Star Wars - General Discussion Thread

[andersonh1]

Episode 5 - Shadow Warrior

I loved everything about this episode.

Spoiler

- It is great to see Anakin and Ahsoka together in live action. What's more, we get a series of scenes set during the Clone Wars, with Anakin's appearance matching his appearance from the animated series. Hayden Christensen does a great job, telling me that any rough acting from the prequels was probably down to the writing or direction. As much as I like those movies, he's far better here. I'm glad he came back both for Obi Wan Kenobi and for Ahsoka.
- I like that his appearance isn't really explained. The Force needs to be a mystery, we can't have everything spelled out for us.
- Great role for Hera this episode, and for Jaycen. Good to hear Huyang state plainly that Kanan was his father, not that it wasn't obvious!
- I heard Temura Morrison voicing Captain Rex briefly during the siege of Mandalore. I'd have enjoyed seeing a bit more of the character, but I guess they wanted to stay focused on Anakin and Ahsoka.
- My only complaint, and it's a minor one since it feels like events are unfolding in a logical fashion, is that five episodes in and we're only now making the trip to the next galaxy. I think all of these fast-paced shows and movies have spoiled my appreciation for a slower pace of storytelling. The plot is very much step by step by step, with one event leading to another in a logical and deliberate fashion. That's not a bad thing, and sadly I have to remind myself of that from time to time.

Great episode, I immediately went back after it was done and watched parts of it again, something I haven't done for a long time. I guess anyone who hasn't seen the Clone Wars or Rebels might be lost while watching this show, but as a long time viewer I find it very rewarding.

[Sparky Prime]

I'm an episode behind at this point, but I really enjoyed episode 5 as well. It was good to see Anakin and Ahsoka together in live action. Interesting to see their relationship at different points in her lifetime. It felt like an effective way to establish that these two had a long history, even though we never saw it in the films. Still don't really get the World Between Worlds, but I can just chalk that up to being a Force thing I guess.

[Sparky Prime]

Episode 6 - Far, Far Away

I really enjoyed this episode as well.

Spoiler

I liked the difference in the hyper space effect in this episode, indicating the more powerful nature of intergalactic travel. The ring around the planet being composed of space whale bones was interesting and creepy up close. So if the Jedi have stories about this world... Intergalactic travel used to be common? What happened that they no longer did or could? Seeing Thrawn's Star Destroyer, as well as the Stormtroopers, with patch work repairs was a nice touch. It makes sense, cut off from civilization as they know it that they'd have to make due with whatever they could. The Great Mothers... no idea what any of that was about. I felt the reunion between Sabine and Ezra was a little too easy. One run in with some bandits and then she stumbles upon an alien that leads her straight to him.

[andersonh1]

I agree, I think the Ezra/Sabine reunion needed more emotion to it. It felt in character, but at the same time, they haven't seen each other for a decade and this is all we get? It was a little underwhelming.

The Great Mothers make more sense if you've seen the Clone Wars episodes with the Nightsisters on Dathomir (Darth Maul's home planet). The planet Thrawn ended up on is where the Nightsisters originally came from, if I understood the episode correctly. They're force users, but not like the Jedi. They're essentially witches, just set in the Star Wars universe.

[Sparky Prime]

The Great Mothers make more sense if you've seen the Clone Wars episodes with the Nightsisters on Dathomir (Darth Maul's home planet). The planet Thrawn ended up on is where the Nightsisters originally came from, if I understood the episode correctly. They're force users, but not like the Jedi. They're essentially witches, just set in the Star Wars universe.

Oh, so they're Force users, but they call it magic instead? Ok, that explains a few things...

[Sparky Prime]

Episode 7 - Dreams and Madness

Cool to see C-3PO turn up to pass on Leia's approval of the mission. But what's with the... Droidism? I mean, we've seen droids treated like second class citizens before in Star Wars, but Senator Xiono's dismissal of C-3PO, especially given his role in the Rebellion and the respect he and R2 subsequently got, it just didn't fit to me. Is Xiono secretly working for the remains of the Empire? He seems like he's going out of his way to deny that they exist or are a threat to the New Republic.

Cool to see Ezra fighting using only the Force to fight, but why refuse his lightsaber? Sabine is clearly more comfortable with her blasters.

[andersonh1]

Xiono could just be an obtuse jerk, or there could be more going on. I'm honestly not sure. C3P0 has always been one of my favorite characters from Star Wars, so needless to say, I was very happy to see him, still played by Anthony Daniels. Nice to see Anakin in holographic form via training video, which again goes back to Rebels when I think Ahsoka let Ezra borrow some of the videos instructing how to fight in various lightsaber techniques.

[Sparky Prime]

Episode 8 - The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord

Dave Filoni must have a sense of humor

Spoiler

I didn't realize Ahsoka's ship actually belonged to Huyang. I've been wondering why there were extra lightsabers in the weapons locker since the first episode. Ahsoka saying he'd kept the ship flying longer than she'd been alive in this episode finally explained that for me. Good to see Ezra built himself a new lightsaber... Although it once again makes me question why he didn't take his old one when Sabine offered it in the previous episode. Nice to see Sabine has finally figured out how to use the Force.

I'm surprised this ends with so many open plot threads. I'm guessing they plan on this getting a second season? Or maybe addressing this in other series? I get leaving some things open ended, but I was hoping for more resolution than they gave us.

[andersonh1]

Huyang showed up in a Clone Wars storyline that depicted Padawans training and learning to build a lightsaber. I think that was his only appearance prior to this show, and just like this episode, he had a ton of lightsaber components so that each Padawan could build a blade that was unique to them.

As for the episode itself,

Spoiler

I agree, I was surprised how little was resolved, although I figured it was inevitable that Thrawn would return to the home galaxy since they've clearly been setting him up as the big bad since season 2 of the Mandalorian. I like that the fact that he knew Anakin/Vader affected how he approached Ahsoka, and that he's learned from past encounters with Jedi to take them very seriously. I should have guessed that some of the characters would end up stranded, because Baylan and Shin are still on the planet, though to be honest I had forgotten that until the final minutes of the episode. Someone will have to confront them. And hopefully Ezra has the location of the planet in the computer of that shuttle he stole so the New Republic can build one of those giant hyperspace rings and go rescue Ahsoka and Sabine.

I'm assuming that all those boxes taken from the fortress are more Nightsisters in suspended animation, since Ezra mentions how Thrawn "woke up" the great mothers, and his Star Destroyer was headed for Dathomir at the end of the episode. General Grevious pretty much committed genocide against the Nightsisters during the Clone Wars, so perhaps they're repopulating the planet.

And there was Anakin at the end, watching over his former apprentice. We've got a seven Jedi line of succession now: Yoda - Dooku - Qui-Gon - Obi-Wan - Anakin - Ahsoka - Sabine. I think they've done a good job of reminding us of who Anakin was before he became Darth Vader, something that was again depicted quite well in the Clone Wars animated series. Ahsoka remembers him fondly, even knowing what ultimately happened to him.

My only real disappointments: no Captain Rex in the present day (though he may be dead, given the accelerated aging of the clones), and no Zeb, the only Rebels regular character not to appear. And that's odd, because they gave Zeb a cameo appearance in the Mandalorian, so they've built a CGI model for him, only to use it for less than a two minutes.

Very good series, though the pacing felt more sedate than I'm used to with Star Wars, which is typically non-stop action mixed with a few quiet scenes. But I felt like the story unfolded in a manner that made sense, and characters went from point A to point B without me ever wondering just how they got there. I liked the first intergalactic travel in Star Wars on screen, though I expected a different galaxy to be more exotic in some way. The planet felt like it could have been any planet in our familiar galaxy. Overall though I really enjoyed the series, and I am hopeful that we'll get another season and tie up the open storylines.

[Sparky Prime]

Huyang showed up in a Clone Wars storyline that depicted Padawans training and learning to build a lightsaber. I think that was his only appearance prior to this show, and just like this episode, he had a ton of lightsaber components so that each Padawan could build a blade that was unique to them.

Yeah, they mentioned he helped Padawan's build lightsabers a few times in this series. Did he have the same ship in Clone Wars?

Spoiler

I'm assuming that all those boxes taken from the fortress are more Nightsisters in suspended animation, since Ezra mentions how Thrawn "woke up" the great mothers, and his Star Destroyer was headed for Dathomir at the end of the episode. General Grevious pretty much committed genocide against the Nightsisters during the Clone Wars, so perhaps they're repopulating the planet.

Spoiler

I've seen some fans speculating that it's all the Stormtroopers Thrawn had lost during his exile. But considering we saw some Zombietroopers already in this episode... why would they hold off and intentionally keep their forces limited? I like your suggestion of it being Nightsisters. It makes more sense that they wouldn't want to revive them until a more opportune time.

Forgot to mention... The sword they gave Morgan Elsbeth was interesting. I'm guessing it was essentially a medieval lightsaber, before they started using plasma blades. Even the hilt looked lightsaber inspired. Little disappointed she died so quickly from two relatively minor slashes to the stomach when other characters have survived worst injuries.

Wonder what they're going to do with Baylan's character moving forward, seeing as Ray Stevenson passed away earlier this year...