Yesterday morning, much to my surprise, I discovered that a new trailer for the upcoming Ahsoka series on Disney+ had dropped on YouTube. It was thrilling to watch. My inner monologue went something like this…
“Sabine! Yes! Finally Sabine!”
“Hey, that’s the Phantom!”
“And there’s Hera! And Chopper! “
“Oooo – Thrawn!”
“Wait, is that Ezra?”
“Oh! It’s that droid! That droid who taught the younglings! David Tennant voiced him. What the hell was that droid’s name?”
It occurred to me that my reaction was exactly the sort of thing that has some Star Wars fans concerned. There has been a debate about this in some of the internet’s nerdiest corners lately. Media critics and pundits who like to opine about this stuff have asserted that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni may have made a big mistake.
They argue that pulling so many characters and storylines from the Star Wars animated shows into the Mandalorian is going to confuse and alienate the more casual fans who haven’t watched those shows.
It’s a fair point. If you haven’t watched The Clone Wars and Rebels, you might be puzzled some of the stuff going on in Din Djarin’s corner of the galaxy far far away.
You might not get what’s going on with this Bo-Katan Kryze character.
You might not have fully understood who Ahsoka Tano was when she showed up in season two, or who she was talking about when she demanded to know, “Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?”
You probably did not know the significance of those whale-like creatures Grogu saw flying through hyperspace. You may have thought that was just some random cool-looking blue alien chatting with an X-Wing pilot in a recent episode, when in fact it was one of the best cameos ever.
And of course, there is a very good chance you are a little fuzzy on the importance of this “Darksaber” everyone is making such a big fuss about. I was right there with you on that one. At first, anyway.
The first season of The Mandalorian ends with Moff Gideon carving his way out of a crashed Tie Fighter. He uses a bizarre-looking black-bladed version of a lightsaber that I had never seen before. I assumed this was some new thing created for the show that would be explained in later seasons.
Then I discovered scores of Star Wars fans loosing their damn minds on the internet over the first live action appearance of something they were calling The Darksaber. Apparently, it was an important element of the animated shows.
Up until that point, I had made up my mind that I wasn’t going to bother watching The Clone Wars or Rebels. I’d stick to the new live action Star Wars content and leave it at that. I had a change of heart when I read these reactions to The Darksaber.
Suddenly there was rampant speculation that more elements from the animated shows would be making their way into the Mandalorian. After all, those were Dave Filoni’s babies and he was one of the head honchos on the new series.
I decided it was time for me to man up and watch some cartoons. I’m glad I did.
The Clone Wars starts out a bit slow. It doesn’t really hit its stride until the second season, but once it does, it’s phenomenal. It makes the prequels better by giving them some badly-needed context and character development. Especially for Anakin. It also features some of the best lightsaber fights in all of Star Wars.
The Clone Wars introduces the aforementioned Ahsoka and Bo-Katan. It gives us The Darksaber, along with a ton of Mandalorian history that is very relevant to the current show.
Rebels is a fun story of its own that takes place in the early stages of the rebellion. Before it really was a full-on rebellion. It follows a small cell of resistance fighters and establishes the idea that there are many such cells scattered throughout the galaxy. These would eventually come together to form The Rebel Alliance.
The stories of Ahsoka and Bo-Katan are resumed on this series as well. That pesky Darksaber turns up again too. More Jedi mythology is revealed. More Mandalorian history is made. Those Inquisitors that were such a big part of the Obi-wan series are introduced. We even get some guest appearances by a certain black-clad, lightsaber-wielding, asthmatic cyborg who really hates sand.
In the final episode of Rebels, main good guy – Ezra Bridger – and main bad guy – Grand Admiral Thrawn – get dragged into deep space by a pod of purrgil. (Those are the space whales Grogu was cooing at.) The series ends with Ahsoka going off on a quest to find Ezra, along with another Mandalorian named Sabine Wren.
Ah… Sabine. Can we talk about Sabine for a minute?
I know it’s a little weird for a man my age to express this level of attraction for a cartoon character, but I really dig Sabine Wren. That is one sexy computer-rendered drawing!
Last year, it was announced that Natasha Liu Bordizzo had been hired to play Sabine on the Ahsoka series. I was very excited by this news. Perfect casting if you ask me.
The new trailer gave us our first look at Natasha in the role. She looks stunning, of course. (I would have preferred the classic short haircut, but that’s nitpicking.)
Little was known about the Ahsoka series at that time. The revelation that Sabine would be in it, along with Ahsoka’s mention of Thrawn, led to speculation that it would basically be a continuation of the Rebels storyline. Lucasfilm has pretty much confirmed that at this point.
We’ve known for a while that Thrawn will be the main villain and that Eman Esfandi will be playing Ezra. We got brief glimpses of both characters in the new trailer.
We’ve known for a while that Mary Elizabeth Winstead will be in it, though LucasFilm didn’t say in what role. Many fans have guessed that she will be playing Hera Syndulla, captain of The Ghost. The new trailer has confirmed that guess to be correct. She also looks amazing in the role.
It’s safe to assume that the cool-looking blue alien recently seen chatting with an X-Wing pilot will be part of the action as well.
Which brings me back to the problem – if it even is one – being discussed with great concern by people who somehow make living talking about Star Wars on YouTube. Is it a mistake to have these new live action Disney+ shows draw so much inspiration from the animated series?
Disney has been hyping the Ahsoka series pretty heavily for a couple years now. It seems to be a show with a lot riding on it. But depending on how it’s presented, many – if not most – viewers could find it difficult to follow. Even people who consider themselves pretty big Star Wars fans may have no idea who these characters are or what their story is.
Is this a problem? Has the Favreau/Filoni braintrust shot themselves in the foot like a couple of stormtroopers aiming at an Ewok?
Personally, I don’t care. Those “casual fans” are not my problem. For better or worse, this is what Star Wars is now. It’s an expansive story, being told in an interconnected universe, pulling from many different sources that you may or may not be familiar with. Take it or leave it.
I get how that might be frustrating for some, but for nerds like me who have watched all of the things – this is fucking awesome!
I love that I know Bo-Katan’s back story and the importance of The Darksaber and the complicated history of Mandalore.
I love that Ahsoka Tano endeared herself to me long before she was embodied by Rosario Dawson.
I love knowing that the cool-looking blue alien chatting with the X-Wing pilot was Zeb freaking Orrelios!
I love that I love seeing Natasha Liu Bordizzo play Sabine Wren.
And I love the way I reacted to that Ahsoka trailer. It’s the fun payoff one gets from following this type of franchise. I am grateful to Lucasfilm for making my investment worthwhile.
If it ain’t your cup of blue milk, that’s cool. If you ain’t got time for all these interconnected shows, I totally get that.
But for me… this is the way.
Inside Out 