I’ve only watched the first episode so far, but the animation is downright gorgeous, and it expands the flora and fauna of Star Wars. I really like the setting and the music, and the character design is excellent; I really appreciate how different they made all the Togruta.
Also, Ahsoka’s mother wearing the blue hood was a flawless choice on the part of whoever was calling the shots there. It bore tremendous resemblance to Ahsoka (though I can’t quite remember when she wore an outfit like that… poncho in season seven?), while being just enough different to simply be a “coincidental” family resemblance. The cropping of that shot was also perfect, focusing on the face and hood in just such a way to highlight the resemblances and remove some of the contextual differences. The attention to detail was just mind-blowingly gorgeous.
As for the fauna, aren’t Kybucks from Kashyyyk? No reason they couldn’t be spread elsewhere, I suppose, and their animation was characteristically excellent. The “Tooka dogs” were perfect, similar stylistically to Tooka, but just different enough to be unique, and the bunny-squirrel was exquisite.
The blaster burns on the sabertooth were quiet well-done as well, and I enjoyed the hunting scene.
The only things that give me pause were how close Ahsoka’s mother got to the wounded wild animal (though maybe they just know that dying Kybucks are very peaceful), how long Ahsoka’s mother held out against the sabertooth, and the whole “Force” thing. Maybe it’s that the Force has some particular way of looking out for small children, or something, because that’s the kind of thing that most definitely cannot be performed by an infant, unless you somehow forget how to use the force when you get older (contrast the difficulty Anakin had taming the Reek in AotC).
And I’m not counting Baby Yoda, because he’s a deus ex machina MacGuffin mystery box, albeit a very cute one.
Agreed. Loved the details, the trees, the leaves, all the different villagers. I’ve only watched first ep as well. Animation was good enough to keep my wife watching the whole ep, who otherwise doesn’t like to watch “animated shows”.
Yes, she held out long against a big cat, but we had to know from where Ahsoka got her abilities, so it just surprised me, not imparting doubt.
The “taming” of the beast by the child was indeed a surprise, though I had already predicted she would return riding the thing. Perhaps this is one Force-assisted skill that Ahsoka was natively “good” at, like others were good at some skills before training.
What did surprise me even more was the last declaration by the elder villager, “She is jedi”. Really? A child is not a jedi. “We need to tell the jedi” would have made more sense.
Yes, but she never really demonstrates skill in that area otherwise. And Ezra, who had natural skill in the area, still needed training. That’s why I’m chalking it up to “the providence of the Force.”
It doesn’t actually surprise me; it makes sense that some people would define the Jedi not as a particular organization but as people with Jedi abilities. Almost like their own ethnic group. After all, it’s a genetic trait that leads them to be defined that way.
Episode two was a bit disappointing. The animation was good, if intentionally bland, and I really appreciate the expansion of fauna (I think this is the first time we’ve seen a dog-looking dog) and droids, but the politics make no sense.
He’s a senator to the Republic. With so many senators, he’s of very little importance to anything that happens “federally,” and as for locally, “federal” policies aren’t to blame. So much of that scenario makes little sense without an extreme amount of explanation, i.e., “the senator is the de facto governor of the world,” though if the latter were the case it could have been detailed better. Such as “we couldn’t get the despot’s son, so we opted for the senator, he can pull strings.”
Other than that, the voices didn’t feel quite right, but it was pretty good.
Episode three was almost an inversion of episode two. All criticisms I had of episode two are reversed, including the voice acting. While there were only a couple times in the second episode where it sounded like Dooku, there were only a couple times in the third where it didn’t.
At any rate, excellent, well done, I need to watch more.
That’s not how I’d describe Charhounds (due to the whole “char” part), though they’re far closer than most “dogs” we’ve seen. I was not aware of them prior to this, however.
I haven’t watched any of these. I’m one of those fans that doesn’t really get into the animated stuff. Animated Star Wars has been hit and miss for me. Some of it gets way too, well, comical or cartoonish for me. I did watch Rebels with my daughter and some much later Clone Wars stuff since it was a little more serious than others. I just couldn’t push through much of the early Clone Wars stuff to know the back story for the later Clone Wars seasons which thus were ruined somewhat for me. If they ever do a live action more compact (3 seasons?) version of Clone Wars with a little more seriousness, I would probably love it for the overall story.
So, all of that being said do you think I would like Tales of the Jedi enough to watch it all or will it be a waste of my time and I should just wait for Andor episodes?
Although the details and his visual is different than what’s been seen before, presumably it would be the Sixth Brother, since that’s who she faced in the Ahsoka novel, which provided the broad strokes of that episode.
Ok, finished watching the Ahsoka episodes. Those were cool. Animation has gotten so good, my wife (who hates animation) said, she had to remind herself this wasn’t one of the movies (which admittedly had a LOT of animation).
I was glad at the end they showed us the slight nod of Ahsoka’s head. Obviously a set up for a later series…
I have very mixed feelings about the fourth episode. It was very well done and I enjoyed it, but I prefer the Legends story and timeline of Dooku leaving the Jedi order. It makes more sense and is more… I don’t know, seems more in-character.
It is difficult for me to believe that the Jedi were unable to make any sort of connection between Yaddle’s death and Dooku leaving the order, but there are enough vagaries in the tale that I suppose it wouldn’t count as a contradiction. Not yet, anyway.
Episode five was so good! Absolutely incredible, right down to the character design (though Obi-Wan certainly went through a regrettable phase in hair style).
I’d’ve really preferred they went with that Ahsoka design in the early Clone Wars seasons over the one they went with.
Anakin’s interactions with Ahsoka were spot-on, and his reaction to the training was excellent. There’s a little bit of a disconnect between droids and clones since she can’t sense the droids, but the skill difference makes that a fairly minor trade-off (droids can be anticipated, only in a different way). The cameos were interesting; it was nice to see Ima-Gun Di (the most aptly named Jedi of all time) and Tera Sinube again.
It’s hard to say enough good things about this one. The writing is just spot-on, and so well paced. Beyond internal synergy, the external relevancy was intense, both complementary and complemented by other media.
My only concern is over how many times you can have your nervous system overloaded before it does permanent damage. <_<
Episode six was not quite as outstanding, but very good. The inquisitor’s design and the fight were particularly excellent.
All in all, the show was remarkable in character, story, and animation, and cannot be faulted on its nostalgic twinges either. I am thinking specifically of a close-up shot of the phase I clones that showed the texturing on their helmets and weapons, which was the exact type of 2D “scratches” I, at least, found so characteristic of Clone Wars animation. 9/10 on the whole, 10/10 without episode two.
I did watch Rebels with my daughter and some much later Clone Wars stuff since it was a little more serious than others. I just couldn’t push through much of the early Clone Wars stuff to know the back story for the later Clone Wars seasons which thus were ruined somewhat for me. If they ever do a live action more compact (3 seasons?) version of Clone Wars with a little more seriousness, I would probably love it for the overall story.