Ahsoka Ahsoka Episode 1.05 - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

He’s just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe in which Sebastian Shaw is the only Anakin Skywalker.

 

I don’t think anyone is saying that she’s been moping around depressed. Just that the character has seemed much more stoic and rigid than the one we’ve seen in TCW and rebels.

While we only got a few shots of Ahsoka, she actually smiled for one and just seemed to move with more fluidity

 

Excuse me? Are you serious?! First she is orange. Secondly the "white actress" played her for 14 years and counting. Thirdly both Rosario and the young actress who played her this week are hispanic. You "stop with that".

 

Star Wars fans:
- Clone armour too shiny
- Anakin de-aging not good enough
- Young Ahsoka not Ahsoka enough, not Ashley
- Present day Ahsoka too stoic, not Ashley
- WBW too crazy and didn't have X event, needed that
- Thrawn hasn't arrived, should be here already, not scary, nothing been said about him
- Jacen is not (insert reason here) enough
- Hera's lekkus are too fake, too distracting
- Ahsoka's lekkus are too short
- Filming in the volume is terrible, too (insert something here)
- Going into the Pugiils' mouth was too something
- Filoni doesn't get Star Wars
- Message in WBW wasn't clear and it doesn't matter what anyone says, it doesn't make sense for (insert reasons here)
- Star Wars should be more lively, this is not
- Star Wars should be more grounded because men, women and aliens running around with laser swords is totally grounded
- Ahsoka should be black

Are we sure this is a fan site?

At least we all agree that pasta trauma needs to be more prominent in Star Wars

 

100000000 %

You can do this for ANY SW product released since 1983. Its a mess.

 

On the contrary, I detected a deep sadness and weariness in her, betrayed by both her dialogue and her acting.

Just for the record, Rosario Dawson identifies as Puerto Rican/ Afro Cuban. Also, there are black Hispanics, for those who are unaware. That is all. I don’t want to discuss this further. This was simply a statement of fact functioning as a public service announcement.

 

dp

 

Finally watched the episode last night, but after reading the last few posts I'm not sure I want to say anything.

It didn't resonate with me. I did not find it to be that great. It was nice seeing young Ahsoka and Anakin, but the lesson wasn't that profound nor even clear. The change to white was just because she needed new, dry clothes, more superficial than spiritual. And pick a random space whale (who happens to still have brush teeth because they obviously eat the same stuff as earth whales - WTF?), connect to it using the Force, get in it's mouth and hope for the best? And you know it's going to take her where she needs to be. Yeah, but the Force? Really? I would have preferred more concrete reasoning for getting into the whale's mouth, like when she communed with it she learned through the Force/feelings that this whale was using the correct migratory route for sure. But it is what it is.
"How do you know?" - "I just know" is better and more Force-like than "I'm getting in this whale and hoping for the best" - IMO.

Don't get me wrong it was an enjoyable enough episode, but I'm just not seeing "the best Star Wars on screen for decades" - it was OK. I will give it another go this evening, maybe something will click that didn't click before. I'll give my rating after then.

 

I remember Weird Al being white and playing Michael Jackson.

 

One nice touch I haven't seen mentioned.

When Ahsoka the White leaves the cockpit to commune with the Purgill, she says "Wish me luck." And Huyang looks low key exasperated and shakes his head as if thinking "There is no such thing as luck. It's standard Jedi protocol!"

And when you think, the last exchange she and in-the-flesh Anakin had was "Master Kenobi always said there was no such thing as luck." "Good thing I taught you otherwise."

 

No (IMO). Ahsoka letting go, and going with the flow of the force, rather than pushing the issue with the whales in search of mathematical certainty, would have been less force-like, and would have been less informative regarding Ahsoka's character development. It's perhaps my favorite part of the episode. And evidence that Filoni deeply understands Star Wars, and its Buddhist and Taoist inspirations.

 

…

TCW is a weird situation because the entirety of the series is plotted out. Most or all of it is scripted. There are at least 8 more episodes we know actors recorded voiceover for. We saw early animation for at least another 12 of the episode.

The situation as I see it, isn’t about making more of The Clone Wars, it’s about finishing what is already planned for the Clone Wars.

And we saw with the 12 additional episodes released in 2020 the scripts continued to change from they were in 2013 - but the general stories are the same.

There is a 4 episode Yoda and the Bad Batch on the Wookie planet arc. I wonder if that could be told in flash back on Bad Batch over four episodes.

 

I'm glad the Clone Wars flashbacks were covered in smoke and mist because I don't like the AT-TE, LAAT and phase 1 trooper designs.

*runs away*

 

If only wearing contact lenses could stop the tears of sadness.

Alas they don’t work that way. I can see how someone who doesn’t wear contact lenses would have this question. It reminds me of someone asking if smoking in the cold warms you up. It does not warm the smoker with heat.

 

Yeah, OT purism is dying, and OT+PT purism (aka Lucas purism) will eventually die too.

 

Hopefully! It needs to for SW to survive!

 

That Phase 1 armor was flapping around everywhere. Phase 2 didn’t show that as much. I don’t know why the shoulder armor wasn’t anchored down.

Gave it a cosplay look.

 

Please accept my apologies.

 

True, but my issue is with the design. Anyway, apart from that very particular bias I have, I felt this was as close to perfect a Star Wars TV episode as one can get. Right up there with my favorite episodes from Andor and Mando.

 

Lucas purism will outlast the fandom of the sequels

 

I prefer the SW-Tolkien fusion that is Filonism to Lucas purism.

 

What we're all thinking:

 

Gave it a 8. Primarily for the highlights of the episode. Including Hayden.


I love a good “force contrivance” as much as any fun loving Star Wars fan but having almost all of that amazing dramatic tension that had been setup the episode prior… COMPLETELY UNDONE through a series of force contrivances even had a non-cynic like me dangerously close to eye rolling territory and I never want to feel that as a fan. Fortunately, the execution of each force moment was strong enough to keep me firmly planted on the light side of the force and suspension of disbelief.

But considering that the villains had the edge of making the jump, destroying the map, having Ahsoka Tano off a cliff unconscious in water, and all of this before the heroes had been able to even ascertain what had happened or the status of Sabine… which was honestly an amazing TESB-level act 2… completely undermined by a force sensitive child hearing lightsabers in a force vision, a force imprint allowing Ahsoka to literally hear everything that happened, and force sensitive whales show up right as they’ve lost hope to presumably hyperspace jump them directly to where the villains are… it really is a bit too many force contrivances combining and they need to be more careful not to continue to rely on such plot devices the rest of the way.

This all became more apparent on my second watch which speaks to the quality of the execution overall. It casts a spell powerful enough that the absurdity of the above feels magical enough and Tolkien-ish enough to work.