Another Star Wars TV show has come and gone and I was very excited for this one. Like everyone else in the fandom, I had no faith in Ahsoka Tano when she was first introduced as the kiddie character in a new Star Wars cartoon way back in the day. But she’s now one of my all-time favorite Star Wars characters, and I was very excited for her show. Now that it’s over…meh.

TV Show Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good

Ahsoka Tano is a very fun character and she’s had a great story. And I really like Rosario Dawson’s live action version. But the Ahsoka show was ultimately a bit of a disappointment in the end. I enjoyed the show for the most part and had high hopes, but I’m not overall happy with the final product. It’s well-made, well-acted, has some neat parts; but the first season didn’t really accomplish much, in my opinion.

Join me after the jump for my full thoughts and review of the first season of Ahsoka. Expect FULL SPOILERS for the whole season. And feel free to share your own thoughts and feelings in the comments below.

6. It lost me by the end

Ahsoka started strong and ended weak. There was so much potential in the beginning, with a lot of cool things going on. New characters were introduced. Animated characters were brought into live action. A mission to stop some really bad people was afoot. We got some cool new bad guys wielding lightsabers, and some matching lightsaber fights. I had hope. But then, as the episodes went on, less and less really happened. And when nothing happened, some of the smaller things started to annoy me, and I started to nitpick. Why can’t these squadrons of trained fighters even hit this slow-moving Jedi starship even once? Why does every lightsaber fight end in a draw? Why is this other galaxy so bland and gray?

There were a lot of highlights to the season. I enjoyed the Clone Wars flashback episode as much as the next person, and Ahsoka’s personal journey up to and during that episode. That was good stuff. But then it didn’t go much of anywhere beyond that. She didn’t really get a chance to flesh out the new her. And Sabine’s betrayal didn’t amount to much. She didn’t develop any sort of relationship with Baylan Skoll, and it ultimately worked out perfectly for her, getting exactly what she wanted. Hera got interrogated by the New Republic, but only a paper-thin straw man of a jerkass politician.

I like the Ahsoka show just fine, but that’s all it is: just fine. The characters are fun and the actors are great, and there are lightsaber fights, but overall, it’s a big show that goes nowhere and just doesn’t accomplish very much.

5. Nothing really happened

Ultimately, my biggest issue with Ahsoka is that nothing really happened. It’s an entire season of live action television that simply reverses the ending of Star Wars: Rebels. Thrawn and Ezra are back in the normal galaxy, while Ahsoka and Sabine are now missing. That’s it. Thrawn is now set up to be a villain for future shows/movies, and now we’ve got to deal with getting Ahsoka and Sabine back to the normal galaxy at some point. So the same problem still exists, that somebody needs to be rescued from that far off galaxy. Huzzah.

Ahsoka took the safest choices possible in every single situation and didn’t try for anything unexpected. Traveling to an entirely new galaxy? It’s just another random planet that could have existed in the regular galaxy. What if this galaxy had its own Empire? What if this galaxy had different physics? Or different types of creatures? Nope, just some hermit crab people, some dog horses and some cliche brigands.

What about Thrawn and Ezra? Still just at war some 7 years later? Why not really twist things up and have them become friends, setting aside their differences because they were so completely trapped? And what about the Stormtroopers? We know that they’re real, thinking people under those helmets. Did all of them just stay in formation for that entire 7 years? Nobody thought to flee? Nobody thought to team up with Ezra? They just buckled down and got more hardcore for Thrawn?

Also, what caused so much damage to the Stormtroopers and the Star Destroyer? Again, they were on a planet of hermit crab nomads and bargain basement brigands who team up with Skoll and Hati at a moment’s notice. Why hadn’t Thrawn conquered the entire planet in those 7 years? Nope. Thrawn and Ezra are pretty much exactly how we left them and immediately get on board with going home.

We got extended scenes of the New Republic continuing to be laughably incompetent. Nothing was done with Jacen Syndulla in his first real role. Sabine is now a Jedi out of nowhere. Sabine and Ezra don’t get a romance. Lightsaber fights all end in a draw, except for killing Morgan Elsbeth, who could have been a bigger villain. And more on Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati later, because they deserve their own entry.

Basically, the first season of Ahsoka accomplished not much of anything, in my opinion. It was just some flashy, mildly entertaining Star Wars action, with lazy, unimaginative storytelling at every turn.

4. Nobody had a conversation

Ahsoka had a lot of great characters, but none of them had any memorable or deep interactions. They only exception is the excellent episode where Ahsoka works out her issues with Anakin Skywalker. They had a conversation, but that’s the only one. Nobody else really talks to one another. It’s all just brief one-liners and lightsaber fights that end in draws. Ahsoka and Sabine never talk out their issues. None of the villains discuss their plans or goals with one another. Once reunited with Ezra, Sabine and Ahsoka just have surface-deep chats. And most painfully, Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati never really talk to anyone, and barely talk to one another.

For all the praise Ray Stevenson got for his performance as Skoll — and he was great — it was just a performance of short statements that didn’t really explain anything. He had several cool encounters with Ahsoka, but they never really engaged with one another. To quote Skoll himself: how predictable.

3. Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati went nowhere

Man, this one really hurts. I was so excited about this pair that I did a whole separate List of Six on them just two weeks ago. And now that the season is over, we can see that nothing came of them. Granted, it appears that there are big plans for season 2 and beyond…but who knows when those will come out? And we won’t have Ray Stevenson anymore. So whatever Baylan Skoll is looking for on that planet, Stevenson won’t find it. And then he just up and abandons his apprentice to the wilds. How disappointing.

It’s my own fault for getting so hyped up about them. Just because they were cool and mysterious, had orange lightsabers, and were the only characters who didn’t wear their entire deal on their sleeves. But I wanted to know so much! How did they meet? Why did someone who lost faith in the Jedi Order take up a Padawan in the old traditions? What did either of them actually want? And then why does he abandoned her to join Thrawn? Why not take her with him on his mission? Alas. We may never really know.

Also, what the heck, why does nobody ask about their orange lightsabers? You’ve got Huyang right there, the droid of lightsabers, and the show can’t spare a single scene where Ahsoka asks him about orange lightsaber blades? Also, in all his years of service, nobody ever made a lightsaber quite like Baylan Skoll? What was so unique about Skoll’s lightsaber hilt?!

2. Recast Luke and Leia; bring in Ehrenreich and Suotamo as Han and Chewie

Consider me fully on board with recasting young Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, and bringing back Alden Ehrenreich and Joonas Suotamo as Han Solo and Chewbacca. It struck me while watching Ahsoka — and not just during the C-3PO scene — that a lot of Star Wars content is taking place while these main characters are alive, well and doing major things in the galaxy. I don’t want anymore weird CGI faces or voices. I don’t need Mark Hamill to always be Luke Skywalker. I don’t want Harrison Ford to come back. And I’m OK with keeping the character of Leia Organa alive without Carrie Fisher.

If Grand Admiral Thrawn is going to endanger the entire freakin’ galaxy, then Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Senator Leia and Chewbacca should be there to stop him! Along with Ahsoka and her crew, probably.

1. Of course I’m going to keep watching

The Star Wars shows have not been very impressive. I still enjoy The Mandalorian, but Ahsoka and Obi-Wan were rather disappointing, and I haven’t even bothered with the second season of The Bad Batch. Andor was a masterpiece, but that show is clearly in a league of its own. But yeah, I’m going to keep watching. I’m going to keep consuming this content, and look forward to the crossover movie it’s all building towards. So sue me.

And no, the bitterness of this list is not in response to spending $100+ on that Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati LEGO set…

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