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Ahsoka: Star Wars on Disney+

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ryanosaur

ryanosaur

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Back home now after visiting the Veterinary Cardiologist with one of our little Beastlets...

this is looking good:
 

L5730

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I saw a magazine with this advertised on the front cover. I thought it was another animation - like the pretty decent Clone Wars series.
I know a couple of people that will go nuts over this as Ahsoka is their favourite character in the star wars universe.
 

GXAlan

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The trailer looked interesting but the actual first two episodes were a disappointment to me. For reference, I haven’t seen the animated series though I am familiar with Ashoka. I never read the Thrawn novels but I am also familiar with the character. Coming into it, I was stoked but maybe my expectations were too high. I really enjoy the battles and some of the *scenes* but I was disappointed overall with the episodes.

I enjoyed Ahsoka’s cameos to date, I loved S3 of Mandalorian and even enjoyed Obi-Wan for it was. I have enjoyed most of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds including the musical episode. I enjoyed both Michael Bay’s Transformers and Downton Abbey: A New Era so I think I can appreciate both a simple popcorn action flick just as much as a slower, character driven movie. So for me to not enjoy Ahsoka was a bit surprising.

I think the casting is great, the fight scenes look great but I was surprised at how slow and fast different parts of the story were. Slow parts could have been faster. Things that happen so quickly could have been more developed.

1) not really a spoiler
There is one part where Sabine is extracting data from a droid and they say that the droid may explode if they do it incorrectly. The stakes are so low since you know it’s fine and nothing bad happens — you have Sabine and Ashoka in the same room and there’s no way to subvert your expectations by killing off the two lead characters in the second episode.

It allowed for one silly joke but I would have thought it much sillier if it was presented that the droids will self destruct and delete the information if they detect unauthorized attempts to extract the data… and then they had Sabine furiously “type” or switch from the control pad to other wires on the helmet and then they let the droid explode, only it’s with the intensity of a birthday candle. At least that would have been unexpected and better capture Sabine’s rebellious nature.

2) not really a spoiler
Even the first scene could have been done better. It makes no sense that the captain met with the fake Jedi. Maybe you could have had Ray Stevenson’s character jedi mind trick the captain to let him board and then his student fails to succeed doing the same maneuver while on the ship which then leads to the parallel of two senior Jedi with two padawans on different sides of good and evil.

3) spoiler
You have droids which have the power of nuclear bombs. It’s too powerful and makes you wonder why no one else ever used that weapon in the past. Again, we know from Mandalorian that Ashoka could have put up a force shield.

4) spoiler
The whole shipyard example was so poorly done. It made sense from a story telling standpoint in terms of needing to explain the building of a ship to find Thrawn.

You have the idea of the First Order and Palpatine having huge fleets of star destroyers. Indiana jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark did a great job at the closing to showcase the expansive nature of that warehouse…. Along those same lines, the shipyard seemed too small in scale.

It would have been better if it felt like a busy airport or felt so sprawling that it would be easy to lose track of stuff. There would be so many ships from the Galactic Empire and so many outbound packages that it would be easy to sneak something out.

How much cooler would it have been if you saw hints of the bad guys in the control tower eating Imperial cookies as a snack, before they did what they did? When everyone is in on the scam, it loses gravitas. Imagine if the bureaucrat was actually innocent and the helpful assistant, actually is the Imperial sympathizer? If you cannot trust the people around you, it will create tension because you never know if someone is telling you the truth or not.

Just my 2 cents.
 

Chesapeake HT

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Very much enjoyed the first two episodes and looking forward to seeing the rest unfold. Atmos track was pretty awesome (I have a 5.2.4 set up) and the musical score during the closing credits was really great at using all of the speaker positions and low frequencies!
 

GXAlan

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I didn’t like the first two episodes much but episode 3 is much better. The space battles are slower paced, more 1977 style than todays frenetic editing and the style feels more live action cartoon than Andor.

Still a lot of roll your eye conveniences. I feel like they are so focused on world building that the micro stories fall short. So far, the emotions have been weaker than expected both for the good guys and bad guys during the big set pieces. I think Dave Filoni is a world and character builder but Jon Favreau and Tony Gilroy are better storytellers. Tactics vs. strategy.
 

MRC01

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I like the Star Wars universe but not a super-fan, am unfamiliar with this character until now. I enjoyed Mando and Andor. Did not like Obi-Wan (what a lost opportunity).

In Ahsoka, I find the acting & dialog generally good yet uneven. Some scenes convincingly well done, others needed a re-take or re-write. Production quality super-high, like so many shows these days. We are so spoiled! The fight choreography and filming is not the best, but not bad either, good enough. I like the fact that so many of the primary characters are female, and even more that they fit this into the story in a natural way.

Overall my initial impressions are mixed. Good enough to watch the next episode and see how this unfolds.
 

MRC01

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Very much enjoyed the first two episodes and looking forward to seeing the rest unfold. Atmos track was pretty awesome (I have a 5.2.4 set up) and the musical score during the closing credits was really great at using all of the speaker positions and low frequencies!
I listen on a 2-channel system but I still notice that Disney+ is one of the better sounding streaming services, better sound than Hulu or Netflix. Natural voicing (not excessively bright), big dynamic range with little or no compression, midrange is clear without sounding edgy, good bass depth extension.
 

GXAlan

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Steve81

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Alas, I’m unimpressed thus far. I’m waiting for Ahsoka to be genuinely challenged, which seems like a tall order in a universe where Palpatine and Vader are no longer eminent threats. Sabine is halfway interesting at least, with some room to grow. The plot armor in the 3rd episode was impressive, as was the speed with which Ahsoka could don a space suit.
 

GXAlan

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Wow. They clearly spent a huge amount of the show’s budget on Ep5. It makes sense why the first few episodes were weaker.
 

Blumlein 88

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Wow. They clearly spent a huge amount of the show’s budget on Ep5. It makes sense why the first few episodes were weaker.
Not watched it yet. Hope they also spent about 15,000% of the writing effort, and about 2 million % of the directing effort on this episode.
 

MRC01

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... Sabine is halfway interesting at least, with some room to grow. ...
Room to grow - that is putting it mildly. The sole purpose of her character seems to be to make mistakes in judgement that drive the plot in new directions. Does she bring anything of value to the team?

I haven't seen E5 yet but I'm about to stop watching this series...
 

GXAlan

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I haven't seen E5 yet but I'm about to stop watching this series...
E5 has no Sabine. I don’t know what ep 6-8 are but
1) this episode probably spent more budget on SFX than the first 4 episodes combined
2) it’s directed by Dave Filoni, and is a step up overall in story building compared to everything else
 

delta76

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man, Disney really capitalizes on Star Wars Universe, doesn't it?
 
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