Is it substantive if people who watched The Clone Wars might recognize who the statues are?
Ahsoka’s experience in The World Between Worlds seems to have stirred a faith in the Force guiding them to be where they need to be, so she has become at peace with how events have unfolded, both in the past with Anakin and within the confines of her namesake series.
If I were given the reins of the Star Wars universe, I might want to tell a narrative about how the Jedi lost their way and became a religious military order like the Knights Templar when they should have been more like the Jesuits, so the idea of Ahsoka as a mystic appeals to me.
So the Jedi just get stranded on other galaxy and that’s it? They’re not gonna use the whales to get back. Or maybe the good guys defeat Thrawn and they use his contraption to get back to Ahsoka and Sabine.
Honestly, even if you’ve never watched ANY of the Clone Wars, and never intend to, It seems that watching season 3, episodes 15-17 are now required viewing, as well as Rebels season 4 episode 13.
Here’s a 2ish-minute video summarizing the Clone Wars arc:
I’m actually not sure if I agree with Filoni’s intention with Baylan here, because while he usually does an OK job with exposition for those who haven’t seen the animated shows, he did nothing here. I think he definitely should have, especially since Baylan is sch a strong character. Of course, there’s no way to tell ahead of time how popular a character is gonna be, but still.
@smrk4’s reaction to the Baylan scene at the end is exactly what I mean.
I thought the rest of the finale was great, it’s obvious they are setting up season 2 and Filoni’s movie(s), as well as possibly Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi movie, which I am fine with. I love the mystical side of Star Wars. The entire show has been about the relationship between masters and apprentices, which Huyang masterfully summarizes in his reminiscing about Kanan Jarrus. I’m sure we’ll see Jacen Syndulla become Ezra’s apprentice sometime, as well.
I feel like generally it’s now fair to say this was a richer season for those who were fans of the animated material, not just because they were familiar with the backstories, but the emotional payoffs (especially with mid season Anakin) probably landed better. But even still to not have Baylan in the finale basically at all is pretty inexcusable, even if knew about the Mortis Gods going in, there needed to be much more there there than there was.
I wonder if they re-edited or retooled the finale at all after Ray Stevenson passed. I’m pretty sure they were in post when it happened, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have gone back to the editing room.
This was sort of what I was anticipating after the ending of The Last Jedi. Before the clarifying TRoS, I enjoyed the buzz of TLJ fulfilling Yoda’s description of the Force as an energy that surrounds and binds all of us, not just the Jedi. Love the final shot of the kid.
Which I guess is part of why TRoS felt so dissatisfying to me. TLJ was a paradigm shifting story for Star Wars. And then TRoS swings back to the status quo of the original trilogy?? And not even to subvert it but to end the movie with the promise Rey will be playing the same Greatest Hits.
Finally watched Ahsoka. Even though I’ve read you don’t need to watch the animated series to enjoy it, I’m glad I put in the work before starting the new series. In fact, I kinda got lost in the Star Wars universe in the past months. In hindsight I don’t know where I found the time, because I watched/read:
Episode I-II-III
Clone Wars
Bad Batch
Episode IV-V-VI
Darth Plagueis (book)
Darth Bane trilogy (books)
Thrawn, Heir to the Empire trilogy (books)
Rebels
I am currently reading the Thrawn: Ascendancy trilogy, and I have to agree with someone who said earlier that the genius of Thrawn hasn’t really come across yet in the first season of Ahsoka. His skills and competency are somewhat varying across the different books and series anyway, I would say based on what I’ve read/seen so far it goes: Ascendancy > Heir to the Empire > Rebels > Ahsoka. I’m curious how it’ll develop in future seasons.
I watched Mando and Andor as they came out, but I haven’t seen yet the Boba Fett and Kenobi series. I’ll probably do Tales of the Jedi first though. In terms of books I will finish Ascendancy, and after that I don’t know yet. Maybe some non-SW media for a bit…
Grunching hard to avoid spoilers. Finally bit the bullet and watched Phantom Menace in order to watch Clone Wars in chronological order (and to get more context for Ahsoka).
Actually enjoyed it! Is it a great movie? No, absolutely not. But it’s…fine? Entertaining in parts? The podracing is pretty cool and quintessentially janky Star Wars.
Just started Attack of the Clones, which from memory was the worst of the prequel movies. Will be interesting to see if I see that more favorably as well now. Honestly, I think my very low expectations might play a part here…
The choice made on Jar Jar’s voice is completely irredeemable though. There’s no real reason that JJB had to be a bad character, he had a fine look and his place in the plot makes sense. But for some reason, one day someone decided, “You know what would actually be really cool? If we made him incredibly annoying.” Pretty sure George Lucas still mills around telling himself what a great decision this was.
While I know the varied failures of most of the Disney SW media is making a lot of people mellow on the prequels, appreciate them more for how much world-building there is, etc., they’re still just bad movies in the end, at least for me. I’ve gone back and tried to rewatch them at various times, and I just can’t get through them, even ROTS which is easily the best of the three. Bad acting and dialogue is just a hard out for me.
I’m sure a ton of it has to do with the age one was first exposed to the movies, of course. If you saw the prequels as a tween or something you’re probably right in the sweet spot to have enjoyed them unironically and you sort of go back to that time every time you rewatch, and it makes it impossible to really separate the experience from that time in your life.
I mean the OT came out between the time I was 7-13, and I’m sure I’m at least moderately blind to its flaws, or if I do recognize them, I can handwave them away as being no big deal. But I was 28 or so when TPM was released, so there are no rose-colored glasses for me to see it through. I rolled my eyes at it when I saw it opening night, and don’t feel any differently now.
