Ahsoka

[PolymerSkywalker]

Ok, I have a have watched episode 1 of Ahsoka.

Pros:
- It visually looks pretty darn good!
- Music was perfectly done, may be the best I have heard on a Disney + show!
- Characters are interesting, story is interesting
- Fight scenes look good, really good!
- Ray is stealing the show, I love his regal fighting stance and I totally see the knights of the round table vibe that someone mentioned above!
- Sabine has tons of potential as a character!
- Ahsoka is a cool character as always!
- The nuclear explosion scene was really cool!

Cons:
- I don’t watch the animated stuff, so I don’t understand everything and the history yet
- everything is really colorful, seems like every character has a bright almost neon color on them somewhere (hair, skin, or something). Maybe they are mirroring the cartoons, not sure. Looks slightly out of place to me and gives me a little cringe of the power rangers from BoB vibe.
- The Indiana Jones stuff (search for the map) was a bit too predictable to me
- I want them to at least explain why there are so few males. Give me war or something to explain it, if not it may risk coming across as just a “the force is female” initiative.

Overall I really like the show so far. One area I am hoping to see is Sabine needs to have a real struggle so people will identify with the character. Please don’t make things come too easily to her like you did with Rey. She has tons of potential, so please don’t give people a reason to dislike this character. She needs a real character arc, don’t make the Rey mistake again please.

I think this show has huge impact potential. I believe to my eye through one episode, it’s the best Star Wars content since Mando 2. Way better through one episode than Book or Boba, Obi Wan, or Mando 3. Filoni is impressing me!

 

[BrianL]

Ok, I have a have watched episode 1 of Ahsoka.

Pros:
- It visually looks pretty darn good!
- Music was perfectly done, may be the best I have heard on a Disney + show!
- Characters are interesting, story is interesting
- Fight scenes look good, really good!
- Ray is stealing the show, I love his regal fighting stance and I totally see the knights of the round table vibe that someone mentioned above!
- Sabine has tons of potential as a character!
- Ahsoka is a cool character as always!
- The nuclear explosion scene was really cool!

Cons:
- I don’t watch the animated stuff, so I don’t understand everything and the history yet
- everything is really colorful, seems like every character has a bright almost neon color on them somewhere (hair, skin, or something). Maybe they are mirroring the cartoons, not sure. Looks slightly out of place to me and gives me a little cringe of the power rangers from BoB vibe.
- The Indiana Jones stuff (search for the map) was a bit too predictable to me
- I want them to at least explain why there are so few males. Give me war or something to explain it, if not it may risk coming across as just a “the force is female” initiative.

Overall I really like the show so far. One area I am hoping to see is Sabine needs to have a real struggle so people will identify with the character. Please don’t make things come too easily to her like you did with Rey. She has tons of potential, so please don’t give people a reason to dislike this character. She needs a real character arc, don’t make the Rey mistake again please.

I think this show has huge impact potential. I believe to my eye through one episode, it’s the best Star Wars content since Mando 2. Way better through one episode than Book or Boba, Obi Wan, or Mando 3. Filoni is impressing me!

What's so wrong with things being colorful? I LIKE colorful. I think that's such a weird thing that a lot of people get hung up on. They are definitely trying to mimic the animated stuff, but that's a good thing. Animated Star WArs = Best Star Wars!

The thing is, the original Rebels Crew had Kanan, Hera, Zeb, Sabine, & Ezra. Kanan died and Ezra was lost along with Thrawn. Ahsoka wasn't a member of the team, but popped in from time to time starting with Season 2, so the only members of the team left are mostly females. We do now have Jacen though, and Zeb is with Carson's Rangers squad - I was a little surprised we didn't see him in the fighter squadron, but I think we still will. Not that it should matter at all of course if the team is all women - that's no bad thing.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

So you read through a pretty glowing review, with double the positives than negatives, and your response is to correct me of my wrong think on two of my four cons? Failing completely to mention any of the 8 Pros?

Color in itself is not a bad thing, but to me bright shiny colorful things can look a good bit out of place in Star Wars. The desert dust planet in BoB made the bright shiny power ranger vespas look completely out of place without a dent, scratch, or even particle of dust on them. I see some of that in Ashoka and it gives me pause and pulls me out of believing the scene for a minute.

On the mostly female stuff, I just think it needs some explanation of some kind. Very few casual fans are gonna watch the kiddy cartoons, so don’t assume we know all that history. Most normies don’t watch cartoon Star Wars. Say everyone has died in a war, or are off in the far reaches doing something else or something. Maybe they explain it a bit later, but I don’t know as I just started the series.

Great series so far, really enjoyed episode 1.

 

[BrianL]

So you read through a pretty glowing review, with double the positives than negatives, and your response is to correct me of my wrong think on two of my four cons? Failing completely to mention any of the 8 Pros?

I am not correcting you. You are always very defensive which makes it hard to have a discussion. I am glad you generally liked it. I was just wondering why people - lots of people, not just you - find colorful to be so offputting. Personally, I am attracted to vibrant, colorful things, and it's just a curiosity to me that others really dislike it. The rest was just an explanation as to the female stars - most of the males either died or are missing. We do know Ezra will show up eventually.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Yeah buddy, you’re not defensive at all…… SMH. This is a Star Wars fan discussion, and Fan is short for Fanatic. Are fanatics normally very malleable when it comes to their thoughts on the subject matter they are fanatical about?

Was the OT bright shiny and colorful? Well that is the gold standard for Star Wars in my opinion. Even when there was a bright color it was dirtied up a bit and made somewhat lived in and muted. For example the orange on X wings. In my opinion bright shiny and super vibrant colors look out of place in live action Star Wars. That is completely my opinion.

On the other, that’s fine with all the men being gone or dead. Just explain that to us normies that don’t watch Star Wars cartoons.

 

[leiaorgana]

I’m glad that you’ve found some enjoyment from what you’ve seen so far. I agree with you that the music has been phenomenal and that Kevin Kiner has outdone himself this time with the score for this show. He did all of the music for The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Tales of the Jedi and The Bad Batch as well so its been nice to hear those familiar character themes woven into the music for Ahsoka. I’d definitely recommend searching out his other Star Wars scores.

And please don’t take this the wrong way because it isn’t meant to be seen as anything negative or “ganging up” etc but from how I read BrainL’s previous message directed at you, he was simply filling you in on what you’d missed from not having watched Rebels and why the remaining “Ghost Crew” members are predominantly female in this show and the character design is based on the animated versions of them. Sabine has always been associated with bold colours because she’s also an artist and graffiting Imperial equipment and leaving behind her tag is what she’s known for. Zeb was in S3 The Mandalorian but I believe the reason why he wasn’t with Hera and Carson in episode 4 is because of the cost of the CGI for him.

There’s quite a few videos on YouTube that are under 10 minutes that you can watch that people put up before the Ahsoka started with the cliff notes of what you needed to know to get maximum enjoyment from the show.

 

[BrianL]

Well, that's because it was the age of the Empire - it was supposed to look muted to go with the tone of the galaxy at the time. The prequels don't look that way. I judt don't know why peopel often bristle at anything colorful - it's just odd to me.

 

[BrianL]

I’m glad that you’ve found some enjoyment from what you’ve seen so far. I agree with you that the music has been phenomenal and that Kevin Kiner has outdone himself this time with the score for this show. He did all of the music for The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Tales of the Jedi and The Bad Batch as well so it’s been nice to hear those familiar character themes woven into the music for Ahsoka. I’d definitely recommend searching out his other Star Wars scores.

And please don’t take this the wrong way because it isn’t meant to be seen as anything negative or “ganging up” etc but from how I read BrainL’s previous message directed at you, he was simply filling you in on what you’d missed from not having watched Rebels and why the remaining “Ghost Crew” members are predominantly female in this show and the character design is based on the animated versions of them. Sabine has always been associated with bold colours because she’s also an artist and graffiting Imperial equipment and leaving behind her tag is what she’s known for. Zeb was in S3 The Mandalorian but I believe the reason why he wasn’t with Hera and Carson in episode 4 is because of the cost of the CGI for him.

I'm not sure Zeb will fit in an X-Wing either.

 

[leiaorgana]

Lol that’s very true! I never thought of that haha

I also saw someone pointed out on Reddit that Hera has a picture of Kanan in the cockpit of the Ghost in the last episode and it suspiciously looks a lot like Freddie Prinze Jr

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

People hating the power rangers in BoB was not odd in my opinion. Based on reviews of the show I have read it was somewhat panned by a pretty high majority. It looked odd. Like really really odd.

 

[BrianL]

People hating the power rangers in BoB was not odd in my opinion. Based on reviews of the show I have read it was somewhat panned by a pretty high majority. It looked odd. Like really really odd.

Well, they definitely stood out. Which was the point. They WANT to stand out as unique, fashion forward, avant garde type people. People do that in real life all the time.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

Well the power rangers certainly accomplished their goal if they wanted to stick out like a sore thumb.

 

[BrianL]

Well the power rangers certainly accomplished their goal if they wanted to stick out like a sore thumb.

See, but Power Rangers are AWESOME!

 

[leiaorgana]

I think we might have briefly discussed this before on another thread and I don’t want to derail this one away from Ahsoka too much but it seems the intention was to have that gang be based on and inspired by the 50s/60s British Mods and Rockers culture and 50s American car culture where image was everything and your scooter/car was the most important thing in the world to you and all of your money, no matter how little you had, went on making sure “your baby” was pristine and that you and it made a statement. They were a gang of criminals and were clearly stealing and doing petty crime to survive and some of them had up to date tech/implants as well, which also fits with the “image is everything” inspiration/vibes of that time period. Part of me agrees that it does seem a little misplaced and that it doesn’t make sense in a desert terrain to have spick and span shiny vehicles zooming around but when you think about it in those terms and see the intentions and inspiration and the campiness behind it then it starts to make more sense combined with the Cyberpunk vibes from the guy who was giving people the implants in the show too.

I just think they were trying to add something different that we hadn’t seen before into the Tatooine aesthetic along with adding to the world building and general aesthetics of the Star Wars universe and showing all of the different types of people that occupy the galaxy and sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t. In this case a lot of people didn’t like it but I’m sure there were lots of people out there that did like it as well. I guess the point I’m trying to make is that they were clearly trying to adapt a real life subculture into Star Wars and show how that would be in that universe but some people didn’t really get that those were the vibes they were going for with that particular set of characters.

 

[PolymerSkywalker]

I get what they were trying to do, and yes I had heard those comparisons before. So, I appreciate your thoughts on it nonetheless. The American Graffiti vibe just didn’t work for me in Star Wars. I understand what they were attempting to do, I just personally think it looked really foolish. It just wasn’t very believable in the Star Wars universe to me, but I understand that others think differently.

Not wanting to derail the thread. Let’s get back to Ahsoka………because it is really good so far!

Plan to hit episode 2 tonight after a workout.

 

[supernova]

- I want them to at least explain why there are so few males. Give me war or something to explain it, if not it may risk coming across as just a “the force is female” initiative.

Disney has been on a "girls count too" kick for a bit too long now. Stick a female heavily into the new Indiana Jones film and ruin it. Remember back when they inserted the completely inane scene at the end of Avengers when they had all of the females running together in one scene and it completely changed the dynamic of the film because it... oh wait, it had zero impact on the movie. Keep beating that "girls count too" drum, though, Disney.

 

[BrianL]

Disney has been on a "girls count too" kick for a bit too long now. Stick a female heavily into the new Indiana Jones film and ruin it. Remember back when they inserted the completely inane scene at the end of Avengers when they had all of the females running together in one scene and it completely changed the dynamic of the film because it... oh wait, it had zero impact on the movie. Keep beating that "girls count too" drum, though, Disney.

But...girls do count, don't they?

 

[supernova]

But...girls do count, don't they?

Yes, but... does it need to be so "in your face" in every damn film? When it's forced, it's not organic. No one watched the first three Star Wars films and asked "why are there only two females in each film?" But to have the purple haired lady's ship with nothing but females?? Stop it already.

 

[BrianL]

Yes, but... does it need to be so "in your face" in every damn film? When it's forced, it's not organic. No one watched the first three Star Wars films and asked "why are there only two females in each film?" But to have the purple haired lady's ship with nothing but females?? Stop it already.

I don't know that just existing is "in your face," but you know sometimes things are just cool little nods, like the scene in Avengers. There's nothing wrong with giving them a moment, expecially when the guys get all the moments.

Also, i fyou are referring to Admiral Holdo, her crew was not all female. It was Leia's ship anyway. There were men on the bridge, some loyal to her. There were also females in Poe's fighter squad who assisted him with the mutiny.

 

[Suger Mag]

Yes, but... does it need to be so "in your face" in every damn film? When it's forced, it's not organic. No one watched the first three Star Wars films and asked "why are there only two females in each film?" But to have the purple haired lady's ship with nothing but females?? Stop it already.

Sigh....what was that we were saying a few pages ago... I think it is sad that folks are so threatened by diversity or representation. Really, a movie with female centric leads is called forced or non- organic LOL... what the heck does organic even mean in this context. So women are not organic, but men are?

So hard to share the limelight I know.... watching a movie with GIRLS in the lead... oh no.

Maybe YOU did not watch the first three films asking why there were not more strong female roles... I know I did.