I was one of the original Star Wars kids. I had Star Wars toys and memorabilia growing up. But for some reason, it wasn’t popular to be a Star Wars fan because the movies were considered old after a while. I remember going to school one day back in the mid-1980s when HBO had first aired Return of the Jedi. It took them about three years to broadcast and I was wanted to talk to people about it. Who watched it over the weekend when it premiered?
But as usual, no one was talking about Star Wars. It was all Rambo and Terminator. Sylvester Stallone had been popular for years and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s popularity was rising. It wasn’t until the mid-1990s when George Lucas released the original trilogy on VHS with remastered effects that suddenly, everyone was a fan now. Well, not everyone. But a lot of the people at my school were. It was an odd upbringing. Whatever was currently popular was the thing. I once told someone about the socks and how one year, it was frowned to wear anything but ankle socks with shorts. And then after summer, everyone was wearing socks that went past the ankles. They weren’t the old knee-high but I was like what the hell?
And don’t even get me started on the two-three weeks before school let out for the summer where you weren’t cool if you didn’t have the Jarhead crewcut. I liked my hair too much to do that. And apparently, everyone must’ve seen how stupid they looked over the summer because it was never mentioned again only a few photos before the end of the school year show it.
But since the mid-1990s, Star Wars has remained popular and infamous thanks to several people disappointed with the prequels. But they like the prequels now. Mainly, it’s because that’s what the new fanbase grew up on. And all the old TV shows such as The Clone Wars where Anakin Skywalker wasn’t a bad guy, but a good guy yet. And Anakin had a young Jedi apprentice Ahsoka Tano, a young padawan Togruti, voiced by Ashley Eckstein.
Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) made a cameo in the second season of The Mandalorian, where she finally reveals that Baby Yoda is actually named Grogu. And just the appearance of Ahsoka in Mandalorian probably was what SW fans needed in 2020 as they were dealing with Covid-19 and the 2020 election.
So fans were probably wondering when Ahsoka would get her own show. Following fan disappointment over The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi (both of which I liked but some just don’t because they always got to find a reason not to like something), Ahsoka may just be the best SW series since The Mandalorian. Created by David Filoni who is also credited with writing each of the eight episodes, the series is a continuation of Star Wars Rebels as Ahsoka investigates an threat following the fall of the Empire. But you don’t have to have watched Rebels.
This is mainly a self-contained series as Ahsoka teams with Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), her former apprentice and former bounty hunter along with Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a Twi’lek general in the New Republic. They discover that Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson in his final TV role), a fomer Jedi turned Dark Jedi after surviving Order 66 and his apprentice, Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), to seek and destroy Sabine and Ahsoka. They are working with Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), one of the remaining Nightsisters of Dathomir.
With the right mixture of action and SW lore, this works because it gives Dawson a great moment to shine as Ahsoka comes more three-dimensional than she was allowed in Mandalorian, where it was mainly used as a cameo. Fans of Clone Wars will love flashback sequence where Anakin (Hayden Christensen) and a younger Ahsoka (played by Ariana Greenblatt). Seeing Christensen step back into the role that angered so many fans 20 years ago feels more like a vindication that George Lucas made the right choice, but he just wrote the role the wrong way.
Ahsoka has been searching for Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfendi), a former con artist who was being trained as a Jedi before he sacrificed himself and was lost from the galaxy with Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), a Chiss, is a very cunning superior. Mikkelsen voiced Thrawn in Rebels. Ahsoka feels a certain obligataion to find Ezra as he saved her life. But the series is more cerebral in its look at life choices and doing what’s right and what’s necessary.
Even though he was last seen as Darth Vader in the Obi-Wan series, along with seeing Anakin in flashback, he also appears in the World Between Worlds (not to give much away) where Ahsoka again learns more from him. And there’s something about the sequence with the Purrgil, a semi-sentinent species of massive whales, that seems to be both beautiful and haunting at the same time.
Hera, being a general, is also in a conflict between being a politician and a fighter. Since she’s a pilot, she seems too quick to go into battle. There was some criticism over Winstead in this role, but I think she fits it perfectly. It’s mostly a supporting role to Ahsoka. Winstead is also married to Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan, even though I don’t think that was a reason she got the role. She is one of the best (and most underrated) actresses working now. And fans of Death Proof (which is by far Quentin Tarantino’s worst movie), will like seeing them together after so many years.
But the biggest suprise is Bordizzo as Sabine, who manages to hold her own in the scenes. I didn’t know where I had seen her before but she appeared in Guns Akimbo and Day Shift recently, two movies I enjoyed even though she wasn’t the lead. Her role is one of the best of the series. But mostly, this is a series that focuses more on the female characters of the SW universe, which obviously means a lot of fans (with tiny lightsabers) will hate it just as they hated The Last Jedi.
Even though Stevenson and Mikkelsen nail it in their sinister roles, Sakhno and Inosanto manage to come off as great villains. Sakhno shows off the sadistic nature of the young Dark Jedi while Inosanto gives off a vibe of a middle-aged supreme leader trying to hold on to the power that she can see being taken out of her clutches by Thrawn.
Not to give much away, but some fans may feel the series’ season ends on a cliffhanger, even though nothing has been officially announced from Lucasfilm. It would be nice to see what Filoni and the cast can do in season two. If it’s anything like this one, I hope it’s a go.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 