Ahsoka Ahsoka Episode 1.06 - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

This show's acting does strike me as a little stiff, especially for Star Wars. All the characters are cool and reserved. I can't imagine a big "Nooo!" scene in this show. Did I miss one? I feel like if someone dies in this show, the characters might gasp or sulk a bit. There's something sullen about most of these protagonists. Except Ezra. He seems quite jolly and easy-going.

 

Yeah, but he's a psychopath. It's just an act.

 

Yes, when Ahsoka was thrown off the cliff by Baylan, Sabine screamed "Nooo!"

 

A no scene is crucial for all Star Wars projects

 

I feel the same, though I have warmed up to the series as its gone along.

 

There are a lot of good things about all of these new shows, but speaking about all the Star Wars on D+, or Disney Star Wars in general, if not all of Star Wars since Return of the Jedi: where is the story going? What has actually happened? The prequel trilogy really just set up the story told in the originals. Since then, it's all been filling up gaps and introducing new characters, whose stories, just go on, with no conclusion in sight. Ahsoka's story has spanned two animated series and so far one season of a live action show. Even if this series and other projects end up tying some of these loose ends and connecting them to the sequel trilogy, we already know how that story ends, and it's basically the same ending as Return of the Jedi, with the Emperor defeated and the rebellion celebrating in the woods. Yes, this may be the most live action Star Wars we've ever been treated to, but it's like, sure, you get to keep playing the game and come back and do all these side missions, but once you beat it most of the thrill is gone. Even with the prequels, I was motivated by the idea that the story would go somewhere. And while we all knew the ultimate outcome, it succeeded in subverting expectations and making people think. I had to trust George Lucas had some kind of intention. With all these new shows and unfinished storylines (even TROS is getting an epilogue, supposedly), and nearing ten years of Disney Star Wars, for the first time as a fan, I'm beginning to feel like nobody knows where we are, or where we're going. We could be going in circles, and part of me would be like, yes! I hope this ride never ends! But really, I'd be lost in the same sandbox I've been playing with since I taped the originals off the USA network, during Christmastime of '94.

 

That’s what I like about it. It eschews the caricaturized woohooing and yelling and running and yelling some more that we got in the ST, and that plagues modern genre films and TV. Finally, we have characters that aren’t hyperactive neurotics.

 

The Prequel stiffness never left, it's just less cringey.

 

Something cannot be less cringey, if it never was at all, so.

So, your favorite writer is Sorkin?

 

Ha! He and Joss Whedon are my arch-nemeses. And yes, I’m the first person in many decades to pluralize arch-nemesis.

 

This is the best analysis of Disney Star Wars I read. Exactly what I feel. A prequel here and there is nice, but as we know where the story ends up (Rey Palpatine beating TheRealPalpatine and neither Ahsoka nor any of the others showing up) I often feel this is less thrilling than it could be.

Nobody realizes it, but Star Wars is the only franchise I can remember which consists of dozens of products that fill the gaps between the movies.

 

I think most of us realize it, and many have no problem with that approach. Why? The movies and shows filling in the gaps are by far the most interesting products, that’s why. The least interesting is the ST, which is the only non-gap filler (since the OT). Moving into the future isn’t interesting on its own. Interesting stories are made by…making them interesting. Where they fit in a fictional timeline has no bearing on how good they are. IMO.

 

Honestly, as the wise man that I am quoting below also said, this doesn't bother me. I see absolutely no mistakes in your post. I just feel that I am ok with it. I don't expect a grand finale at the end of Star Wars, because there will also be something new, whether it's filling in the gaps or creating new stories many thousands of years removed from the films (either before or after). I am here for the journey, and I choose to take an 8 hour nap when the ST comes around Well, and Resistance.

This is quite ironic.... that filling in the gaps is far more exciting than the actual non-gap filler. In characters, themes, visuals, plots, stories, everything.

I cannot stand Joss Whedon's writing. How did people ever think his writing is realistic?
The only content by him that I like is The Cabin. That's a great movie, because it takes itself 0% seriously.
How do you feel about Woody Allen as a director?

 

I actually agree. The gap-fillers were the best quality products because they were often spear-headed by the most talented movie makers and actors. But if Ashoka had the chance to be anything … if the Republic was in true danger … it would even be better. There is an element of thrilling that would be helpful. That is my feeling.

 

Hey now! The acting on Andor was top notch!

 

How can anyone who saw AotC call the acting in Ahsoka stiff?

 

Ah, but, you see, he did foresee this exact scenario. It was crystal clear to him because he saw Morgan's kindergarten drawings on the door of her mother's refrigerator. For Thrawn, that made the entire future situation blindingly obvious.

 

@Bor Mullet Regarding melodrama.

First, it's important to know what we mean by melodrama when we throw the term around so swiftly. There's more than one definition, but the one that writers concern themselves with is that they must earn their emotion through sufficient cause and effect; melodrama is the exact opposite -- when bad writers don't earn emotions through sufficient cause and effect, and they just heap a bunch of emotional gushing onto the audience in order to attempt to cheaply manipulate their emotions.

This definition is about what we can call the bad type of melodrama. The good type, as I'm sure many know, simply refers to the genres that focus primarily on creating sensations in their audience first and foremost, and these are the genres we call popular genres -- like romance, horror, and adventure movies, etc. Star Wars, for instance, has always been a melodrama because of the thrills and chills it attempts to create, and occasionally with its love stories. Most films in the genres are melodramatic simply because of the swelling music they deploy to affect the audience's emptions -- and I don't see people complaining much about this although they seem to think "creating big emotions" is somehow inherently bad or unartistic. Very briefly, melodrama also usually deploys stories that focus heavily on binary oppositions, like the struggle between good vs. evil, with little room for complexity. Star Wars is also a melodrama in this sense although it does sometimes break such simplistic ways of seeing down.

So now that it's clear what melodrama is, we can talk about something I think is much worse, melodrama's opposite: frigidity.

Frigidity is a much worse sin because narrative, in one sense or another, is always ultimately founded on human experience and thus, human emotion.

Frigidity is when writer's are afraid of dealing with the emotional consequences of the situations they set up, and we're left feeling nothing, or very little, when the cause and effect should have led to some significant feeling.

Feeling and emotion, I suppose I need to remind some people, are not inherently weak or wrong -- they are the essence of what makes us human. So to fear representing the reality of an emotional situation would be the greatest error that a writer can make. It produces inhuman fiction for the repressed or those who lack empathy, and I don't think this is what Star Wars has ever been about.

So the Ezra and Sabine scene, I wouldn't exactly call it frigid, but it comes closer to frigidity than anything I've seen in a while. Much of Ahsoka's plot has been based on Sabine's near obsession with getting Ezra back, how he's one of her only remaining family members, and also the possibility that, god forbid, there may be something more between them (a scary idea for modern audiences).

But suffice to say, these are not just mere friends; at the least, they are family, and this requires a reunion with a bit more feeling and emotional consequence than we got. Especially when we consider they have been separated for ten years and her choice may lead to the death of millions or billions of beings, the payoff is extremely mild to say the least. I wouldn't call it weak, necessarily, but definitely a bit flat. Moreso, I would call it surprising, and a bit of a strange decision. The strangeness I chalk up to the times we're living in where people are afraid of expressing human emotions, at least in some film and TV, because they want to avoid turning every relationship into a romance. While I can understand the concern, fiction with slight or little feeling is missing the point of narrative, especially in these kinds of genres.

I will add that the scene may have been muted for some additional good reasons: Sabine is likely beginning to realize the mistake she made, and this could block her from acting more authentically (like a human). The two characters also might be unsure of their current relationship status, are they really just friends and family, or something else. I didn't really get that feeling from the scene, but who knows what the writer and director were going for -- that's one of the larger issues here. It's so unclear what exactly these characters are feeling for each other. It doesn't feel like family or romance.

I can't say the scene was terrible or even bad. It was just okay. And actually, that's a much worse critique than "melodrama" or even "terrible."

At least the terrible is often trying to make the audience experience something meaningful. This was just frigid enough to almost lack meaning.

 

Medical scientists are geniuses but they haven't come up with a cure for cancer, unfortunately!

 

Good point!

 

My hunch is Exegol is more like Mortis. Like a bubble in the cosmic Force. That red space traveled getting to Exegol was proably then leaving regular reality to a realm where Palpatine can Force Lightening an entire Fleet and Mace Windu is a force voice. But the trip isn’t that far if you know the way.

 

Exegol is definitively within the unknown regions of the GFFA, not Peridea's GFFFA.

Exegol and Ilum are both Unknown regions planets. Kamino is technically Wild Space but it is in fact extragalactic, so it's not in the GFFA, but it exists much closer than wherever Peridea is.

Peridea is the first planet in an entirely different galaxy that we've visited in canon. It's not some mystical plane of existence, it's just out there.

 

1. There is no frigidity between Ezra and Sabine. They are all warm smiles, friendly banter, not to mention a long hug.

2. The banter is very true to their relationship. And so jumping immediately into a familiar pattern may be very comforting for them.

3. The lack of a total emotional explosion may (and I think does) say something about the characters at this stage, and what they may be hiding. Sabine is, I think, feeling quite guilty and is afraid of Ezra’s reaction. Given that she’s essentially undone his heroic sacrifice. Ezra, on the other hand…we don’t know. He may be hiding something.

4. I once hadn’t seen mi brothers for three years. That reunion was very similar to this one. Jokey at first. Processing what we’d each become. Then a big hug. And a “tell me what you’ve been up to.”

I found this meeting to be very layered, true to the characters, and true to life. And I’m glad we didn’t get something more purely emotionally manipulative. Which is indeed what I meant by “overly” melodramatic.

Yes Star Wars is melodrama. But it often stops short of pronounced displays of emotion.

Luke balls his first in anger and sadness for a moment, and then we’re off.

 

Solid 10/10. Thrawn's voice fitted his live action version more than his animated self for some reason. I had reservations about Lars taking on the live action role too, but he fits the part perfectly.
Loved the humour and the snail people. Thrawn's imperial remnant is creepy. Can't help thinking what the ST could have been with a little imagination....

 

With the exception of the voices, there is no acting in AotC. It is drawings, animations. I don't think that's a fair comparison.