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.