I was going to say the same but about Thrawn.
I blew my voice out SCREAMING at the tv, while my teen was like “I’m not sure that’s him” while I glared. It was a nice surprise. I did like the latest season of the show even though it seemed most people didn’t.
It has been officially recommened that you should watch Clone Wars and Rebels to understand what the heck is going on in Ahsoka.
One more trailer before Wednesday.
That’s not a real trailer. That’s fan made.
ZakLad gets irrationally angry when we’re scanning trailers on YouTube and my dumb ass accidentally clicks a fan-made one instead of the official one.
Which, of course, leads to me doing it not-so-accidentally on occasion, just to see him get spun up. 
We’re all set to be on the couch at 9pm ET tonight. See y’all there (in spirit).
Fan-made or not it had material I hadn’t seen before. I had just moments before finished a rewatch of all of Rebels in anticipation, and wanted to give the trailers another look.
Yes, to be clear, the initial two episodes air tonight (Tuesday, August 22) at 6 PM Pacific (important to me 8 PM central) and NOT midnight PT the 23rd.
I usually save my “important” watching for Friday/saturday night, but think I will watch episode 1 tonight and episode 2 this weekend (I also need to finish season 3 of the Witcher)
Brian
Is gonna take a Star Destroyer-load of willpower not to watch tonight, but my family has committed to not watching ahsoka until we’ve finished rewatching Rebels. We’re only halfway through season 1. 
Watched episode 1. My non-episode thought:
The map in the end credits has some (I presume) Arabesh – presumably this has been transliterated (I couldn’t find anything in a quick search)
Brian
No spoilers for Ep 1, just a general bitch about technology.
So today, of all days, the yard guys found the two feet of fiber that was still above ground (which I’ve been bitching about to my provider for weeks) and SHREDDED it. No internet and we’re streaming only.
No problem, I’ll just pull up D+ on my phone and cast to the TV, right?
Wrong. Long story short, it took over 45 minutes to get the ep downloaded to a phone, hotspotted through an iPad to cast to the fucking tv - which Rube Goldberg hook-up lasted 5 minutes before the tv simply refused to recognize the cast.
So ZakLad and I ended up huddled around the iPad watching the show on a tiny-ass little screen.
Fuck Apple and fuck technology. This should be seamless and easy.
Fiber gets fixed tomorrow. And I will be investigating backup options that fucking work.
Rant over. Enjoy the episode, it’s pretty good.
Red opening scroll text? Blasphemy!
I hope Lothal has a boarding kennel.
Few grumbles so far, except why would an ancient temple have a map of where the Space Whales zapped Thrawn? It is as nonsensical as the snake tunnel having the Death Star wreckage map knife.
Spoilers for both episodes, so be warned:
I’m still processing the premiere, but I’ll give my initial thoughts. They really are going all in on this being a sequel to Rebels, aren’t they? I wonder how it played to someone who hasn’t seen the animated stuff.
I think it has promise so far, and as someone who really enjoyed Rebels, it’s nice seeing so many of the familiar characters and settings in live action. Rosario Dawson continues to be a satisfying Ahsoka, but Mary Elizabeth Winstead somehow doesn’t scream “Hera” to me. I’ll give her some time.
I don’t know about the idea of Sabine being Ahsoka’s padawan, which seems to have come out of nowhere. Okay, yes, Sabine had some lightsaber training when she found the darksaber, but she never showed any particular Force sensitivity, so why is she trying to become a Jedi? Nice to see she’s still an annoying and rebellious student.
Can anyone tell me the name of the actor who played the officious little bureaucrat in episode 2? I know I’ve seen him before, but I couldn’t quite place him. I suppose it’s realistic that there are still some people (maybe a lot of people) who are loyal to the Empire. Like they said, an Empire doesn’t become a Republic overnight, and it makes sense that there are people who had it good (or at least had it safe and predictable) under the Empire who are afraid they will do worse under the Republic.
Yes.
Thanks! House is what I was remembering him from.
He looked familiar to me, too, but I think for me he is more of the “that weaselly little guy” archetype.
(No spoilers outside the details box at the bottom.)
This two-episode premier is the best Star Wars movie I’ve seen in a long time. I love all the characters: the characterizations, the acting. Every character seems to have some depth and the direction gives the actors time to establish themselves. Even the antagonists are well done.
The pacing is leisurely until it’s not, and then switches back. The callbacks to the Rebels series are everywhere and done well, but I don’t think it’s required watching, simply because time is taken to establish here anything important. The sets and scenery were beautiful. Overall, the movie really captures the feeling of being Star Wars, like the original series.
Scenes I especially liked (slight spoilers)
- The beginning scene of how bad-ass the antagonists are, and then a scene showing how bad-ass Ahsoka is.
- When they’re hacking the droid head with a risk of explosion, Hera is eager to do it, but then gets called out on just being there as a hologram.
- Ahsoka’s two-sword form is a beautiful rendition of a samurai form with katana and wakizashi (long sword and short sword).
- Sabine’s hair-cutting ritual is also a samurai tradition, performing a symbolic suicide before starting a new life. When she was kneeling in reverence before her helmet and knife, I knew immediately what was happening.
- The perfect conclusion at the end, “I am ready”. And then, “Padawan”.
Speculation:
I really hope the “Sith” apprentice becomes a long running character. The actor playing the role is perfect for it. I like the antagonist characters a lot; they do feel like card-board bad guys.
Also, as they said, “greed”.
Well the master certainly can’t, given that the actor died not long after they finished shooting. I hope the character-arc got a reasonable wrap-up at the end of the season, avoiding messy dangling plot threads for a possible season two.