Wow, what terrible acting and storylines. It's like they throw darts at the episode plot board and just riff on what they hit.

With every Star Wars spinoff Disney demonstrates their acceptance of mediocrity in entertainment. Each spin off uses the leftovers from the previous shows as set pieces and everything is just lower and lower production value with more talentless actors and bad writing.

Mando set a gold standard in the first two seasons, Fett was OK but felt forced, Obi Wan didn't really land and Ewan couldn't resurrect it, Andor was slow and recycled too many previous Star Wars sets and now Ashoka is just a sad attempt at another spinoff, of which there seem to be a limitless supply of. With Ashoka it seems like they are trying to break the "one season special" formula and make it a slow burn to run for multiple seasons.

Disney is grasping at anything to keep their failing streaming service (and frankly, their failing corporation) alive.

As I write this I realize how much Star Wars has been spun off, especially if you include Solo and Rogue One. Disney got their hands on the franchise and turned it into a giant cash grab which worked for a minute but is watering down a beloved franchise more and more with each spin off.

People expecting "The Mandalorian" level characters and development, (and budget) are going to be deeply disappointed in the show.

The setup, is deeply tied into Rebels, and Mandalorian Season 3, not leaving a lot for Ahsoka to actually do anything but help other women. This could change in the rest of the Season, and should... But there's signs of Side-Character syndrome. Capable enough to stop the Main Villain, but not enough to have their own relationships or meet key characters. She can't be a Main Character, just like Dinn Djarin of Mandalorian, because they don't exist in the Movies.

Which is why the stories drag, fail and drag on, wasting time. Mixing the 'PG' of Mando/Grogu and the Saccharine 'teenage rebels' in a live-action format.... has strong potential, in someone else's hands.

As a result of this Disney character tampering, Ahsoka is more like a Netflix "Live Action" Adaptation of Star Wars Rebels.


Not the good kind of Adaptation.


The problem is that Mandalorian tends to be a watermark for Quality/Entertainment, which Ahsoka is supposed to be tied into events of S2 and S3 Mandalorian. If you hold your nose over the stench of the 8-year old beaten corpse of Star Wars, it's respectable and probably a suitable sequel for the characters,


but it can't help but appear to be a terrible introduction to the expanding mediocrity of the Disney Star Wars legacy. The Setup/Act 1 introduction, for the first 2 episodes is balancing the characters/plot of a Kids Show, in a semi-adult format. If you think of the show as a mix of Obi-Wan, Boba-Fett, and the ugly half of Mandalorian Season 3 with Lizzo and Jack Black... you'd be close.


IMO A flashback to Ezra would probably have been even better to introduce the conflict of Thrawn/Ezra and allow the audience to create their own mythos / emotions of the characters nobody knows about.


This way, you can bend the story of Thrawn as a capable danger / threat that the "Republic Heroes" can't fight, because they're not prepared. Now you just add the women of Star Wars Rebels into the show, who are basically living in the shadow of Ezra and Kanan. I would have been far more encouraging if Hera/Sabine/Ahsoka were introduced in a more dramatic fashion that allowed each character to be drawn into the story, rather than focusing on the Villain/Threat to elude/deceive and introduce the core plot.


Then you move the exposition into the slow travel between action set-pieces. Especially the time needed to show Sabine's and Ezra's relationship & emotional development you'd need to build that relationship for viewers who haven't seen Rebels, and don't want to.

It is a show that knows more than anything how to waste your time. Very little is accomplished over the season, and the show has little to no character arcs. For no reason, there are long pauses during dialogue between 2 people and there is no reason for it other than to pat out the runtime. The characters and bland and have little story arcs or their arc makes no sense. Speaking of, so many stupid things happen in this show that make no sense from the opening scene of episode 1 to the last scene of episode 8. Why do the robots initiate self-destruct and say it out loud so Ahsoka can escape? Why do they take forever to self-destruct? Why not blow up immediately so Ahsoka just dies and the story ends? Why does Sabine survive a lightsaber stab wound? What is Baylon Skol after? Why is there a random map to Thrawn on this random planet? These and many more questions plague the show and are never answered. And I highly doubt they will be answered in season 2.

Sorry Dave, but you didn't save Star Wars. You just showed it is as dead as it was when Disney bought the rights to it. Do us a favor Dave and take some writing lessons cause your scripts suck. Do better.

3/10