Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Geek Talk & Media
Ahsoka - SPOILERS
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 9105289" data-attributes="member: 7035894"><p>I will never, ever understand this sentiment. Good writing and entertainment are not antithetical. Turn off my brain? Bad writing takes me right out of the story, and my entertainment value plummets. Unless it gets so ridiculous that I start having fun at a meta level, like the last episode of <em>Mandalorian</em>. But at that point, I'm basically watching pro wrestling.</p><p></p><p>Take the opening scene of <em>Ahsoka.</em> The opening of an entire series is super important, and this one took me instantly out of the story:</p><p></p><p>1. A text crawl. Okay, I know, Star Wars, and you could make a case for it with the original movie because there was a lot of narrative heavy lifting needed to plunk the audience <em>in media res</em> like that, but at this point it's just a lazy trope, IMO, so right away instead of being in the story I am kind of rolling my eyes. And, quite frankly, the backstory presented in the text crawl sounded way more interesting than what was in this episode - they should have started by showing us that story! Still, Star Wars gotta Star Wars, so I can let it slide.</p><p></p><p>2. Smart person does something indescribably stupid to set plot in motion. The Republic spaceship commander declaring that he will let the obvious bad guys onboard to "call their bluff" is exactly like the teenager going down alone into the basement in the middle of the slasher movie. Every single person watching knows <em>exactly</em> what is going to happen and is screaming at him to not be such a moron. Consider that: A) he is transporting a high value prisoner that these obviously bad guys somehow know about, so something has to be up; B) they are using old Jedi codes and he knows that Jedi are real and very powerful since he just received a prisoner from Ahsoka; C) what if they just want to get a ship onboard so they can, I dunno, blow it up or something?</p><p></p><p>There is no world in which his decision makes any kind of sense. But no, he goes to confront the very Jedi-looking bad guys (with clearly visible lightsabers) with just six guards, making sure to stand as close as possible for the inevitable impalement. Because putting themselves needlessly in harms way is what a captain does, I guess? Then, after effortlessly disposing of him and the six guards, Bad Jedi Apprentice magically appears on the bridge within literal seconds, because apparently Jedi can now teleport as well (recall that the opening shot established how massive this ship is). And then she does it again because we cut to her with Bad Jedi Master down in the prisoner block, since apparently they now have complete run of the ship. Bad Jedi Master demonstrates a convenient new Jedi power that allows him to magically unlock prisoner cells (this magical unlocking power also conveniently goes away in the next scene when Ahsoka could have used it). Then we get some classic expositing where the villains lay out their plan for the audience and set up the next scene.</p><p></p><p>It's just all so lazy. As an audience member, my takeaway was that the New Republic are led by idiots who deserve to lose (this will be doubled and tripled down on throughout the episode) and that the writers lack even one original idea (seriously, someone tell me one original idea that happened in this entire episode. Just one).</p><p></p><p>Why not have the Bad Jedi stealth their way onto the ship through a good plan and their powerful Jedi abilities, to demonstrate that they are both clever and capable. Then have things go south after they use stolen codes or brute force to bust out the prisoner, so they cut their way to freedom despite facing some truly formidable foes - a competent captain and tough, persistent Republic soldiers. That would tell me that I should take these bad guys seriously, because they went right through some pretty tough opposition, demonstrating both smarts and strength - Ahsoka better look out! And leave me with some mystery - hint about what is happening next, but don't just lay it all out like Dr. Evil giving a powerpoint presentation.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Clint_L, post: 9105289, member: 7035894"] I will never, ever understand this sentiment. Good writing and entertainment are not antithetical. Turn off my brain? Bad writing takes me right out of the story, and my entertainment value plummets. Unless it gets so ridiculous that I start having fun at a meta level, like the last episode of [I]Mandalorian[/I]. But at that point, I'm basically watching pro wrestling. Take the opening scene of [I]Ahsoka.[/I] The opening of an entire series is super important, and this one took me instantly out of the story: 1. A text crawl. Okay, I know, Star Wars, and you could make a case for it with the original movie because there was a lot of narrative heavy lifting needed to plunk the audience [I]in media res[/I] like that, but at this point it's just a lazy trope, IMO, so right away instead of being in the story I am kind of rolling my eyes. And, quite frankly, the backstory presented in the text crawl sounded way more interesting than what was in this episode - they should have started by showing us that story! Still, Star Wars gotta Star Wars, so I can let it slide. 2. Smart person does something indescribably stupid to set plot in motion. The Republic spaceship commander declaring that he will let the obvious bad guys onboard to "call their bluff" is exactly like the teenager going down alone into the basement in the middle of the slasher movie. Every single person watching knows [I]exactly[/I] what is going to happen and is screaming at him to not be such a moron. Consider that: A) he is transporting a high value prisoner that these obviously bad guys somehow know about, so something has to be up; B) they are using old Jedi codes and he knows that Jedi are real and very powerful since he just received a prisoner from Ahsoka; C) what if they just want to get a ship onboard so they can, I dunno, blow it up or something? There is no world in which his decision makes any kind of sense. But no, he goes to confront the very Jedi-looking bad guys (with clearly visible lightsabers) with just six guards, making sure to stand as close as possible for the inevitable impalement. Because putting themselves needlessly in harms way is what a captain does, I guess? Then, after effortlessly disposing of him and the six guards, Bad Jedi Apprentice magically appears on the bridge within literal seconds, because apparently Jedi can now teleport as well (recall that the opening shot established how massive this ship is). And then she does it again because we cut to her with Bad Jedi Master down in the prisoner block, since apparently they now have complete run of the ship. Bad Jedi Master demonstrates a convenient new Jedi power that allows him to magically unlock prisoner cells (this magical unlocking power also conveniently goes away in the next scene when Ahsoka could have used it). Then we get some classic expositing where the villains lay out their plan for the audience and set up the next scene. It's just all so lazy. As an audience member, my takeaway was that the New Republic are led by idiots who deserve to lose (this will be doubled and tripled down on throughout the episode) and that the writers lack even one original idea (seriously, someone tell me one original idea that happened in this entire episode. Just one). Why not have the Bad Jedi stealth their way onto the ship through a good plan and their powerful Jedi abilities, to demonstrate that they are both clever and capable. Then have things go south after they use stolen codes or brute force to bust out the prisoner, so they cut their way to freedom despite facing some truly formidable foes - a competent captain and tough, persistent Republic soldiers. That would tell me that I should take these bad guys seriously, because they went right through some pretty tough opposition, demonstrating both smarts and strength - Ahsoka better look out! And leave me with some mystery - hint about what is happening next, but don't just lay it all out like Dr. Evil giving a powerpoint presentation. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Geek Talk & Media
Ahsoka - SPOILERS
Top