Ahsoka

 One of the things I'm trying to do this year is finally catch up on all the Marvel and Star Wars series I skipped the past years, in no particular order.

 

And as such, the first journey to a galaxy far, far away brings me to Ahsoka, a series based on Anakin Skywalker's padawan from the Rebels series (of which I only got to season 2 btw, so guess I'll need to catch up on those as well).

 

Now, that is one of the issues I want to adress immediately for this series.  If you rolled into it after seeing her appear in The Mandalorian, you might want to know more about her.  But the series draws heavily on the Clone Wars series, as it is an actual continuation on that storyline.

 

What I can say though, the thread of Grand Admiral Thrawn returning is one that has been a long time in the Star Wars now "extended" canon of pre-Disney novels.  If you haven't, go read the Heir to the Empire series, and you will see a figure even more intimidating then the one depicted in this series.  

 

Central to the series is on the one hand the rumoured return of the admiral, as well as finding back Ezra Bridger, the padawan turned Jedi from the above named animated series.  Sabine Wren still isn't over his disappearance, and goes out to search for him, together with Ahsoka who wants to prevent Morgan Elsbeth, assisted by Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati.  Old Imperial agents are trying to adapt to the new Galactic Republic, but not all agree and want to bring back Thrawn.

 

What follows is first a journey to discover where the grand admiral, and by extension Ezra, went, and once they reached that destination by spacewhale taxi services, the story to try and stop Thrawn returning to the galaxy.  Needless to say, they fail on both accounts, the series ending with Thrawn on the way back and Ahsoka and her friends stranded on a far away planet.

 

It was an enjoyable series, with some nice lightsaber duelling, which is after all what Star Wars is all about.  The arcs for the characters have started to bloom, both from the "light" and the "dark" side, but it will be needed to see the second season come to fruition on how those pan out.  Though sadly, that will be with a recasted Baylan, as Ray Stevenson left us in 2023 unfortunatly.

 

But surely worth the watch, even though some episodes are really on the short side (like more Marvel and Star Wars shows tend to have, not having the fixed runtime of most series of around 45 minutes), so a nice calm weekend day should be enough to binge through the series as such.