Editorial: Did ‘Ahsoka’ Work Without Knowledge of ‘Star Wars Rebels’?
Editor’s Note: Ahsoka season 1 may have wrapped, but we’re still not over it. This week, we’ll be running a series of articles looking back at the series, with different reviews and recaps from our writing staff, and also looking ahead at the future. We kick off with this article examining whether or not the first season worked without having seen Star Wars: Rebels. Enjoy!
From when it was first announced, Ahsoka was referred to by fans as “Star Wars Rebels season 5″. This was more than justified, as the entire Ghost crew has now appeared in live-action – even the late Kanan Jarrus has been seen via a photo on Hera’s dashboard. Many of the plot points from the season 4 finale of the animated series have been picked up and continued in the latest live-action show. So, the question remains – does Ahsoka work for viewers who haven’t seen its animated forerunner?
I haven’t seen Rebels. I was going to justify that statement but then I realized – I don’t have to. There’s no entry exam for enjoying Star Wars. Even if Ahsoka is the first project you’ve seen; if you enjoyed it, welcome to the fandom. Having said that, I am aware of the events and characters of Star Wars Rebels so I’m not going in totally blind, but I don’t have the same emotional connection to the characters as die-hard fans of the series. In this article, I’m going to run through some of the key moments and characters that link back to Rebels and give my reaction as to whether they still worked for me.
Ahsoka
Lady Tano has been fairly well established by her appearances in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, which gave us the key information we need about her – she was once a Jedi, she can use the Force, her lightsabers to wipe the floor with her enemies, and she is looking for Grand Admiral Thrawn. And if anyone had missed those appearances, Morgan Elsbeth spelled it all out again in a meaningful way in the opening scene.
I am familiar with Ahsoka from The Clone Wars (how good were those flashbacks?!) so I did already know the character fairly well but I have to credit Rosario Dawson with giving the character such a presence that I felt she stood on her own and I never found myself comparing her to the animated version. I do think that coming in cold did give some advantage as I had no real hangups about the Rebels incarnation of her character – for example, her robe being grey and not white in certain scenes didn’t affect me at all.
Hera, Chopper, and Jacen
Hera is fantastic! I’m grateful to this series for introducing me to the character and it has definitely inspired me to look back at her earlier adventures. Hera works really well as a bridge between live-action and Rebels. She brings Ahsoka in after the attack on the Vesper and immediately we know everything we need to know – from her uniform, she’s clearly Rebel Alliance, standing out from the more uniform New Republic officers, she’s a friend of Ahsoka and she’s awesome! Credit to Mary Elizabeth Winstead for her performance too, Hera is just instantly likeable and I didn’t need years of connection to be rooting for her.
While Chopper technically made his live-action debut in Rogue One alongside the Ghost (which looks phenomenal in this series!) it was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. The cantankerous droid had his moment to shine in Part Two; his banter with Hera was hilarious and instantly endeared me to him. While Jacen did appear in the epilogue of Rebels he’s a new character to all of us so it was easy to get on board with his journey. I was pleasantly surprised by how much he appeared in the series, especially his involvement in the search for Ahsoka in Part Five.
Lothal
It wasn’t until it was namedropped that I registered that Lothal was the planet from Rebels. When seeing the open plains and the cityscape I just registered “cool Star Wars planet” and that was enough. I know I’ll get a much richer understanding and context to the world once I’ve watched it suffer under the Empire to now rise and become beautiful once more but I didn’t need any of that connection to understand that this was home for Sabine and an important planet to the characters.
Sabine Wren
Sabine is fantastic! Another character I just connected with instantly – the acting is so strong in this series! From the second we saw her high-speed chase on Lothal, I was rooting for her. She is just an all-round great character. She goes through a great emotional journey and I was rooting for her all the way through. I honestly had to keep reminding myself that she was from that series as I was so focused on her journey in Ahsoka.
I think the choice to make her Ahsoka’s apprentice was a bold one, not only because it raises some great questions about the Force and who is able to wield it, but also because it gives a focus to the relationship that is new to all of us. Ahsoka goes to Sabine, not because they used to be Rebels together but because she is her… padawan?! That’s something new and exciting for all of us and it meant I had a connection to her and their relationship without having to know tons of backstory.
The only flip side is I wish I’d seen her be a bit more Mandalorian, particularly in the earlier episodes where we largely saw her struggling with her lightsaber against Shin. Fans of Rebels have years of memories of her being a badass in Beskar but she didn’t quite feel like the live-action Mandalorians we’ve seen. Yes, she used her gadgets at various points, but I would have liked to see her shred through some enemies the way Din Djarin and Bo-Katan do in The Mandalorian. I think it would have made a stronger juxtaposition between her reliance on her armor and weapons for strength and choosing to be a Jedi even though it’s a struggle for her. But getting to see her use a lightsaber and eventually the Force as she grew in confidence and embraced the Jedi path – that was very, very cool!
The Search for Ezra in Ahsoka
This is the only point where I felt slightly alienated. Ezra’s name was brought up over and over and while I knew of him, I didn’t know him from other stories and so wasn’t as personally invested in getting him back. I kept hoping for the series to give me a bit more context as to why it was so important to get him back, but it didn’t come. I kept finding my mind filling in the blanks from information I’d read but I shouldn’t have to do that while watching an episode. I think some added context – even clarifying that it was Ezra himself who had taken Thrawn out of the galaxy – needing to return a hero who’d saved them all from a great threat, that would have had more impact. Instead, we just know he’s missing and happens to be in the same place as Thrawn.
That said, the series did give us enough context to know about him so I wasn’t completely lost. The series opens on the anniversary of his disappearance, providing a meaningful reason for Sabine to bring out her friend’s hologram and to be especially mindful of him. One thing that’s never in doubt is Ezra’s importance to Sabine and Natasha Liu Bordizzo definitely got me invested in finding Ezra for her sake. Their eventual reunion was a beautiful and poignant moment because of all that had happened in this series alone. Yes, of course there’s a lot more history, but the personal connection we have seen had enough weight in that moment for me.
But sadly, when Ezra himself appeared there just wasn’t enough for me to feel a connection to him. The plot was so focused on the reunion that it didn’t give time to get to know the character himself and I felt a little disconnected from him. To be clear, I don’t dislike Ezra and I think Eman Esfandi is doing a great job, but I’m conscious he’s channeling a character I haven’t gotten to know. I agree with criticisms of Part 7 that there was just too much going on, and my connection to Ezra suffered as a result. If the plot had a little more time to breath we could have spent more time with him, learning how he has been helping the Noti or at least seeing him pal around with the adorable critters a bit more. I really liked how he rejected the lightsaber and fought using only the Force, but again the action was rushed and I didn’t have time to be rooting for him.
The finale did some work to redress the balance, Ezra’s conversation with Huyang was the first time I felt I got to know him as a character in his own right. Having that moment to breathe with just him made the difference and allowed me to invest in and root for him for the rest of the episode. I wouldn’t say too little too late, but that was certainly the job of episodes 6 and 7, not the finale.
Having said all this, the strength of the series is that the quest is being driven by the villains. They are the ones planning the journey – they plot the coordinates, they build the ship and they make the jump. So, the story worked for me overall because I was interested in what all these scheming figures are up to, and if finding Ezra was part of the ride, well great!
The World Between Worlds
I think the World between Worlds was handled in an absolutely fantastic way. There were rumors that it might feature in the series but, with it being one of the most out-there aspects of Star Wars, I was very hesitant about seeing it on-screen and whether it might feel alienating to fans who weren’t familiar with it. I expected the portals to be used to transport Ahsoka across the void between galaxies, with the script having to do some heavy lifting to explain how it all worked.
Instead, none of those elements were used. Visually all the pathways and portals are there for anyone who knows, but that’s not the point. The point is for Ahsoka to reunite with her master and receive her final lesson (check out this article for a great discussion on that topic by our writers). The whole thing worked as a trippy near-death experience and didn’t need any further explanation for the casual viewer. Genius!
Purrgil
The massive space-whales fairly well introduced themselves. We caught a glimpse of them in The Mandalorian Chapter 17, so I was fairly well prepared for their appearance. There were enough name-drops and glimpses of them to prepare for their full appearance in Part Three and Part Five. I echo our writing team in saying that their appearance gave a true sense of wonder that was felt by the characters and certainly by myself as the massive creatures appeared on-screen.
Thrawn
Thrawn! Thrawn! Thrawn! I was chanting along with the creepy Night troopers when the Grand Admiral made his live-action debut! I have to admit; my perspective is slightly different here as I do have a previous attachment to Thrawn, having first encountered him in the Expanded Universe through Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn. Thrawn seemed to have stepped fresh off the pages of Zahn’s writing onto that hangar as he came out. His characterization was spot on, his confidence, his intelligence, his calm, it all felt right and I didn’t need to have heard Lars Mikkelsen’s voice before to immediately connect with him – this is Thrawn!
But even without that connection – what an entrance! The gold-plated Chimaera, the mish-mash Stormtrooper ranks escorting him – it was all different and epic! And that’s where I think this series shines. Yes, it is bringing in a lot of familiar elements, but with each one comes something different that’s new to the entire audience. So yes, he’s classic Thrawn – but he’s no longer on a spotless Star Destroyer with rank-and-file Imperials, we’re all experiencing this for the first time together whether we know the blue-skinned villain or not.
Did Ahsoka work?
Yes! Ahsoka was a thrilling experience that had me hooked. It has definitely inspired me to watch Rebels and I look forward to rewatching the series with a greater connection and understanding of the core cast. But the series never left me grasping in the dark and I was able to enjoy it all without ever feeling I needed to go and spend hours researching on Wookieepedia after an episode.
Going back to my point about Thrawn, it’s the new and different elements that make the series work for all fans. Sure, a lot of the heroes are familiar – but Baylan Skoll, Shin Hati, and the theory-inducing Marrok were new to all of us. Ancient ruins and new galaxies, massive starships, and adorable aliens – we all experienced them fresh. Dave Filoni and the creative team took new and established characters but didn’t go for a drive down memory lane. Instead, we shot at hyperspeed to new territory both literal and thematic and the series has quickly elevated itself to being one of my all-time favorites.
What did you think? Have you watched Star Wars Rebels and if so, how did it work for you? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments – if I don’t reply it’s because I’m busy watching Rebels!
A teacher from Wales in the UK, Aled has loved Star Wars ever since that Star Destroyer flew over his head and blew his mind.
