Star Wars: Ahsoka debuts on Disney Plus on August 22 – here are our spoiler-light thoughts of its first two episodes.
Light spoilers follow for Star Wars: Ahsoka and other Star Wars TV shows.
I’m not a diehard Star Wars fan. Sure, I’ve seen plenty of what Lucasfilm’s legendary sci-fi franchise has to offer, including its nine movies (10 if you include that lackluster animated Clones Wars flick) and every live-action Disney Plus show. I’ve also played my fair share of Star Wars video games, such as Republic Commando, Jedi: Survivor, and Rogue Squadron.
Even then, I’m far from the most clued-up fan of that famous galaxy far, far away. There are numerous canon and non-canon books I’m yet to tackle, and that’s before I get on to the animated TV shows, some of which – I’m looking at you, The Clone Wars – comprise 100-plus episodes across multiple seasons.
It’s that latter series and its pseudo-sequel Star Wars: Rebels I was most worried about missing before I watched Star Wars: Ahsoka’s first two episodes. Lucasfilm’s latest TV show is a live-action follow-up to events in that pair and The Mandalorian, and while Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and Ahsoka showrunner Dave Filoni suggested that fans don’t need to do their homework leading up to Ahsoka’s release, I was wondering whether I’d understand who everyone (sans Ahsoka) was, key moments in their history, and how The Clone Wars and Rebels would impact Ahsoka’s plot. In short: maybe I should have taken my own advice and prepared properly for Ahsoka’s arrival.
Needless to say, I didn’t need to fret. Star Wars: Ahsoka proves that you don’t need to be a Jedi Master to understand the vast majority – yes, there are caveats – of the story its first episodes tell. Equally, the gaps in my Star Wars knowledge didn’t lessen my enjoyment of Ahsoka’s terrifically entertaining and well-assembled slice of Force-fuelled space opera. Step this way, Padawan
Before I dig into why Star Wars: Ahsoka ’s first two episodes are so great – they’re immediately accessible to Star Wars novices (or Padawans, if you will), too – what are the very basics you need to know?
Without getting into the minutiae of previous Star Wars TV shows, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) is a former Jedi Knight and ex-Padawan of Anakin Skywalker. In The Clone Wars, she walked away from the Jedi Order after being falsely accused of a terrorist attack on the Jedi Temple. In the years that have followed, Ahsoka has become a nomadic, samurai-like Jedi who maintains the peace in the wider galaxy. She also keeps tabs on greater evils lurking in the shadows; and, when rumors reach her of one such threat re-emerging after the Empire’s fall, the respected Twi’lek warrior sets out to investigate if they’re true.
Now, in the interests of transparency, I didn’t go into Star Wars: Ahsoka completely blind.
