Out of all of the MANY missed opportunities and shit in the Ahsoka show, I think one of the biggest was not exploring the really unique time period that the galaxy is in at all.
Like, think about it. The Ahsoka series takes place in ~10 ABY. The Rebellion is gone. The Galactic Civil War is over. The New Republic has established itself. The last Imperial remnants have been driven all the way out into the Outer Rim. People are rebuilding. The First Order and Imperial resurgence is still pretty far off.
The galaxy in Ahsoka is about as peaceful as it ever gets in the main timeline. And they do nothing with it.
What does peace feel like for Ahsoka, who was forced to fight literally every war in the past ~35 years just for being force-sensitive? (Drafted into the Clone Wars, fighting for survival during the Imperial and Rebellion Years, probably returning to the fight in the Civil War because she’s one of the last Jedi/trained force-sensitives) How does she deal with not having a fight she needs to help with? How does she move on from an entire life of exhausting, terrifying war? How does she look at the Jedi coming back, knowing that they’ll never be the Order she chose to leave at 16? Does she want to come back, but not know how? Is she afraid of returning because she knows that there’s no one left to recognize her?
What about Hera, who dedicated her entire life to a war that’s won? The ongoing struggle that defined her childhood, her teenage years, the first two decades of her adulthood is… over. The Republic she fought for, the Republic she gave everything to restore, is restored. How does she adjust to serving in peace? Does the reality of the New Republic compare to the ideal she did it all for? How does she look back on a whole life as a soldier, knowing that it can be over now, if she wants it to be? Is she even able to accept that it’s over, or is she constantly looking for the next threat, the hidden, upcoming war?
And Sabine, who sacrificed her teenage years to the Rebellion, probably her 20s to the Civil War, how does she deal with living on a Lothal that’s long since moved past the need for a protector, in a galaxy that’s completely unrecognizable without a battle to fight? Does she look back at the Rebellion, the Rebels years, as the good old days? Does the rest of her life feel empty and dull without the constant rush of a desperate, uphill war? How does she reconcile a New Republic without Mandalore? How does she feel about the future she always envisioned missing the people she rebelled for in the first place?
But no, Felony was like: Ahsoka sad :( and unemotional bc Vader. Hera smart and 💯% justified about Thrawn. Everyone else just stupid and hates her. Sabine conflicted bc Not Jedi & misses Ezra. Whole family dead 💀 but let’s not focus on that.
Like, come on.
84 notes
·
View notes
Ahsoka but the characters are better... The plot... everything is better.
I was talking/venting in RBs with @kanansdume on their post, and I started writing a reply that was just too long and in depth. So it's now its own post.
Offering you an alternative version of events for Ahsoka's first 4 episodes:
The cause of the break up between Hera, Ahsoka and Sabine, is Ezra.
Hera is more of a politician than a general these days, and if she sees action it's to police conflict and hunt down empire remnants. She's NOT under the impression that everyone who kept on living under the empire needs to be eradicated or whatever her deal is right now. She's busy splitting work with Jacen and not really able to help either of her friends as each would want to.
Sabine has never given up. She's still actively looking for Ezra.
Not Ahsoka. On her end, she's given up. She wrote off Ezra as a hero. She grew up watching Jedi sacrifice themselves to buy others some time or make doomed attempts to kill powerful enemies. She thinks Ezra is dead (gloriously so) and refused to indulge the fantasy that he may still be alive, driving a big wedge in her relationship with Sabine.
Until Ahsoka finds that Morgan seems to expect Thrawn to be alive… Which might mean Ezra is alive too… Just maybe.
We meet Sabine as she lands on Lothal. She isn't reckless, wasting time away in a tower like in the show. She's well dressed if rumpled and obviously drained. The moment she steps onto the space port, she's surrounded by local guards. The guy who chases her in the show is instead in full uniform waiting for her, and clearly distressed.
Did she forget what today was? That the governor asked her to attend the celebrations? She was meant to be here already, the event has even started.
Sabine brushes him off. She had no plan to come at all. She's been busy and never even opened the message requesting her presence. She's back from Coruscant, talking to the only scientist who seems to specialise in purgill, and does he have any idea how tedious it is to get useful fact out of someone who never steps out of academia? She's going home, thanks.
She gets upset when the "war hero" title is used to try and persuade her. She's trying to do war hero stuff by rescuing Ezra, thank you. Speeches and hand waving aren't for her, never were. Maybe the dialogue can hint that she used to play along, but has grown increasingly desperate in her search instead of the faff of her mostly ceremonial position.
But the guy drops a hint that convinces Sabine to get on the back of his speeder after all : her old "jedi friend" is there for the celebration. Ahsoka, who she hasn't heard from in ages!
Ahsoka would have trained Sabine for a while for saber, but they've since split and heir friendship frayed over the Ezra Lives situation. NOT because of padawan BS.
Ahsoka could also perceive Sabine's dedication to find Ezra as something worse with every year that passes. To her, it'd go from friendship to attachment, of the overly strong type. And even if Sabine isn't a Jedi, the way Anakin was, it doesn't mean that this attachment wouldn't bring some darkness.
Heck, Ahsoka could sort of wash her hands off Sabine by blaming the darkness brought by her Ezra fixation. Like this isn't her fault, no sir, it's the way Sabine is so consumed that she won't listen to reason.
Anyway, they're both here now, and though the "how have you been" is a tip toeing on eggshells exercise, Ahsoka eats some humble pie and admits she needs Sabine's help for something important.
She has tracked an artifact to a ruin, and although it's ancient, it clearly has a deep stratum. It's not just one culture that can be observed in it, but several stacked on top of each other. And one of the most recent traces of alteration are Mandalorian.
Ahsoka wouldn't solve that JFO puzzle on her own. She'd bring Sabine for her unique Mando insight. But trust would be an issue, so she'd remain super vague about what they're looking for and completely tight lip about why. Ahsoka doesn't want to kindle hopes about Ezra in Sabine of all people.
From Sabine's pov, she's doing Ahsoka a favour, and Hera asked her to please help as she's invested in this mcguffin hunt too. Sabine, by coming along, is doing that very adult thing of putting up with a shitty situation to accomodate people (the total opposite of her highway chase scene).
But even as Sabine finds the map and frees it from the old compartment it's in, they are attacked by the droids. A good old epic fight ensues, where Sabine is shown to be rusty with her saber, and rusty in general with droids, but also Ahsoka sucks at anticipating Sabine's actions, and keeps throwing orders that don't get obeyed (or can't realistically be obeyed).
In the past few years Sabine's been spending more time investigating, talking to people and reading books and buying intel, than fighting.
Not knowing what the map is for, she loses it. Does Shin come in then and wound her? Forcing Ahsoka to flee with her on the brink of death? I think it would be nice if the only reason Sabine lives is because Ahsoka was there to use a constant flow of Force healing. Not fixing her but keeping her alive as Huyang flies them away.
Because, you know, it's getting real tiresome to see people survive lightsabers to the centre of mass.
Then Sabine wakes up, she's sorry she lost the antique Ahsoka was looking for… But Hera calls in as a holo, upset with Ahsoka… And Sabine would slowly realise why. The thing she lost, nearly died over unknowingly, was a map! A map to Thrawn, and so to Ezra.
Nobody needs to be incompetent about that map thing, either, because it would be a very classic puzzle that Ahsoka could have solved. It's not old or mysterious, it was hidden in the old temple. In the show she never sees the map, and it needs to be inserted in the henge to make sense any way. Here Ahsoka didn't need Sabine's help to solve the mcguffin, but to get it. And she got it and lost it at the same time.
And now Sabine realises just WHAT it was. To Ahsoka it's a trail to Thrawn, or a clue in Morgan's plans. To Hera it's weeks of political favour wasted and hope for Thrawn and Ezra gone. Hera can't justify more spending on this without proof Morgan is up to no good.
Meanwhile Sabine sees the map as proof she's always been right. That Ezra is alive, and that Ahsoka used her and lied and kept her in the dark. Sabine would argue she'd never have engaged that rogue padawan if she knew what she was risking with the map. Ahsoka could argue back she only needed to follow her orders.
Huyang is the one who settles things between them by asking how exactly they think this argument is helping the situation? He could be the one to insist they have to stay and work together to get the map, when both Ahsoka and Sabine want nothing more than to split again.
Personality-wise Ahsoka can team work, but she needs to lead. She's used to being the most OP in the room, and grew up giving order to mostly unquestioning soldiers. Sabine has a different skillset, is pig headed, and won't take orders from Ahsoka, especially not now that she feels like she was used.
Hera and Huyang could both come in then to soothe things, and Hera would suggest they visit the other trail she's unearthed (dockyards) while the villains actively get their plan on the tracks.
At the dockyards, Hera would understand that people worked for the Empire because they didn't have a choice, and wouldn't expect people to 'get rid' of imperials after the fall of the empire. It's not exactly how that stuff happens in real life, right? It would also be interesting if Chopper FINALLY came to some use…
So I suggest that the smuggling was done by droids, and the main human mind behind this operation was the one maintening the droid fleet. Altering their codes and priorities. We could have Chop somehow help figure it out. He could also be the one who PWA PWAs at the very end that they shouldn't look so disappointed, since he managed to slap a tracker under the chest plate of that one droid he highjacked that fled on the ship.
They have their lead to that planet.
Now's a good time for Ahsoka to be able to report about Shin and Baylan's sabers instead, maybe spotting them at that place, whatever. They have no clear character or motivation and for all I care we could keep visuals of their sabers from early on when freeing Morgan.
But here's the cinch about Huyang :
He's completely out of place with Ahsoka. She doesn't have a padawan. Doesn't want one. Sabine isn't a real one and has no desire to even try to be. And any good droid could do Huyang's job, without her moaning about Jedi protocol so much.
So why does she keep him?
Huyang should be with Luke Skywalker. Wouldn't it be a little dark and sweet if it's revealed that Ahsoka has been planning to bring him over to Luke's budding school but hasn't because… (and let's forget all shit with them in Mando) well, because she doesn't believe in a New Order. She saw too many younglings killed or turned, and she doesn't trust Luke with rebuilding the Order. Doesn't really want him too.
Yet at the same time she misses it. Misses the protocols she broke with Anakin, and the life she had there as a padawan. Huyang feeds into this nostalgia. Sometimes he sounds like a master--but one she doesn't need to listen to.
She keeps pushing the time to bring him to Luke over and over.
But now Huyang could have his own motivation : Baylan has survived, and he's taken a padawan.
What was Baylan like? Why would he want to free Thrawn? Why team up with Morgan? Imo it'd be a lot more interesting if his saber was yellow or truly orange, and Shin's was blue or literally any colour but red. Make them apparently rogue Jedi and not weird darksiders larping as Taron Malicos and Merrin.
Maybe Huyang would try to push for them to be in touch. Maybe he'd want to approach Baylan himself. Because he wants to recreate the Order, right? And he's got an apprentice. And wouldn't it be a shame if they truly fell down a dark path?
So instead of Baylan being sentimental but actually not about Ahsoka staying alive, it could be Huyang who is ready to expend his kindness to even them, even after the interaction over the map. Afterall, Jedi aren't always shy about using violence to get what they want, and maybe Shin always arrives on the scene when her side is already in a fight. Maybe Huyang is on copium!
But Baylan could be seen as behaving one way, and Ahsoka could feel his vibes being rancid… VS. Huyang knowing him by reputation. Why not go on and fully rip Malicos, at this stage? You got his looks and his theories. You may as well also make Baylan a respected Jedi general. Someone Huyang remembers from his trips to make his first saber.
Now wouldn't it be neat if Chopper's tracker returns a system that Sabine recognises the name of? She was just talking to that scholar about Purgill after all, and he mentioned how this system was an important migration point, one poorly researched, because it's so remote, and at the fringes of Dathomir space, not a friendly locale.
Sadly I still don't understand WTF the map is. Why does Morgan need it? it seems ancient… And yet it points to Thrawn? HOW? Why does it go to a different henge style temple? Nothing makes sense in the show and we're meant to just accept it.
I propose something else.
The map is stored into a bog standard data storage puzzle thingy. Anyone who could handle a Japanese puzzle box could use it. But the map is just the tip of the iceberg. It's actually a nightsister spell underneath, and the entire goal is to hyper focus and pinpoint.
So Morgan 'feels Thrawn calling to her'. And yep, that's corny, but she does. And what she needed was that nightsister focus tool. She needs to wildly amplify the signal, and then use the map to pinpoint its origine totally.
She goes to that henge because it's a meditation space. It's within the Dathomir sphere of influence, but not Dathomir proper, which is why she hid the ring here. There's something about this world, the same quality that attracts the purgill, that really throws the Force into whack.
While it's good for Morgan, it'd be confusing and disturbing for any other Force user (how to nerf Ahsoka, Baylan and Shin).
Once she fully feels the location of Thrawn's call, the map zooms in and in and in. As she suspected (as she's prepared for), it's in another galaxy entirely.
Instead of having the badies split, Baylan would have to protect Morgan so she can remain in her trance as the droids help her refine the coordinates. Shin can go harry Sabine and split her and Ahsoka, who can't properly communicate due to the planet's interference.
When the women go to fight Morgan and co, perhaps Huyang would ask Ahsoka to convince Baylan to return to them. Maybe Huyang's interest in helping with Shin is also what keeps getting in the way of Sabine whenever she has an opportunity to strike to kill.
Anyway, please no fucking Anakin!!! We don't need more nostalgia bait. Stop!! Jedi canonically can't die from falls of any height so long as they've trained to cushion a fall. We see the trio take insane falls all of Clone Wars, and it's in High Republic now too. Ahsoka clipping off the world map from getting yeeted from a small cliff is sad and a pathetic excuse to show Anakin off.
Also would like to point out that with a tight script, all the events above are 2 or 3 episodes max.
What do you think? Opinions? Suggestions? It's a bit of a meta post so feel free to add on to it!
50 notes
·
View notes
Look, if we want to go through with the Mando purge of Mandalore backstory, you could do a lot with that! That could be a really interesting direction to take Sabine’s character in! But, uh, making Sabine act ridiculously ooc for all of Ahsoka and then justifying that with a 1-sentence ‘oh her whole family died offscreen that’s why she’s a different character now’ is that also why she’s white, Dave? is uh. Not a good way to do that at all.
Like, imagine an alternate version of Ahsoka where that’s actually an important part of her character instead of a quick get-out-of-ooc-jail-free-card.
Ursa dies on Mandalore, either in the bombings or fighting Gideon, and all of a sudden Sabine is pulled back to Krownest to lead the remnants of her people (because from everything we saw in Rebels, Tristan seems like more of a warrior than a leader) and she’s trying to help her people, to safeguard Lothal, to mourn her mother and Ezra, and she maybe holds it together for a few years—but then Ahsoka comes back, with a new lead on Ezra, and here’s a chance to get away from it all, to get back just one of the things she’s lost. She takes it.
She feels awful about it, because she’s abandoning her people, running away again, but she just can’t deal with it, and she misses Ezra so badly. It’s not forever, she’ll come back this time, she just needs some time. Some space. So she throws everything into getting Ezra back, and it makes her reckless and blind to the threat of Thrawn because all she can see is Ezra. And then it’s an actual flaw, it’s the crux of her character arc, and in the end she’s presented with that choice, destroy the map or get Ezra back, and she chooses right, is able to come to terms with her loss and move on.
And then in the end, she’s able to help get Ezra back with the Purrgil and she’s able to accept everything that happened to her and lead her people. And reclaim the darksaber
Just—you could’ve done something with this, felony, but instead you just destroy her character and shit on all Star Wars?
31 notes
·
View notes
Imagine that Leia, a newly powerful force-user, begins to have concerning visions about the future, and of her family’s complicated past. When her son is born, the visions culminate into a shocking omen. Her son would become one of the most powerful Jedi in history, at one terrible cost: His surrender to the dark side. And he has only one fate: Death.
To save her son, Leia does the only thing she can: she cuts herself off from the Force, and vows that her child will never train in the ways of the Jedi. This only complicates things as Ben grows to be an obviously powerful force-user in desperate need of a teacher. But Leia’s unwanted visions never stop, and Ben’s affinity for the dark side only grows, so she refuses.
Luke, desperate for a way to save his nephew, and attempting to abide by his sister’s wishes, dedicates his time to recovering the remnants of the Jedi Order and training a new generation of Jedi that just might be able to rewrite Ben’s destiny.
Luke soon hears of a young force-sensitive on the planet Jakku. And when he goes to find her, he is instead given a vision, a prophecy of one final battle between the Dark and the Light. Good vs. Evil. Ben was born of the Dark Side, and this young girl of the Light. A Force Dyad. She is destined to kill him, or be killed by him, which would wrench the galaxy into imbalance forever.
Refusing to let this come to pass, Luke leaves the girl on Jakku, unable to imagine a future where this girl kills his nephew, or one where his nephew kills the girl. He returns home to his sister and asks one last time to make Ben his apprentice. He tells Leia he understands, that he has finally seen as she has, and he vows his life to stop it.
But prophecies cannot be unwritten. And although Leia finally approved his training, and Luke swore anything to protect his sister’s child, Ben was lost.
Until one day, many years later, the girl abandoned on Jakku finds Luke on his refuge of Ahch-To to return a once lost lightsaber and ask him for the one thing he cannot give her…
tl;dr I just want there to be a different reason for how/why everything went down, and I always wondered why they never incorporated a prophecy into the sequel saga, because the other two sagas have one. Especially with the Force Dyad stuff, it just needs a good ole’ doomsday prophecy to tie everything together.
7 notes
·
View notes