Ahsoka S1E3: Discussion thread

Lots of opinions last week, not all of them good

As in not all positive, or not good takes?

David Tennant is doing sterling work as Huyang. I read that the drone is properly ancient - his tone reminds me of Culture drones at times, and "Ah, so standard operating procedure" was a great line.

I'll limit my snarkiness to gently poking fun at the idea that the humans have to leave the room so the holograms can have a chat.

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Not everyone is enjoying the show. I think after Disney has pumped out so many subpar marvel and Star Wars stuff people are a lot less forgiving than they used to be. But that may be for the best

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- It’s also hard to judge right now.
  
  I’m not enjoying Ahsoka as much as I’d like to, but I can’t make a great judgement call just yet. What we’ve seen may play really well into the last episodes, and I may really love this show. It’s too early to tell.
  
  I didn’t like Andor all that much for the first 5 episodes, but in Episode 6, I felt like the it all had been working up to a great episode. I would judge the first 5 episodes differently after watching episode 6.
  
  Are these episodes great? I’m enjoying them, but I may enjoy them way more depending on how the last half of the season goes.
  
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I didn't click the similarity to Culture Drones attitude until you just said it, well spotted.

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I can always do with more Mon Mothma, but I thought it was odd that it makes her visual appearance inconsistent with RotJ. She’s reverted back to her pre-OT hairdo (and seemingly hair color) and went from looking like Genevieve O’Reilly (RotS, Rogue One, Andor) to looking like Caroline Blakiston (RotJ) to later going back to looking like O’Reilly in Ahsoka. I recognize the limitations of live action story-telling and the use of actors’ likenesses, but to have consistency in-universe there seems to be three options:

Either:

All depictions of Mon Mothma that take place during or around RotJ are animated instead of live action
All live action depictions of Mon Mothma that take place during or around RotJ have Caroline Blakiston’s likeness digitally added onto the actress stand-in (à la Peter Cushing’s likeness for Tarkin in Rogue One or Mark Hamill’s likeness in The Mandalorian/BoBF)
Blakiston’s appearance in RotJ is canonically replaced with a new performance by O’Reilly (à la The Emperor in TESB Special Edition or Anakin’s Ghost in RotJ Special Edition)

None of these options would be easy for me to swallow, but I’d like to know your thoughts on this matter. Am I just overthinking and fretting about nothing? Do you think Genevieve O’Reilly was briefed about when the Ahsoka series takes place?

Edit: Come to think of it, there is precedent in live-action for what happens when a character is first portrayed by an Actor A and, by necessity, later portrayed by an Actor B in scenes which take place each before and after Actor A’s scenes (sort of). In TESB Special Edition, Boba Fett’s voice was redubbed by Temuera Morrison for the sake of continuity with Morrison’s portrayal of Jango and his clones which incidentally also yields continuity with Morrison as Boba in The Mandalorian & BoBF. The semblance of original (voice) actor, Jason Wingreen, was removed from canon.

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I don't think continuity in actors is anywhere near as absolutely critical as you seem to think it is. It was a neat touch that they dubbed in the digital appearance of Mark Hamill / Carrie Fisher / Peter Cushing, but I don't think that means they need to do it every time - I see that as more akin to an Easter egg. When they've done this, it's mostly for characters with small cameo roles, like Luke showing up in The Mandalorian. And I certainly wouldn't approve of yet more retrospective tinkering with the OT - that time has passed.

I think most fans' immersion can cope just fine with Genevieve O'Reilly, who we're plenty accustomed to playing Mon Mothma, continuing to be her visual appearance in post-OT media. The same way we cope just fine with Vader with mask off in RotJ looking like Sebastian Shaw, and not a digitally-aged Hayden Christensen.

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- Yeah, the visual continuity is something that I can look past in this case. It would be a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have. Retaining the actor also isn’t relevant for cases where a transformative event or an extended period of aging has occurred (ex. unmasked Vader in RotJ, Anakin growing up between TPM and AotC, Obi-Wan between Kenobi and ANH, Boba from AotC to The Mandalorian)
  
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That hairstyle was just a phase. Maybe the rebellion didn’t have the best hair stylists.

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- Lmao yeah she couldn't get to her usual stylist when she was with the rebellion. Rest assured they were waiting for her when the empire fell.
  
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For me, this raises a lot of questions. Sabine is force sensitive now? Does this mean anyone could be a Jedi? Why are there so many humans in this galaxy? How was it so easy to set up the republic after the fall of the Empire? There's a story here but I'm not sure if this is telling the right one with right crew. This isn't bad, it just feels like missed potential.

But nice to see Mom Mothma in another series.

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What Ahsoka said -- the Force resides in all living beings -- is more akin to Empire Strikes Back Yoda's statements. Some people naturally have more ability to access it than others.

The implication of what Huyang says is that no one would have bothered taking Sabine to the Jedi Temple to begin training. She has minimal natural ability with the Force. Ahsoka, in a way, is working with what she has.

Perhaps it was because Sabine inherited Ezra's saber, so that's why Ahsoka began her training. She has a light saber, may as well teach her how to use it properly.

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- She had partial Saber training from Kanan when she held the Dark Sabre remember.
  
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I think it's been made pretty clear between Andor and Ashoka that the Old Republic, the Empire, and the New Republic are all essentially the same bureaucracy at their cores, just with different leadership and priorities at the top.

It's really showing the banality of evil...people continue to do their jobs and following orders of whoever the current bosses are. By and large, they can't directly see whether their own actions are used for good or evil, the paperwork must continue to flow regardless.

That's why there isn't a ton of chaos when one galactic government supplants the next. Setting up an all-new galaxy-spanning bureaucracy is extremely hard, why not just do some loyalty oaths and let the existing machinery keep on chugging along.

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- Even then, to Joe in a job, what is the effect of a galactic government change? It's got to trickle through sector, to regional, to planetary, to sub-planetary, to local governments.
  
  Perhaps some edicts would come into effect quickly, but even then we've seen the wide range of policies throughout the galaxy already; on things like slavery and narcotics.
  
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- the ~~spice~~ paperwork must ~~continue to~~ flow
  
  Yes, let the paperwork flow through you, feel it's power
  
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Yeah. The force is in everyone. Some are just better at it than others. And some put in more effort into honing their skills because they were adopted by the Jedi Order.

Is Sabine force sensitive? Not very. Can she wield the force and become a Jedi? Yes, but it’ll be harder for her than others.

Was Chirrut force sensitive? Not very, but he could sense some people around him and the force would guide his fighting.

Was Finn force sensitive? Yes, but we’ll have to wait and see how much. Hopefully lots and we get to see Jedi Knight Finn.

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