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Aug 14, 2023

‘Star Wars Ahsoka’ Patch Notes — Lightsabers Get Another Nerf, Puzzle Difficulty Reduced And More

Ahsoka Ahsoka has landed on Disney+ and I’ve finally caught up on the first two episodes. I admit, the closer we got to release, the more I felt the dread seep in. When it comes to Star Wars—in both

Ahsoka

Ahsoka has landed on Disney+ and I’ve finally caught up on the first two episodes. I admit, the closer we got to release, the more I felt the dread seep in. When it comes to Star Wars—in both Disney’s stewardship and George Lucas’s—all I can think of is:

Godfather meme

In some ways, the brilliance of Andor has only made matters worse. When Season 3 of The Mandalorian came out, I was shocked and appalled at how bad it was in comparison. Riddled with cameos, bad dialogue and lacking almost everything that made the first two seasons of the show so great, not even Baby Yoda could charm me into submission.

Ahsoka is an interesting premise, picking up where creator Dave Filoni’s Star Wars Rebels show left off, serving effectively as that show’s fifth season—though now live-action instead of animated, more’s the pity.

In any case, I’ve watched the first two episodes now and I have mixed feelings. I’ve listed them out below in the “patch notes”.

In any case, I’m feeling pretty mixed on this show overall. I feel like most of the Star Wars IP has been given to people who are only mildly talented half the time. Dave Filoni has done some great work but he’s also done some really bad work, and this is him doing something in the middle—something middling at best.

The writing is all over the place. The plot is slapdash and derivative. The casting choices are okay but the performances are largely flat. The action and combat sequences are fine but nothing special.

It’s better than Obi-Wan, Boba Fett and Season 3 of The Mandalorian but when you compare it to Andor you see what a difference actual writing talent and attention to detail make. I’ll keep watching, but my expectations remain quite low. I hope it can at least be a fun story, and I suppose it’s nice that Rebels gets another season of content if nothing else. But I really do wish Star Wars had quality control to match its budget.

I made a video about the first two episodes of Ahsoka as well:

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