For someone who wanted to see a lot of things happening, this may look a little bit disappointing, because it's clear this series is setting up something bigger. Filoni has two great abilities: adding some interesting minor stories to bigger events (Tales of the Jedi) and building up world and characters for grand stories. This series is the case for the latter one.
I don't know what comes next, a new series, a movie, a season from another series... but we need to have patience like a Jedi.
About the characters, what I felt after the first episode was confirmed through the entire season: some characters work, other didn't convince me. The weak point was probably Sabine, her introduction in the live action series made her less interesting and even after her development, I personally don't care about her.
Hera was my favorite in Rebels and I miss Vanessa Marshall, I was hoping for her to reprise her role. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a good actress, don't get me wrong, but she feels too young for the role.
About Ahsoka... it's difficult to say. I am a fan of Rosario Dawson since I saw her on the 25th hour, but I am still not convinced.
While Ezra was played in a convince way.
Back in 2014, when i watched Rebels, I used to watch a show from the Star Wars Youtube channel where actors talked about characters they played in Rebels. I am used to see them, not only as voice actors, but as characters as well. And I always thought they were similar to their characters. So I can't understand why Filoni didn't choose them again for the live action series, like he did with Katee Sackhoff.
Thrawn was great in every scene, for example.
So, most of the time, it was like watching similar characters, not the ones from Rebels.
I praise the new addition, like Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati. We didn't have much time to know her, but she impressed me and I hope she'll have an interesting arc... I just don't want her to be killed by Sabine.
Other than that, the story was interesting, the direction was good, the action scenes were (mostly) well done. Better shot than the Kenobi series and, forgive me, more exacting than Andor (good series, but not enough Star Wars elements for me).
I am sure we'll go back to this season after what comes next and we'll think "This was a nice start!". We need some perspective.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParentSpoilers2023-10-10T09:49:59Z
This really managed to give me some old school Star Wars feels. The series is essentially season 5 of Rebels, bringing back the main characters and picking up the dangling story threads we were left with (Nightsisters! Thrawn! The World Between Worlds!). And as a fan of that show, this was largely very satisfying.
For a show named Ahsoka, it was really Sabine who felt like the focus. She also ended up as the most interesting character in the whole thing and was cast extremely well. Similarly I thought Eman Esfandi was splended in the role of Ezra. Less convincing was Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera, who took a vibrant character and made her feel somehow diminished. Meanwhile David Tennant's Huyang kept things both steady and funny.
That leaves Rosario Dawson in the title role, and generally I like her a lot. And yet, she is giving us a far more stoic interpretation of the character and it didn't always work for me. The pacing in her conversations was noticeably off with long pauses in the back and forth. But Dawson still feels right for the most part.
Story-wise, it managed to both satisfy and irk me. I feel like the whole thing moved slowly for the amount of episodes it had, and editing this down to a 2.5 hour film could be done without much fuss. There's a sense of drawing things out so big things can be saved for the inevitable future film(s). This is a real shame. But each episode also did something which managed to pull me in and the magic feeling is definitely here.
It was the surprises that really made this click for me. Hayden Christensen returning as Anakin and being given far better material to work with was absolutely beautiful, especially as it dealt so much with his history with Ahsoka. The flashbacks to the Clone Wars were simply sublime (helped no end by a wonderful young Ahsoka who felt pulled straight from the animated show). Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno both give us intriguing antagonists with more story to hopefully be explored (obviously tricky now, sadly).
Visually this is an utter delight too - either the StageCraft is getting better or they made clever use of real environments at times here. There are a number of stunning images throughout this, be they glowing-eyed resurrected stormtroopers or characters emerging from misty vistas. But the real star of the show is the musical score which is an absolute treat from start to finish, and probably the strongest interpretation of Star Wars we've had outside of John Williams.