A Disney Plus original series that stars the character Ahsoka has been hinted at by “Star Wars” producers for the last couple years, and it’s finally here. This eight-episode “Star Wars” based TV series, “Ahsoka” premiered in late August and episodes came out weekly until last month. The show follows Ahsoka, a Padawan (or apprentice) of Anakin Skywalker. Anakin would later become known as the classic “Star Wars” villain, Darth Vader.
“Ahsoka” acts as a live-action sequel of sorts to the animated series “Star Wars: Rebels.” As a watcher of “Rebels” from when it was airing on TV, I was very excited for this new series. Not only is Ahsoka one of my favorite characters in that show, there were also a lot of plot threads set up in “Rebels” that I was thrilled to see the end to in “Ahsoka.” However, while it was a good show, it left me feeling some dissatisfaction.
It’s hard to get into a brief plot synopsis without giving away spoilers from “Rebels,”so if you don’t want spoilers from “Rebels,” stop reading here. The overall plot of Ahsoka has to do with the final episode from “Rebels.” At the very end, the main character of “Rebels,” Ezra Bridger, transported an incredibly imposing enemy, Grand Admiral Thrawn, to a distant galaxy, but not without taking himself with them. “Ahsoka” focuses on trying to find Ezra’s location, and not taking Thrawn back with them. However, multiple remnants from the former Empire are trying to get to Thrawn as well, making this quite the difficult scenario. Throughout the series, the main characters of Ahsoka Tano and former “Rebels” character Sabine Wren must struggle with the possibility of never seeing their friend Ezra again, although it would mean keeping a great evil away from their homes.
I absolutely love Grand Admiral Thrawn’s character. This is partially rooted in nostalgia, as I read the original “Thrawn Trilogy” by Timothy Zahn as a kid and absolutely loved everything about it. Almost everyone in the Empire is shown as almost unintelligent in some of the original “Star Wars” trilogy, but Thrawn changes all of those notions. He is cold, calculating, and sees everything as expendable as long as it forwards his agenda. He shows no weakness, and no openings in his well-thought-out plots, which makes for an incredibly scary villain. Although even villain isn’t the right word, I think adversary would be more fitting. Though he is the antagonist of this show, he doesn’t show very many villain-like traits (besides actively opposing the protagonists’ goals). He is generous, keeps to his word, and commends the main characters on their endeavors when they manage to stand toe-to-toe with him. The character writing is absolutely brilliant, and it brings a real sense of fear to this otherwise passive series.
One thing I wasn’t so entirely pleased with was the reimagining of the character Sabine Wren. I liked her a lot from “Rebels” but she seemed a lot more difficult to deal with than I remember, despite being a protagonist. Chaotic Neutral might be a good way to describe her, which I think works well in some cases, but when paired up with the noble and wise character of Ahsoka, it’s a dichotomy that I can’t really get my head around. It seems like Sabine’s wild and illogical actions drive most of the plot forward, which I don’t feel is a great way to keep things moving. I wish Sabine were portrayed as smarter, I like it when characters are smart, but the blatant irrationality of her character just feels like a method to slow down the protagonists. She does grow during the series and becomes a lot better near the end, but it feels too abrupt. They set things up for her to grow over time, but they don’t explicitly show a whole lot of it, which is not my favorite in terms of character-writing.
Overall, “Ahsoka” lived up to my expectations. It’s a good show, it has well-choreographed fights, and it has good character writing for some of my favorite characters (not Sabine). It has a lot of action, adventure, and has a feel akin to traditional “Star Wars.”“Ahsoka” can be found on the Disney Plus streaming service.
