It can be agreed upon by the community that Ahsoka was a great reintroduction of these animated characters into live action. However, as much as I enjoyed aspects of this show, several major problems prevented me from rating this higher. All this has to do with several plot points that not only muddied the plot but flat up breaks the lore.
The Problems with Sabine Ren.
A lot of the show’s biggest problems revolve around the portrayal of Sabine Ren. It isn’t so much the performance, Natasha Liu Bordizzo Does a good job all around, but the big issues are mainly the choices she makes that for many who followed her for years feel like character assassination.
Nerfed Lightsabers
The earliest problems started early on when Sabine got stabbed by Shin’s lightsaber in the torso and survived. To be fair getting stabbed in the side is more “survivable” than the chest (cough Reva). The bigger problem, and this is true in more recent of Disney’s Star Wars has been weakening the effectiveness of lightsabers to the point there is just a pointy glowstick. Far too often now characters are surviving a laser sword in ways that should not be possible.
They did this in Rise of Skywalker, they did this in Kenobi (twice in fact) and they are doing it here. How am I supposed to fear for our heroes if the damage they suffered meant nothing? Regardless of where the blade struck Sabine should not be walking around like nothing happened. Such stunts meant for shock value diminish the power and respect for the Lightsaber, however, that’s only the tip of the iceberg compared to a much bigger problem.
Why is Sabine
The other issue with Sabine is how she seems to just wanna “switch Careers” every time she’s in a new season.
In the original Rebels cartoon Sabine felt more of an felt more of an action figure to market than a real character putting way too much character and backstory. Her resume before she joined the ghost crew included but not limited to the following:
- Graffiti Artist
- Mandalor Warrior
- Imperial cadet
- Ace pilot,
- Demolitions expert
- Advanced weapons designer
- Gifted science student,
- Partime bounty hunter
- All of this backstory on a 16-year-old girl.
Any one of these archetypes could have been great on its own, but having them all at once on such a young character makes her the most OP character ever created. Now that she’s Jedi on top of that Sabine has truly crossed the line into Mary Sue territory.
There is also tension between Ahsoka and Sabine that’s never explained properly. Apparently, in the past decade, Sabine was being trained by Ahsoka in the aftermath of the destruction of Mandalore. At some point during that time Ahsoka decided to stop Sabine’s training out of fear of bringing up the dark side in her.
The problem with this plot point was this wasn’t hinted at before, not even in Rebels was Sabine’s effort to learn the force was ever implicated. A criticism that can’t be excused with (just watch Rebels).
This conflict between Sabine and Ahsoka also feels forced because all of this happens off-screen. Perhaps being inspired by her old friend Ezra Bridger convinced her to study Jedi teachings, but that’s not enough to understand why she wants to be a Jedi in the first place.
Get out of the house Sabine
Sabine’s personality is also headed in the opposite direction. Why does she still act like a rebellious teenager? Sabine should be hitting 30 at this point. I can see her decisions like sneaking away with the map and being deceitful to Ezra if she were still in her teens, but seeing what is an adult makes her look really terrible.
This of course leads to the most controversial part of the series, Sabine handing the map to Baylan, endangering the galaxy into another war. On some level, I do like this scene because it shows Sabine is still a flawed character who makes human mistakes. It also shows how Baylan is a great villain as he uses persuasion instead of brute force to convince her to give up the map.
As great as that scene was the real problem was the payoff, or rather lack thereof.
Consequences Shmansequences
When comes to writing a character-focused story they must receive consequences for their actions good or bad. None of those are present in this show as some of these characters have made harmful decisions and face no repercussions. These problems don’t extend to just Sabine, sadly my favorite character from Rebels Hera has also fallen victim to this.
When Hera Syndulla disobeyed orders to lead a team on a recon/rescue mission to the planet it noticeably led to several pilots being killed. The issue was during Hera’s disciplinary hearing, those facts were never addressed. This would make perfect political food for Senator Xeono and make her acquittal more challenging.
“With great power comes great responsibility, accept when you are a moron.”
The Author, Peter Hortensius
If Hera’s command was suspended this season, it would’ve raised the steaks going forward. Because now Thrawn has returned and one of his greatest adversaries is now out of action. This could have been a great homage to the Heir to the Empire novel that had a similar premise. But instead, C-3PO became a deux-machina and Hera was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Hera’s trial scene was rushed, however, once again this show forgets the fact that it was Sabine who agreed to effectively doom the galaxy.
Sabine giving the star map to Baylan in exchange for the possibility of seeing Ezra again creates a huge ramification that needs to be followed. However, when Sabine finds Ezra and he asks what happened Sabine remains deceitfully silent about it. What this reveals to us the audience that she never told the truth to Ezra. All his sacrifice at the end of Rebels to keep the galaxy safer has effectively been nullified and Sabine just doesn’t give a crap.
None of this would have been so bad if Ezra found out the truth about what happened. This would have been a shocking blow adding to personal tension and addressing how Sabine’s choices would come back to haunt her. Perhaps Dave Filoni didn’t want to do the Liar revealed tropes where the characters mope around, but they happen for a reason. There should be consequences for lying, especially among friends.
Rushed ending
When it comes to every season you have to make the ending satisfying on a certain level, often a great story can be undone by a broken ending.
The ending isn’t so much as bad so much as rushed as it left a few too many things open-ended. Shows tend to leave makes for some suspense for another season or even another project. However, you have to leave some sort of intrigue for your audience to invest in and this is where the finale is lacking.
Starting with the plight of our heroes Ahsoka Sabine and Ezra. On the one hand, I do like that their places were essentially switched with Ezra escaping on Thrawn’s ship and Master and apprentice now trapped in another Galaxy. The issue here is how the characters react to their plight which I take issue with.
After Thrawn escapes they could have held on to Sabine or Ahsoka’s reaction that a dangerous warlord is now set free thanks to them. Instead, they immediately cut to the Crab-people village and they just smile like nothing happened.
They could have also done more with Ezra as we see in the end he reunites his near mother-figure Hera and then before they could embrace they just cut away. The problem with this edit is that it robs the emotional impact such a scene could have had. They could have done more with that scene too like Hera introducing her son Jacen leaving open the idea of Ezra training the child of his master.
Furthermore, we still don’t know Baylan Skol’s true motives which is even sadder considering the actor’s passing. Shin didn’t even go with Thrawn either, she just decided to join these raiders without any clear reason why.
And finally, as much as I enjoyed Ahsoka’s characterization her last line strikes me the wrong way.
“Ezra is where he needs to be, and so are we” May I remind you that they are trapped in another galaxy with no perceivable way out, while a dangerous warlord is on the loose thanks to Sabine’s actions.
Ahsoka herself also suffers from the nature of the ending. Her reason for forgiving Sabine’s mistake was because she remembers the times Anakin stood by her during hard times. Know doubt this was harkening back to the Clone Wars episode where she was framed for murder and was expelled by the council. It was only by Anakin’s help that she was cleared, but her disillusionment with the order ran too deep causing her to walk away.
The problem with this comparison was that she was clearly innocent and the council was stuck in their Hubris. Sabine in contrast makes a very selfish choice that could lead to the deaths of millions and Ahsoka doesn’t even slap her on the wrist. For a supposed enlightened master she’s proven to be very negligent of her pupal. Even Anakin scolded Ahsoka at times when she made mistakes, especially when it cost lives.
Ether Filoni is being too vaige or there was a scene we missed, because this forced optimism in the end kills tension.
That’s not how the force works
The other big issue with Sabine is becoming force sensitive which threatens to outright break the lore. This is again a subject I have mixed opinions on because I like the idea of Ahsoka training a non-force user in the ways of the Jedi. The Jedi at their core peaceful diplomates first, and warriors second, they are passive by nature. The Jedi philosophy of balance and controlling your emotions can easily be taught by people not attuned to the force.
We’ve actually seen this before with Donnie Yen’s character in Rough One. Chirrut worked because of how his connection to the force was enhanced by his disability, how despite being blind and not a force user persay taps into it to enhance his martial abilities. Seeing the force work through non-force sensitives is a great idea I feel should be done on a new character, but not with Sabine.
As mentioned before Sabine’s decision to learn the ways of the force seems to come out of nowhere. There were hints that Sabine could handle a lightsaber well enough in Rebels, but that alone doesn’t indicate she’s force-sensitive.
To be fair George Lucas himself says From the very beginning through Obi-Wan that the force is “created by all living things” but I always believed that the force can only be wielded by a handful of people. If anyone can use the force why is no one using it, a fact Sabine herself mentioned in this very show. Ahsoka’s only response is “Talent is a factor”. I’m sorry to say this, but talent is not an excuse. In a galaxy of trillions, why were there only 10.000 Jedi in the order, that’s not even a .01% of the Galaxy.
This may be a controversial opinion, but I believe that Midiclorians were a great explanation of how the force works in this galaxy. It is a world of science fiction, of course, you are going to have a scientific explanation as to why some beings have a natural affinity with the force while others don’t.
This reminds me of one line Syndrom said in The Incredibles that actually means more than what people at the time thought.
“When everyone’s super, no one will be”
Sabine with the force at this point is so universe-breaking because it makes you ask how so in a galaxy with so many people haven’t used it before. Why don’t we see Stormtroopers and rebels throwing each other around like ragdoles? It’s this writing that has led me to wonder what on earth was happening behind the scenes.
Not everyone has to be a Jedi to be great
Giving Sabine the force doesn’t add to her character, if anything it takes it away. I’m not going to act like Sabine in Rebels was a great character, but she still played a key role that was compelling enough. She earns her status by relying on her wits as well as her weaponry which made Sabine unique to her teammates.
This is why Mandolorians are so different from Jedi as they acquire years of experience through ruthless martial skills combined with advanced tech. Making a Mandalorian like Sabine a Jedi doesn’t work because it strips her of her uniqueness. It’s like giving Sokka water-bending, or Batman with superpowers powers.
Indeed some of the best characters in Star Wars didn’t need the force to be great. We actually relate to characters like Han Solo, Din Dijaren, and even Andor because they didn’t have magical powers. If they did much of their unique charm, charisma, or complexity would be completely thrown away.
Throughout the Star Wars Lore, it’s been established that the force is highly selective with its users. It is not a power that’s just handed to every person because of “talent”.
Dave Filoni Not Above Criticism
With all these mishaps with Sabine, you would almost think this was not the same person who wrote her Rebels, sadly that’s not the case. This show was personally written by Dave Filoni himself the very same person who helped create these characters. All these contradictions make you wonder what was happening behind the scenes.
Dave Filoni may have soul writing credit, but there has to be some meddling from disney executives to satisfy their checklists, Kathleen Kenedy in particular comes to mind. If not then definitely someone in the marketing department wanted to make Sabine more OP than she already is.
Following just the charts has been one of the biggest recurring patterns in recent Star Wars. Most of their projects is almost never allow female leads to go through real trials or tribulations such as losing a fight or suffering any real injury that should scare them for life, unlike the male heroes.
I need to stress that the Star Wars community owes a lot to Dave Filoni his work on Clone Wars that kept Star Wars alive. Other projects under Disney’s tenure such as Rebels and later Mandalorian helped raise a new generation of audiences and helped evolve the franchise. In many ways, This series was the culmination of Dave Filoni’s work as Ahsoka was a character of his creation from the very beginning.
However, All these problems reveal the limits of Dave Filoni as a writer. he likes to come up with random ideas for worldbuilding, but only later does he figure out an Idea for a future season. Ironically this was the same problem with George Lucus whom Dave Filoni proudly says was his mentor.
My point is when you are making a show of this scale with a lot of established lore, you need to have at least a few writers on your team to flesh things out and this was a venture that Filoni himself isn’t always as capable of doing. Whether it’s dialogue, pacing, or characterization there are only so many tasks one person can do alone.
Conclusion and final thoughts
The Ahsoka series is honestly the most conflicting Star Wars project from Disney since The Last Jedi. It had several moments of greatness but kept surrounding itself with “questionable” story choices. If it wasn’t for the rushed ending and Sabine’s sudden force powers I would have ranked a lot higher.
Ahsoka was the character that helped branch out to a new generation of female audiences that unlike Rey connected with audiences in a meaningful way. That said there comes a time when a character has run its course and Ahsoka is one of them. The sad fact is Ahsoka should have died in the events of Rebels, as after her confrontation with Vader she doesn’t have much of a purpose thereafter.
Ahsoka is far from the worst Star Wars series it was not as bad as Boba Fett of Kenobi However it is a show that let down its potential with random tossed-around ideas and trending into territory that threatens to break the lore.
Despite my misgivings, I’m still optimistic about the future of Star Wars. For a while, I feared that overreliance on the animated characters and story going to weigh the franchise down. Now it is coming to the point where all these storylines are coming together in a way that I want to see where it goes. I hope that this storyline can continue and can still be works of art, under the right people.
