Ahsoka and the Crimes of Dave Filoni

I had no idea what I was doing and I had no idea who I was dealing with but I knew was a hell of a story so I went into the prison with my tape recorder and I asked him what sort of person could have done these things he insisted that he was innocent I wanted him to tell me who was he diabolical genius deceptive manipulative I considered him a friend and he was a very nice person I felt a connection with him a feeling of wanting to be loved I wanted to know what went through his mind what led up to it our son is the best son in the world he was a very normal active boy he wanted to be successful what are the elements of the crimes why the victims this man on the FBI's 10m Wanted list has been captured in Florida why did you do it it's quite a mystery so he looked at me and grabbed my tape recorder and he twisted in his chair and was cradling it like this and off he went you it's a very unique thing her journey because you know when I started out the character was 14 years old roughly it's a special experience to watch this character grow and it kind of in a lot of ways mirrors my own growth as a filmmaker and my ability to tell stories you know it's uh when I started I had so much to learn I still look back and can't believe sometimes that George you know stuck it out with me he must have thought this guy he really has got a long way to go leaving a person of this type hungry unfulfilled would also leave him with the obviously irrational belief that he that the next time he did it he would be fulfilled and the next time he did it he would be fulfilled or the next time he did it he would be fulfilled [Music] stop me if you've heard this one before a Star Wars creator that has proven themselves capable of producing good stuff in the past is given the opportunity to write and direct their own Project without collaboration with others despite their best intentions they perform this Almighty task in isolation ignoring the cautious words of others as they seize creative control and turn their Vision into a reality the end result is polarizing some love It While others hate it despite having a proven record when it comes to Star Wars their latest hit out fails to reach the heights of the previous work that was brought to the screen with the assistance of other writers directors and editors leaving fans at odds over the latest Endeavor sound familiar it bloody should except this time we're not talking about George Lucas and the prequels we're talking about Dave filon and his obsession leter this will be a difficult one to tackle as many fans hold the character of Ahsoka close to their hearts and see any criticism of felon's work as an assault on the house of Star Wars itself if you're not with me then you're my enemy and I also cannot yet tell whether aoker is objectively bad as Kenobi in the book of Boba Fett or because she's not a Legacy character that I feel protective of I merely did not react as negatively to the show's subpar quality as I have with previous outings look around you shut your [ __ ] face or Worse perhaps Star Wars apathy has finally overcome me in its entirety then my Star Wars is truly dead to caveat before I begin my criticism of Ahsoka and folks start dropping depth charges into my sheltered Harbor stating that I didn't like the show because I wasn't a fan of the Clone Wars or Rebels what an accusation I am gone I will send you my bill I was indeed a fan so when I saw the Ahsoka series and the characters I had grown fond of in animation in live action delivering dialogue with all the range and accuracy of a Disney plus scout trooper you disappoint me I had hope for this show a Fool's hope perhaps but still hope that no longer has any meaning for me but after watching this shallow series of old Flash and nose substance that came from a long line of better storytelling I imagine I'm not alone in that assessment possibly although there do seem to be plenty of people happy to Splash around in those surface level shallows and enjoy the pretty colors reflected in the water and if that's you you are not just a coward you are a traitor as Disney is using your acceptance of subpar content as an excuse to keep pedaling out low tier Nostalgia bait easy you deserve better and I'm not afraid to criticize the mighty Mouse's Empire then you will die braver than most however rather than feeling let down by what should have been one of the best Disney plus Star Wars War shows to date and spiraling into a Last Jedi like depression I encourage you to join me on a deep dive on why I believe the Ahsoka series was a wasted opportunity and has continued to perpetuate the problems of Disney Star Wars being plagiarism fan service flashover substance and poor craftsmanship when it comes to Direction and storytelling that said this trip Into the Depths will cover more than just the Ahsoka series itself we'll also take a closer look at Dave filon namely his relationship with George Lucas and his contributions to Star Wars thus far the uncomfortable Trend that's become part of the DNA of all Star Wars produced by Disney almost everything that I've sort of circled a few times on this channel without overtly stating and something that I'm very passionate about what could have been [Music] so it would be next to impossible to critique Ahsoka without talking about Dave filon a man who if not directly responsible for ahsoka's Inception certainly became her surrogate father as the Clone Wars and Rebels progressed it's impossible no I am your father and his creative decisions with Ahsoka need to be given critical context if I am to critique them effectively love hate or indifference to the man he is the Star Wars Protege to George lcas a creative director at Lucas film and currently has a forc choke hold on the franchise harder daddy a quick YouTube search will Herald him as the savior of Star Wars or as a black hat wearing fraud take that ridiculous thing off but what is the truth of it are we dealing with a man who is is truly The Apprentice of George Lucas George has this hopeful story and it's something that he's reiterated most times I've seen him uh you know after we've been making things uh without him is remember to make these stories hopeful remember to give that to kids because they really need it and so that's that's just something to keep in mind who understands Star Wars more deeply than anybody else and is thinking with a Galaxy brain from far far away or a copycat artist using his ties to Lucas as a shield against criticism and who's actually a half-witted scruffy looking Nerf hurter well to answer that I guess we need to go back to when he first got involved with Star Wars contrary to popular belief Star Wars the Clone Wars not to be confused with Star Wars Clone Wars is not the brainchild of Dave filoni in isolation what do you mean in fact Dave's writing credits for the series are few and far between not taking the helm and writing alone until season 7 this is aler which is actually after his writing credits on Rebels noting That season 7 of the Clone Wars came much later prior to this Dave was assisted by other various co-writers as well as a swab of others not to mention that Lucas was ringside for the whole process and the series was his idea the maker Dave's primary role was director guiding the creatives to the end goal were under the tutorage of George Lucas ultimately meaning that the Clone Wars was a collaboration of talent rather than a singular Creative Vision we're all making the same story but what's the best that everybody has to offer in that and don't be threatened by that it's not your idea it's all of our idea it's all one whole story that's what we're making and the only way that I fail as a director and the only way that the crew will fail is if I haven't clearly explained what the story is why we're telling this why you're performing it so as an actor any question you have I should be able to answer I should be able to get you directed back to why are we telling the story you have to have the answers you have to know if you don't know the answer if you don't know what the story is about then you should not be at the helm you know you just it it just can't happen now please remember this as it will be important later PE of for your lack of vision while working on the series Dave as a director and writer was held to account by George Lucas and leand Chi the Lucas film's continuity database manager or more affectionately known as The Keeper of the holocron for the Lucas film story Group which in this Harbor we call a law Guardian under close supervision from these two gentlemen Dave's creative direction for the Clone Wars went to some wacky and interesting places forging the new television tier of Lucas film Cannon while George Cherry Picked at the elements from continuation and secondary Cannon to baptize the new television Cannon when and where appropriate oh [ __ ] I can see I've lost some of you with those references to Canon teers I'll drop a link below elaborating on the teas of Cannon if you're unfamiliar with the concept and you can check that out later should be easy to find even for those droids in your Ark actually before I continue this is an appropriate segue to discuss one of the major issues a lot of people have with Dave felon's approach to riding Star Wars but I'm a big advocate of letting people's words speak for them so the chair recognizes Dave fony of lucasfilm for me when I'm telling those stories I don't I don't limit things I did in animation so I would do it distinctly different in live action there's just the story that it is it's it's a funny thing having been here a while and actually telling Star Wars stories um I'm in like a very odd unique position position which is that there's this notion that everything changed and when everything became Legends and I can see why people think that but you know having worked with George I can tell you that it was always very clear and he made it very clear that the films and the TV shows were the only thing that he considered Canon that was it so everything else was a world of fun ideas exciting characters great possibilities but the EU was created to explore all those things and I know and I fully respect people's opinion about it that some of the material said the next Canon part of it okay but like from the film making world that I was brought into the TV series the films were it they were set in Stones we both firmly believe that we should really not answer directly a lot of the questions about mortise have answers to those questions for sure but if I answer directly what something is I feel that I'll be robbing you of the purpose of that Ark which is to make you wonder it's to make you challenge certain ideas to ask questions some fun things I put wolves on plun clones helmets cuz I like wolves I'm a big supporter of wolves and their natural habitat and their conservation I don't know how real it actually is I don't want to Define that for people anyway that's what it's about but it it's not my intention that it be this ability to walk through into somebody else's world we have to keep being dedicated to being original and creative and sometimes we take chances and sometimes we do weird things like crepe bendu or you know mysterious wolves and but I think as long as you work off the principles of the force that George set up that it doesn't change it and you don't erode what makes Star Wars special now if I was being cynical I would say this can be translated to I'm a lazy writer who hates doing research on work that's not my own I don't like answering plot holes and I like putting stuff in there that I think is cool regardless to whether it has a reason to be there or not or even make sense which is fine when it's your own creation no one was going to tell George Lucas that the prequels weren't lining up with the references to the Clone Wars from Timothy xan's thrawn Trilogy or the origins of Boba Fett not aligning to the comic book as an example not that it would have mattered to George anyway there is no episode s because in his own words and I quote there's no story past episode 6 there's just no story it's a certain story about Anakin Skywalker and once Anakin Skywalker dies that's kind of the end of the story there's no story about Luke I mean apart from the books but there's three worlds there's my world that I made up there's the licensing world that's the books the comics all that kind of stuff the games which is their world and then there's the fans World which is also very rich in imagination but they don't always mesh all I'm in charge of is my world I can't be in charge of those other people's worlds because I can't keep up with it so if George wants to rewrite the history that is his prerogative after all it is his world however when others are writing for a world that is already established particularly by someone else they are required to operate within the constraints and limitations of that law it's a same that I can make up but once I make up a rule then I have to live with it such the world according to Jord um well I mean one of the rules is that there sound in [Music] space where is where is the inter this is what separates Canon from fanfiction this should be part of the joy for writing for a franchise the tools are already in the toolbox now you just have to make sure you use them in accordance with the instructions although history shows that Lucas and Dave did not always see eye to eye on the story threads of Star Wars flon surviving in space this was a hotly debated thing with my master George you he's like what's that about how can he survive in space you know to me it makes a lot of sense he's an alien I don't know what he can and can't do it's not defined if we say he can go out into space then he can go out into space George always made fun of us because he said I made six films without having anybody fight in space and I said yeah but Grievous got sucked out into the space and then walked on the top of the cruiser George is like but he's a robot I like no he's not he's Cyborg and you know it's fun to argue with George about those things he he gets into it and it's particularly relevant when it comes to the character of Darth Maul but we'll touch on that shortly that said Dave is an animator whom had previously worked on avatar The Last Airbender did have an eye for the kind of stories and style that would meld well within animation while there are elements of the Clone Wars that would likely only work in the medium of cartoon animation his overall direction of the series was seen by most parties as a win even if he did Nerf the original General Grievous from tartakovsky's Clone [Music] Wars Jedi scum despite changes like this several of the plot arcs directed by Dave filon have grown to be well loved across the Star Wars fandom chef's kiss although credit where credits due the writer of this particular Arc was Chris Collins who is no stranger to writing kickass television the clone wars were Dave's formative years working on Star Wars and much like a little Ty learning to ride a bicycle the The Guiding hands of Lucas and Chi were never far away in the event that Dave or other writers strayed too far away from the Star Wars DNA oh God which would begin to occur with more frequency as the series progressed and retroactively one can see Dave's weakness in that regard as early as the Clone Wars we had a really interesting situation where a so could cross his swords with General Grievous George very specifically said that she's a Padawan she wouldn't be afraid of Grievous I remember that she is very Adept she's very quick her size is an advantage there's one set for stun that doesn't mean she could stand doesn't mean that she would beat him but she's been trained for these situations to fight however this is just the beginning and there is more Fon flare to come much like Obi-Wan losing Quon before he was ready Dave was about to enter into a world without the guarding force of George Lucas would he sink or swim well given that we're on a bit of a deep dive I'm sure you can extrapolate his fate is uncertain he's not dangerous after George Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney in 2012 the Clone Wars was cancelled in favor of the Disney branded Rebels despite its predecessor remaining part of the new Disney Cannon if you're going to steal my parts and then sell them back to me could you at least clean them first as a courtesy this time not created by George Lucas but Dave would create the series alongside Simon kenberg and Carrie Beck kenberg being a producer on Rogue one and also one of the original writers identified for the sequel Trilogy of note Dave would not be the only creative director on the series working this time alongside several others as well as writing 13 of the 70 plus episodes himself however despite the show having some of the best scenes in animated Star Wars at least in the opinion of this jellyfish Rebels began to really War warp the Star Wars DNA to forms well outside what George Lucas had originally envisioned sacred Jed I tax that's not to say that Dave and the other writers on Rebels were totally off the reservation at this point as Le linchi was still The Keeper of the law but for the first time in Star Wars cannon and when I say Cannon I mean stuff that sits flush alongside the original six films work was being created without George Lucas's input meaning that Dave whom had worked alongside Lucas during the creation of the Clone Wars now had the last Authority on Lucas's vision for Star Wars but working jellyfish are here you say Dave filon is The Apprentice to George Lucas surely he knows best about how the story should continue to move forward um actually it's our job to correct you like that we don't appreciate being sidelined pseudo intellectual tuner why are you still here we have nowhere else to go I disagree and I draw your attention to the continuation of Darth Maul story from the Star Wars archives episodes 1:3 1999 to 2005 George Lucas states that Darth Maul would have been the main antagonist of the sequel Trilogy this isn't news to most people but allow me to make my point in Georgia sequel Trilogy Darth Mo would have been the Kingpin of the Galaxy with Darth Talon at his side as The Apprentice to the master surely you would have kept that door open if you had the ability to do so despite Disney sequel Trilogy going in a completely different direction you got a lot of guts coming here after what you pulled I don't believe Dave had any vested interest in continuing Darth Maul's story from the initial reluctance he showed when George said that he wanted to revive Darth Maul that's an interesting twist and it's only something that George could make happen you know he's sitting in the writer room saying we're going to do this and all of us saying that's going to be a challenge because you cut him in half you know that's the biggest thing for me is I can specifically remember being in the theater during Phantom M and watching Darth Maul fall down that tube and watching him fall split apart and I literally thought hahaa that's so no one can bring him back to life and but seriously I thought with Maul it's definitive he got cut in half oh yeah he's dead right and then here I am all these years later and I'm the guy right you're the guy that's resurrecting him that's got to do this and I'm like oh how you know how do you draw these things to the climax of The Clone Wars where evidently he wanted to have Ahsoka kill Maul let me go let me die to finally Rebels where without George he had enough creative control to end M's story once and for [Music] all as much as I site this scene as a brilliant piece of Star Wars animation it does not align with George's Creative Vision I know that George's ideas for the sequel Trilogy would have been a story treatment at best and would have continued to evolve over time but surely as his Apprentice you would have championed that Vision which is why I believe Dave doesn't deserve some of the credit that he gets in terms of being George's apprentice and I think he self-identified that as well because I'm I knew George I worked with him and none of us are going to be him right but we love the Galaxy he created and we are very much a product of it growing up with it so you know we'll we'll we'll see where that what path that takes me down we all bring a little bit of to Star Wars of what we like and we hope it fits into that Galaxy George he created this galaxy he created these Dynamics Jedi Sith all these things I play with and I've been fortunate that he taught me a lot of things I am always doing my best to follow what he taught and my nature comes into it so you get space whales and wolves you know that's all part of it dive clearly has his own agenda with the stories that he wants to tell and there's nothing wrong with that but not criticizing any of Dave's work merely because he was under the wing of George Lucas is foolish but despite the work continuing in the absence of the maker Rebels was mostly well received by the fandom the animation nayay is accepted of course so why is Rebels so important to the subject of Ahsoka while in a very real sense the Ahsoka series is the continuation of Rebel season 4 which laid the ground work for some of the more contentious parts of the series including the portrayal of grand Admiral thrawn the world Between Worlds and the relationship between Ahsoka Sabine and Ezra whom I'm going to call space Aladdin A Street rat R rat Street rat R very funny all Dave's creative decisions on the Ahsoka series come from a place of singular confidence that he has garnered from working with George Lucas that was tested alongside other creatives while working on Rebels and is now manifest in live action but is that confidence and Faith from the fandom actually deserved as I've highlighted Dave's work on the Clone Wars and even Rebels was heavily assisted by others in terms of writing and editing so let's take a look at what happens when the alleged Apprentice of George Lucas who doesn't believe in the value of the Star Wars EU storytelling likes to ask big questions and not provide answers is given creative control of their own show where they don't have the safety net of George Lucas and other writers to assist them as we ask two very important questions one is Dave filon The Apprentice to Shepherd Star Wars Ford he is the chosen one you must see it and two is the Ahsoka series the fine addition to the Star Wars Canon going to be messy we I [Music] watching before we go any further I want to remind everyone what my personal metric is for new Star Wars enjoyment and acceptance it needs to be consistent with the works created by George Lucas and in this case that includes the Clone Wars it needs to enhance the story in Mythos without causing confusion or rting from it and it can't cause irreparable damage to the Lauren characters I don't want to freak anybody out here but I think we just made a Star Wars movie be with him unfortunately for filon the Ahsoka Series has a number of problems not limited to the usual Disney Star Wars crimes of plagiarism fan service and poor Direction Andor action although credit where credit is due the production value seems to have improved from the Kenobi series not that that's really an achievement I'm not going to do a scene by scene breakdown by pointing out all the show's issues but I will point out some key factors that are very much Dave's motus operandi which will in theory link him to this particular crime [Music] scene immediately and arguably most pressingly the Ahsoka Series has a problem with accessibility not just for casual fans but even for long-term fans of the Animated Series allow me to explain the first crab off the bank is the character of Ahsoka where is Ahsoka yeah I'll do you one better who's Ahsoka I'll do you one better why is let F if you're a casual Star Wars fan then you've probably seen the mainline films but there's no guarantee that you've seen the Clone Wars or Rebels so assuming you've watched all of the other Disney Plus shows un likely your exposure to Ahsoka will be limited at best so if by some miracle a normie that hasn't done the required previewing of Clone Wars and Rebels but has watched the Mandalorian or the book of Boba Fett and seen aoka enjoyed her episode slos enough to click on a show about her it's important to establish her character for the new audience frame the story in the stakes and give the audience a reason to care about it otherwise the show is exclusively for the target audience of fans who watched clone wars and Rebels which is fine if that is in fact the goal but will greatly limit your potential audience I'm not a gambling jellyfish but the who Factor alone is probably why ahsoka's viewing numbers at least the ones that were released to the public were less than that of the book of Boba Fett and had a massive drop off between opening and finale this time around Disney wasn't dealing with a much loved Lucas Legacy character and while Ahsoka is popular amongst elements of the fandom she evidently doesn't carry the same Star Wars star power as the pop culture Legends of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker a fact that is actually reflected in episode 5 of the series but we'll touch on that shortly I'm not going to get into a debate over Disney viewership but you can bet your best and Mining operation that if Disney's viewing numbers were good they'd be screaming them from the mountain Toops this says to me that the show failed to capture the new audience's attention either because in the best case scenario it was too exclusive and required a level of story knowledge across different media that most modern viewers aren't willing to invest or at worst because it was just a bad show for XY or lack of Zeb reason so based on that and before continuing I'm going to make the assessment that the Ahsoka series was not meant for the Casual Star Wars fan because if it is this entire dive will be sign posted with the but this scene will only make sense if you've seen clone wars and Rebels are we happy with that I've never been happy the story picks up after Rebel season 4 with nothing so much as a flashback to set the scene for those who aren't familiar with the animated forbear okay that's not strictly true there is an opening crawl and it's in red because Dave likes red you know who else really liked the red Motif raw Untamed power and beyond that Nazi and the opening crawl already sets a huge problem in terms of stakes and grounding for the audience of the show because as for one we don't have a clear understanding of when the show is set in terms of the Mandalorian we saw in the book of Boba Fett we got to check in on his training the two years that we spent away from them as a Hold Up Wait A Minute something ain't right in the time between the end of Rebel season 4 and the start of the Ahsoka series X amount of time has passed and in that time the characters have changed from who they were in the animated show enough time has passed for a failed Jedi training relationship between Ahsoka and Sabine Hera to be promoted to a general and for the new Republic to have Loosely established itself we'll have to take this at face value time has passed stuff has happened and that stuff is going to cause friction between characters for the sake of drama within the story but it's a cheap move like using magic to solve problems but we'll get to that later too particularly when used for the sake of drama as it generates conflicts between characters that do not feel earned it also creates emotional distance from the characters we should care about because we don't have any of the cont for that friction fights and disagreements between characters are only impactful if we have the context of why that fight is important this isn't helped by the Limited context that we do get which is delivered through Exposition dumping telling the audience rather than showing them this was one of Morgan's facilities she supplied raw materials used in the construction of hyperdrive generators for Imperial clat Star Destroyers now we're taking them apart and using the cores to power the new ships in the defense fet to the facilties still employ any of her former staff of course there's no other way to remain operational an Empire doesn't just become a republic over night so you have a bunch of forced fed information for new fans who aren't going to care because they don't have the investment yet and friction between two key characters from the animated series that long-term fans are going to be confused about because they don't have the context for it either way no one wins both Ahsoka and Sabine were relatively happy gol lucky characters in the Animated Series even by the time we met met a sooker and Rebels when she'd matured there was still a sense of fun and personality there but both characters now are if we're being really generous stoic likely because of the events they've experienced during the rebel War which doesn't align to their characters the last time we saw them and at worst boring prickly and unlikable whether this is the fault of the actors or the director is unclear but given that this is a common Trend across all characters in the show with the exception of Balin rest in peace Ray you magnificent man my guesses is the latter but I guess the question is why is the relationship of Master and Apprentice so Central to this story to the point where it's almost being forced between these two characters curious as for the other Rebels as seen here on this non-fan service mural Kanan is dead but that's okay if you haven't watched Rebels because Hera doesn't seem too messed up about it I'm a general well at least she's wearing a uniform unlike the last time an unwelcome senior ranking member strolled into our Star Wars follow my orders no [ __ ] off or I'll kill you with a train Zeb is off cameo in another show because the big dog was likely too time intensive or expensive to animate and Ezra space Aladdin Bridger has been relegated to a captured Disney princess plot device H what a strange coincidence that all the male Rebel characters are either dead Mia or a plot device that doesn't appear until the end end of the season with the exception of Chopper of course o o let's play a game how many iconic male Star Wars characters have now been replaced with female ones Luke Skywalker Kyle Katan Admiral Akbar din Jaren Kanan Jar Binks and now Ezra okay maybe not fully replaced in all instances but at least Disney Lucas film has been consistent in that regard and I can certainly see where the argument comes from when people argue that there's a feministic agenda sweeping across Star Wars don't make me play the fortune clip of Kathleen Kennedy again and I'm sure there's a lot of people that would be surprised that were making Star Wars movies and the majority of the people involved in the development of those stories are women that explains so many things the irony though is that Disney originally purchased Star Wars to appeal to their less demographically served male audience given that they already had a firm hold on the female audience with their Disney Princesses but I digress moving on to the stakes the stakes in the show are meant to be high because the villain of the pieces Throne who is well established in the EU and rebel series he is a very impressive villain vastly intellectual a master of tactics and strategy calculated precise and dashingly debonaire come come show me the smile fans of the EU know the danger this chis poses to the Galaxy should he return and while he suffered a fate similar to that of General Grievous from Clone Wars to the Clone Wars when he made his appearance in Rebels fans of that show too have seen the links thrawn will go to to assure Victory this uh Rebellion ends today we'll never surrender to you Thon you misunderstand Captain I'm not accepting surrenders at this time I want you to know failure utter defeat and that it is I who delivers it crashing down upon you now now let us proceed but if you haven't watched Rebels or are unfamiliar with the EU then this is just another random blue guy that appears without context there is plenty of talk about the threat of thrawn's return in the show but it lacks weight because we are once again being told and not shown remember in A New Hope when we're told about the evil Galactic Empire and their space station and then in the next scene we see them in action then later we see the threat the death St actually poses and then we see the rebel base in the crosshairs with its Pilots racing against a ticking clock to save the day the threat was all contextualized throughout the movie building the stakes as it went in Ahsoka the threat of thrawn is only spoken about and never realized I will give thrawn plenty of time later as I feel his character was grossly mishandled in the series but framing him as this galaxy shaking danger our heroes are determined to prevent from returning Falls flat particularly as the show progresses and we see the character of thrawn as written by filon you an idiot you're calling me an idiot yeah I'm calling you an idiot all the pieces of this puzzle from the protagonists to the villain to the side characters require an in-depth understanding of rebels the Mandalorian and arguably elements of the EU just as an initial buying Ahsoka is another story where you can step in at any point and not feel that you necessarily have to have seen everything [ __ ] but don't have enough Intrigue within the show itself to keep new viewers engaged as for fans of rebels the portrayal of all these parties is so vastly different from the last time we saw them it's hard not to be a little confused about their motivations reactions and goals within the show oh hey Sabine I see you're uh painting stuff oh nothing gets past you kid you know if you ever need a little inspiration we're not really family but you're like a sister to me what what the [ __ ] so in terms of accessibility and investment for both old and new fans the Ahsoka series well and truly missed the mark unless you're only interested in flashy visuals without any storytelling substance in which case this show's got you covered we'll secure the perimeter come on come on let's [Music] go okay let's talk about the massive elephant in the [Music] room the character motivations in this show are about as clear and consistent as a pelican [ __ ] on a car windshield but the main offender is the titular character Ahsoka and her apparent lack of progress at the end of rebels Ahsoka is a completed character depicted as a so of the white which has been subsequently retconned by Dave for the sake of the drama in this series much like gandf she fought her battle against her old master and emerged stronger wiser and clearer and yet Dave has a tendency to alter elements characters and even established law for the sake of a new story a lesson he evidently learned from George Lucas the Crux of ahsoka's change in the series is twofold one to give her character doubts that she did not having Rebels as she attempts to train Sabine despite her never showing any interest in doing so previously and two to reawaken her doubts about her relationship with Anakin to enable the Revenge of fan service you look old I can't actually tell if that's meant to be a meta reference to how Hayden Christensen appeared in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series or whether that's just more of Dave Stellar dialogue writing this is the CL War but I guess that's another point in favor of him being George's Apprentice anyway the last time Ahsoka saw Anakin was here the Sith temple on malachor in Rebel season 2 in this moment she still Harbors loyalty to Anakin and refuses to believe that he has become Darth Vader the shock that it is true almost breaks her she is trapped by her guilt she blames herself for Anakin's fall to the dark side for abandoning him and the Jedi for not being there something that was also more or less retconned by Dave filon in Clone Wars season 7 but she OB ol olves herself of her guilt in this moment I won't leave you not this [Music] time then you will die AA In This Moment her Arc as a student to her master is complete she is no longer bound to Anakin for he is gone consumed by Darth Vader she will now fight what he has become to honor his memory and what a fitting end it would have been for her character too saving Ezra and refusing to kill her old Master believing that she could bring him back from the Dark Side as she fights Vader and is ultimately slain by the most iconic villain in modern Cinema ah that would have added all the more graa task to Anakin's redemption in Return of the Jedi now that truly would have been an enhancement that didn't cause irreparable damage to Lauren character instead because filon doesn't know when to let a good thing die and don't worry we'll be discussing that later we see the first employment of the world Between Worlds a plot device that not even its creator understands or can explain because it's designed for one purpose to enable a SOA at the cost of any logic saving her on malachor and now enabling this scene here I'm here to finish your training it's a little late for that one is never too old to learn Snips So based on what the series has given us up till this point Ahsoka is worried that if she trains Sabine she will fail as her master did and there all be one did and that her Legacy based on one conversation with the enemy is one of death and destruction meaning that if she continues down her already well trodden path she will become just like Anakin despite all the good that she has already done up until this point and the only person that can teach her this lesson is Anakin because she still sees him as her master despite having reconciled this relationship not once but twice and having Anakin's son living proof of Anakin's Redemption alive and available to discuss any of these doubts with apparently not regardless Ahsoka must choose live or die Cake or Death uh cake please well we're out of cake so what do you want well so my choice is all death but the question I have apart from the obvious of why is this even happening is where are we when are we obviously this vision of Anakin Skywalker is Circa Revenge of the Sith and yet he has memories from episode six I won't fight you I've heard that before cool line but is this a flashback is Anakin a force ghost is Ahsoka tripping balls because she's drowning in the ocean somewhere and this is all happening inside that we haven't been provided any answers and the lessons this Apparition is attempting to impart are equally as vague listen I'm teaching you how to lead how to survive and to do that you're going to have have to fight was this not reconciled by the time she assaulted Mandalore she seemed pretty convinced of herself in the Clone Wars season 7 to the point where she understood the sanctity of Life by not killing the Clones that betrayed her so why is that now after all this time out of absolutely nowhere Ahsoka has decided that she doesn't want to fight anymore that she doesn't want to risk becoming a Vader esque villain because prior to this episode prior to this series Ahsoka has never expressed any concern concern that her fight wasn't a just one that it wasn't the right thing to do in fact she continued the fight well after the Clone Wars joining the rebels when she could have faded Into Obscurity as so many others did and she did this not because she was worried about her Legacy but because she believed in the cause and more so that the cause was worth the cost up to and including her own life this scene exists for one reason because Dave wanted an excuse to put liveaction Anakin alongside live action Ahsoka but didn't know how to do it in a way that wasn't totally contrived to milk Clone Wars prequel Nostalgia with a recognizable character but in terms of the story and ahsoka's overall character Arc from previous animated Seasons it feels totally unearned forced um well it it comes up because it's important to the story and so it's not fan service at its Inception Point sorry Dave this is the very definition of fan service it's taking place in an undefined location with undefined rules and an undefined time derived from one conversation with Balin your legacy like your Masters is one of death and destruction her doubts manufactured offscreen with no foreshadowing prior to the series as an excuse to bring back Anakin Skywalker to teach her some lessons that she didn't need to learn shallow superficial flash with no substance it's very pretty Flash and it's great to see Hayden Christensen back acting the parts from both the prequels and the Clone Wars like he never left but without substance literal fan service Hollen as empty as Vader's mask in the force awakens you la conviction actually this line may actually make sense now because if her convictions were that shaken by one conversation with Balin he is either the most charismatic persuasive man in the Galaxy or Ahsoka is acting completely out of character convenient this scene is supposed to be explaining why Ahsoka becomes Ahsoka the white but other than a costume change and a desire from filon to rip off the Lord of the Rings nothing has actually happened to Warrant that change um actually Lucas never explained what the deal was with the force cave on DEA either so we don't always need things explained to us to enjoy them yeah that's a cop out do you know why because when Luke leaves the cave he is as confused as when he entered there's no explanation as to what he fought or why it mattered because he doesn't emerge Dawn a white robe and start communing with space whales while looking down his nose at the one character who is pointing out how stupid all the plot contrivances are it could go anywhere I know that's better than going nowhere not really if you end up crashing into the Sun or equivalent traveling through hypers spacing like Dustin crops boy without precise calculations we'd fly right through a star or bounce too close to a super over that end your trip real quick wouldn't it if a character fundamentally changes who they are as the result of a scene perhaps the needs to be some thought given to explaining how and why that happened not vague pseudo intellectual scripture about non-existent lessons that the character is learning my point is this scene sequence and even episode involved some serious offscreen retooling of story to enable the reverse engineering of character motivations doubts and events and even Logic for no other reason other than to insert Clone Wars Revenge of the Sith vodic why because a soer and sabine's story did not have the legs to stand on its own and if your principal characters don't have the narrative backbone to hold up their own story without manufacturing an excuse to throw out Nostalgia bait then you need to ask if your story is worth telling L you so further Discord with it speaking of since the disappointment of the sequel Trilogy particularly on the front of the villain it's fair to say that the character of thrawn has continued to grow in the collective appreciation of Star Wars fans from his introduction in 93 with heir of the Empire right the way through his appearance in Rebels and the new book Trilogy in 2017 thrawn has remained more or less one of the unallied gems of the Star Wars EU so when he was announced as the likely villain of the Ahsoka series there was plenty of excitement at the premise of seeing Grand Admiral thrawn in live action that said Disney Star Wars has been more Miss than hit when it comes to respectfully portraying Legacy characters in live action and I would argue that the anticipation for thrawn was equal part's excitement as it was trepidation this is a character that has been loved by fans of the EU for over 30 years and had remained reasonably consistent across the different mediums he'd appeared in even in the animated Rebel series thrawn was depicted as a highly capable calculated force to be reckoned with only truly defeated by some of Dave's more outlandish ideas which surely wouldn't appear in a liveaction series uhoh at the time the creators of rebels seemed to be hyper aware of the complexity of utilizing the character without inadvertently disrespecting him I said K Hart and I really like the character and we're thinking of a way to include him from the first season but it had to be special and have its own space and we had to figure out how he would fit in and we don't want to defeat him every week and so how does grand Admiral thrawn look when written by Dave filon well perhaps we should ask our subject matter expert a great tactician creates plans a good tactician recognizes the soundness of a plan presented to him a fair tactician must see the plan succeed before offering approval those with no tactical ability at all may never understand or accept it nor will such people understand or accept the tactician to those without that ability those who possess it are a mystery and when a mind is too deficient in understanding the resulting Gap is often filled with resentment we couldn't have put it better myself the throne in Ahsoka much like the man writing him has no concept of tactics strategy or military acclimate he is but a shadow of thrawn a vision of a king is seen Through The Eyes of a fool who comes across as a parody rather than a serious threat deploy teams 1 and two use counter encirclement tandem one might even call this first match with Tano a success except for one small flaw worse still what is supposed to separate thraw from his contemporaries is his intellect the way he outthinks an opponent anticipates and outmaneuvers let's play another game thrawn has detected an enemy ship hiding in an asteroid belt his mission is to reach the planet below load his Star Destroyer with cargo and leave the system he has limited resources what does he do a send probes into the belt to locate the target for accurate prosecution with turbo laser B deploy mines along the Planet Side exit vectors to delay the enemy vessel C send fighters to flush the enemy out into the open and into a pre-sighted Kill Zone D ask space switches to find the target with Space Magic then deliberately let the target Escape waxing lyrically about learning an important lesson ding ding ding what do we have for her Johnny unfortunately this is just one example of the absolute stupidity of this Grand Admiral whom undoubtedly would been executed for this level of incompetence if working on board the executor you have failed me for the last time M but the more insufferable is how each of the Tactical failings is played as a victory some smaller piece of the puzzle that will accumulate into ultimate Victory an acceptable outcome not really mate given that you had clear air and outnumbered the enemy 10 to1 thrawn is meant to be and is said to be in the show the next big threat to the Galaxy his return will spell War for the new Republic on a scale not seen since the Rebellion if saying it would only make it so and yet with all his resources Intel and Space Magic he is unable to destroy three people stuck inside a slow moving Target when he has air superiority the show isn't exactly selling him as advertised here sh listen can you smell that smells like fony plot armor mind you I guess I shouldn't be surprised perhaps in the land of Disney Star Wars thrawn is the best tactician they've ever seen I mean in this scene he almost hits the targets missed it by that much unacceptable this misstep with thrawn cannot be overstated and to call it wasted potential is a colossal understatement the emperor is not as forgiving as I am grand Admiral Thorn is literally the poster child for the EU and while his character in the show wasn't a assassinated through subversion he is yet another victim of Star Wars malpractice for all the talk about getting him right respecting his character and only bringing him in when appropriate to give us this Dr Evil teer meme of a villain is unforgivable much like Dave's writing thrawn is all talk feigning something more impressive than the disappointing reality another Monument to what Star Wars fans have lost when Disney decanonized the EU hope of seeing one of their favorite characters in a story that was actually worthy of them maybe Star Wars is dead and Dave filon didn't let it die quietly this mindless reanimated corpse of a franchise now stumbles from show to show reaching out with bloodstained hands to smear anything and everything that came before whether EU or George Lucas a scent of wasted potential now poisons the promise of any future projects the decay of Hope lingering in a pit of plagiarized mediocrity huh that's actually a perfect [Music] segue first of all I just want to say that it's super appropriate that we get to see death Troopers in this series no not the cool kind although they were there too I'm talking about these death [Music] Troopers lucky us I feel this is a super meta appropriate analogy for the current state of Star Wars firstly because people that get stabbed in Disney Star Wars with lightsabers can't stay [Music] dead secondly because Disney refuses to let the franchise die despite it slowly hemorrhaging viewers and undoubtedly money with each new installment remember all that rise of Skywalker merchandise guys no neither do I thirdly because despite killing off the EU the folk at Disney are happy to raid the tomb for any potential Treasures left un exploited and now because Dave has chosen to resurrect yet another piece of Clone Wars that George wanted killed off after it had served its purpose as mentioned earlier George Lucas was very keen to bring back Darth Maul but cared less about how that was to be done and more about what he could do with the character upon his return the Knight sisters are the byproduct of M's return despite being part of the EU and inclusions in Lucas Arts games before Lucas baptized them in television Cannon Lucas always had the end game in mind when inserting magic powers into the Star Wars universe that could rival the force sprinkling a little bit of salt on my conjecture before we continue I'm sure Lucas unlike Dave could appreciate the problem of allowing the night sisters to continue existing when it came time for the original trilogy magic is problematic by Nature when it comes to writing and without clear rules it can become a very slippery slope George wasn't about that having rules in place for his galaxy to the point of wishing to explore the wills and midi choran in his proposed sequel Trilogy so I'm sure the existence of non-force using magic types within his core Cannon would have seemed problematic in his eyes but it's no coincidence that George Lucas Co wrote the episode that introduced the Knight sisters alongside his daughter and also the one that took took care of [Music] them because George wanted complete creative control over this problematic story device using them to achieve his ends but then making sure they didn't spread their magic related problems into the cannon under his control but obviously George created Star Wars but all of us had to become in a sense students of Star Wars a real understanding of the history of Star Wars that was really important we needed to understand the rules and once we understood that then we could Branch out once George sold stares to the white slavers that take these things and and uh these plagiaristic Pirates immediately went to the junkyard of concept art and abandoned ideas pilfering anything they could get their hands on to hide their own lack of creativity where you go wow so a lot of the things maybe that that we knew before are probably in there how do we excavate that and there there's things that existed because when I was younger we didn't have movies but there were comic books there were novels so things that are sort of Encompass in the EU or Legends but and uh and unlike how we play we joke that it's like we're playing with action figures no one is more guilty of this than Dave filon well except perhaps JJ Abrams the inclusion of the night sisters in Ahsoka much like the world Between Worlds is just another inclusion derived by dangerous Dave to enable the plot at the expense of logic and structure they enable the plot until they don't they enable thrawn whilst neutering him at the same time until they don't they can smell Jedi until they don't and they resurrect Stormtroopers until they don't and I bet my chest of sunken Spanish de blooms that Dave has no idea about the limitations and thresholds of their magic that magic will just be another [ __ ] tool Dave can use to Rite himself out of a corner when he undoubtedly does it again although I want to give the zombie Troopers credit here this is the first time in Disney Star Wars that storm troopers have had our heroes running the other way they are more effective as mindless corpses that can't shoot than they were as live men and if that's not a solid indictment of Disney Star Wars and Dave felon's writing I don't know what [Music] is I guess I've taken enough shots at Dave's solo riding abilities maybe he should have taken his own advice and I read it out loud and portray everything to them and explain the staging and shots I'd like and everything but as I read it I I watch them and you know you can see like your friends and they're quiet and they kind of like eye roll or they kind of sink and all the time I'm like what you think that's lame and they get really odd I'm like no no no no if it's lame I want to know now it's lame if that doesn't work I want to know that's why we do drafts buddy but perhaps like Lucas Dave's talents is less scripturally orientated and more based in action fire should we shoot him it doesn't seem very sportsmanlike but they're not even looking at us n we'll just continue to stand here in shoot her shoot her okay well maybe his subtle hints to the work of George Lucas is where his strengths [Music] are coming in too fast hey hold and steady psyched kind [Music] an act on Instinct with the blast shield down I can't even see how am I supposed to fight your eyes can deceive you don't trust them you're training the body but you must also open your mind put this on you're joking I can't see how am I supposed to fight okay there's paying homage and then there's taking the piss I would argue that that's less in line with respect and more akin to bootlegging well surely there was some worthy inclusions to the Star Wars cannon and Mythos in Ahsoka Dave always enjoyed expanding the cannon you're a witch a Survivor contact Morgan tell her I believe we have located at the reflex point on SOS you heard our call to you in the dream your Visions guided me across the Stars thanks Pathway to peridia some call it that the children at the Jedi Temple call it that it comes from old stories fairy tales the blad all right because Dave loves the story of King Arthur Samurai and wolves you ever get the feeling Dave's bored with a Soaker and just wants to do something like the Lord of the Rings I see well that's a shame but I guess that sums it up quite nicely so is the Ahsoka series fine addition not in the opinion of this jellyfish the Ahsoka series when stripped of its fan Serv as veneer and exposed to the harsh light of genuine criticism is a superficial Sideshow of uncanny EU corpses with poor writing Direction and acting that failed to live up to the promise of its animated forbears or pay appropriate respect to the much a waited liveaction appearance of grand Admiral thrawn while not a work of active subversion or destruction like other houts in Disney Star Wars the lack of quality and poor craftsmanship of the series would be a crime of equal measure were it not for the apathy that has truly engulfed the fandom no one is mad because no one really cares anymore without the Cameo from Hayden Christensen this show wouldn't have even lingered in the pop culture psyche and the proof is on social media where the conversation around the show has all but dried up topical in the place of timelessness it's not a crime to be a bad writer or director because if it was Ryan Johnson would have been convicted a long time ago but here in the sheltered Harbor we take crimes against imagination and creativity very seriously and Disney's WAP sheet for that particular charge is ever growing as for the charges leveled against filon in the case of the Ahsoka series remember that for everything Dave adds to his Cannon he is erasing more and more of the EU which may have been tolerable for some when he was working with others to make sure the end product was at least somewhat reflective of the EU but when he's doing it alone who who could have done this the court of brainless wisdom finds you Dave filon guilty you are not fit to judge me Dave filon is as much George Lucas's successor as I am a goober fish oh goober fish he may have some Lucas like tendons IES from his pension for shoddy dialogue to Falling short in the eyes of the fandom when writing and directing in isolation but without the writers of Clone Wars and Rebels propping him up he is nothing more than another name on an Ever growing list of people that should not be trusted with Star Wars so no I don't consider him to be The Apprentice of George Lucas because he's proven Unworthy of the title when he was working alongside John FAO and we had two pieces of the Lucas coin being a technical drive to improve film making and a passion for the law at least in terms of the prequels I might have considered Dave worthy but alone pain suffering death I feel and to think I ended my last video with a sense of hope that Dave could carry the torch forward with this series jez I can't even begin to imagine how bad his film's going to be and how much damage it's going to do to thon's Legacy I have recalibrated the code warning all surviving Jedi to stay away well that'll teach me forgetting my hopes up I guess I could go on and didn't even mention how terrible the subplot was with Hera and the new Republic and how each new show seems to make them more and more inept further spitting on the graves of the Star Wars EU as they double down towards the sequel Trilogy there's also a whole conversation to be had about how Dave continues to confuse simple Universal storytelling with child-friendly wackiness for kids which often sees scenes in live action that should have stayed in animation and most alarmingly he seems determined to use ahoka as a wedge to drive between Anakin and Luke H maybe we'll talk about that in the next one but remember I'm just a brainless lump who refuses to end this video on a sour note so here are some parts from Ahsoka that I actually [Music] liked huru my [Music] friend

Channel: Working Jellyfish

Views: 115,477

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Id: vgtjgKR95wo

Length: 67min 26sec (4046 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2023