Ahsoka (WARNING: SPOILERS POSSIBLE)

[Medivh]

So I've seen the first two episodes of Ahsoka.

If you have seen Star Wars: Rebels, a series that follows Ezra Bridger as he goes from thief to rebel to jedi, you will appreciate much of the plot, characters and callbacks.  You will also know why finding Ezra is so important to Ahsoka and Sabine Wren - not to mention who those characters actually are.

If you haven't seen Rebels, but have seen the animated series Clone Wars, you will at least appreciate who Ahsoka Tano actually is.

Having seen both, I enjoyed the live-action version of Ahsoka, and all the references to previous shows, including the callbacks to the Nightsisters of Dathomir (first introduced in the book Courtship of Princess Leia and fleshed out as a subplot in Clone Wars and Rebels). I am looking forward to seeing how Thrawn (also introduced in books and later reintroduced in Rebels) returns in a way akin to the Timothy Zahn novels.

I'm interested if the show is enjoyable to those who haven't see the animated shows?

Or other thoughts.

Go!

[Syren]

I enjoyed it and I haven't watched the animated shows. The characters are interesting and I am familiar enough with the source material to be invested in it. 

[SWSF Eidolon]

Have seen all of CW and Rebels.

Would be appreciating this new series even if not.



The masked sith character has got to be Ezra but I'm probably missing someone?  Can't think of who else is in the character orbits that makes sense to mask and would be shockwave once they were unmasked?  And if it's not already someone we know, why are they masked?  I saw an article alleging the possibility of it being Starkiller- but didn't play those games or know the character and really hope it's not a gaming character crossover in to the canon theatrical/live action realm.



The Corellia bit was a very interesting.  Enjoying it all though.  Live Action Chopper is awesome.  I bet Hera really was in his stuff!



I dig Sabine's speeder jam also.  Punkish, maybe riotgirlish (tho I never really knew what that was)

[Syren]

Spacewalk lightsaber defense? So. Here. For. This.

[SWSF Eidolon]

  7 SSD scale hyperdrives?  that ring must be big, whats traveling in it?


  jacen syndulla?  intersting mesh, I missed that if it began in rebels, maybe didn't see last season hmm

[Medivh]

  7 SSD scale hyperdrives?  that ring must be big, whats traveling in it?


  jacen syndulla?  intersting mesh, I missed that if it began in rebels, maybe didn't see last season hmm

Jacen Syndulla was revealed in the epilogue of the show.

[Syren]

This last episode was quite impressive.

Even without the animated show context, I am enjoying it. Also, and perhaps more controversially (depending on the type of fan), this plays more into The Last Jedi philosophy, the best of the new trilogy in my opinion. The fact that the Force is supposed to be coursing through everyone and that with training one can tap into that is pretty compelling. Sabine is not a Jedi, not even a great Jedi candidate as they have expressly stated. Her training is more to make her a better warrior, not to make her into a Jedi which to me, would be a narrative cop-out. It's cool that non-Jedi can engage with the Force in different ways. Also, Sabine's narrative turn at the end of the episode genuinely surprised me because I thought they were going to go all self-righteous. But the Star Wars universe operates in more shades of grey than we had grown up with. That's what I like most about it - these small choices by certain individuals play so heavily into the larger galactic fate (e.g. Sabine, by trying to find Ezra and thereby Thrawn leads to the rise of the First Order). 

Interested to see where this goes.

[SWSF Eidolon]

very lovely episode 5.


"What if I stop fighting?"

"Then you'll die."

  So basic and simple dialogue but felt so heavy and of course true as fuck regarding everything.



  This was Haydens best bit as Anakin and even though it's a lot of his own material he's referencing and expanding, Filonis picks are very cool.  I checked up, is the Battle of Teth shown in episode 5 flashback, from Clone Wars animated movie that preceded the series debut.



  LOL on the mouth of the Purgill.  I want to think it's lame but I can't.

  Makes me wonder where the asteroid worm could have taken the Falcon! =D



  All this Thrawn foreplay better pay out soon.

[Medivh]

very lovely episode 5.


"What if I stop fighting?"

"Then you'll die."

  So basic and simple dialogue but felt so heavy and of course true as fuck regarding everything.



  This was Haydens best bit as Anakin and even though it's a lot of his own material he's referencing and expanding, Filonis picks are very cool.  I checked up, is the Battle of Teth shown in episode 5 flashback, from Clone Wars animated movie that preceded the series debut.



  LOL on the mouth of the Purgill.  I want to think it's lame but I can't.

  Makes me wonder where the asteroid worm could have taken the Falcon! =D



  All this Thrawn foreplay better pay out soon.

I loved the flashback, and appreciated how Hayden Christenson was able to tap into the version of Anakin portrayed in the Clone War series.  Not sure it actually moved the story forward - I'm still not clear what the lesson was he was trying to teach her - but I really appreciate it.
It was very cool seeing Ahsoka struggling with her perception of the Anakin she knew and the Anakin she knew he became.

Yes, definitely too long waiting for Thrawn to appear.  My guess is we won't see him until the very end of the second to last episode of the season.

[SWSF Eidolon]

I loved the flashback, and appreciated how Hayden Christenson was able to tap into the version of Anakin portrayed in the Clone War series.  Not sure it actually moved the story forward - I'm still not clear what the lesson was he was trying to teach her - but I really appreciate it.
It was very cool seeing Ahsoka struggling with her perception of the Anakin she knew and the Anakin she knew he became.

Yes, definitely too long waiting for Thrawn to appear.  My guess is we won't see him until the very end of the second to last episode of the season.

  I read an article that posited the final lesson was he taught her how to forgive herself for the blame she felt in Anakins downfall as it related to her leaving him and the Jedi Order before her training was complete in CW.  She quit fighting in CW and left the Jedi Order, her training incomplete, so she was never a proper ordained Jedi Knight really.  The theme in the flashback was that sometimes you have to fight to keep living, or in a sense 'all this is necessary for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing'.  Also Shes been carrying the burden for awhile after learning/confirming Anakin = Vader (Einhorn is Finkell, Finkell is Einhorn!!) was S2 finale of Rebels.  Probably a lot of all that really.  I think more than anything Filoni felt compelled to tell a story of her finally completing her training and its just a lot of other symbolic possibly meanings put in to it all of which are part true/correct.

 

  Same material also pointed out how Jacen hearing the light saber battle from the World Between Worlds showed that it wasn't all just in Ahsokas head, to some extent it was really happening.  Possibly clarifying that this was actually the real redeemed jedi Anakin Skywalker from beyond the grave and not just her mind telling her a story while unconscious.  Also why it showed him shifting between Anakin/Vader traits- possibly because he meets her in 'world between worlds', he cannot manifest to her in regular world force ghost form?  This would perhaps be a retcon of ROTJ showing redeemed Anakin appear as a force ghost on the regular plain of existence... because no other sith can force ghost freely like that I think?  Perhaps because Luke brought him back, he was able to see Force Ghost Anakin in that moment, but for him to never appear to his apprentice Ahsoka at any time makes you wonder.  If memory serves, sith always need a vessel like a holocron for any of their spirit to remain?  maybe am over thinking it!


FUN though!  Agree with you we probably won't see Thrawn til the beginning of the very end of S1.

They are going to be to be on the other galaxy in Ep 6.  Will be intersting to see what sets a diff galaxy apart in the SW Uni if anything..

  And when they finally get to the point- has Thrawn already built an Empire there?  Are there some kind of prevailing alien species that he's aligned with and commands their forces?  Has he got stormtroopers arleady of some kind??

  In Ahsoka so far, the only other hint of Empire we've seen besides Morgan, Baylan/Shin is the corrupt Correllian Shipyard guys.  Kind of begs question where are people like Moff Gideon earlier on right now?  I think is only 3-5 years later difference for Mandalorian Events.

[Medivh]

THRAWN!

[SWSF Eidolon]

IT WAS AWESOME!


I am kind of surprised by how spooky it felt with the nightsister great mothers and all. 


Sabine and Ezras reunion felt awkward though.



Loved the whole episode though.  The crab people are great.  Baylan and Shin are very much so taking their own shape here and I love that divergence and Baylans Greyness.

Thrawn was excellent casting and scripting choices.




The grizzly stormtroopers also a nice touch.  Captain Enoch is interesting character.


Wow though, quite a lot going on with episode 6.  The rest of this season is going to be tense.  I'm glad we got him sooner than expected!



Jedi Droids homage to the original line in opening his story to Ahsoka was such a warm fuzzy feeling.

[SWSF Eidolon]

So the containers being loaded on to Chimeara are speculated to be coffins containing possibly nightsister corpses, stormtrooper corpses, since they are the relative size and coming from Catacombs of Great Mothers temple on Dathomiri extra galactic homeworld.  Marrok being nightsis Magick seemingly when slain by Ahsoka also a foreshadow.

Also being talked about Thrawns Stormies are already reanimated by nightsister Magick hence their ramshackle patched up appearance.

I dunno.  I'm enjoying either way but that would all be quite a hard veer in to the dark supernatural far removed from how the force usually felt to me anyways.  I'm not complaining but is very diff for such a big piece of Canon material esp if Thrawn is to invade the galaxy with an army of reanimated corpses even if they are only ever shown as escaping Gas from hollow bodies. 

[Syren]

Love the more esoteric turn and general vibe this has. Even though I do not have the animated context, I did read Thrawn back in the day so seeing him on screen after imagining him in the novels was kind of surreal. Each show has its own focus and tone which some can take or leave yet context is important, a lot of which was not fully explored thus far, at least in this form. Was Andor brills? Absolutely. But comparing anything before and since to that and only that takes away from the nuance they are individually offering. They did say Sabine's singular focus serves as a bridge (Bridger, perhaps, as a symbol) to the state of things by the time we get to the sequel trilogy. Those little things always make me smile.

In terms of the bigger bad, read speculation it could be a way to bring a now-legend entity to canon - the Abeloth. Read up on that and could be interesting, given the supernatural undercurrents. The Mortis Gods have already shown up in canon so not a total narrative stretch. Groundwork is there. Would be an interesting niche to explore given the attention on Ahsoka's characters exploring variations of relationships to the Force.

Masks play such a critical role in SW so wonder who is under Enoch's, and if we'll catch a glimpse.

[SWSF Eidolon]

I just started seeing bits popping up about a screen grab of Baylan zoomed in on a chrono he's wearing that has text in aurebesh, translated, it names Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, R2D2, C3PO and Ben.

Is it just aurebesh filler not meant to mean anything in event if was discerned?  or is it a hint of Baylans grander scheme?



Re: Enoch.  I say we see his face.  His fate and plot purpose has to pull from the biblical Enoch in some way you'd think.  Which lacks much definition unless you are looking at the Mormon Enoch or Book of Enoch Enoch.





Holy crap, mostly unrelated, I think I just figured out where the name Eriadu came from.  Somewhere down the research rabbit hole I was reading about Sumerian Flood Myth.  One of the prime Sumerian cities was called Eridu.