Ahsoka Ahsoka Episode 1.08 (SEASON FINALE!!!) - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Anecdotally, I do think its bad that these stories are catering to fewer and fewer people. You may not "need" to watch Rebels or Clone Wars to understand this, but at minimum without watching them theres just absolutely no way you will care about Thrawn or Ezra.

 

Why?

I've never seen Rebels and I still care enough. The show is more contained that some people think. Yes, it has an 'unseen' backstory. So did A New Hope.

 

In a well told story, if the characters care, the viewer will too.

 

Sounds like some out grown these movies and tv shows

 

The ANH comparison is just not a fair comparison. The key relationships that matter in that movie (Luke/Han, Luke/Han/Leia, Obi-Wan/Luke) are all originated and developed over the course of that film.

Whether or not you have seen Rebels, the Ahsoka/Sabine relationship was nowhere to be found in previous material, and this show does not do nearly enough to show us that those two actually have a history and care about each other. It would make for a much better story to have the show be about Ahsoka attempting to train Sabine so they can go after Ezra, the purge of Mandalore happens, and this leads Ahsoka to break off Sabine's training, worrying she will create another Vader. This is ostensibly the setup for what we later see in Ahsoka. All of this is doled out extremely slowly through most Huyang. Ahsoka and Sabine do not openly discuss this with anyone or with each other. It is simply bad writing.

If the show worked like:

Season 1: All of this backstory, ends with purge of Mandalore and Ahsoka leaving Sabine
Season 2: characters journey on their own, Sabine goes darker, Ahsoka realizes she must finish Sabine's training
Season 3: Basically this season of Ahsoka.

All of this would be an actual relationship with character arcs that make sense and we can follow.

Instead, just like the sequels, they just rushed right past all of the ACTUALLY INTERESTING part of the story, and fast forwarded to the stuff that Filoni THINKS is interesting but only actually would function with the proper buildup.

It would be like if you started TCW with the Ahsoka leaves the order arc. That story works because we have spent 5 seasons on Anakin and Ahsoka's relationship. If you started the show with that arc though, and just expected the audience to accept that Anakin has a padawan, him and Ahsoka have this deep bond, etc, it just would be much less compelling.

 

This would have worked better imo

 

If A New Hope was released in 2023, we would never hear the end of it.

• Why do we care about Kenobi? He has less than half an hour of screen time and we learn nothing about his past.
• Why did they have Chewbacca with them? He serves nothing in the story. He's just there to sell toys.
• In order to understand the plot, the viewer must have watched the entirety of the Clone Wars animated show, otherwise they shouldn't care about these Rebels.
• How do these lightsabers work? Laser doesn't work like that. And if it was plasma, it should burn everything around it. This makes no sense. Such bad writing.
• What does Han owe Jabba the Hutt? Why is Jabba after him? And what happened with Greedo? If they don't answer these questions then people cannot be invested in the plot and they can't feel anything about Han Solo, his character is not developed at all.

 

I think simply having one flashback episode that covered what Huyang info dumped to Ezra in the finale would've gone a long way to help the Sabine/Ahsoka story. It's hilarious that we got a COMPLETELY out of the blue Dr. Pershing episode in Mandalorian season three but didn't get a flashback episode reveling Sabine and Ahsoka's falling out.

On a side note what was the point of that Dr. Pershing episode? I can't remember if it actually tied into anything in the rest of Mando season three. I don't think it did.

 

It was tha Motel 6 sign...they kept the light on for him.

 

Wow. Can you write season 2???

 

Of course its a fair comparison. Because just as we all hadn't seen the PT, or Anakin or Young Obi-wan, or the NR, or the Jedi Order as we were watching ANH, I too haven't seen what took place in Rebels, or Younger Ezra, etc.

You're original point is still incorrect. You don't need to see Rebels in order to care for the characters in this show.

 

Very likely, but again it's very loose. even if Wayland is used for spartii cloning.

I wonder if they do use spartii cloning or cloning in general will they still use Jango DNA? If not who? most likely a random.

 

Funny that if Luke didn't think his sister was hot he might not have saved her and the galaxy would've been doomed!

 

So what you're saying is that the galaxy owes its salvation to traditional family values from Alabama

 

There's a lesson to be learned there, for sure.

 

Agree on this...that should have been more dynamic. Charge across the open field under turbolaser fire and then just stand there when they get in... They should have kept moving pushing into the temple and through any resistance.

 

My point is that key relationships in ANH do not require any extensive backstory for the audience to become invested in them.

The key relationships of the Ahsoka show (Ahsoka/Sabine, Ahsoka/Anakin, and Sabine/Ezra) ALL are based not on anything shown on this show, but on previous shows and stories. In the case of the most important relationship (Ahsoka/Sabine) it's even worse because the emotional investment we are meant to have in it is established only in backstory we aren't given until quite late into the series.

This is my fundamental problem.

I mean this is taking what I'm trying to say and distorting it to questions that do not matter to the core relationships/plot of the story. The Clone Wars has absolutely nothing to do with the conflict in ANH, that Obi-Wan and Anakin fought in it is simply exposition establishing that Obi-Wan knew Luke's father. That is all that matters for the ANH story.

Ahsoka and Anakin's relationship is clearly so important to the Ahsoka story. The comparison that would make more sense would be if Yoda and Obi-Wan's relationship was somehow central to the story of the OT. It isn't, and their deep relationship is not something we need to see explored or explained because it doesn't matter. But in Ahsoka ostensibly her entire arc is about forgiving Anakin(?), or understanding she won't become Anakin, or that Sabine won't, etc. In truth I found this point also super muddled, but it's clear her arc had something to do with resolving her feelings about him. But their relationship and her feelings about it are things that only matter to audiences who know their backstory.

Ahsoka leans way too heavily on TCW and Rebels to carry its emotional baggage. In the case of Sabine/Ahsoka, it leans on nothing at all and just expects the audience to fill in the blanks. Poor storytelling. ANH is not like this, and to say that it is just a misreading of the two stories.

 

Yeah, that moment was some of the worst "tactics" in the whole series. When your opponents have long range weapons and you're limited to short range weapons, you don't just stand there at long range and let them shoot you. You maneuver as quickly as possible into your own fighting range and fight the battle your way, not theirs. That made them look both dumb and inexperienced, and they're not supposed to be either.

 

Well, Ahsoka is over for now. I have to say that the series was fine for me. I liked the lore-building and Peridea is a unique world which I like. However, I found some scenes to be dull of any emotion or high stakes. For this finale, I was not worried about the bombardment because I knew none of them were going to die. The zombie troopers were cool, but the fight against them was stiff. I need more urgency in this. Perhaps Dave should stick to animation.

For the episode 6/10, overall 7/10

 

The way we, as an audience, process the gaps in stuff is so different now than back then. It's gone from "use one's own imagination" to "wait for the next installment of [content] and see how it reconciles with [other content]."

 

"That's no mountain..... it's The Death Pyramid."

Maybe the pyramid is a weapon that's capable of opening a fissure between realms, and the flashing red beam is simply the pilot light that always burns between full ignitions. We haven't seen an unmasked nomad warrior, and the hermit crab people perhaps adopted their mobile shells to shield themselves whenever the pyramid's beam was fully activated. If Baylan is going on his quest unmasked, he could perhaps undergo a physical transformation from the exposure. Maybe spirits from the other realm ravage Peridea, particularly when a Purrgil dies, and the Purrgil's energy is absorbed and consumed by the pyramid and the spirits.... a symbiotic relationship.

 

Well consider this, assume that TCW did not exist, nor Rebels, nor Mando, nor Book of Boba Fett.
The only thing that exists are the nine SW films. If they decided to make Ashoka, do you think they would write it like this? Thrawn, Ezra, Sabine, Ashoka all of them without some backstory of who they were?

If not, then it shows that the comparison to ANH is not fair.
Because that film was written where NO SW existed. Nothing. It had to stand on it's own.
Unlike now, an audience member that is curious, can either watch Rebels or TCW. Or they can Google it.

Not saying the Ashoka show does not work, I could follow it but a bunch of things did not resonate as strongly as I think the writer intended.

Bye for now.
Old Stoneface