not really explaining what was happening with each of them and no Thrawn confrontation with any of the members of Rebels/Ahsoka kind of sucks giving the marketing of the big return of his character, however that I'm will happen in the future.

Overall after a great first 5 episodes, the final 3 were a bit weaker still some cool moments but felt like an anti-climatic ending. Hopefully season 2 or whenever these characters show up again remedy's that some and this becomes a ESB ending setting up future things similar to what @Porthos mentioned a while back. 

 

About that:

 

Spoiler

I do think some of our, or at least my, trepidations is because of the tragic passing of Ray Stevenson.  if he was still with us I tend to think the conversations about this dangling plot thread would be much much much different.

 

 

Think the dual (now solo) strikes in Hollywood also is something of a factor, if only because of not being able to announce (never mind write) things.

 

===

 

More thoughts:

 

Where I think this series excelled was on Earned Moments.  The emotional points that the characters went through just felt right.  Without getting into specifics, Ahsoka was different post 'death' than pre.   Sabine was able to explore her own feelings of inadequacy.  The moves the characters made, mostly made sense.

 

In short, the plotting, both emotional and narrative was much much tighter here than in either Mando S3 or in Fett.

 

In fact the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that what I mentioned in the spoiler box might be the only real thing holding back when it comes to an appreciation of this series by fandom at large (individual opinion, as always, might vary).

 

Especially since they dropped the "limited" series verbage a long time ago.

 

Mind, they have a hell of a situation to get out of here with 

Spoiler

Ray Stevenson's passing and Baylan Skoll's plotline clearly being 'saved' for S2

 

and I don't envy their choices.  I just hope whatever they decide, it's executed well.

 

Spoiler

Again, really hope for a recast, though I don't give it good odds at all.

 

[Potiki]

1 minute ago, Porthos said:

 

About that:

 

  Hide contents

I do think some of our, or at least my, trepidations is because of the tragic passing of Ray Stevenson.  if he was still with us I tend to think the conversations about this dangling plot thread would be much much much different.

 

 

Think the dual (now solo) strikes in Hollywood also is something of a factor, if only because of not being able to announce (never mind write) things.

 

===

 

More thoughts:

 

Where I think this series excelled was on Earned Moments.  The emotional points that the characters went through just felt right.  Without getting into specifics, Ahsoka was different post 'death' than pre.   Sabine was able to explore her own feelings of inadequacy.  The moves the characters made, mostly made sense.

 

In short, the plotting, both emotional and narrative was much much tighter here than in either Mando S3 or in Fett.

 

In fact the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that what I mentioned in the spoiler box might be the only real thing holding back when it comes to an appreciation of this series by fandom at large (individual opinion, as always, might vary).

 

Especially since they dropped the "limited" series verbage a long time ago.

 

Mind, they have a hell of a situation to get out of here with 

  Hide contents

Ray Stevenson's passing and Baylan Skoll's plotline clearly being 'saved' for S2

 

and I don't envy their choices.  I just hope whatever they decide, it's executed well.

 

  Hide contents

Again, really hope for a recast, though I don't give it good odds at all.

 

Spoiler

Yeah I agree should recast, will be tough for whoever comes on in that role but could do an offscreen attack/he wears a mask now kind of thing if they don't want to dismiss Ray's contribution and image of the character from the first season. But that was the clear omission from the episode that was probably the most disappointing. 

I did like the earned moments especially between Ahsoka and Sabine or Anakin (sometimes both) throughout the season and agree that was one the standouts of this season. 

 

Hopefully Season 2 does come and is fantastic and includes things I was hoping for this season as I think that would help boost this season in retrospect. 

[Porthos]

BTW, I presume you recognized this, @Potiki:

 

Spoiler

 

It's funny though...

 

Spoiler

I've consistently felt... I don't know if underwhelmed is the right term, so I'll just say "whelmed" at the whole Mortis arc back in the Clone Wars even though everyone else seems to be gaga for that arc.  Will say that I personally think it is tremendously overrated and suffers from many of the same faults as the PT at large when it comes to Jedi and the Dark Side and what not.

 

Which is funny coz I thought the Mortis Gods were handled much much better in Rebels!

 

Either way, the Mortis Gods at the end is.... Hmmmm.....

 

Interesting.

 

(Seeing Morai at some point was a given, so not counting that 😉)

 

Edited October 4, 2023 by Porthos

[Menor the Destroyer]

I would say the season kinda puttered in the last two episodes as well, but this wasn't a bad ending either. Just felt a little pat and predictable and the action while fun wasn't quite strong or memorable enough to counter that. The emotional arcs this season were fine but lacked tension/difficult choices other than episode 4 and the slow-walking of Baylan's story is really frustrating. Would put this fourth among the live action series, clear step above Fett, Kenobi, and Mando S3 but just wasn't executed well enough to match Andor or the first two Mando seasons.

[Cap]

That final shot...

 

[Porthos]

Just now, Cap said:

That final shot...

 

 

Spoiler

HE'S SUCH A PROUD PAPA!!!! ❤️

(well father figure, but close enough)

 

[Ozymandias]

hell yeah zombie troopers

[Arlborn]

I'm only 20 mins through the final ep yet but I just really had to comment how Ahsoka really feels like the Ahsoka now! Am I crazy? I think her chat with Anakin really helped her become herself again.

 

Edited October 4, 2023 by Arlborn