Star Wars: Ahsoka (2023) TV Show Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm here to talk about the full series of Star Wars: Ahsoka. The finale came out last night and I can't wait to talk about this show now that it's over. This is going to be a spoiler free review. I'm still going to talk about Ezra and other characters who were announced to be in this show so they aren't spoilers. I just won't go into a whole ton of details. Let's get into it.

Having spent a few weeks watching Rebels and learning that Ahsoka was essentially going to be the fifth season of that show, I was really excited for it to come out. And while I loved all eight episodes, Ahsoka represents a problem that Disney has had with both of its major entertainment franchises, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars. And that problem is that their ambitions for both franchises outweigh the real possibility that people are going to move on from either franchise because they don't care anymore. 

In the years since Return of the Jedi came out, Star Wars has become a pretty niche franchise. While the first movie in a trilogy usually garners more attention being that they tend to come out between 10 and 16 years after the final film of the previous trilogy had come out. But in between trilogies the general audience moves on from the franchise leaving the books, comics, video games, and TV shows to the fans to enjoy. Now there are enough Star Wars fans out there for the Expanded Universe to be considered successful, though some mediums are more obscure, such as the current slew of live action shows are more well known than the books, comics, and animated shows are to the general, non-Star Wars fan, audience.

You can't ask an audience who barely cares about the franchise as it is, to watch every show or read every novel or comic, in order to understand a movie or other show. And ever since the Disney+ shows began in 2019 that's what Disney has been asking the general audience to do with both Star Wars and the MCU. Which is why the MCU has been struggling post-Endgame. In Star Wars's case, it goes deeper than that. Because Disney kept pumping out Star Wars movies every year from 2015 to 2019, to the general audience, Star Wars is no longer special because it transitioned from something that came out in theatres once every three years for six years, then goes away for ten to sixteen years, to something that is constantly coming out, and it can be exhausting to try to keep up with all of it.

Which is why I think it was a mistake for Filoni to say publicly that the audience needs to have watched Rebels in order to understand and appreciate what was going to happen in Ahsoka. Just because not everybody likes Animation and refuses to watch any show or movie done in Animation. And because Rebels is an animated series, there are people who wouldn't've watched it prior to Ahsoka coming out. While that was on them for being against a medium of entertainment, Disney, and by extension, Filoni, needs to understand that Star Wars has to be accessible to as large an audience as possible, particularly when it comes any upcoming movies. So because of that, it's not only ambitious of them to tie everything Star Wars with each other in a way that has never been done before, but also presumptuous of them as well, because they can't really even count on every Star Wars fan to watch everything just to prepare for an upcoming movie or show. 

Personally, I am really excited for the future of the Star Wars franchise, which is why I love Ahsoka so much. I honestly think it's better than The Mandalorian. Don't get me wrong, I love The Mandalorian, particularly seasons 1 and 3. However, even with the setup for Ahsoka in season 3 and the continuation of the Darksaber storyline from The Clone Wars and Rebels in all three seasons, I feel like both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett are there to merely kill time and to establish where Ahsoka Tano is in her life since we haven't seen her, chronologically, since season 4 of Rebels which was about four years prior to the first episode of The Mandalorian, and that was just the ending scene of Ahsoka and Sabine going off to find Ezra. 

It was so awesome to see Sabine, Hera, Thrawn, Ezra, and Chopper in live action. With the exception of Thrawn, and Chopper, none of them were played by their original voice actors. Thrawn was because who else could you get to play a live action version of Grand Admiral Thrawn besides his original voice actor from Rebels, Lars Mikkelsen? Nobody, that's who. And I'm glad they didn't even try, because Mikkelsen was perfect as the character. While my favourite villain from the EU is Warlord Zsinj from the X-Wing series and The Courtship of Princess Leia, Thrawn is an excellent villain and one that everyone remembers because he's shown up in Canon. Not just in seasons 3 and 4 of Rebels, but in six books written by his creator, Timothy Zahn. If he'd been a one and done villain in the original Thrawn Trilogy and then never showed up again, it'd be a completely different story. But, Thrawn continually showed up in the Expanded Universe in books set earlier in the timeline right up until Disney took over in 2012 and switched things over from the EU to Canon. So he's a major villain no matter how you look at it.

I love Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine. Since I started watching Rebels Sabine has become my favourite Star Wars character and Natasha's portrayal was excellent. Mary Elizabeth Winstead was great as Hera, but I wish we'd gotten more with her and Chopper. I did enjoy what we got with both of them though. 

What I didn't enjoy was Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati. They were fine as characters, but they were left so open at the end that it feels like their story is unfinished. However, due to Ray Stevenson's passing it feels like Baylan's story should be finished, but isn't. Of course Filoni had no way of knowing when he wrote the season that Stevenson would pass away, nor did either of them know it when they were filming the show last year. So the question is, could Baylan return, but played by a different actor? It's entirely possible because it feels like we should be getting more with both Baylan and Shin. Especially because of where we left off with them in the finale. But, we'll find out.

I also felt that the show ended abruptly. Which is something that I've never felt with the other Star Wars Disney+ shows. I think that's because unlike the other shows, Filoni didn't try to stuff too much into these eight episodes. He had a specific story he wanted to tell here, and he did. However, like the other shows it felt short and the finale left alot open for future projects. The thing is, while we know what these projects are, we don't know the order they're going to be coming in. Will season 4 of The Mandalorian come before Skeleton Crew or after it? Is Filoni's upcoming movie coming before either of these shows, in between these shows, or after them? I don't know. Neither does anyone else, because the recent writer's and actors strikes have prevented any of these projects from having any official announcements made for them. All we do know is that Jude Law is a main cast member of Skeleton Crew and that the movie will wrap up storylines from The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew. That's all we know so far. So we'll see what happens.

Overall, despite the abrupt ending and what ended up being done with Baylan and Shin, I loved Ahsoka. While there are lots of elements from Rebels and The Clone Wars, I think it does a good enough job of reintroducing the Rebels characters that you don't need to watch Rebels to get something out of this show. Definitely check it out if you haven't been watching as it was coming out.

That's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow either with the next installment of my Marvel Comics Star Trek overview series, or my review of the next book in the X-Wing series, The Krytos Trap. It'll depend on when I finish The Krytos Trap. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.