Spoilers AHSOKA series [Spoiler Discussion]

[fireproof78]

Oh, looks like the new character posters just dropped, giving us a much clearer view of Skyguy, Snips & Rex.

Some interesting details here. For one, it was hard for me to tell with all the pink and orange dust & smoke, but Anakin is indeed sporting the purple & blue robes, the Jedi logo is debossed rather than printed, and unlike his RotS outfit, he's wearing gloves on both hands. Curious that the armour seems to be in just three pieces (plus the pauldrons.) I'd always imagined it to be more like Roman segmentata than Vader's one solid piece.
As suspected, Padawan Tano's outfit looks like a hybrid of her season 3 redesign and the TotJ robes, only without the midriff and random boob window, thankfully. Not visible in this image, but the leggings were definitely lighter like the season 1 & TotJ designs.
Not much to say about Rex since we've already seem them make phase 2 armor, except to say that the custom helmet is perfectly executed. Still can't quite see what's going on with the DC-17s, but I'm going to take a guess that they're custom covers mounted on airsoft desert eagles. Definitely look more beefy than the STIs they use for the Mandalorian westars.
ETA: I've never noticed it before, but it looks like Rex's chestplate is custom too! Guess he didn't put much stock in the Phase 2 chest piece.

After this, I am more onboard for a live action Clone Wars in some measure (beyond the visions obviously) and I never thought I would say that.

Also, Anakin's robes look amazing.

 

[Jedman67]

At the time TotJ came out I suspected (as with the T-6 & S1 Anakin redesign)

Mind translating those acronyms please? :-)

I do agree making Thrawn the big bad is rather lacklustre. I understand.the idea he could reunite the Imperial renamants together but that it is not given. Many in the Empire were xenophobic and chauvinistic and so they might just reject him. People only listened to Thrawn because Vader and Sidious told them to.

People listened to Thrawn because he was
- A Grand Admiral, personally promoted by the Emperor
- A tactical genius who rarely lost and even rarer lost twice
- A decent politician

It's clear from Rebels that he was held in high esteem based on both rank and ability.

 

[cooleddie74]

There were few non-humans treated with respect and dignity within the Galactic Empire and Mas Amedda and Thrawn were two of them.

 

[Crewman6]

There were few non-humans treated with respect and dignity within the Galactic Empire and Mas Amedda and Thrawn were two of them.

Again, you're going off of things that were not Lucas' intent. Whatever some EU dipshit said about "aliens in the Empire" is something I couldn't care less about.

But the creator of the damn universe never seemed to think Palpatine had any issue with aliens, so I'm going with that.

The "racist" business was just invented by EU authors to "explain" the lack of aliens (and women) seen in the OT.

But, by the same token, we could say the same thing about the Rebellion, since there are no aliens whatsoever in the Alliance in ANH or ESB and hell, there aren't even any women (except for Leia) or human POC.

But that doesn't mean the rebels were racist, just in the same way the absence of aliens doesn't mean the Empire was, either.

 

[Reverend]

After this, I am more onboard for a live action Clone Wars in some measure (beyond the visions obviously) and I never thought I would say that.

On the one hand I think that's all we're going to get on this show (which is for the best.) On the other hand; as with Leia on 'Kenobi' they've successfully cast a young actor who captures a younger version of a legacy character very well, and I wouldn't opposed to have them show up again in that capacity at some point down the line.

Mind translating those acronyms please? :-)

TotJ = Tales of the Jedi
T-6 = T-6
S1 = Clone Wars Season 1

There were few non-humans treated with respect and dignity within the Galactic Empire and Mas Amedda and Thrawn were two of them.

There were also no shortage of humans treated with no respect at all (just ask the seemingly all human inmates at Narkina 5.) Personally I prefer Zahn's new take on it in the canon Thrawn book: the discriminatory xenophobia was mostly a cultural thing within the military, not official policy of the Empire or Palpatine. The result it seems mostly just an artefact of how the lines were drawn in the clone wars. The military was predominantly human centric because it was made up almost entirely of human clones, and most of the people they fought against were non-human because the bulk of separatist worlds were in Mid & Outer Rim systems, while most Republic loyalists were in the core, and all of that just carried across into the Imperial military too.
Not that the Empire was in any way egalitarian; it simply didn't care one way or the other. An equal opportunities oppressor, if you will.

I never liked the EU thing of making Palpatine both sexist and xenophobic. Aside from being cheap, petty and quite drastically misrepresenting what makes evil so pervasive, it also opened the door for things like the Empire of the Hand, and the Fel Empire. The whole "hey look, they're the good kind of fascists because they let girls be stormtroopers" thing is neck-and-neck with "Grey-Jedi" in the league of asinine oxymorons overly favoured by edgelords that fundamentally don't understand how this kind of thing works.

Palpatine wasn't prejudiced against women and aliens, he was prejudiced against literally everyone that was not him. Which at the end of the day is what evil usually amounts to; No kinship, kindness, or common cause with anyone, just a deep, miserable and vicious selfishness.
As such though, he's entirely on board with exploiting other people's prejudices, fears, and racial hatred to his own ends (Quarren & Mon Cala + Wookiees & Trandosians leap to mind.) But barring women and aliens from serving in his Empire just makes no sense. Everyone should be serving his Empire, whether they want to or not. Stormtroopers and TIE pilots are just as usefully disposable no matter what gender or species is in the armour.

 

[Crewman6]

On the one hand I think that's all we're going to get on this show (which is for the best.) On the other hand; as with Leia on 'Kenobi' they've successfully cast a young actor who captures a younger version of a legacy character very well, and I wouldn't opposed to have them show up again in that capacity at some point down the line.

TotJ = Tales of the Jedi
T-6 = T-6
S1 = Clone Wars Season 1

There were also no shortage of humans treated with no respect at all (just ask the seemingly all human inmates at Narkina 5.) Personally I prefer Zahn's new take on it in the canon Thrawn book: the discriminatory xenophobia was mostly a cultural thing within the military, not official policy of the Empire or Palpatine. The result it seems mostly just an artefact of how the lines were drawn in the clone wars. The military was predominantly human centric because it was made up almost entirely of human clones, and most of the people they fought against were non-human because the bulk of separatist worlds were in Mid & Outer Rim systems, while most Republic loyalists were in the core, and all of that just carried across into the Imperial military too.
Not that the Empire was in any way egalitarian; it simply didn't care one way or the other. An equal opportunities oppressor, if you will.

I never liked the EU thing of making Palpatine both sexist and xenophobic. Aside from being cheap, petty and quite drastically misrepresenting what makes evil so pervasive, it also opened the door for things like the Empire of the Hand, and the Fel Empire. The whole "hey look, they're the good kind of fascists because they let girls be stormtroopers" thing is neck-and-neck with "Grey-Jedi" in the league of asinine oxymorons overly favoured by edgelords that fundamentally don't understand how this kind of thing works.

Palpatine wasn't prejudiced against women and aliens, he was prejudiced against literally everyone that was not him. Which at the end of the day is what evil usually amounts to; No kinship, kindness, or common cause with anyone, just a deep, miserable and vicious selfishness.
As such though, he's entirely on board with exploiting other people's prejudices, fears, and racial hatred to his own ends (Quarren & Mon Cala + Wookiees & Trandosians leap to mind.) But barring women and aliens from serving in his Empire just makes no sense. Everyone should be serving his Empire, whether they want to or not. Stormtroopers and TIE pilots are just as usefully disposable no matter what gender or species is in the armour.

I love your take.

 

[fireproof78]

On the one hand I think that's all we're going to get on this show (which is for the best.) On the other hand; as with Leia on 'Kenobi' they've successfully cast a young actor who captures a younger version of a legacy character very well, and I wouldn't opposed to have them show up again in that capacity at some point down the line.

That it left me wanting more is very much a testament to being well constructed.

 

[mithril]

Mind translating those acronyms please? :-)

People listened to Thrawn because he was
- A Grand Admiral, personally promoted by the Emperor
- A tactical genius who rarely lost and even rarer lost twice
- A decent politician

It's clear from Rebels that he was held in high esteem based on both rank and ability.

interestingly, the comic and novels for the current Canon focusing on him show that he was not a decent politician, in fact his inability to manage the political aspects of imperial service and society was his biggest weakness when he was working his way up through the ranks. and it was his alliance with Arihnda Pryce that fixed that, since she was a consummate political manipulator, which is how she eventually became the governor of her homeworld of Lothal. (sometimes to the annoyance of Thrawn.. the military action at Batonn that got him his promotion to grand admiral wasn't supposed to have any civilian casualties at all, but Price had a civilian mining community destroyed as a cover up for one of her off the books political operations, and did so in such a way that it was pinned on Thrawn. a result that eliminated a political threat (dissidents) at the same time as a military one (the insurgency), and made him look to be especially ruthless, impressing the emperor.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I just realized that Anakin and Rex both had the same reaction upon seeing Ahsoka for the first time after many years. They both commented on how old she looked.

 

[Ithekro]

Thrawn could see how to deal with politicians on a tactical level, but he was not good at seeing the political games being played as a lot of their games seemed illogical and strategically unwise to him. Like a lot of the petty political games dealing with rank in the military centered around class distinction between the Core Worlds and the Outer Rim. Or the paranoid mind games some Moffs played for power and status that didn't serve the goals of the Empire at all, or in fact hurt the Empire in some way because it squandered real talent in dumb prejudices or political maneuverings.

 

[Jedi Marso]

I haven't wanted to go here because I've loved her in everything else she's been in, but I'm going to ask:

Five episodes in, am I the only one who feels like MEW as Hera is a total miscast? I have tried my hardest here, but I finally have to admit that I hate her portrayal of Hera.

 

[Set Harth]

She's growing on me.

 

[Crewman6]

I haven't wanted to go here because I've loved her in everything else she's been in, but I'm going to ask:

Five episodes in, am I the only one who feels like MEW as Hera is a total miscast? I have tried my hardest here, but I finally have to admit that I hate her portrayal of Hera.

100% agree. I was never a fan of the actress, but I love animated Hera.

She's proving far worse than my fears. Just awful.

 

[Xerxes82]

I haven't wanted to go here because I've loved her in everything else she's been in, but I'm going to ask:

Five episodes in, am I the only one who feels like MEW as Hera is a total miscast? I have tried my hardest here, but I finally have to admit that I hate her portrayal of Hera.

I mean, I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate it. It's just kind of there.

Rebels Hera had a weird energy. Intense in all things, whether it was joy, concern, humor or determination. She didn't actually have that big a role in the show, overall, but the sheer charisma of the voice work and the writing really made her feel like a force anytime she was on the screen. Unless things were REALLY bad. Winstead simply doesn't have that charisma or energy. Toon Hera could convey that she would go the mat for people with a look and a sly line. Live action Hera feels much flatter.

It's definitely the weakest of the legacy performances.

 

[Dee1891]

Winstead simply doesn't have that charisma or energy.

Winstead is quite capable of producing such charisma and energy. She has done so in past roles. It simply could be the issue of the series' writing or direction.

 

[Reverend]

I just realized that Anakin and Rex both had the same reaction upon seeing Ahsoka for the first time after many years. They both commented on how old she looked.

It certainly does put that into a new perspective now we actually see how young she really was.

It's also got me wondering if (hypothetically) they would have had Bo Katan show up in that Siege of Mandalore sequence; would they have used Sackoff and de-aged her, or gotten an actual teenager as with Ahsoka? I'm thinking maybe the latter, and that would be wild and suddenly recontextualise basically all of her scenes in Clone Wars too. For one thing it'd make so much more sense why she was out there playing second fiddle to Vizla if she was a privileged but disaffected teenager that fell in with fundamentalist revolutionaries. It would also make the whole arse slapping incident a little less weird. . .

Thrawn could see how to deal with politicians on a tactical level, but he was not good at seeing the political games being played as a lot of their games seemed illogical and strategically unwise to him. Like a lot of the petty political games dealing with rank in the military centered around class distinction between the Core Worlds and the Outer Rim. Or the paranoid mind games some Moffs played for power and status that didn't serve the goals of the Empire at all, or in fact hurt the Empire in some way because it squandered real talent in dumb prejudices or political maneuverings.

All true. However he's had a whole decade to learn, and he doesn't strike me as the sort to make the same mistake twice.

I haven't wanted to go here because I've loved her in everything else she's been in, but I'm going to ask:

Five episodes in, am I the only one who feels like MEW as Hera is a total miscast? I have tried my hardest here, but I finally have to admit that I hate her portrayal of Hera.

She seems like a space mum to me. I've had no trouble accepting her in the role, once I got used to the different voice. Admittedly it wasn't an instant sell, but by the time they got to the scene with her and Chopper bickering during the Corellia chase, I was onboard.

No she's not exactly like she was in the animated show, but neither is Ahsoka, and with good reason. Back then she had a cause to fight, and a family that she built around her. Now, she's a little bit like Ahsoka; A life-long warrior that has trouble adjusting to peace time, having to deal with the kind of politicians and petty bureaucrats she would have just shot half a decade ago.
Plus of course now there's a Kanan shaped hole in her heart. She's also older, more seasoned, and has an actual child in her care instead of a pair of stray teenagers and a Zeb running around.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

Thrawn is going to be the big bad for the entire Mando-verse moving forward. I don't expect the first season of Ahsoka to do little more than bring him back and set up the threat moving forward.

Yeah, I was just about to post this before I saw your post. I don't get the false advertisement angle here. I think that was implied before the Ahsoka series was announced, and certainly before it was known what the Ahsoka series would be about (I expected Anakin and Rebels flashbacks through and through), and Mandalorian's season 3 has implied Thrawn's return as much as anything.

Ahsoka dealing with Thrawn by herself and her friends from Rebels would be anti-climactic. For one, it would be not too dissimilar from Ahsoka just preventing him from returning. For another, I am more excited about everyone teaming up than seeing Thrawn as a villain. For a limited show that may not a get a second season, seeing where Sabine grows from here, and where other threads lead, a lot will have to leak into the other shows.

I genuinely wish they'd spend more exploring this other galaxy, than with fighting Thrawn as such here (I'm bound to be disappointed, I guess).

 

[Ithekro]

I still speculate that Skeleton Crew will be mostly set in the new galaxy. The plot we've been presented with is a group of kids and a mentor type played by Jude Law get lost in some unknown space and they have to translate and use ancient star charts to try to find a way home. Now that might be the new galaxy that Thrawn is currently in, or it could be the Unknown Regions where the Chiss and First Order are (and when Thrawn might go to setup shop after getting back to this galaxy).

 

[Reverend]

I still speculate that Skeleton Crew will be mostly set in the new galaxy. The plot we've been presented with is a group of kids and a mentor type played by Jude Law get lost in some unknown space and they have to translate and use ancient star charts to try to find a way home. Now that might be the new galaxy that Thrawn is currently in, or it could be the Unknown Regions where the Chiss and First Order are (and when Thrawn might go to setup shop after getting back to this galaxy).

The problem with that idea is that it's very much a non-trivial effort to get out to Peridea. One assumes that even with accurate jump coordinates, most ships simply don't have the range or speed necessary. Meaning the journey would take a very long time, and as such they would run out of fuel mid-way, stranding them in dark space. Hence the Eye of Sion just being a bunch of massive engines and little else. As for the Purgill: I doubt they'll be offering rides to anyone else. I think the main reason Filoni decided to have Thrawn & Ezra be in another galaxy is mostly just to make it clear that he's not gone back to the Chiss, and to not just repeat (prepeat?) the whole Exegol thing.

The galaxy is plenty big enough for a bunch of kids to get randomly lost in, so I imagine SC will just be somewhere in the unknown regions or around wild space. But who knows? Maybe there's some shennanigans with some ancient artefact, like the Dragon Void wormhole gate, or the Mortis monolith that dumps them out in another galaxy. Time will tell.

 

[4Lights]

Ahsoka is my least favorite SW live action so far. Don't hate it though. I did think episode 3 was horrible. But Hera Syndulla is a new favorite SW character. If we could get a show about her, and more like Andor, that would be excellent.

But overall, not too into this show. I have no pre-attachment to any of the characters. I don't know them, so a lot of what's going on is meaningless for me. I loved Filoni's Mandalorian, but overall, not that excited with his stuff.

I did think Young Ahsoka's lightsaber fight in The flashback scene was one of the better lightsaber fights out there though.

And Purgils are more like Star Trek to me.