Ok so Season 1 of Ahsoka is over. I live rambled over every episode. I tried to find the good more than the bad. Although I definitely ranted a bit. These are characters that I love so much and seeing them again was cool – except when it wasn’t.

In my rambles I pointed out a few times when the dialogue was so on point that I could hear/see it in the animation. But that was pretty much exclusively in the banter department and when it came to major plot relevant times…. /sigh.

The actress that played Sabine was great. I don’t agree with what the story did to her, but I can’t argue with her effort. I even think she maybe studied the animation to get some of Sabine’s blaster combat style?

Thrawn’s real voice gave me chills. It’s a shame in a lot of ways we didn’t get that with Hera. While Hera’s actress did grow on me a bit as the season went on, I still miss animated Hera a lot :/

Ultimately I feel like there are two main points I am circling round.

1) however good Sabine’s actress was – this should still have been animated. I really tried to give live action a shot and yes I went mental seeing the Ghost, and Chopper was well-realised, but I had intense feelings for these characters in the animation. I would have gone feral for an animated season 5 of Rebels.

We only got to see the cockpit of the Ghost as it would have been too expensive to build more sets. If it was in the animation we could have had the entire ship again. Ahsoka could have been voiced as she always has been, which would have helped I think as I was not a fan of her actress’ portrayal. Although I suppose that could be unfair as she could only work with what she was given. C-3PO cameo was cool and all but an animated show could have given us General Leia for real. We could have had Zeb as no concerns about another character with intense make-up/prosthetics.

We could have had actual Kanan flashbacks…

Animation would have been superior.

2) would the writing/story direction have been better in the animated medium? That’s the other point because while there were definite technical/cost limitations which affected direction on the show, there were also obviously choices that were made.

Now this is where I tie myself in knots as just because I didn’t agree with a story direction, doesn’t make it bad. I try and not be judgemental. Sort of more “I didn’t vibe with that” or “that wasn’t meant for me I guess”. I try and be aware that the thing that I disliked, someone else might have loved, and fair play. You do you, I do me, you know?

But still…. I wanted to love this show so badly. I am trying to make myself love it. And there were some awesome moments no doubt. But the plot tying it all together was IMO bad. It leaves me feeling a bit bereft in some ways. What I love has been twisted up and I can’t unsee that. Now don’t get me wrong I have seen far far worse offenders. Ahsoka was Oscar-worthy in comparison to Picard season 3 (which I will rag on for eternity, it was so painful), but the Ahsoka finale has still left me with a feeling of disquiet. Mixed up emotions, instead of joy, and I find that sad.

I really do miss my beloved Rebels crew 🙁