The Mandalorian/All Things Star Wars

eastisbest said:
Ahsoka: seems to be getting good reviews. The visuals are great. Ezra actor might be ok. The rest... I think it suffers maybe because of the great voice acting of the animations but even trying to ignore comparisons, this was weak to me. Dialogue cocktail party lame. Acting stiff as if they're in separate rooms and the characters don't know each other. I think this is a Filoni problem. All sounded the same. No charisma in any of the leads, particularly the big bads. Physical acting was high school, play level particularly Sabine.

Could be a slog for me.
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I think the stiffness is mostly between Ahsoka and Sabine. There’s clearly a significant amount of tension between the two of them.

I thought Hera was great and showed a lot of promise for the series.
 
LCL said:
Any thoughts on Ahsoka Series? Seems to have started slow but might pick up the pace. Not sure how Anakin might play into this.
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I think the first two episodes were about setting the mood and bringing people up to speed.

I suspect the pace will pick up going forward
 
boothmark77 said:
If I never watched the animated series, will I be lost?
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Not too answer for but probably in agreement, there's no excuse NOT to watch the animated series. If you like Star Wars, you'll enjoy most of Rebels and be wowed by some. It begins with a whole new set of characters so there's the on-boarding of any new series.

Without it? Not lost but of course you won't get the significance of some things. Those details could be filled in with wiki. There's also lists on the net of the must see episodes of Clone Wars and Rebels to fill in background. I'd do those. I'll probably re-do those this weekend if the window AC holds out. Otherwise, I'll be in the car with the motor running.
 
I almost think you'd have to watch Rebels to know who the characters are, obviously Clone Wars youd have to watch. Not necessary to know, but I wasnt expecting a Dathomir witch to be in it.

Unlike Mandalorian, it might be hard to follow if you never saw the cartoon series. At least you could pick up on what a Mandalorian was by watching it. In this, there are specific characters.
 
My quick thoughts on the first couple of episodes.

  • Overall these first two episodes were OK, got a lot of nice SW touches that Filoni wanted to bring over like the story setting word crawl at the beginning and the use of thematic music to call out characters or places. he is not trying to re-invent the franchise.
  • Story is setting up to be a fun ride, I expect to see some Mando tie-ins at some point but its very curios that Ahsoka didn't give Sabine a heads up at all about all the action going on back in her old home planet. Seems like a big plot hole to not give her the news that a Yoda like dude with uber force skills is training in the Mando way.
  • I like Rosario Dawson as the lead and she adds a nice twist to a complex character, she could carry a series if for no other fact that it is a well written character. Also like the fighter pilot character, actor is turning in a believable role as the voice of reason for the rebel team and Ray Stevens to me is playing Baylon just right too.
  • On the other hand I am not digging the direction of Sabine at all. They elected to use the skater girl trope for her identifying characteristic and the actress comes across as a Pac-Sun type wannabee more so than an authentic Mando girl that has a chip on her shoulder. There are also a couple of other stereotypes seeping in, the bad girl apprentice is the Rocky & Bulwinkle "Natasha" like Russian and the witch is the Asian dragon lady. I feel like Filoni had Tarantino whispering in his ear when writing for these characters.
  • I do like the live action version of this world better than the cartoons, I might be the only SW fan that just didn't like cartoons. The plot was great but everything else just didn't click with me. Oh well.
 
LCL said:
I almost think you'd have to watch Rebels to know who the characters are, obviously Clone Wars youd have to watch. Not necessary to know, but I wasnt expecting a Dathomir witch to be in it.

Unlike Mandalorian, it might be hard to follow if you never saw the cartoon series. At least you could pick up on what a Mandalorian was by watching it. In this, there are specific characters.
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I've been sick and haven't watched Ahsoka yet, but I hear the first 2 episodes basically go over the important stuff from Rebels?
 
PantherProud said:
I've been sick and haven't watched Ahsoka yet, but I hear the first 2 episodes basically go over the important stuff from Rebels?
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From the viewpoint from not watching Rebels, you would learn there is a map. A prisoner gave away the location of the map to Ahsoka and was broken out of prison to retrieve it by some Sith lightsaber guys. Ahsoka finds the map, but cannot open it and a fighter pilot (Hera) suggests finding another character (Sabine) to open it.

Turns out the Sabine character was a failed padawan of Ahsoka. She steals the map to open it, but it gets stolen by one of Sith people, and taken back to the escaped prisoner who opens it. The map leads to a guy (Thrawn) who could start a war, and possibly some kid (Ezra). By the end the antagonists are on the way to find Thrawn, but a tracker is placed on the ship to find them. So you might be able to watch it without Rebels, but Rebels really needs to be watched to understand it, just like Andor needed Rogue 1.
 
I enjoyed the first two episodes. They felt different for Star Wars. They almost had an Indie movie feel, with a big movie budget. The first two episodes also flowed together like a movie. It felt like the first movie of say, a trilogy.

It took me a minute to remember that we've met Morgan Elsbeth before. She was in Season 2 of the Mandalorian, where we first meet the live-action Ahsoka. She's the one who offers Din Djarin the beskar spear in exchange for taking out Ahsoka. I'm also glad we're getting more of her backstory. Back then we didn't know she was a Nightsister of Dathomir (Darth Maul's home planet), who I've longed wanted to see in live-action. IMO the Nightsisters and history of Darth Maul's race are an untapped area of the Star Wars Universe that I think many would find appealing.


The live-action versions of our Rebels characters are pretty spot on. Curious to see if/when we see Jacen Syndulla and Zeb show up.
 
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side note, when they were talking about other galaxies, I worried they are were going to bring up Earth. I mean, technically Earth exists in Star Wars canon, but it's a very loose connection, and IMO I think Star Wars should never come close to our galaxy.
 
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PantherProud said:
side note, when they were talking about other galaxies, I worried they are were going to bring up Earth. I mean, technically Earth exists in Star Wars canon, but it's a very loose connection, and IMO I think Star Wars should never come close to our galaxy.
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Totally take away from the "galaxy far, far away" theme. Would turn it into Guardians of the Galaxy theme.
 
PantherProud said:
I enjoyed the first two episodes. They felt different for Star Wars. They almost had an Indie movie feel, with a big movie budget. The first two episodes also flowed together like a movie. It felt like the first movie of say, a trilogy.

It took me a minute to remember that we've met Morgan Elsbeth before. She was in Season 2 of the Mandalorian, where we first meet the live-action Ahsoka. She's the one who offers Din Djarin the beskar spear in exchange for taking out Ahsoka. I'm also glad we're getting more of her backstory. Back then we didn't know she was a Nightsister of Dathomir (Darth Maul's home planet), who I've longed wanted to see in live-action. IMO the Nightsisters and history of Darth Maul's race are an untapped area of the Star Wars Universe that I think many would find appealing.


The live-action versions of our Rebels characters are pretty spot on. Curious to see if/when we see Jacen Syndulla and Zeb show up.
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Zeb made a brief appearance in Mandalorean, a blink and "did I just see that?"
 
I have to admit that I am little worried about the other galaxy thing and rules of existence being broken. What is losing me about MCU is all the multiverse stuff, to me dead is dead and I hope SW keeps with that basic rule of life.
 
Auggie said:
I have to admit that I am little worried about the other galaxy thing and rules of existence being broken. What is losing me about MCU is all the multiverse stuff, to me dead is dead and I hope SW keeps with that basic rule of life.
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I agree, though technically time travel was already introduced in Rebels.
 
Auggie said:
I have to admit that I am little worried about the other galaxy thing and rules of existence being broken. What is losing me about MCU is all the multiverse stuff, to me dead is dead and I hope SW keeps with that basic rule of life.
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Yea, no "Anakin is alive as a Jedi in another galaxy far, far away" that Ahsoka visits while going after Thrawn. That would ruin it.
 
LCL said:
Yea, no "Anakin is alive as a Jedi in another galaxy far, far away" that Ahsoka visits while going after Thrawn. That would ruin it.
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Actually…

The Mortis arc (season 3 episode 15-17) of the clone wars indicates that is a distinct possibility. I suggest you watch it because it’s probably going to become relevant in some way to Ahsoka.
 
Lots of character development for Sabine in this episode.

How in the hell does Kanaan and Hera’s kid only have green hair? Totally human expect for green hair?
 
Personally, I'd be fine with Thrawn, wins. Wipes all those bad movies out of canon as Thrawn was once wiped out. No fake Empire. No fake Republic. No fake sith and apprentice and bad witch our of nowhere. Revenge runs blue.

I don't think I'm seeing the same quality as you others.

Inosanto, smh. There's a privileged hire. She's just not up to the task. Poorly developed character as well, like all the news ones.


lol, I'm feeling Omar. This just is poorly done. Not "woke" boxes but tropish ones, plot and characters. Maybe they should have started with Thrawn and hopefully a good Esra. Then at least it would be starting with a great individual character and actor, someone that can hold the screen alone then let the others develop as a group so the audience can see the characters driven by their loyalty to each other and see their contributions to the whole?

Need more Zeb. He was a great character to play off of.
Cubsandtigers said:
Imagine how upset Ezra is going to be when he finds out what Sabine did?
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Sabine pretending, Aksoka dying poorly. As far as Ahsoka? I need to look at that scene again, it didn't make sense. Jedi that can transport "dies" falling off a cliff? Not even a wound?
 
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IMO the main thing missing that would fix my minor quibbles with the show, would have been for the series to start with a flashback of the whole Ghost Crew to show how close they were and to show those connections. Currently the show is asking you to care about the Sabine/Ezra friendship, without ever showing them as friends. If you've watched Rebels you get it, but the general audience is missing that piece.

I also think its imperative they show a Sabine/Ahsoka flashback from when they first trained together.


I also feel better now that i've realized this season is 8 episodes. For some reason I was thinking it was only 6.
 
PantherProud said:
IMO the main thing missing that would fix my minor quibbles with the show, would have been for the series to start with a flashback of the whole Ghost Crew to show how close they were and to show those connections. Currently the show is asking you to care about the Sabine/Ezra friendship, without ever showing them as friends. If you've watched Rebels you get it, but the general audience is missing that piece.

I also think its imperative they show a Sabine/Ahsoka flashback from when they first trained together.


I also feel better now that i've realized this season is 8 episodes. For some reason I was thinking it was only 6.
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Also where is Zeb!
 
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