Ahsoka (TV Series)

 

Anakin Skywalker's Padawan Ahsoka Tano is one of my favorite Star Wars characters. Heavily featured in the animated Clone Wars and Rebels series, she played an important part in many Clone Wars era battles. She was framed for the bombing of the Jedi Temple in Coruscant and left the order. When the Clone Wars ended and the Empire rose to power, Ahsoka became a bit of a wanderer. She eventually teamed up with the Ghost Crew in Rebels, who took on Grand Admiral Thrawn. At the end of Rebels, Jedi Ezra Bridger is fighting Thrawn when they are both shipped off through Hyperspace to an unknown location in a different galaxy. Fast forward to the New Republic era, and Ahsoka has returned to her wandering ways. This is where the story picks up in the Ahsoka series.

Given the fact that there have been Star Wars shows in the Disney+ era that have been really good (The Mandalorian, Andor) and not so good (Boba Fett), I was really hoping this would be one of the better shows. For the most part it succeeds. Anyone who likes Rebels will like this show. It features all of the main characters from that show (minus Zeb) and their pursuit to find both Ezra and Grand Admiral Thrawn. They succeed in finding them, both living on a desolate planet in a different galaxy that was the home of the nightsisters prior to Dathomir. While they succeed in bringing Ezra home, they do not succeed in stopping Thrawn, who travels to Dathomir with his nighsister crew. Ahsoka and Sabine Wren remain stuck on the desolate planet, and Ahsoka seems oddly at peace with this. I found her behavior at the end very odd, because she failed her mission in defeating Thrawn, and he was supposed to be a massive threat to the galaxy. Other scenes where Captain Hera Syndulla is pleading with the New Republic government for resources to stop Thrawn and they act unconcerned also undermines the severity of the threat. 

On the flip side, Dave Filoni has always heavily featured the supernatural aspects of being a Jedi, and seeing the World Between Worlds in live action was absolutely awesome. Featuring the nightsisters was also awesome, as were the Sith lords. Overall I think the show was good, despite the awkward ending. It seems pretty obvious that it is setting up for a second season, so I hope to see more character development for Ahsoka, more Sabine (who was maybe the best character of the show), and more Thrawn with his nightsisters!