I live blogged episode 3 of Ahsoka.

In which I am afraid despite my best of intentions I ranted a little bit. I am trying very hard to reserve judgement as I love these characters so much. My beloved Ghost crew! But there are things that are bugging me. I try and balance it with what made me laugh and what I loved because at the end of the day I do love Star Wars, probably why it infuriates me so much sometimes. I am invested and I want it to be amazing and I guess I don’t always vibe with choices that were made.

And I am very not vibing. I believe my exact expression was that I’m going to die mad about it. Reminds me of that Knives Out meme people did for Picard season 3 of “it makes no sense!” and then the movie quote followed with “compels me though” and for Picard season 3 it got changed to “and absolutely does not compel me” because well yeah. And I am feeling that a bit. Not to the same extent by any means. I am still feeling much more positive about Ahsoka show – at the moment at least. There is still plenty of time to disappoint me further.

So yes. My liveblog!

What even is this “Sabine is a padawan” plot? Searching for logic, can not find. I hate it, I really do. Sabine is a Mandalorian and that is enough, being herself is enough. The whole “your skill with a weapon comes from being Mandalorian and that isn’t enough” (aka tap into the force and be a Jedi) is just insulting. is it true that Jedi win against Mandalorians? Yeah. But Jedi power and skill can’t win everything either. I really thought that part of Rebels, and the Clone Wars to be honest, was showing that different warriors were stronger together. That there will be fights where they need each other, as one has strengths to compensate for the others weaknesses and vice versa.

Kanan said Sabine was very closed off to the force. Yes the force flows through all living things but for most they can’t touch it. If Sabine had that potential Kanan would have known and yes I am repeating this point because I am going to die mad about it. Why can’t they spar together as Jedi vs Mandalorian? Why can’t Sabine partner with Ahsoka on this mission without all the Padawan bullshit? If they do desperately wanted to show Ahsoka as a mentor then hello they do have a force sensitive/potential future Jedi around – Jacen Syndulla. I had hoped Ezra would come back to train him but if Ahsoka started him off that would have been cool too.

Just what is the point of trying to make Sabine a Jedi? And why is it taking up so much screentime? I’m crying. I just really don’t get why Ahsoka is pushing Sabine to use the force if she can’t. I know from the trailer Shin Hati says “you have no power”. I initially took so much comfort from that as I assumed the photos of Sabine with the lightsaber didn’t mean she was turned into a Jedi /sigh. But if Sabine really doesn’t have the force then really what is this Jedi bullshit? Jedi are not just lightsabers, the force is a whole thing. If she doesn’t have it then she can never be a Jedi!

The way Mon Mothma stayed silent and looked so uncomfortable during that confrontation. I get she has to juggle politics, and also Hera really did point out the ugly truth everyone was ignoring, but ugh. Reminds me of the Mandalorian episode where that rich guy was “empire? Republic? What’s the difference?” as he was in power no matter what. Also the whole head in the sand “we don’t want war”, like nobody does and sure people are tired but ignoring unpleasant reality just allows the bad guys to get ahead. The time to prepare is before it really gets bad. Very Neville Chamberlain of them. I wish Mon Mothma had spoken up, at least said something. It feels like she’s had to make too many compromises to be Chancellor and is a toothless tiger. I can’t help but think Bail Organa would have done better. He too would have stayed silent but it would have been a considered silence, and when he spoke there would have been conviction and it would have been persuasive not a milquetoast “we have to confer” aka they are going to walk all over me. But then as strong as Mon Mothma was, she was always hesitant. Her whole thing was “it’s too soon to unite, too soon to launch an offensive, I shouldn’t have acted/spoken” etc. and in Rogue One she was all “let’s wait”. Somebody else always has to force the issue.

Jacen!!!!! OMG yay. Gasps ahhhhhh he has green hair! So why is the Lego minifig wrong?!? That’s annoying. It’s darker green than Hera’s colouring sadly but it’s still green!! And he has a version of Kanan’s shoulder pauldron, and he wants to be a Jedi!!! THEN WHY IS SABINE DOING THE JEDI THING?!?!! Seriously so mad! I just don’t understand why Ahsoka even agreed to train Sabine as a padawan in the first place. It makes no sense. Like spar sure. Kanan trained Sabine for the darksaber a bit. Learning a weapon is not the same as a padawan/Jedi.

“I don’t need Sabine to be a Jedi. I need her to be herself” – then why are you pushing Jedi training?!?! 😭😭 seriously I am so mad about it. The funniest thing though when Sabine was trying to summon that cup and it didn’t move – I have done that! Seriously I do that all the time. Hold out my hand, will whatever to fly into it and of course it never so much as twitches. So in that I can relate, hilariously.

The space battle was fun. I am simple sometimes and I love how the ship spins. I would have thought Sabine wouldn’t have been so excited shooting ships down as she was in the gun on the Ghost a lot and TIE Fighters fell to those guns like rain. But hey maybe it’s been a while and adrenaline so it was cool. I laughed that Ahsoka’s space helmet had individual pockets for her montrals/lekku. It was fun her going out to defend the ship. I remember Kanan doing that a couple of times. Looks like Ahsoka’s suit was New Republic issue. I guess maybe they gave her the ship for Jedi work?

I gasped and screamed. Purrgil!!!! Oh they are definitely in the right place.

“We almost died multiple times” “ah yes standard operating procedure” and they shared smiles and I also laughed. That was a good moment.

Something I noticed today which I hadn’t last week was the theme. It feels similar in tempo/rhythm to the Mandalorian. I guess that makes sense thematically, as it ties in for the “New Republic” era and I think there’s going to be a ‘crossover’ movie eventually.

I am really not sold on this “other Galaxy” business. The unknown regions as they have been known or wild space, would have been enough. Thrawn novels established that hyperspace travel there is difficult. Really does feel like reinventing the wheel.

I am trying so hard to reserve judgement. I know I spent a lot of this liveblog ranting. Sabine as a Jedi IS super bugging me and I hate it. But also however good Sabine’s actress is I really wish this was animated. Hera is growing on me a little but Ahsoka? No I miss animated Ahsoka a lot. The characters being animated weren’t lesser in any way, that’s how I fell in love with them as characters. I couldn’t have had more feelings. Live action is cool but so is animation. Live action is not better. So yeah there’s that old itch of a resentment of “wish it had been animated” to go with my frustration on the story issues. But it’s episode 3 and there’s… how many episodes? Google says 8.

There are 8. That means we have had 3. Oh for the love of… I really really really hate it when shows do this. Star Trek Picard season 3 sucked in oh so many ways which included a structural pacing problem. They spent way too many episodes not really getting into the problem and then suddenly ahhh it was a rush rush jam-pack, no time to properly explain or develop anything, downward whoosh to the end. At 3/8 episodes we are approaching the midpoint but from a storytelling POV we are still in Act 1.

Right ok, reserving judgement. Let’s see the entire story first. These are my beloved Rebels characters. I adore them. Why have we not seen the Ghost yet? There should have been more Chopper. But hey! At least we saw Jacen and he has green hair. The Ghost is definitely something to look forward to seeing. Can we get a Rex cameo? Would love that.