A little behind on writing on the past few episodes of Ahsoka, so I thought I’d go ahead and quickly cover them as double feature much in the same way as I did the first two episodes.
As the title says, I’m still enjoying the series. Actually for me it’s getting better, which I’m honestly surprised to be feeling since I originally expected to not like the series much at all. For that I think I could blame preconceptions formed by others in the Star Wars fanbase who’s content I happened to watch which tainted my views on the show before its premier: a dangerous thing to do, and something I normally avoid as a part of my rule to always avoid any kind of “hype” culture. That rule goes the other way as well and I should remember to also avoid the instant hate mob for things we know very little about.
Honestly, I feel the “fans” of Star Wars are being too hard on the series for the most part. There are a few elements I would agree with critics on — yes, the characters fold their arms often, which is apparently a sign of defensiveness and not really fitting the characters who keep doing it. Yes, the “surviving a lightsaber through the body” thing that Disney Star Wars fucking loves to do really needs to stop as it’s not only not suspensful or a surprise anymore but it, more importantly, breaks the very quintesential finality of a lightsaber dual and the extremely fatal nature of such a wound. Yes, the CG is iffy at spots, but in others it’s not so bad. I mean, I’m only expecting so-much but after Mando season 3 this is a welcome improvement.
What the series provides, though, is quite nice to me. It’s nothing spectacular but I certainly don’t find it bad or to any degree hate it. Pacing feels good, I feel the map object is appropriately used and not a typical “MacGuffin” like every other thing in The Rise of Skywalker was. Episode 3’s space battle was pretty goodif a little oddly written at parts, but damn, Episode 4 was something else. It felt like the proper climax and resolution to a decently done film, and when you look at the runtime of Episodes 1 through 4 they actually could be a stand alone film. Finishing it off the way they did was something else, at least from a fan perspective, to see where this takes the story of a character who we all would think is over and done with story wise. Needless to say I’m excited for the upcoming 5th episode to see where this goes.
I should stress again that I’ve not watched Rebels and have no intention to, so I don’t know these characters at all beyond a tiny bit of detail about Ahsoka Tano, mainly her connection with Anakin Skylwalker and her leaving the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars. Otherwise, beyond some names everyone is new to me, but I’m growing to appreciate the dynamics the characters have; namely how Sabine, who originally annoyed me with how modern she spoke, contrasts with the way Ahsoka speaks like she jumped right out of the prequels: it feels like an intentional nod to the different eras they came from and, while this may seem blasphemous to some, echos the short training time together that Luke had with Obi-Wan in A New Hope.
Let’s be clear, I’m not saying this is the greatest show ever but I’m enjoying it. I’m not being hyper critical and I’m only seeing a few things that I may make mental note of but otherwise can ignore for the sake of just enjoying the show.
Honestly I wish I had the energy to write more details entries about it like I would have back 5 years ago, but I just don’t have it in me anymore. Maybe when the series is over and I give it a rewatch. We’ll see.