After making her live-action debut as a guest star on the Disney+ hit ‘The Mandalorian,’ fan-favorite former apprentice Ahsoka Tano is at last the star of her own show, which just wrapped its first season. Unfortunately, with an unclear arc and so much else going on, by the time the credits roll on the season finale, she no longer feels like the main character.
Be forewarned - there be spoilers here.
The story picks up a collection of loose ends from both 'The Mandalorian' and 'Star Wars: Rebels.' The remains of the Galactic Empire are plotting to restore their fallen fascist glory by retrieving the legendary tactician Grand Admiral Thrawn, missing in the Unknown Regions since the events of the ‘Rebels’ finale. On the trail of those that wish to return the creepy blue art connoisseur to the frontlines is Ahsoka Tano, played once again by Rosario Dawson.
With help from some old friends making their own live-action debuts - Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) - she’s hot on the trail of a mysterious Nightsister (Diana Lee Inosanto) and her Dark Jedi minions as they seek a map that will lead them to the stranded Thrawn - and with him, the long-missing young hero, Ezra Bridger.
I grew up with ‘The Clone Wars,’ the first Star Wars media to be released once I was old enough to take it in live. And so, like many fans in my generation, its supervising director Dave Filoni quickly ascended as the heir-apparent to the retiring George Lucas’ seat at the head of the franchise. His work on the Jon Favreau-helmed ‘Mandalorian’ yielded mixed results, however, as he adjusted to the world of live-action. Here, with full control over his own show, focused on his most popular creations and a continuation of the plotlines from his animated shows, he faced his biggest task yet. And the greatest indictment of his struggles in the medium stands at this - the show really doesn’t seem to have anything to say about its titular character.
That isn’t to say it isn’t enjoyable. The actors picking up the animated mantles of the Rebels crew are amazing in their parts, including late arrival Eman Esfandi as Ezra, who perfectly captures the spirit of the character. While he’s unmistakably matured in his exile, it’s clear he’s retained his come-what-may, energetic personality, as we all knew he would. When he pops up from an over-sized hermit crab shell, it’s like we’ve never missed a beat.
The original characters are quickly memorable, too. Filoni introduces a Dark Jedi master and apprentice dynamic with Baylan Skoll (the late, great Ray Stevenson with a masterful final role) and Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno). This is a picture of the Force we haven’t seen before, and following their mysterious journey together was one of the most captivating elements of the show - a fallen knight clinging to the vestiges to honor he sacrificed to survive and an apprentice unsure of what side they fall on.
This is all wonderful. The problem, though, is that none of it has anything to do with Ahsoka. This is ostensibly her show, but Filoni and co. never seem to settle on what they want to do with her. Rather, she just happens to be there for the majority of the series, not growing, not driving the plot forward, not really doing anything of note at all. It’s a narrative arc (if you can call it that) as stagnant as Dawson’s performance. (And for that, I don’t blame her. She seems to have been directed towards stoicism, likely to show “maturity with age” but ultimately just shedding the personality that made the character beloved in the first place.)
Even in the much-lauded episode in which Ahsoka is reunited with the spirit of her old master (a returning Hayden Christansen, doing his darndest to wipe out years of derision for his Prequel performance). These scenes are constantly cut away from to show Hera searching for the missing Jedi - a B plot that contributes nothing to anyone’s story, but only seems to serve as filler to cover Filoni not coming up with a justification for the entire vision quest diversion other than “Wouldn’t it be cool?” This should be the pivotal moment in Ahsoka’s personal arc, but we’re left just as unclear about what she needed to learn afterwards as we were before, with her showing little change, save a new costume.
The one throughline Ahsoka’s narrative does follow across the eight episodes is her conflicted feelings about training Sabine as a Jedi. But the reason behind their falling out is kept secret for most of the show. When it's finally revealed, the truth comes not from a reconciling, emotional interaction, but rather a Huyang exposition dump, leading the two to reconnect as Master and Apprentice without ever addressing the issues that tore them apart.
And so - while entertaining and satisfying for longtime fans of Thrawn and the ‘Rebels’ crew, this first season sinks under the same weight that has dragged down most of Filoni’s work on Disney+. His vision for the galaxy is a star-map of bright and thrilling scenes scattered across the timeline, but with only the most faint narrative threads to chart a course from point to point. Without a purpose, without a heart built from the flesh and blood and spirit of characters that feel real and alive, the plea for the viewer to care is a weak one.
I still wish the best for Filoni and the characters I grew up with. But to do them justice - and to bring me back for more seasons - these shows have to realize that it’s not enough to merely flash the things we love across a screen. Fans grow. Our heroes need to, too.
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