Let’s say you’re hanging out with some individuals who’ve identified one another for a very long time. Perhaps longer than they’ve identified you. They’ve all these hilarious in-jokes and continually reference occasions they frolicked collectively. Instances which you had been, notably, not current for. It’s all they do. They by no means deliver you on top of things or endeavor to debate belongings you would possibly find out about. What a bunch of assholes, proper? Ahsoka is like a type of jerks.
Each week of Ahsoka has been extra baffling than the final, to a level largely dependent in your funding in extracurricular Star Wars. In the event you’re the sort that’s deep in it, well-versed within the animated collection and its implications, Ahsoka — whereas not a superb present — is no less than a possibility to really feel helpful. As a result of for people who aren’t up-to-date on deep Star Wars lore, Ahsoka has been a slowly accumulating catastrophe, with its few vibrant spots (beautiful house battles, cute turtle guys, Ray Stevenson) overwhelmed by a collection so tired of entertaining the unconverted that it defeated my weekly battle to get pleasure from it. I now know what it was like for Obi-Wan within the pits of Mustafar. Ahsoka was speculated to be the chosen one, the rationale for me to inform others, See I wasn’t an fool for watching all these Star Wars cartoons; you’d like them. As a substitute I really feel like an fool for watching all these Star Wars cartoons.
The present fixation on interconnected cinematic universes and the vertical integration that fuels streaming platforms does rather a lot to make the viewer really feel like it’s their accountability to do homework. Prefer it’s their fault if a narrative doesn’t make sense, as a result of solutions are, ostensibly, attainable with just a few faucets on an app and a number of other hours of your time. Let me do you a kindness: That isn’t on you.
Picture: Lucasfilm Ltd.
Ahsoka’s cardinal sin is a straightforward one: It’s the center of a narrative that the viewer has no approach of realizing they began. To make sense of Ahsoka, somebody has to let you know that it’s a sequel to Rebels, that it leans closely on a number of bonkers arcs of The Clone Wars, that its huge villain is a callback to decades-old Legacy novels and sort of a Large Deal. And one of many solely methods to keep away from being annoyed with Ahsoka’s cliffhanger ending is by stepping into with the information that creator Dave Filoni is working in the direction of a movie that may wrap up his “New Republic” story, and that actual closure received’t come till then — no matter whether or not or not Ahsoka will get a second season, or if its plot threads are continued in The Mandalorian.
The collection doesn’t stand by itself two toes. Completely none of its character or plot arcs make any sense with out intensive background information, and all the cool stuff — and there may be some cool shit on this finale — will come up to now out of left area to the uninitiated that it could threaten to show them off solely. Think about, for a second, watching Ahsoka having solely seen the theatrical movies, and even simply the live-action reveals. How bananas wouldn’t it be to abruptly be taught there may be necromancy and magic in Star Wars? How utterly out of its gourd Ahsoka should appear. It’s the sort of leap that’s greatest made after making completely certain that your viewers has been sufficiently onboarded, as a result of it’s additionally the sort of leap that may flip them away.
It’s a storyteller’s accountability to look after the viewers and respect their time. That’s to not say that the viewers shouldn’t ever must work to know what’s occurring or that it’s unsuitable to count on them to have interaction with a story on a deeper stage, however the textual content in entrance of them ought to give the viewer all the things they want. And what’s on display screen in Ahsoka largely appears like a waste of that point.
Picture: Lucasfilm Ltd.
If you lay out the primary plot beats of the final eight episodes, it’s astonishing how little occurs, and what’s really achieved or made clear. Ahsoka begins with Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) on a quest that she started on one other present to search out Grand Admiral Thrawn, a man misplaced in deep house so on the market that a number of episodes are spent simply discovering a map to it. However it’s price it, we’re instructed, as a result of this man is actual unhealthy, and likewise he’s caught with Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi), a man so good that it’s definitely worth the threat of giving Thrawn a ticket out of limbo. Because the star of the present, Ahsoka will get a small arc the place her former mentor Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christenson) seems as a Drive Ghost to offer her frankly baffling recommendation, which she pays ahead within the type of much more cryptic recommendation to her apprentice, the Mandalorian Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). It’s price noting, by the best way, that Sabine and Ahsoka’s relationship of Grasp and Apprentice is solely new, an off-screen dynamic nobody has seen or heard about till Ahsoka premiered. You would possibly suppose the thinness of their relationship is, like most of Ahsoka, one thing you missed from a cartoon you didn’t watch, however nope. That is all there may be.
Tonally, Ahsoka even appears confused as to the way it ought to ship its huge story beats. As a result of sure, whereas Ahsoka and Sabine finish the season having achieved their mission of discovering and saving Ezra, they’ve additionally freed what’s speculated to be the most important risk to the galaxy because the Emperor. But bafflingly, by beautiful music cues from Kevin Kiner, maybe the very best of many John Williams interpolators to work on Star Wars, Ahsoka as a substitute lingers on cheerful reunions and wistful moments, utterly underselling that the worst factor that might have occurred in its story has occurred.
These are basic failings that may sink any present, and so they don’t even account for nuts and bolts points like stiff performances, stilted dialogue, and underwhelming motion choreography. Fan service — even visually hanging, fun-to-watch fan service — shouldn’t be sufficient to construct a present round and count on individuals to tune into the following one. I might even accept a present that made sense, as a result of from what’s on display screen, very fundamental questions like “would Thrawn have escaped anyway with out Ahsoka and Sabine discovering him?” are extremely unclear.
However what do I do know? I’m just a few chump who watched a bunch of cartoons.
