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antianakin · 7 months

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Honestly felt like such a disservice to Ezra "I Will Risk My Life For People I Just Met" Bridger. The "I will solo confront Thrawn and 3 ships worth of troops on the slim chance my plan works" to not even try to AT LEAST scout out Thrawn's stuff. You seriously can't tell me someone who spent a good chunk of their life sneaking around and stealing couldn't do that especially with the reduced numbers present. The literal best part of the finale was him getting the emitter similar to Kanan but where the fuck did the crystal come from

Yeah, I questioned the fact that Ezra had apparently been doing NOTHING but moving around with the Noti for the last decade. He just says it's suicide to try to get anywhere near, but... it does feel like a disservice that he couldn't do ANYTHING AT ALL and would've been nicer if he could've had more info on hand to pass off.

The entire sequence of them breaking in just felt like a video game where you defeat one group of enemies and then something happens and now you have a new obstacle and then there's a mini-boss and then and then and then. They're not utilizing any of the information they DO have on hand (like ANY of their experience with Dathomir and the Nightsisters and zombies). I dunno, it didn't feel all that interesting or unique to me as an action sequence, either. And having Ezra have more knowledge of what might be coming because he'd broken in a few times but perhaps not made it all the way or had to fight zombies a few times or something could've helped with that particular issue.

I'm actually less fussed about where the crystal came from than I am about having Kanan's emitter. Because Jedi just kind-of... acquiring kyber crystals randomly is at this point a fairly time-honored tradition. Luke gets a new green lightsaber pretty randomly in ROTJ and while I think it gets explained away as having been via supplies Obi-Wan had in a deleted scene (a quick Google search tells me that Legends apparently said it was a synthetic crystal but that the concept of a synthetic kyber crystal no longer exists so, it still begs the question of where OBI-WAN got a random kyber crystal from). And Ezra himself does exactly the same thing in Rebels back when he lost his blaster saber at the end of season 2 and magically has a new green saber at the beginning of season 3 without a SINGLE explanation of where it came from (he can't go back to the Lothal temple at that point anymore and we never see him grab any of the lightsabers from the dead Jedi on Malachor).

So. Whatever. Sure. He found a kyber crystal on Peridea somewhere, fine.

But using Kanan's emitter (and the added salt in the wound of the blade being BLUE now) just felt like lazy nostalgia bait to me. This is going to sound really insensitive and rude and insulting and I'm really sorry, this isn't aimed at you specifically, I don't think you're stupid for liking this moment, I just didn't care for it and my thoughts below are going to edge into a rant about how frustrated I am with the way this show has gone and why this moment doesn't work for me.

I want Ezra to be able to have his OWN blade still, I want him to be able to have something unique to him that reflects the experiences he's had in this new galaxy, I wanted them do something new and unique and interesting and instead they just... basically gave him Kanan's saber. Like yeah he constructed it to be new, but it's blue and it's the same distinctive emitter so it may as well just be Kanan's saber. It creates emotions because it's Kanan's saber, but personally this just felt like yet another moment where they relied entirely on nostalgia for Rebels to make the moment emotional rather than doing any real work to make the moment emotional or interesting or develop Ezra's character in any way at all. They've barely mentioned Kanan ONCE up until this episode and just as a quick throw away line to explain that Jacen might have special powers. There's nothing from Hera, or Jacen, or Sabine, or even EZRA prior to this moment that really creates any tension or emotion around Kanan's character and his loss, so this moment where Ezra just recreates Kanan's saber feels... hollow. Empty.

And given that this whole show's theme was about how great attachments are and how clinging to your loved ones is actually the only good thing to do in life, it felt a little frustrating to have Ezra recreate Kanan's saber. It SHOULD feel like Ezra trying to honor Kanan in some way and do this as a healthy remembrance of Kanan, but given the way they're acting towards Ahsoka's memories of Anakin and Sabine's choices regarding Ezra, it starts to feel more like Ezra refusing to just let go of Kanan and allow Kanan's legacy to be the things he taught Ezra. Ahsoka is DEFINED by Anakin and that relationship and so now Ezra's Jedi weapon also is defined by his master, one of the few things a Jedi has to truly identify themselves with.

We're not getting this nice message of "the master passes on everything they've learned to their student, but the student still goes their own way" so much as we're getting this really weird like... "masters and apprentices are intrinsically tied to each other for life and are the most important relationship either of them will ever have to another person and it defines who you become" kind of message. And I don't really care for it. And I think my frustration with that message took what COULD'VE been a nice homage to Kanan and made it into a symptom of something I just didn't like.

And I'll connect it to the problem you brought up first about how it felt out of character for Ezra not to be able to sneak onto the base to do any kind of recon or to try to take out Thrawn on his own at all. They don't WANT to explore Ezra as his own character any more than they want to explore Ahsoka as her own character or Sabine as her own character. Ahsoka and Sabine are just proxies for Anakin, they're variations of "Anakin as he should've been." Sabine and Ahsoka make all the same mistakes so that Ahsoka can sit there and go "Actually Anakin was always right and he was a good master and I'm going to act exactly like him except somehow without any of the genocide or enslavement bits."

Ezra I think is having a similar problem where I don't think they really CARE about who Ezra is as a character to delving that deeply into his psyche and how this time would have actually changed or impacted him or what his relationship with Kanan means to him. Ezra is just... there to be the catalyst through which to have Sabine act like Anakin so that Ahsoka can think about Anakin. So they're not trying to make Ezra act in character, they don't CARE that Ezra should be able to connect to the Howlers because space wolves are kind-of Ezra's THING. They don't CARE that Ezra should be able to sneak onto Thrawn's base because that's a major element of his character. They don't CARE about giving Ezra a unique lightsaber to explore who he is now as a person after all of this time. That's not the point of having Ezra on this show. Ezra is a means to an end and just yet another piece of nostalgia bait basically.

The thing I've said about most Star Wars media beyond the main 6 films is that it's all fan service, right? There's nothing INHERENTLY wrong with fan service or nostalgia bait. A lot of the stuff I genuinely love also does a lot of both. Rogue One, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, even Rebels itself. The thing is, I happened to be the fan that those pieces of media were servicing. So I'm going to be able to watch them and let go of what little frustrations might exist as just nitpicks rather than things that make me give up on it as a lost cause entirely. I am NOT the fan being serviced in the Ahsoka show. At all. There isn't a single thing in this show that is aimed at a fan like me. There is NOTHING FOR ME on this show at all. So all of the little fan service-y nostalgia bait moments aren't hitting because I'm just continuously getting frustrated by it over and over and not getting even any real glimmers of like... "aw, that was nice though." Even the "nice" moments get slotted into the wider patterns of this show that I don't like.

So hey, the nostalgia bait of Kanan's saber probably worked for a lot of people and honestly, I'm glad it did. I'm glad there were people who got to really enjoy seeing Ezra recreate Kanan's saber as a nice homage to the character and their relationship. I'm glad there were some people who got to enjoy even this small part of this show.

I just... can't. I wanted more and I didn't get it.

#star wars #ahsoka show #ahsoka spoilers #ezra bridger

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jedi-enthusiast · 8 months

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My Thoughts on Episode One

Keep in mind that these are just my thoughts that I've written down as I watch the show, they may change or I may expand on them later.

"Former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano-"

Bitch, she was never Knighted! She was a padawan!

I see we're already starting off strong /s

Although, I will say, I'm glad they put "the EVIL Galactic Empire" because the way some people talk about the Empire is like they're trying to make it seem like it wasn't that bad---at least this shuts those bootlickers up. So, silver linings!

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Ngl I think Dave Filoni was trying way too hard to recreate the "hallway scene" with Darth Vader in Rogue One and failed miserably.

Also, if people keep referring to Ahsoka as a "Jedi" throughout this episode, I may or may not explode.

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"The Order doesn't exist anymore."

And I am once again reliving Order 66 and crying, thanks a lot.

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"Let's just say I didn't follow 'standard Jedi protocol.'"

Given what we see of her interrogation tactics in that one TCW episode with Luminara, as well as Anakin's tactics, when not following "standard Jedi protocol" ...I'm more than a little concerned by what Ahsoka means by this. Did she torture Morgan? Did she take Morgan's mind apart like Maul did to Jesse?

C'mon Ahsoka, what did you do that wouldn't have been standard Jedi protocol?

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"They seem to have abilities like you."

Hera, you were literally basically married to a Jedi and you were also captured by Maul at some point, Kanan talked to you about this stuff and you experienced it...you know what a Sith is.

Ahsoka, you also know what a Sith is.

They're literally wielding red lightsabers in the holo.

Why are both of you acting like you don't know this?

Also, why is Hera talking like she wasn't literally at the battle of Lothal and like she also didn't know of/have beef with Thrawn?

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Once again with calling Ahsoka a Jedi.

Also, Ahsoka has always said "I am no Jedi' or said that she isn't a Jedi anytime someone has called her that since she left the Order, so why isn't she denying it now?

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LOTH CATS OH MY FUCKING GOD-

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Ok, I know Ezra's recording is supposed to be this really emotional spurring moment but like...

1. The dialogue feels so utterly flat- (so far most of the dialogue has felt that way for me tbh, it's like...none of the characters are really talking like the characters, yknow? And it all just feels so stilted, like they don't know themselves or the people around them).

And 2. Ezra wouldn't have had time to make a recording??? Him taking out Thrawn was a spur of the moment decision, they didn't know everything was gonna happen the way it did, so how exactly did he make this recording???

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FDSLKJALJHFJA IT WAS A NIGHTSISTER TEMPLE???

MORGAN IS A NIGHTSISTER???

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

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"Ahsoka Tano's former apprentice is on Lothal...you're looking for Sabine Wren."

I assume this is gonna be explained later, so I'm attempting to hold in my judgement---but since when did Jedi start taking non-Force-sensitive apprentices?

Kanan taught Sabine how to use the Darksaber so she wouldn't hurt herself and so that she would let go of her fear/anger/pain so she could face her family---so why in the world was Ahsoka teaching her, and since when is taking a Force-null as an apprentice a thing?

I'm just so confused.

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"There is nothing easy about being a Jedi."

AHSOKA HAS SAID REPEATEDLY THAT SHE IS NOT A JEDI, WHERE IS THIS COMING FROM????

Also, again, since when can Force-nulls become Jedi?

I'm assuming that they're taking the "Sabine is Force-sensitive" route for this, even though it's very weird considering she never showed signs of it in Rebels, but I still feel like they should've already revealed that if that's the case---because right now it's just confusing.

If they don't go that route then I genuinely already hate the route this is going as far as Jedi stuff goes.

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"Anakin never got to finish my training. Before the end of the Clone Wars, I walked away from him...and the Jedi."

*long sigh* not this bullshit again.

Ahsoka he literally helped Palpatine commit genocide against the fucking Jedi---that was probably a bigger factor in you not finishing your training than you deciding to take some time to figure yourself out. Seek therapy, please.

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I'm gonna be honest, this lightsaber battle between Sabine and the apprentice is...so disappointing.

To be fair, though, I've been disappointed by every lightsaber duel since everything set in the Prequel era---nothing can really live up to those duels.

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Since when can people live through getting stabbed with a lightsaber, without drawing on the Dark Side?

Sabine should be fucking dead, like Qui-Gon was in TPM.

And before anyone says- "oh it's the end of the episode, you don't know if she's still alive" -yes I do, because I already know she's in episode 2.

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My thoughts on episode 2 will probably either go up tomorrow night or sometime this weekend, I don't know yet because I'll be moving into my dorm tomorrow.

Already though I can safely say: my expectations were literally in the ground and I'm already disappointed.

#star wars #ahsoka series #ahsoka spoilers #ahsoka tano #ahsoka tano critical #rosario dawson

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