This story contains spoilers for Star Wars: Ahsoka.
Ahsoka Tano has been in our lives for so long at this point that many of us — myself included — sometimes forget that she wasn’t actually well-received in the beginning of her run in The Clone Wars back in 2008. Over time, though, the reckless but endearing hot-shot padawan of one Anakin Skywalker won the hearts and minds of Star Wars fans the world over.
I’m hoping that will also be the case for Star Wars: Ahsoka.
Frankly, it’s not even that the first two episodes were poorly received. The series boasts admirable scores on Rotten Tomatoes and has seen generally positive reactions from fans (once again, myself included). But among those positive reactions is a lingering sentiment of “what the hell is going on?”
That confusion is a two-fold problem: The first issue is that since Ahsoka’s story has largely occurred in animation, the live-action series doesn’t offer the ever-important “previously on” that would give those who hadn’t watched Star Wars Rebels the context that they need. The second is that streaming series as a whole seem to have forgotten the importance of a pilot episode. (Read: setting the narrative bedrock for the rest of your series.)
For example, the first two episodes of the show make it clear that rescuing Ezra Bridger — should he be alive — is priority number one. Ahsoka insists that it’s finding Thrawn, of course, but what we see doesn’t really support that. Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) doesn’t seem to be concerned with Thrawn at all, while Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) just wants her friends to get along and for the fragile galactic peace they fought so hard for to remain intact.
The problem is, if you didn’t watch Star Wars Rebels, you have absolutely no idea who Ezra Bridger is, let alone why he is important. You know why the characters care about him, of course. But Ahsoka’s first two episodes do nothing to help us understand why we, the audience, should care if he’s found again. From the audience perspective — at least for those who didn’t watch Rebels — his narrative purpose has concluded.
Meanwhile, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) is hardly a character in the first two episodes of what is supposed to be her own show. She’s just annoyed. And while I love me some cranky ladies, you’ve got to give the audience an understanding of why the character is where they’re at if “generally annoyed” hasn’t always been their default setting. Given the premiere’s reticence to use flashbacks to explain important Rebels plot-points, I worry that the excitement of something feeling Star Wars-y will wane as the series continues to commit a cardinal storytelling sin: telling, but not showing.
The Franchise Trap
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been consistently criticized about how difficult it is for viewers to hop into new stories after years of storytelling. While some of those complaints are justified, the franchise will typically give at least some kind of base primer for what the audience needs to know to understand whatever new story is kicking off at a given time. This has also led to another popular criticism: story redundancy. No matter what you do, some folks are going to complain. So it feels like the wiser move would be to help new fans understand what’s going on, no?
What’s frustrating about the lack of needed context in Ahsoka is that many of the folks who are confused aren’t new fans. I’m not here to give you my entire Star Wars resume, but Mara Jade is my favorite character and I’d like the Grey Jedi to get their butts back into the main canon conversation because I’m tired of all this black and white. But, despite being relatively knowledgeable when it comes to Star Wars as a whole, Rebels is one of my few blind spots. (Yes, I’ll get there eventually.)
And it’s not even a full blind spot! I’ve seen an errant episode or two and enough clips to know that I’d die for Hera. I understand the archetypes that our three leads fill, and why they’re important to the galaxy as a whole.
What I also understand is that this is meant to be an Ahsoka series, but, because we’ve forgotten the importance of pilots, she’s barely featured in the first two episodes and we don’t know why she no longer has any personality to speak of.
It’s certainly not a Rosario Dawson problem, either. We’ve seen what she can do on The Mandalorian. So what’s the deal?
All the Things Left Unsaid
There’s a blank spot that the whole of the audience shares, Rebels fans or no. In the finale of Rebels, Ahsoka and Sabine end on a mission to find Ezra. As we open on Star Wars: Ahsoka, we quickly learn that the two characters now have beef and are very much not working together any longer. Hera's focused on keeping the peace, but there’s not so much as a “what happened between the two of you?” from her for the benefit of the audience with an acknowledgement of the change.
Having the pivotal moment of Grogu and Din Djarin’s reunion take place in The Book of Boba Fett rather than The Mandalorian itself proved to be detrimental to that series’ otherwise solid third season. I worry that Ahsoka is making the same mistake by being Rebels Season 5 rather than Ahsoka Season 1.
Regardless of whether you have the Rebels context or not, leaving so many things to off-screen happenings is putting your series in a tough spot. Who is Ezra Bridger? Watch Rebels. Who are the Witches of Dathomir? Watch The Clone Wars. What’s going on with Ahsoka and Sabine? Who knows!
Plenty of other franchise stories have lingering questions for those who haven’t watched every entry in the saga. But they’re able to provide the broad strokes of why individual details matter when the time comes. Ahsoka, so far, has not successfully completed that task.
Despite my worry, I’m hoping the series centered on our favorite Togruta proves me wrong in the end. I love Ahsoka Tano, and I want to see her, Hera, and Sabine showcased the way they deserve. The series feels like a Star War, and it’s nice to not hear Tatooine so much as mentioned! The fight choreography is solid and we’ve already gotten a couple lightsaber duels out of the deal. There’s a lot of potential here! But Star Wars most certainly needs to stop resting on its laurels. I’m not ready for Ahsoka, Hera, and Sabine to be wasted in another Book of Boba Fett situation.
On a final note — one that is largely unrelated but needs to be discussed — I think Sabine just straight up abandoned her Loth-cat. It very clearly was not with her when she got on Ahsoka’s ship. I know they’re pretty self-sufficient animals, but what the hell Sabine?!
Amelia is the entertainment Streaming Editor here at IGN. She's also a film and television critic who spends too much time talking about dinosaurs, superheroes, and folk horror. You can usually find her with her dog, Rogers. There may be cheeseburgers involved. Follow her across social @ThatWitchMia
