Now that Ahsoka season 1 is full, we right here at Star Wars News Net need to present our ideas on the sequence general. Over the following few days, members of the staff will give their critiques of the season. Each will present their completely different takes and opinions that modify enormously from each other. Stay tuned for much more protection and critiques of Ahsoka within the coming days forward.
Before Ahsoka started, I remarked on SWNN Live! (our weekly podcast) that each one I needed from the sequence was present. And that’s precisely what we acquired. Ahsoka is a enjoyable, rousing, spectacle-filled journey with numerous fan service and pomp. There are loads of scenes for die-hard followers to scream excitedly at. However, it additionally has a number of obtrusive points. These points are annoying, however they don’t break the present. Ahsoka remains to be a enjoyable time available that will get followers excited for the inevitable season 2.
What I Enjoyed Most Out of Ahsoka
I’ll begin by itemizing what are a few of Ahsoka‘s best strengths. Kicking issues off is #1: The Characters. Watching Ahsoka, it’s clear that the sequence is written by a person who’s obsessed with every one in every of its characters. That’s as a result of it’s. Writer and sequence creator Dave Filoni understands his characters. Each character has distinctive persona traits, types of speech, and habits that solely come from a deep data of who they’re. The love and fervour for these characters are so excessive that I discovered myself invested in minor characters I didn’t assume I’d like that a lot. Characters like Baylan Skoll, Morgan Elsbeth, and Shin Hati are all fleshed out and totally realized with nice vary and gravitas and I needed to be taught extra about every one in every of them.
Moving on to #2: The Score. Kevin Kiner cemented himself as a legend even earlier than Ahsoka started. With work on The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Bad Batch, and Tales of the Jedi, Kiner helped push what Star Wars may sound like. But Ahsoka pushes it ahead by a rustic mile. Utilizing a swath of conventional Japanese devices such because the shakuhachi and the shamisen, Kiner turned Ahsoka Tano right into a full-on samurai. Feel free to take a look at my breakdown on Ahsoka’s finish credit monitor for a full writeup on the rating’s complexities.
And now onto #3: The Cinematography. Coupled with the large, sweeping sounds of Ahsoka, the visuals of the present are additionally beautiful. It’s one thing I counseled the present earlier in my overview of “Part 6: Far, Far Away.” Shots like The Chimaera approaching the Nightsister’s tower, Sabine exploring Peridea, or earlier within the present when Anakin transitions into Darth Vader, are all breathtaking. Some scenes don’t look fairly pretty much as good, however general, Ahsoka has numerous memorable scenes which are filmed completely.
I may go on and on about particular scenes which are superb. The World Between Worlds, Ahsoka’s first duel with Baylan, Ahsoka coaching Sabine, and so forth. But I needed to pick out these three facets that stood out to me and which are normal execs that I cherished concerning the sequence as a complete.
Possible Improvements
Even although Ahsoka has so much going for it, there’s nonetheless room for enchancment. And I’ll begin with what I feel might be the largest enchancment, which is #1: The Formatting. What I imply by that is how the sequence was launched, together with the size and variety of episodes. One of the favored refrains about Ahsoka whereas it was popping out was that the episodes had been too quick. And I wholeheartedly agree with this. At instances, it felt like every episode ended proper when it was simply getting began. It’s positive to go away viewers hanging and ready for the following episode, however typically, the wait doesn’t really feel price it. I usually pined for extra solutions and extra content material from every episode, feeling just like the producers had been dragging out the sequence simply in order that they may have eight episodes. If the sequence was condensed to someplace round six or 4 episodes, every round an hour or an hour-and-a-half, I feel the weekly wait would’ve felt extra price it and produced a extra tightly-knit story.
This leads me to my subsequent level: #2 The Focus of the Story. Ahsoka is within the unlucky place of being the end result of years of storytelling. But it additionally has to get viewers caught up on all of it. Because of that, it results in numerous plots and subplots, all of various qualities. Rescuing Ezra from Peridea, Ahsoka and Sabine’s tumultuous relationship, Thrawn’s plans to return, Hera combating towards the New Republic’s insurance policies, Morgan Elsbeth and the Nightsisters, … there’s so much. And that’s not all of them. Understandably, the present has all of those plots as it’s serving to to get followers caught up. It’s additionally attempting to arrange future tasks, together with different films. Yet, it takes some valuable time away from plots I want we may spend extra time on. Things like what occurred between Ahsoka and Sabine, Ahsoka’s relationship with Anakin, and even what Baylan and Shin are as much as. Even just a bit bit extra time on a few of these plots, placing a extra exact give attention to the story then and there, and never future tales down the highway, could be an enormous enchancment I’d’ve favored to have seen.
There are different nitpicks I may level out, similar to some immersion-breaking CGI, hit-and-miss motion choreography, and some tonal shifts which will really feel misplaced. But these are minor and may be neglected.
Ahsoka is a Fun Show That Will Likely Only Get Better Over Time
At the tip of the day, Ahsoka is the entertaining present that I needed. Did it fulfill all of my expectations? No. But then once more, it’s very onerous for Star Wars to dwell as much as everybody’s expectations. And a number of years later, when future films and exhibits have additionally come out as nicely, many of those complaints will seemingly go away as we get a greater understanding of Ahsoka’s objective general.
And, Ahsoka will seemingly additionally enhance over time, getting higher and higher general. Just have a look at Dave Filoni’s two different main tasks: Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. Many will say that these two exhibits started on rocky foundations that grew into a number of the finest Star Wars content material in recent times. It’s extremely attainable that Ahsoka may do the identical, with the sequence seemingly turning into a spotlight within the franchise within the close to future.
For extra on what lies forward for the Star Wars franchise, try our article on the place Ahsoka season 2 may go subsequent, and what’s subsequent for Star Wars on Disney Plus.
Jay Goodearl’s earliest reminiscence is of his father studying out to him the opening crawl to The Phantom Menace when he was simply two years previous. He has been a Star Wars fan ever since.
