Part Two: Toil and Trouble

I doubt that a new audience that isn't familiar with Ahsoka and the ghost crew will have an easy time getting into it, not because it is complicated necessarily, just vague when it comes to the characters and their history. It kind of expects you to know a lot of things. But for the fans of Ahsoka, who followed her from moment one, it was a real treat. Still, there are some things I want to talk about.

This review is for the first two episodes.

I love Ahsoka's character and her journey. The jump from animation to live-action was alright. I gave the handling of her appearances in the Mandalorian/Book of Boba a pass because she only had limited screen time and wasn't really at the centre of the story. But now that she has her own show, she still feels like a secondary character in a certain way.

The first two episodes of Ahsoka were rather boring and predictable. Perhaps it is because the promotion and trailers relied heavily on showing the footage before the episodes were released and caused these key moments to be less impactful. But it isn't necessarily the action that I found lacking.

The dialogue was extremely stiff, and I found most of the acting stale, especially Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka. I loved Sabine, though.

After Andor, Star Wars will have a difficult time living up to that level of quality, and as of now, it is difficult to tell if Ahsoka will get close. So far, the story setup is rather average and a safe play (how come there are always convenient maps leading to places where major characters are; like how?). I hope it gets more interesting and engaging (at least by the time Thrawn appears).

It could've definitely been better in terms of dialogue and chemistry between the characters, which in my opinion, was virtually almost non-existent.

Overall, I found the entry to Ahsoka to be average. Entertaining. Nothing special.

To point out the positive: the score was great, the visuals were so good and cinematic. Baylan Skoll and his apprentice can make for two interesting antagonists and I can't wait for the story to dive into their characters more.

I really love Ahsoka and I want this show to be good!! I hope/think it will get better.

So far, the first two episodes have done a pretty decent enough job of keeping me interested in the series but hasn't been that amazing or memorable yet.

I gotta admit, for a show called Ahsoka, I feel like we're getting more screen time and characterization for other characters and know more about them than the titular character. I think she needs a lot more characterization and they shouldn't rely on people having watched Clone Wars to know her.

While the pacing is this episode is faster and the episode has a shorter runtime than the first, I still find some scenes to be way longer than they should be. I'm all for slow-burn scenes. Andor knows how to do them, but I don't think it's Dave Filoni's style or strength as a writer to do that. Slow-burn scenes should be meaningful. Dialogue-driven scenes aren't done that great and that's why I think some scenes feel longer than they should be. When two people are sitting in a room talking, and do nothing else or the camera movement and editing don't do much and are minimal, then that scene is boring.

Sometimes dialogue alone is written so well that keeps you invested, like Andor. But this show's dialogue is just competent enough not to roll your eyes, it's not strong or anything memorable enough to singlehandedly carry a scene and not make it boring. So I think with better directing and editing they could definitely make this show feel better paced and not make some scenes be as long as they are where characters are just staring at things and nothing happens.

Also, thank God we're not on Tatooine again or another thousandth sand planet just like every other Star Wars show. I just noticed that we're not spending 90% of the show on a sand planet, so that alone at least gets a thumbs up for me for a Star Wars show.

I also like that we're at least getting some decent screen time from the villains though they aren't that well established much yet. It's still a 100 times better than Mandalorian's 3rd season where we didn't even know there was an antagonist until like 80% into the season. So that's good too I guess.

Overall, these two first episodes have been good enough to keep me interested and have a pretty good production. But they haven't been that memorable or amazing that would make you want to binge all of it. I think it's a pretty good show so far, but I don't understand all the 9s and 10s it's getting in the overall show's review section. I don't understand people giving the whole show a rating, low or high, when only 25% of it has come out and it could go either way in the next 6 episodes.

In my opinion, the show hasn't been horrible enough to warrant all the 2s and 3s, and it hasn't been so well-written and amazing to warrant the 9s and 10s either. It's decent enough, but nothing bad or great either. We'll have to wait and see how it goes.

Genuinely, Sabine being stabbed was probably the worst thing that could've happened as its not mentioned ever again afterwards.

What should have happened instead is she should have lost her arm. Imagine it. A life changing injury, given a stab wound through the chest isnt for some reason (probably the only thing this franchise took from David Benioff and D. B Weiss), would change so much for her character. Her previous demeanor could change to that of depression and disappointment in herself. She'd be more determined to master the force this way, pushing to make herself worth something after the event that scarred her for life.

So much better than nothing

The rest of the episode was fine too though.

Another very solid and very good episode. This is even better than the first since it did not need to set up so much and get the show started. The choppy editing is consequently gone which make the flow of the episode a lot better. I also feel the actors have got more used to their roles and perform better.

Very few complaints about this episode. Perhaps it felt a bit short, and perhaps a couple of minor issues like "the eye of Sion"... like, what? Really? That is the name you give your ship? And I still feel this is more made for those who loved Rebels because the nostalgia and feel of the show is very much a follow-up of that cartoon - which is nothing wrong, it is just that Ahsoka almost get to sit in the backseat on her own show.

But this was excellent and two episodes in a row with high quality and good performances. Perhaps Star Wars is not yet dead.

A weak 9/10 but this is starting to look very good and promising. Lets see if they can keep it up.

Going into the first episode, I was very anxious about how this series would follow-on from the Rebels finale, which is one of my favourite episodes in TV animation. Fortunately, it's not disappointed me yet, and these first two episodes have been really great, faithfully continuing the story and characters from Rebels. If the rest of the series follow-suit, this could honestly wind-up being one of the best things we've gotten from Star Wars in a while!

The action was great, the story was great, the characters are great, the visuals are great... And just everything about this episode was great. Can't wait to see how the series continues!