Ahsoka Binge List

After what feels like forever, we’re only a month away from the premiere of Ahsoka. This show has been teased ever since Ahsoka Tano appeared on The Mandalorian years ago. And it’s almost here! I went through all of Ahsoka’s Clone Wars stories and rewatched Rebels to get this highlight list together. So if you need to get to know Ahsoka (or reacquaint yourself with her), here’s what you need to know:

Tales of the Jedi

Season 1, Episode 1

So let’s start at the beginning… and I mean the beginning. This short features Ahsoka’s birth and her initial jedi powers manifesting. I covered this when the shorts first came out, but I would have loved to see that lead into her being taken by Master Plo as a youth. But anyway, it is what it is. So enjoy some Baby ‘Soka.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Movie)

If you’re going to check out where Ahsoka came from, you ought to watch this. This animated movie is her first appearance during The Clone Wars. The movie starts right on the tail of episodes 2.16 and 1.16 (in that order) and it introduces Ahsoka Tano as Anakin’s new padawan. While not my favorite story, it’s her first story and it begins to develop the relationship dynamic she takes with Anakin.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Season 2, Episodes 6-8

This story brings us back to Geonosis and the droid factory. Ahsoka and her new friend Barriss take down the factory… but not before bringing a parasite back to the ship. All ends well and you’ll want to keep an eye on this character, Barriss.

Season 3, Episode 7

This is the perfect story to illustrate Ahsoka’s bond with Padme. There are hints throughout Clone Wars that Ahsoka might know of Padme and Anakin’s secret marriage, but regardless she ends up friends with both of them independent of the other. Plus this shows the epicness of Ahsoka’s trust in the force.

Season 3, Episodes 15-17

An accidental trip to the planet Mortis, leaves Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and Anakin stranded. Though their memories of the adventure were erased at the end, this story showed Anakin’s draw to the Dark Side and his potential as a Sith. Also, the Father, Son, and Daughter seen on Mortis were later seen in a mural during the final episodes of Rebels, but we’ll get to the Ghost’s adventures in a moment.

Season 5, Episodes 17-20

This one was heartbreaking. After being accused of murder, seeing Ahsoka so totally abandoned and desperate, to the point of turning to Ventriss for help… my heart hurt for her. Even after her name got cleared, the damage had already been done to her faith in the Jedi Order.

Season 7, Episodes 9-12

Beginning right on the tail of the events of episodes 7.05-7.08, Ahsoka and Rex are off to finish what the Jedi Order couldn’t, bringing Darth Maul into custody. For episodes required to understand Maul’s rise to power on Mandalore, check out the list at the bottom of this point for the Mandalorian Conflict. But before the ex-Jedi and her Clone Troopers can safely deliver Maul to Coruscant, Order 66 begins. Long story short, she’s able to save Rex, but only they and Darth Maul survive the crash of their starship. Again, heartbreaking.

Tales of the Jedi

Season 1, Episode 6

After the events of Order 66, we see Ahsoka secretly attending Padme’s funeral. With two of her very best friends dead or presumed dead, she’s at an all-time low. But Senator Organa gives her a pep talk (and a communicator) which helps her know who to call when she decides to join the Rebellion.

Star Wars Rebels

I loved Rebels way more than I expected (especially after feeling meh about Clone Wars) and it seems the Ahsoka series is being set up as a direct continuation of this story, as we’ve had Sabine, Hera, and Chopper confirmed to appear. If you can afford the time to binge watch the whole series, I’d recommend it. If not, here are my highlights to hopefully prep you for more live-action Ahsoka

Season 1, Episodes 13-15

Under the codename “Fulcrum”, we hear Ahsoka’s distorted voice throughout Season 1. But in the finale, we get her back in person. We don’t see her until the very end of this story arc, but the whole trilogy of episodes is worth it.

Season 2, Episodes 1-2

Having just reintroduced Ahsoka in the previous episode, it was nice to the Ghost team working together with her during these episodes. All things considered, Ahsoka’s involvement in this story is pretty minor, but it’s the first glimpse that she or Darth Vader has into the force to realize the other is still alive.

Season 2, Episodes 3-4

Ahsoka only appears at the beginning and end of this story, so it may seem inconsequential. However, these episodes bring back Captain Rex, the Clone Trooper that Ahsoka freed from Order 66 in the Clone Wars finale. Is it too much to hope that we’ll get old man Rex in the Ahsoka series? That’d be cool. Supposedly he fought in the Battle of Endor, so he ought to still be alive I suppose.

Season 2, Episodes 18, 21-22

Kanan, Ezra, and Ahsoka go in search of a way to stop the Sith and the Inquisitors, first stopping at a Jedi Temple for direction and then to a daunting Sith Temple. They team up (temporarily) with Darth Maul against the Inquisitors. Until finally he shows up: Darth Vader. To see Vader fight his old apprentice and for her to realize who he is. WOW! And then everything goes crazy and Ahsoka is left to die in the temple… or maybe not.

Season 4, Episodes 13-16

A pair of two-part epics. Ahsoka only appears for a short portion of each, but the last four episodes of Rebels set the stage for (according to what we know) the plot of the Ahsoka series. “A World Between Worlds” explains how Ahsoka survived the battle against her former master at the Sith Temple in Season 2 and it kind of blew my mind the first time. To me, it said that nothing is off-limits for the Star Wars mythos. And then as Rebels closed up, Ahsoka appeared in the epilogue of the series finale, setting the stage for her mission in the Disney live-action era.

The Mandalorian

Season 2, Episode 5

The first time I watched this episode, I hadn’t watched Clone Wars, so I was kind of blind to who Ahsoka was. So re-watching this episode, after finishing Clone Wars and Rebels, was quite the treat. Only nine years after the main events of Rebels (four years after the epilogue), we rejoin Ahsoka. Being sent by Bo-Katan, the Mandalorian intends to leave the Child with her. Instead they team up against a local tyrant before sending Mando onward (to eventually meet Luke Skywalker). What excites me after watching Rebels is that she’s looking for Thrawne. And I assume Ezra, along with him. So this episode, which will lead into the Ahsoka series, would be considered a direct continuation of the Rebels epilogue. 

The Book of Boba Fett

Season 1, Episode 6

Ahsoka only plays a minor role in this episode, but just as Book of Boba Fett is the bridge between the second and third season of The Mandalorian, this episode serves as the bridge between Ashoka’s animated adventures and her new series. At the very least, it establishes Ahsoka as a “family friend” to the Skywalker clan (or at least Luke).

Now we wait. This is very possibly the Star Wars series I’ve been most excited for (except perhaps Obi-Wan Kenobi). Andor was fine and I was slow to get into The Mandalorian, but I have hopes for Ahsoka. Here’s to them being realized!

The Book of Boba Fett - Setup and Payoff

Well that was fun. 

Spoiler warning, because duh. 

Rebirth of Boba Fett

I imagine myself as an expert on characters in literature, why they're popular, what makes them interesting, but I am completely baffled by the appeal of the character Boba Fett. He only had a handful of lines and the biggest action scene he had in the OG movies he was eaten by a tentacle monster. Don't get me wrong, I love him too, I just don't understand why. 

Boba Fett's solo adventure gives us the bounty hunter as a fully realized character, helmet off and not an angsty pre-teen like what we got in the prequel series or Clone Wars. So how do we start up with the new fleshed out Boba Fett? We start with a visceral birthing scene out of the Sarlaac, complete with goo. 

Good way to pick up from when we last saw the Fett. 

Slow Burn

It's interesting to watch a series as it comes out episodically in this age. We see fan and critic reaction sometimes minutes after the show drops. Book of Boba Fett is a slow burn, establishing what happened to Boba after his visceral birth and following him taking Jabba's place as head crime boss on Tattooine. The show slips somewhere between The Supranos and Deadwood with more thinking and calculated strategies than outright jetpack action. 

A lion's share of the show comes from Boba Fett building his crew, including the orc looking guys that hung around Jabba's palace back in Jedi, his assassin lady friend, the galaxy's coolest Wookie who gives us our first onscreen instance of Wookie-rip-arms-out-of-sockets action, a group of kids who look like they escaped the set of Disney's Descendents, and a brand new rancor brought by Danny Trejo (Quick side note: Is Danny Trejo a Muppet? The only times I've seen him lately are with Muppets, including Muppets Most Wanted, Muppets Now! and Muppets Haunted Mansion. Is this a new thing or has he been a Muppet this whole time? Did we just never notice?)

Mandalorian Season 2 1/2

The Boba Fett crime lord plot comes to a screeching halt for two episodes as we take some time to catch up with everyone's other favorite masked Star Wars guy Mando and Disney's biggest cash cow Grogu. Mando's trying to get his honor back after he flashed his face in the season 2 finale, and Grogu has to choose which class he wants to be between being a Jedi knight or a Mandalorian bounty hunter. As an audience we are treated to a cameo from Rosario Dawson's Asoka Tano (Yay!) , a weird Grease montage of Mando building a new spaceship (Boo) and another CGI cameo from young Mark Hamil (ehhh?) before palling up with Boba for the finale. 

It All Comes Together

So Boba's biggest obstacle are a bunch of fish people wanting to use Tattooine to move the often talked about spice, which is either a drug, a seasoning or something they're stealing from the Dune set down the street. While Boba is crewing up the fish people team up with local crime lords, elected officials and Clone Wars flashback Cade Bane. 

The principal of Chekhov's gun states that if you show the audience a gun in the first act you better fire it by the third. In Book of Boba Fett every gun that's shown throughout the season is fired in the last episode, including a big one with a rancor shaped barrel. The finale is everything the show promised to be, an epic space cowboy battle that gave us all the Boba Fett action we could handle, and Grogu was right in the middle of it for Disney to hedge their bets on the marketing success. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: This is the Star Wars I want, fun space adventures and not the family drama the movies have weirdly become. More space cowboys less space Dynasty and we'll be golden. 

Also I want answers to the Danny Trejo Muppet question. 

-JOE

Families Are Forever ... Even on Tatooine

The second episode of the incredible Book of Boba Fett is called "The Tribes of Tatooine", and indeed, it very much explores the themes of tribes and family. When I first watched the episode, I found it difficult to connect because halfway through, the story switched from "present" day, to a flashback. It felt like two mini episodes that were disjointed and had nothing to do with each other.

But after watching a second time, I realized that both halves of the show were about the same theme: Family. Tribes. Belonging. 

In the present time, we are made to believe that Boba Fett has no idea what it's like to be part of a family. Fett is trying to fight against the Hutt family. The mayor tells him, "Running a family is more complicated than bounty hunting." True! Fett is viewed by others as a bounty hunter without any loyalty or affiliation to a family. A notion that is accentuated by the fact that he is a clone who lost his father at a young age. Boba never really had a family. He doesn't belong anywhere.

But in the second half of the episode, we learn that nothing could be further from the truth. We see, in detail, how Boba Fett gained trust among his captors. Maybe there was a bit of Stockholm Syndrome, but Boba Fett knew that the Tuskens were not "bad" people. They saved him and cared for him. They taught him. They trained him. And when he showed kindness and generosity to the Tuskens, they returned those gestures in kind. The Tuskens even permitted Boba to go on a spirit quest, take part in their rituals, and rise to a prominent position in the tribe. Indeed, if there's anybody who knows what it means to belong to a family, it's Boba Fett. 

The two halves of "The Tribes of Tatooine" pose a question about Fett's character, and then answer that question.

This got me thinking about what it means to be part of a family. I have the most wonderful, most nurturing family in the world. All of my seven siblings are individual weirdos, but we love each other so much and get along famously. We have always been close, but our bonds were forged stronger when my brother died a few years ago. 

On the other hand, I recently got a divorce. I worried about what that meant for my eternal family. Was a breaking up my family, which is a common argument against divorce? Would my kids be lost? Would I still belong to a family? As I have pressed forward on this new path in my life, I have learned what it means to be part of a family even moreso. I'm closer to my kids than I have ever been before. I am a happier and more authentic person, so I am more emotionally available to "be there" for my kids. My family never broke up, we just shifted our responsibilities. I still preside, provide, and protect. My ex-wife still nurtures with love and righteousness. We are still equal partners, we just don't live together. Our "other circumstances necessitate individual adaptation". 

Families come in many shapes and sizes and arrangements. Be it a traditional family with two parents, a blended family, a single-parent family ... or a Tusken tribe. 

Boba Fett Binge List

We're into December, which means we're less than a month until The Book of Boba Fett premieres. I'm working my way through Rebels right now, but I took a moment to rewatch the Mando episodes that included the return of our fan favorite bounty hunter. If you need a refresher on Boba Fett before the new series, check this out.

Episode II - Attack of the Clones

Obviously this is where Boba Fett’s story begins (chronologically at least). We get his backstory: who his father Jango was and  how the clones and Boba came to be. After a fight with Obi Wan, we also saw Boba Fett on Geonosis witnessing the death of his father at the hand of Mace Windu. Talk about an origin story.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Season 2, Episodes 20-22

Here we get Boba Fett infiltrating a group of young clones as they’re being trained on a Jedi cruiser. All of it just an elaborate trick on his part to get close enough to Mace Windu to get revenge for killing Jango Fett. But as the trilogy of episodes continues, we see Boba isn’t as ruthless as he thought he’d be. It’s interesting to see a villain so classic to Star Wars question himself like that. 

Season 4, Episode 15

If any Boba Fett story is optional, it’s this one. The episode revolves around Obi Wan. Boba’s appearance amounts to not much more than a cameo. It shows us Boba is still in Republic custody and still angry. 

Season 4, Episode 20

Somehow Boba is out of prison (Maybe he escaped in the same riot as Obi Wan? Maybe he completed his sentence?) and is teaming up with Ventress. The episode focuses more on Ventress and her story arc, with Boba as a supporting character. However, it does establish Boba as a budding bounty hunter in his own right, as we see later on. 

Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

By the time Luke, Leia, and Han were flying around the galaxy, Boba was a feared bounty hunter. As far as release order, this is the first time we got introduced to Boba Fett. He might be a man of few words in the Original Trilogy, but he left an impression on fans. I mean, he was the only one of Vader’s bounty hunters to successfully track Han and Leia to Cloud City.

Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

So after Boba Fett returns Han Solo to Jabba, he sticks around. Maybe a little too long. If he’d moved onto a new job, he probably wouldn’t have been on Jabba’s party ship. During the ensuing battle aboard said party ship, Han accidentally knocks Boba Fett into the Sarlacc Pit where he was to die. Or so we thought...

The Mandalorian

Season 1, Episode 5

You might only see Boba’s legs in this episode, but it’s the connecting piece between his supposed demise in the Original Trilogy and his full return in The Mandalorian Season 2. This episode also introduced Fennec Shand, who’ll appear in The Book of Boba Fett. If you want more Fennec, you can also check out The Bad Batch “Cornered” and “Bounty Lost”.

Season 2, Episode 1

We only see Boba Fett in the end of the episode for another slightly less brief cameo. But even though we barely even see his face, this is where we see the final fate of the Sarlacc Pit where Boba “died” and it features the return of Boba Fett’s armor (found by Jawas in the previously mentioned Sarlacc Pit). 

Season 2, Episodes 6-8

After getting directions from Ahsoka Tano to find a Jedi for Grogu’s training, Din Djarin (aka Mando) ends up teaming up with Boba and Fennec to protect and subsequently save the child from the Empire. With the help of Cara Dune, Bo Katan, and the other Mandalorians, Mando is able to save Baby Yoda from capture. Boba Fett and Fennec leave moments before Jedi Master Luke Skywalker arrives to claim Grogu as his student. By that point, Boba was probably already halfway to Tatooine where he usurped Jabba’s throne from Bib Fortuna. 

And that is where the Book of Boba Fett begins. So we’ll see where things go. Can’t wait to see more Ming Na Wen… maybe more in the next season of Bad Batch too.