At A Glance
- With an extra bit of mysticism alongside the fast-paced sword fights and blaster fire, there is a very good reason to tune into Ahsoka every week. I, for one, am eagerly awaiting the following episodes.
First appearing in the animated film The Clone Wars, young Ahsoka Tano began as the snippy sidekick Anakin Skywalker initially didn’t want. Throughout the Clone Wars television series, however, “Snips” easily won the hearts of her master and friends alike, quickly climbing to fan favorite status.
After the series ended, she appeared again in the follow-up animated show Rebels and finally made her live-action debut in an earlier Disney+ show, The Mandalorian.
It’s easy to see why she can draw a crowd. I admit I’ve had a soft spot for her from the few years I was an FX Artist on Clone Wars. She was the padawan learner of Anakin himself, the squire to his knight. She fought alongside and then against him when he turned to the dark side, giving her a unique place in Star Wars history. And now, years later, she’s all grown up and finally headlining her solo show, played with practiced stoicism by Rosario Dawson.
Taking place sometime after the Battle of Yavin (That’s when good old Luke blew up the Deathstar, for those unacquainted with the Star Wars calendar), Ahsoka pretty much serves as a sequel to Rebels, picking up loose threads, and one can safely assume, tie at least some of them up by the series end.
In the first two episodes, Ahsoka comes across fellow Rebels alumni Sabine, (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and General Hera Syndulla, (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). David Tennant also reprises his Clone Wars role as Huyang, the Jedi’s trusty lightsaber-crafting droid. While seeing the animated characters transposed into live-action was a treat, the first episode is a bit of a slog.
Much is spent reintroducing the main characters and hinting at their history together. If you are a Rebels fan, then you know much of what already went on, and if you are not, they don’t go into much detail to clear anything up anyway.
This is not to say that you must watch Rebels to understand anything. There’s enough for one to follow well enough, even without the baggage from previous shows. Bad guy Grand Admiral Thrawn is missing, along with one of our heroes’ friends, and the show now becomes a race between them and the remnants of the Empire to find them. Simple and straightforward.
The big baddies Ahsoka and company have to contend with are former Jedi Baylen Skoll, played with much weight by the late Ray Stevenson, his apprentice Shin Hati, played by Ivana Sakhno, and a mysterious double-lightsaber-wielding warrior known as Marrok. Scheming in the shadows is the Dathomir Witch Morgan Elsbith, played by Diana Lee Inosanto. The pace picks up by the second episode, and if all goes well, future episodes will not be quite as sluggish.
In terms of its visuals, the show is practically flawless, with movie-level CG and seamless live-action integration. Ancient ruins and futuristic cities abound, giving Ahsoka a feeling of epic scope.
There’s a lot of potential in the show, not only for the usual Star Wars tropes you might expect, such as lightsaber duels, endearing droids (Yes, Chopper is in it!), and exciting aerial battles, but also to explore the not-so-known aspects like the Witches of Dathomir.
With an extra bit of mysticism alongside the fast-paced sword fights and blaster fire, there is a very good reason to tune into Ahsoka every week. I, for one, am eagerly awaiting the following episodes.