Star Wars: Ahsoka - 01:01 - Part One

[Parson]

How is trying to get the rebellion started less of a great cause than what happens in A New Hope?

Fair point. As I think back on it the earlier episodes were better. I guess I was fixating on those interminable prisoner working scenes, the totally dehumanizing prison, and all that 2 bit stealing of rubbish in the first part.

 

[RDArmstrong]

Not really digging the show so far. The effects, locales, and costumes are fine, but I just can't get over how dull the characters are. The most interesting characters are the dark Jedi, mainly because they're saying nothing and they look interesting.

 

[Rodders]

I've only seen clips, but the lightsabre fighting doesn't look very good and neither does the acting. I will try and watch it properly at some point, but i'll probably wait until the Blu-Ray is released, though.

 

[ctg]

science man, the conclusion of this lesson is that if you'd get run through by a lightsabre, nothing good would come out at the end. In the extreme case, you'd be just a pile of ash.

 

[BAYLOR]

science man, the conclusion of this lesson is that if you'd get run through by a lightsabre, nothing good would come out at the end. In the extreme case, you'd be just a pile of ash.

Those will be in the store in time for Christmas .

 

[The Crawling Chaos]

We all have different expectations when it comes to how far content creators can push without annihilating our suspension of disbelief.

When it comes to Star Wars I don't care one bit about the science behind it because Star Wars is fantasy. FTL travel, the Force, artifical gravity, sound in space are but a few among hundreds of things happening in this saga that make little to no scientific sense at all.

I don't think it makes sense to accept that all those things are okay to ignore and then, somewhat arbitrarily, draw the line at the properties of a lightsaber. So as I mentioned in another thread I don't see a problem with Sabine suviving her wound, at least from an anatomical or scientific POV. What bothers me more is that her opponent was stupid not to finish her off immediately.

But where I really draw the line is at plausible character development and sound reasoning behind the characters' actions - assuming they have been portrayed as beings capable of reasoning. And so when in last week's episode (Part III) of Ahsoka, the titular character decided to protect her deactivated ship, which was about to be blown to smithereens by a swarm of enemy fighters, by... drawing their fire as she stood right on top of it with both her lightsabers drawn, I had to shake my head because it painted both her and her enemies as stupid.

When characters do stupid things just to allow the showrunners, writers, filmmakers, to insert a scene that looks cool (here, a zero grav combat scene between a Jedi and enemy fighters flying past her), that's what pulls me out of a story.

 

[ctg]

I don't think it makes sense to accept that all those things are okay to ignore and then, somewhat arbitrarily, draw the line at the properties of a lightsaber. So as I mentioned in another thread I don't see a problem with Sabine suviving her wound, at least from an anatomical or scientific POV. What bothers me more is that her opponent was stupid not to finish her off immediately.

I'm not bothered about the lightsabre wound either, because my reasoning is why would you want to kill your MC at the first episode? I have personal reason on why I would do it in my own stuff, but the thing is this series has not established itself when the wound happens and therefore, killing off Sabine at this stage would have been absolutely ruthless and serve no point, except for those who have seen the animated stuff.

And like you said, this is Fantasy, not SF. So the reason for me to put the video here was sarcasm and to provoke those who haven't seen the later conversations on the topic.

 

[Dave]

I agree that she should be dead, but that's irrelevant really. She is or she isn't! You need to watch the next episode if you don't know.

He says that a lightsabre is "a blade of highly energised plasma energy". Is that actually canonical?

 

[ctg]

I agree that she should be dead, but that's irrelevant really. Is is or she isn't! You need to watch the next episode if you don't know.

He says that a lightsabre is "a blade of highly energised plasma energy". Is that actually canonical?

Yeah, and it's scientific definition for the lightsabre blade.

 

[Dave]

Yeah, and it's scientific definition for the lightsabre blade.

From exactly which film or TV episode please? Is there some Coruscant scientist who appears and info dumps this somewhere?

I preferred when it was still only "an ancient weapon" from a "hokey religion"!

 

[Dave]

Okay, don't worry, I looked it up on Wookieepedia. Apparently, it's in comics such as Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi where Dark Sabre blades (which came first) are also explained (they channelled the Dark Side of the Force into the blade of plasma crystals). And Naboo built its whole economy of the production of Plasma (which was also required for Blasters).

However, we did have this from Obi Wan Kenobi in the original film, so that's good enough for me: "This is the formal weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. More skill than simple sight was required for its use. An elegant weapon. It was a symbol as well. Anyone can use a blaster or a fusioncutter—but to use a lightsaber well was a mark of someone a cut above the ordinary."

I'm thinking now that a Blaster fight, with a much less precise* weapon but still using Plasma, would cause a lot more damage too. Not just the mild carbon scoring that we see, but like whole sections of corridors on ships missing!

*By "less precise" I meant in comparison to a lightsabre. Obviously, when in the hands of a Storm Trooper who cannot shoot for toffee, then it couldn't even be called precise at all.

 

[ctg]

they channelled the Dark Side of the Force into the blade of plasma crystals)

That's debatable, because the side of the Force is with the case of the user. There is no chaotic corruption if you pick up some other blade, as you would get tainted for example in WH40k universe. So it's wrong to claim that and another point comes with the plasma. Sure you can store inside a magnetic bottle, but the sabre's that we've seen doesn't work that way. They might have at the beginning, when they were complicated pieces. The modern and standard models flow the force through the kybercrystals and ignite the blade in that way. Force then keeps the blade steady and gives it certain characteristics, like for example Ren's chaotic spits in his crusader blade.

The thing here is that SW is fantasy, even though we have replicated those crude forms and made them reality. Like in this hacksmith example,

Essentially, lightsabres are equivalent to the classical fantasy magical weapons, including blades. In their own way, they are taken to extremely close to their scientific counterparts and that is through the artistic interpretation, instead of basing it on the science. And like I said previously Sabine's checked through the critical eye, the fatality would have removed the MC and therefore Sabine needed story shield. However she's not the only one who have survived hits or even dismemberments. Vader is the best example of extreme survival. Not only he was dismembered and Kenobi refused to deliver a killing blow. Instead, he left Anakin/Vader to suffer extreme burns at the bank of a lava river.

The Emperor came to rescue him later on after Kenobi had left and even in his case, it took a while before he was on the surgeon's table. Sabine was found by Ashoka pretty soon after the hit and Lothal Capital isn't really that far away from the comtower. You have to watch Rebels to realise the distance, but let's just agree that the tower is within the greater capital area. Ashoka was also trained back in the Old Republic days and I'm pretty certain that her training included medical procedures for the sabre victims, because during the Clone Wars there were so many of them.

That knowledge is not forgotten, and certainly not in Lothal, where they had the main rebel camp for a long time before they moved the base to the mushroom planet. They also had the famous Jedi Temple, including the mysterious Temple Guardians. So the knowledge to treat the injuries is definitely there.

Only thing that I agree is the wound and miraculous healing from it. Sabine should be suffering more, but then again, we don't really know what medical procedures they did to her to get back on her feet. We also don't know really for how long it was between the hit, going to the hospital, and feeling good enough to get back on the feet. Who knows she might be on the good stuff, but House of Mickey is not going to included drugged-to-the-eyeballs in the fantasy series, because there are no addicts in the SW. It's a dark fantasy that ignores some hard realities.

 

[Rodders]

I saw this last night. I enjoyed it, but it felt really... contrived.

I haven't seen Rebels, but i think that Filoni has done a good job of reeling new comers in.

Excellent special effects. It was great to see X-Wings and Home One again.

The music's pretty decent. Different to John Williams score but fitting.

Good costumes and set design.

I like the new ships. I loved the Dark Horse comics, so to see an E-Wing is pretty cool. I'm hoping we see them in action later in the series. Ahsoka's T-6 is cool, but i would've thought she'd give it a name.

It's not without it's negative bits, though.

The acting is pretty wooden. I'm enjoying Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka, but i'm struggling to like Sabine. Hera seems to serve no function whatsoever. I appreciate that Ray Stevenson (RIP) is a beloved actor, but he's just going through the motions here and i'm not impressed.

The lightsabre duels aren't that good. Too slow and too much spinning for show. Also, why isn't the sabre the deadly weapon it used to be?

Oh, and why are they all the military personnel wearing Strepsils?

On to part two.