We are six episodes into the eight episode season of Ahsoka on DisneyPlus and I have thoughts. Minor spoilers ahead.
I've seen a lot of commentators on YouTube wondering if the casual fan who never watched the animated series Star Wars: Rebels can really understand what is going on in Ahsoka. There has been a lot of discussion about the necessity of making the series accessible to the casual Star Wars fans while still exciting the uber-fans. Since I did watch Rebels, I can't speak for those casual fans but I don't think it's hard to figure out what is going on - Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren are trying to find their friend Ezra Bridger who disappeared, along with Grand Admiral Thrawn, at the end of Rebels and has been missing ever since. They want to find and bring Ezra back but they don't want Thrawn to return because he is dangerous. It's a pretty simple premise and, while seeing Rebels adds dimension to the story, I don't think it is difficult to understand. At some point in each episode this premise is more or less said out loud by one character or another.
But at the same time that these uber-fan commenters are so worried about the Ezra Bridger story line, they are all excited by another part of the story that I think is far more problematic for casual fans.
I've been wondering all season why Dave Filoni decided to send Ahsoka and friends (and enemies) to an entirely new galaxy instead of keeping the action in the usual "far, far away" galaxy. In episode six some of the characters arrive in this new galaxy and I was underwhelmed. I saw some online fans saying "this new galaxy is awesome!" and I wondered how they could possibly know. We've seen nothing yet of the new galaxy except for one planet. And while this planet is different from other planets we've seen in Star Wars, it's not that different. It's still just a planet. Why, I wondered, did Filoni feel it was necessary to put it in a brand new galaxy instead of just sticking it in an under-explored part of the existing galaxy?
I can't read Dave Filoni's mind but I have a theory that it relates to the part of the storyline that in my opinion could be a problem for the casual fans.
First, you have to know that while I am a Star Wars fan I am not by any stretch of the imagination an uber-fan. Yes, I've seen all the films (the original trilogy began when I was in high school so that's still my favorite). During 2020 quarantine I got access to DisneyPlus and re-watched the first trilogy (which I'd seen multiple times before) and the prequels which I had only seen (maybe) twice. Then I binged for the first time the two animated series: Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. I went into them thinking they would be cheesy children's cartoons but they turned out to be really well done and I recommend them. I've also seen all the live action TV that has since come out on DisneyPlus and I watched the recent animated Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi. I did not watch Star Wars: Resistance but I don't think that affects my enjoyment of Ahsoka since I think it takes place in a different time period.
So my basic Star Wars knowledge is pretty good. But in terms of the expanded Star Wars universe, I've never read a single book or played any of the games. And I don't intend to ever read the books or play the games. My experience is limited to film/tv. If it wasn't in a film or on a tv show - I don't know about it. I think that makes me similar to the casual fan who may have just seen the movies and maybe the live action TV shows but hasn't watched any of the animated shows.
I really enjoyed Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated series that introduced the character of Ahsoka Tano. It was well done, filled in a lot of detail that made the prequel series make more sense and gave us a great character in Ahsoka. My least favorite part of that series, however, was a storyline that involved the Witches of Dathomir. Witches? In Star Wars? I found it eye-rolling. Especially when they re-animated the dead into, basically, a zombie army. Zombies? In Star Wars? This was not what I expected to happen in the Star Wars Universe. Apparently all of this was justified because they appear in the expanded universe in books and/or games. But I don't read the books or watch the games so I just found that storyline at worst irritating and at best boring. Fortunately they were defeated and I could forget about them.
And now Ahsoka has her own live action series. Which I am very much enjoying. But I was not particularly thrilled when one of the villains identified herself as a surviving Dathomir witch. Unlike the cartoon versions she didn't dress "witchy" and her magik (yes, they do magic with a "k" at the end) seemed mostly to be somewhat Force related. So, I thought, as long as they don't introduce a bunch of "witchy" witches I could handle it.
Of course, now the characters have started to arrive in the new galaxy and on the new planet are three "witches" who dress very "witchy" and act very "witchy" and there is big possibility that before the end of the season we are going to confront zombies.
The uber-fans love this and constantly talk about how great this is and how it relates to the expanded universe. But I don't partake of the expanded universe. I am more like a casual fan who has only seen the movies and maybe the live action TV shows and this is NOT what that casual fan would expect to find in the Star Wars universe. Or at least in the Star Wars galaxy that we are all familiar with.
And maybe that's why Dave Filoni made us all travel to ANOTHER galaxy "far, far away" to encounter them. Because to the casual fan they shouldn't be found in "our" galaxy and if they find a way into "our" galaxy it would be bad. (And for people like me who rolled eyes through that part of The Clone Wars, it explains that the witches I endured in The Clone Wars originally came from another galaxy.) I really hope it doesn't come to zombies again, but I fear it will.
Other than that I've really enjoyed the rest of the series.
