A/V The Clone Wars was back

By the time you hit Order 66, the Empire's declared, Sidious is top dog so likely no longer gives a damn.

Independence. Disloyalty. Thinking the wrong things.

I think it reflects the thinking at the time that they weren't getting any more eps.

Anyway, watched the set today.

Bad Batch made for a good set. Quite satisfying seeing what happens to Trench, while also foreshadowing Anakin's fall.

The middle arc felt like a necessary bridge but that's about it. Didn't like either of the sisters that much.

Siege of Mandalore was a clever set of episodes focused on telling a parallel story to RotS. In that respect it succeeded completely. Although there's still pieces to be told where the story of Mandalore is concerned, but that'll likely be picked up in Mandalorian.

 

Because JJ Abrams doesn't care, or thinks he knows Star Wars better than anyone else.

 

Not really, it's more like he thought it would be a cool nod to the CW/Rebels fans to include her since, well, the most logical thing to assume is that Ahsoka is dead by the time of Episode IX.

 

Does JJ think that, or are we just complaining about people we don't know?

 

Well, uh, Dave Filoni is hinting that we shouldn’t necessarily take that vocal cameo from Ahsoka as a sign that she’s dead.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/heres-what-dave-filoni-had-to-say-about-ahsoka-tanos-vo-1841797043

In my head canon, I would like to believe she was communing with Rey from another planet in deep exile and in deep meditation.

 

Is this just hating on jj. Because he knows of TCW and watched the movie with his family.

 

Yes, i am aware of that, i'm just explaining what JJ might have thought when including Ahsoka in the movie, as i doubt he thought she was alive by that point (and in my opinion, it really sounds like author favoritism on Filoni's part to try to deny her status as dead, but maybe they'll make sense out of this in a later story) the point is that thinking Ahsoka might be dead isn't a sin on JJ's part or anything like that.

 

Oh. I see.

 

She be whay 70. An old lady. Sure she could still be alive. But there better be a great story.

 

Author favoritism? Filoni helped create Ahsoka, the only one who has more authority regarding that character is George.

 

Exactly, it's the same as when one criticizes Timothy Zahn for showing favoritism for Mara Jade or Thrawn over other characters, it's his own character shining at the expense of a larger story, what i'm implying here is that Filoni got too attached to Ahsoka and thus can't accept that someone else decided she is supposed to be dead by Ep. IX, even if it is a "Main Saga" movie, so he wants to retcon it.

 

What I'm saying is that since it is George's (and to a lesser extent, Dave's) own character, then no one else should be able to decide what happens to her. Creatively, they have no right.

 

That is just not true, in a shared universe, especially one that prioritizes movies over the rest of media, and spans a large timeframe, it's natural that characters that were created by one author are killed off by another one, with that logic, J.J. Abrams should not have the right to kill Han Solo either, as it was George's character, or that only Kevin J. Anderson can kill, say, Dorsk 82, it doesn't work that way, especially if one of the persons in question (George) doesn't hold authority over the franchise anymore.

And this is not Abrams going into Filoni's next show and writing the next episode forcefully and make it so Ahsoka dies, this is Abrams including a Force Ghost Ahsoka in a movie that is set 31 years after the last we saw of the character, saying "ok, she's dead now but we don't know how she died or when" it's a very different thing, they are not hindering the creative potenital of a Rebels sequel, it's a story very far removed in both plot and timeframe, i don't get how it is wrong to imply that the character died at SOME point between episodes VI and IX.

 

So, did they ever reveal why Maul needed the spice from the Martez sisters so badly? I don't think they did, unless I missed it.

 

If we go that route then Filoni had no right to have Thrawn in rebels and kill rukh in stupid kinda way. it goes both ways. JJ has as mutch right to play with characters Filoni created as Filoni does Zahn creations

 

They do; Lucasfilm owns the IP and the characters, so it decides what to do with them. That's how franchises work.

 

Filoni is just a guy at work who gets to use his characters, LF can do all they want, if they want to make Palpatine truly immortal they can if they like.

 

Well, it was a lot of spice, expensive. He's just trying to keep his cartel profitable and efficient. I don't think there was anything more going on beneath the surface than that.

 

Not to mention I think it's important if not good to have other voices take on those characters.

I'm gonna be honest in terms of NuCanon I much prefer Filoni's take on Thrawn then I do Zahn. You don't see the favoritism Zahn shows him and sometimes almost...eh...forgiveness Zahn shows for Thrawn's action. Filoni makes sure Thrawn is a bad guy.

And I'd like to see someone else take on Ashoka outside of Filoni.

Plus who know were Fan Favorites were Mara Jade would have gone if other authors hadn't used them.


Although I will say that while I'm not against the idea...I do hope that if Ashoka story "Ends" it's in animation were it stared and not in a book.

I mean that did happen with Vetress which kinda stinks...Although Saw's story ended in live action.

But I do wonder what the value of ending one persons story in one media and ending it in another

 

Zahn's Thrawn hasn't really ever varied that much - charismatic, amoral bastard utilitarian, where good is defined in macro terms, but entirely down to Thrawn and no one else.

There's probably one thing that links Veitch and Zahn - they likely expected more scrutiny and their stories to be harder sells.

DE does its damnedest to sell Luke going dark, anticipating people would resist the idea but loads just go with it easily.

Zahn's interest is in giving some reason to an Empire that builds Death Stars, why would anyone stay with it? What counts as an Imperial ideal and should you really fall for it?

 

DE Luke wasn't even all that dark. Obi-Wan probably had more blood directly on his hands during his time as Rako Hardeen in TCW and Canon Quinlan Vos did far worse things and was reinstated as Jedi Master in Dark Disciple.

 

Yeah but he's lost some of the villainess touch that made him so much fun in the original TTT and Rebels.

Granted maybe making him the star of his own novel series isn't the best idea. He works better as a cast member but not the focus.

 

Same here, we may get a much better version of Ahsoka than how Filoni writes her, i don't know if it's going to happen, though, as if she appears in Mando, she's still going to be mostly under Filoni's control, and the other media where we are probably going to see her is the Rebels sequel.

I think Stackpole is the best author to handle Mara, in my opinion, as for Thrawn, i don't like him in Rebels that much, but it's true that the New Canon works Zahn do seem to paint him in a very favorable light, even though he is supposed to be a villain, at least from what i hear (that was also true in his later Legends works, though), the thing is that we don't see anyone else but Zahn write him for the most part.

 

I think whatever problems with Thrawn are due more to the limitations of Rebels then the base writing of the character. If he were in Clone Wars I think Thrawn might have had more favorable dues.

Which is why if a Rebels Sequel Series were more in the vain of Clone Wars style and scale I think Thrawn might have a better chance of coming out in a more fuller form.

Because there are moments in Rebels were I think Filoni GETS Thrawn or what he should be...or at least how i like him.

For example this is probably my FAVORITE Thrawn moment

 

Villain-ess!? Thrawn's gone trans? Now there's a story to tell.

Nah, he's still the same bastard he ever was, the problem is, like Dooku, Thrawn can talk you into thinking that he really isn't that bad..... When he is.

There's always a "reason" for Thrawn, doesn't matter what it is, he'll always, if inclined, be able to tell you why he did something but that doesn't mean you have to accept it.

HoT has the claim that all of his actions in TTT were to unify the galaxy against a greater threat. To that end, Thrawn included kidnapping and handing over Leia's kids to a severely abusive and psychopathic cloned Jedi Master gone dark. It doesn't stand up to that much scrutiny, doesn't automatically move Thrawn from the Villain to Hero column.

I like Thrawn a lot but he's always on the dark side for me.