Ahsoka - SPOILERS

[Hussar]

I don't see how the text supports that.

Really? She spends her time killing her way to finding Thrawn. Refuses to train Grogu. Very reluctantly trains Sabine.

Everything about her screams damage. No emotions. Keeps everyone at a distance. Refuses to have anything to do with the New Republic and rebuilding.

Repeated lines: evil Jedi talking about her legacy. Her own line about abandoning Anakin.

I’d say there’s considerable support for this interpretation.

 

[Lidgar]

Indeed. Oh, and it occurs to me that she did just have her Gandalf moment. After choosing life and being rescued, she changed into a new outfit that was (mostly) white.

She also seemed happier and more at peace with herself.

My son said the exact same thing when we watched it. Wonder when we get to see the Witch King.

 

[RangerWickett]

Really? She spends her time killing her way to finding Thrawn. Refuses to train Grogu. Very reluctantly trains Sabine.

She killed some people who were hurting innocents. That's the same stuff she did her whole life. Refusing to adopt a kid doesn't mean you're emotionally damaged. We never saw her train Sabine, so we don't know why she started in the first place, or why she stopped (other than maybe that, y'know, Sabine has no Force powers).

Everything about her screams damage. No emotions. Keeps everyone at a distance. Refuses to have anything to do with the New Republic and rebuilding.

The entirety of the prequel trilogy Jedi were emotionally muted too. Again, not wanting to bring along Sabine makes sense if the viewer has only seen this show, and thus thinks Sabine is kinda wimpy and disengaged (unlike the skilled, clever, motivated person she was in Rebels). And we're also shown that the New Republic kinda stinks, so refusing to have anything to do with them doesn't make her damaged, no more than me choosing not to get involved in my own country's politics.

Repeated lines: evil Jedi talking about her legacy. Her own line about abandoning Anakin.

When she was fighting Baylan, he said her legacy was destruction or whatever, but that seemed to have no effect on her emotionally. She was kicking his butt beforehand. She kicked his butt afterward. She only lost the fight because she burned her hand on the orb. She didn't comment on his thesis. Her facial expressions before and after were equally intense. She had no flicker of doubt, no gasp, no raged denial. It seemed like he was just trying to get under her skin and it wasn't working.

I’d say there’s considerable support for this interpretation.

I would totally be excited for a version of Ahsoka where she's showing stress and anxiety. Have her see Sabine get angry at doing badly in her training, and have Ahsoka respond by saying that she needs to suppress her emotions if she wants to be a jedi; and then have Sabine push back and say that when they first met, Ahsoka wasn't this suppressed. She knows it had something to do with when she lost her battle against Vader, but Ahsoka never talked about what happened. And Ahsoka shuts that conversation down, and walks away, and has to calm herself.

And hey, after they fly through the Purgill and land after nearly dying, maybe Sabine and Ahsoka could have a moment of joy at their survival, only for Ahsoka to catch herself, look off, and tell Sabine again not to be emotional. Which could piss Sabine off.

Then hey, you're actually showing Ahsoka struggling. You're giving Rosario Dawson something to work with. You're hinting that she has unresolved issues.

And then you can have Anakin show up and force her to talk about it. She tries to stay emotionally muted, but he keeps assailing her with stressful memories until finally she pushes back. Let her unburden herself of years of resentment toward her old master. Let her yell. Have some drama in this show!

 

[Hussar]

Or, Y’know not lead the audience around by the nose and presume that they can figure things out on their own?



Kinda damned either way. Spell everything out and risk insulting the audience. Tell the story with some subtlety and risk people missing the point.

I guess my question is, if my interpretation is so far off, what’s yours?

 

[Zardnaar]

That was my take as well. It was fun to watch, and I think they did a decent job of "for those in teh know, its the world between worlds, for everyone else....its just a force vision".

I "think" they were focusing on her survivor's guilt and how she was basically a child soldier, then soldier for most of her life, and she wants to be more than that. But I didn't really any get "resolution" either. I guess beating "dark Anakin" was her overcoming her own demons? Yeah was pretty confused there overall.

I will say the scene where she's in the smoke and you see the clone troopers start to run past her was really well done, the transition there was chef's kiss.

I'm familiar with the world between worlds but still not convinced she was there or with Anakin.

Maybe could also be near death experience or a force vision. Idk myself.

 

[Zardnaar]

Nothing the New Republic does makes any sense. They’re utterly incompetent and riddled with Imperial loyalists. It’s really quite sad. But I suppose they have to be that way to justify the sequel trilogy.

They're pushing the NR is incompetent a bit to hard imho. They're turning into a clown show vs incompetent.

All they need really is an incompetent or overly ambitious politician.

 

[pukunui]

Sort of like the real world, post WWII, when so many Nazis were taken in by various countries because their knowledge was deemed more important than their evil.

What else are you going to do with Imperial loyalists? Execute them? At the height of the Empire, billions if not trillions of people would have collaborated in a variety of ways. You can't just get rid of them all.

Sure. I just meant it was sad that the New Republic seems doomed to fail right from the start. They seem utterly incompetent, and there are Imperial loyalists undermining them left, right, and center. It's no wonder they were unable to halt the rise of the First Order.

She killed some people who were hurting innocents. That's the same stuff she did her whole life. Refusing to adopt a kid doesn't mean you're emotionally damaged. We never saw her train Sabine, so we don't know why she started in the first place, or why she stopped (other than maybe that, y'know, Sabine has no Force powers).

I mentioned this upthread, but I think Baylan implied that Sabine had a falling out with Ahsoka because she refused to let Sabine go help defend Mandalore. Sabine feels survivor's guilt because she is alive but her parents and brother are all dead. According to Baylan, she also feels like her presence would have made the difference. That's enough to make a headstrong pupil resentful towards their master.

And then you can have Anakin show up and force her to talk about it. She tries to stay emotionally muted, but he keeps assailing her with stressful memories until finally she pushes back. Let her unburden herself of years of resentment toward her old master. Let her yell. Have some drama in this show!

She did show some emotion as her younger self in the Clone Wars dream sequences. And she seemed joyful after communing with the purrgil.

I'm familiar with the world between worlds but still not convinced she was there or with Anakin.

Maybe could also be near death experience or a force vision. Idk myself.

Yeah, that's what I said upthread. It may not have been the actual World Between Worlds. Just a callback to it via a near death experience.

They're pushing the NR is incompetent a bit to hard imho. They're turning into a clown show vs incompetent.

Exactly! That's what I meant by it's sad. Like, what was the point of all the struggle to defeat the Empire if the result is just a clown show that lasts maybe 30 years before everything falls apart again?

 

[billd91]

Sure. I just meant it was sad that the New Republic seems doomed to fail right from the start. They seem utterly incompetent, and there are Imperial loyalists undermining them left, right, and center. It's no wonder they were unable to halt the rise of the First Order.

Establishing a democratic republican is hard. Probably one of the hardest forms of government to set up and maintain. All you have to do is look at how many have tried and failed or are failing even as we speak and you can see it.

 

[Clint_L]

Establishing a democratic republican is hard. Probably one of the hardest forms of government to set up and maintain. All you have to do is look at how many have tried and failed or are failing even as we speak and you can see it.

This is true, but the even by that standard the New Republic are consistently portrayed as Keystone Cops, always doing whatever dumb thing the writer needs them to do so that our heroes can solve the inevitable mess that follows. "We have intel of an existential threat, but rather than investigate or exercise any caution whatsoever, we are just going to say "nah, not possible," so that our plucky heroes have to go rogue and save us from ourselves." Never seen that cliche used in an action show before!

 

[Stalker0]

This is true, but the even by that standard the New Republic are consistently portrayed as Keystone Cops, always doing whatever dumb thing the writer needs them to do so that our heroes can solve the inevitable mess that follows. "We have intel of an existential threat, but rather than investigate or exercise any caution whatsoever, we are just going to say "nah, not possible," so that our plucky heroes have to go rogue and save us from ourselves." Never seen that cliche used in an action show before!

This is also the issue of "this is space fantasy".

Realistically, its actually quite common for a rebellion -> new government -> failed govt. It happens quite often, the problem is the people you need to fight revolutions are often not that great at governance.

But that's reality, in space fantasy we want our heroes to triumph, to do better than those before them. When our heroic trio defeated the empire we are left with a "happily ever after" feeling. Unfortunately in pushing the story into the next generation they have setup the original heroes to fail to create a new threat. They didn't have to go that route, there were plenty of other ways to "threaten the galaxy" without the New Republic just failing from teh onset....but unfortunately that's what we have.

But yeah it sucks, you want your heroes to win....not to perform deeds that ultimately fail just a generation later.