ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - AHSOKA Episode 5 REVIEW: Was it WORTH the HYPE?

Episode Date: September 18, 2023

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There's hope for you yet. Hey, welcome to Screen Crush. I'm Colton Ogburn, and Asoka Episode 5 was absolutely insane. We've got my boy Hayden Christensen back as Anakin Skywalker, live-action Clone Wars battles. It was... Intense. Now, a little later, I'm gonna bring in Screencrush's own, Dotson Sykes, and Breonna McClarty to tell me what they thought about the episode. But first, let me geek out a little. Now, the first Star Wars movie I saw in a movie theater was Revenge. was Revenge of the Sith. I was like seven years old and for years I'd watched on repeat the original

trilogy VHS tapes as well as the first two prequels but there was always this missing piece that was Revenge of the Sith and I was so excited to finally get that missing story when that film came out and I was fortunate enough to be able to get a lot of the toys and the video game and it was just an awesome time and Revenge of the Sith and the hype around that movie when it was coming out It's a core memory for me and just a significant part of my life. And I'm sure it has inspired a lot of my work as a big boy now. And look, while as an adult and a filmmaker, I see the flaws in the prequels. I do, but I just don't care.

I still watch Revenge of the Sith all the way through at least once a year. And my entire life is just random Revenge of the Sith quotes that makes my wife want to destroy me. But luckily, I'm taller and I always have the high ground. It's over Anakin. I have the high ground. Now, speaking of high ground, we do have a great new high ground shirt over on our merch store, Screencrushmerch.com, as well as lots of other fun new stuff like this Master and Apprentice, family tree, poster and tapestry, and of course our say no to death stick shirt. Seriously, man, go home and rethink your life.

Treating yourself to some fun stuff from our merch store is one of the best ways to support our channel and help us be able to keep making all of the fun videos that you and I both love. Again, that's screencrush merch.com. Anyway, I'm telling you all about my love for Revenge of the Sith because what was this episode of Asoka, if not a love letter, to fans of the prequel movies and series like The Clone Wars? Don't get me wrong, I am not a Disney-era Star Wars hater. I love The Force Awakens and Rogue One,

the first two Star Wars movies that Disney put out. And I'm also able to acknowledge, unlike some of the franchises, more toxic fans that beloved shows like The Mandalorian, Andor, and even Asoka. Guess what? Great. Those are Disney Star Wars 2. That's impossible. But I do want to share a critique I have of those first few years of Star Wars being back

under the helm of Disney. During that time, there was basically no acknowledgement of the prequels. They avoided those movies like The Plague and anything adjacent to them like the Clone Wars series. I mean, they even put out a series. Star Wars Battlefront game, the first one since the masterpiece that was the first Star Wars Battlefront 2. And in this new game, there were no prequel characters, no prequel planets, no prequel ships, and it was just obvious that Disney and Lucasfilm felt their best path forward was to ignore the prequels and focus heavily on the original trilogy. And look, I get that. The

prequels were not received well by critics and a lot of fans. And Disney understandably thought, that their best course of action was to stick to the nostalgic love of the first three films. And look, they were probably right to do that for that time. And don't get me wrong, I adore the original trilogy. It is still by far the best Star Wars has ever been and probably ever will be. But as a guy who grew up with essentially both trilogies side by side, I was able to find a love and respect for both trilogies in their own way. And I think that's the case for a lot of Star Wars fans. So just like the early 20 teens was the right time

to honor nostalgia of the original trilogy, I think that the early 2020s are proving to be the right time to honor the nostalgia and the love for the prequel era. Now, Asoka Tano is a creation of the prequel era. She was created during a pretty dry time for the Star Wars fandom. Three years after Revenge of the Sith came out, and her entire character was centered

in an era of the Star Wars timeline that was controversial at best. And it didn't help that the movie she was introduced in was absolute garbage. I thought you liked to play in the sand. Sorry to those of you who liked that movie, all three of you, but yeah, it was a dart time for Star Wars. But then came the Clone Wars series, which, in my personal opinion, had a rough start, but as the series progressed, it turned into a really great piece of Star Wars. A piece of Star Wars that is now being honored in live action.

This is the Clone Wars. Yeah, no kidding. And look, as a prequel fan, I've been begging for some live action prequel era material. And boy, did this episode of Asoka deliver. We got to see young Asoka in one of her first battles in the Clone Wars with her green lightsaber and those OG clone troopers and Hayden Christensen, the goat, in his Clone Wars costume. And it put a huge smile on my face. What about my training?

This is your training. Was this extremely fan service-y? Yes. But that's okay. Fan service is okay. Hell, I'd even argue it is necessary as long as it contributes to the story and doesn't feel out of place. And to me, this episode handled that perfectly. In fact, not to complain, but I feel like it could have used a lot more. I mean, if you're going to do a trippy dream sequence episode with Hayden Christiansen back as Anakin, go all out, show me more than two battles, show me an alternate future, Show me Asoka struggling with her choice to leave the order, and then Anakin showing her what would have happened had she stayed. Show Asoka and Obi-1 fighting Anakin on Mustafa and maybe killing him, making it to where he died evil instead of redeemed, meaning that the way history actually panned out was the best path possible.

Use every tool in your tool belt and drive home that point that everything that happens happens for a reason and happens because the force willed it to. Now, I don't want to come off greedy when I say that I wanted more. More! But I do think this episode should have been Asoka and Anakin the whole way through. I love the stuff with Hara and Jason. I really did, but come on, we were all screaming. Get back to Asoka and Anakin every time they cut away, right? You look the same.

You look old. All right, and that's where I want to bring in our guests. I have Screencrush's own dots and sights and Brianna McClarty. So I want to ask you guys, do you guys? Do you think that this episode went a little too far in some places? Ah, did it not go far enough? Like, what are your overall thoughts on the episode and its incorporation of like some OG prequel stuff and Clone War stuff?

Dot, I'll throw it to you first. Yeah. Okay. So for me, I thought it was a little too much, a little too much, sorry, a little too much, a little not enough, and a little like all just perfect. The way it was so fragmented, it felt at sometimes, like, I hated what I was seeing on screen. Sometimes I was literally cheering for what I was seeing on screen. Like, biggest example, right, is those Clone Wars scenes, right?

The first Clone Wars scene I actually hated, and mostly because I don't know why Hayden Christensen doesn't know how to, like, run in gloves, I guess, is what was throwing him off. But, like, he looked like a toddler that was just wearing. a suit for the first time and like it takes away kind of from some of those like harder moments when you see him like flashing in the clouds with like vater right over his silhouette and and like also like seeing the clone war's armor for the first time in live action was so cool but it was kind of ruined to me by his acting in that moment now literally you splice that with that second clone war scene and i loved that scene i thought that was actually very reminiscent of where both Asoka and Anakin were and really showed like the difference in how Asoka has been brought up

and the problems with what with Asoka being brought up as a warrior for something that was meant to be a peacekeeping religious order right like she was uh she had this kind of big like losing my religion kind of moment in in the Clone Wars and I think that was really powerful and I think that second scene really showed that really well and of course it was super gratifying, seeing, you know, the death watch horns on those Mandalorians. That first shot of them that you see to me actually looked literally like it was animated, right? I had to pause a couple of times to see that it was actually live action, but that

frame to me literally looked animated to me. So, like, it was weird. There was some beats that felt really, really strong. There were some beats that felt really, really awkward, right? I feel a little strange with, like, especially when you watch Anakin in Revenge of the Sith and like how kind of like unhinged he is and kind of how childish he is in a lot of ways, right?

Now, Clone Wars and like Dave Filoni's, you know, backstory is really kind of retconned a lot of those feelings and we kind of like see that slow build to where he's gotten to now and we have that understanding. But it's still hard for me to kind of like rationalize that he's come from that, kid to being this, like, mentor-esque figure through being Vader, right? Um, and so that's kind of the, the, the, I think to me, the big thing that Asoka and

Anakin are battling out in this episode. And that is a huge, huge, like, character development to just try to summarize in one episode. And I think they did a pretty good job for the most part. There's just some things to me that really stuck out and that kind of threw me out a little bit. Kind of like the de-aging did in the first reveal, right? Where I was like, oh, this is really cool. Oh, wow. We really, really see that we've, the ears have actually affected you here, even though, you know, Disney Magic didn't quite cover up everything. Yeah, well, it sounds to me like one of your biggest critiques. It's not really a critique of the episode. or what they did here with these flashbacks,

it's really of Clone Wars and their decision to go back and make Anakin this mature general type character. And that's great in the Clone Wars. It's cool. You kind of get to see in Clone Wars more the side of Anakin that becomes this leader, Darth Vader. But when you watch Attack of the Clones and then Revenge of the Sith, it's very clear that Revenge of the Sith is a direct sequel,

really, to Attack of the Clones. clones. And the character of Anakin in Revenge of the Sith did not have the character development that they later go back and give to him in Clone Wars. So I think that could be a lot of the problem there. And yeah, he seemed so awkward in that armor. I don't know what the deal was there if it was just uncomfortable or what, but the way he was moving in that armor was really weird. So I do want to throw it over to Brianna. Brianna, what did you think of this episode and do you think that it was too much or not enough in some places? I really like this episode.

This is probably my favorite episode of the show so far. I do agree about the armor thing. However, I looked past Bocatan's wig for all of Mandalorian season two, so I could look past the armor. I think I really liked having as much Clone Wars in there as we did because I think one of the hard things about kind of mashing this animated universe and this live action universe is that animation, especially in the Clone Wars, because it was kind of more marketed at kids,

it can soften things. And so you have moments in like the animated battle of Rilov where like, oh, it is kind of crazy that these grown adult clones are all calling her commander, but seeing her as a child soldier was a completely different experience.

It was a lot heavier and it was a lot sadder. Like the whole gravity of that, like all sticks out, right? Like seeing her as little kid. That, yeah, you're right. Yeah, she looks like such a baby. And like I was, I looked up how old she was. She was like 14.

That's like an eighth grader or a freshman. Like, that is such a young kid. Can you imagine, like, an eighth grader or a freshman, like, leading people into battle? Literally. Like, that's insane. Yeah, I was like, no wonder she's traumatized. So I was really happy they showed that because I think it, like, it made it a lot more clear how difficult that was. And honestly, it kind of made it clear how wrong the Jedi order was to throw all of these, like, kids.

Because most of them ended up dying. She's just one of the ones who lived. So I really, really enjoyed that. I do think the de-aging and the armor was not the best, but I feel like I've looked past bigger Star Wars costume mistakes. Fair, yeah. And then in terms of some of the seeing him as this mature general, I think that the Clone Wars does rec on that a fair amount.

I think I'm even more willing, honestly, to accept it in this, because we're seeing it from a Soka's perspective, and I do think it's a little bit like when you're a little kid, and you're looking at people who are older than you, and you're like, oh my God, they're so old. old and it's like they're not they're still like you know they're still very young but they feel really old and i do get that sense from asoka especially in like the first scene where i'm like he could have been very immature he kind of was honestly pretty blasé about the lives but to her

he would have seemed like this great mentor well i i love that you both brought up the fact that we got to see her as a child and i personally i think i've seen that animated clone wars movie once and like the first few seasons of Clom Wars once, I'm more of a later seasons of Clom Wars fan. And I forget how young Assoca really was there. You know, they could have gone the route of just having Rosario Dawson play the Asoka in that situation and have everything else around her be older and Clom Wars era, but have her just maintain, you know, her current look. But I'm glad they made the decision to cast a young actress and have her be so young in that scene because, like you said, it really does show the gravity of the situation

of the Clone Wars and why Asoka is the way she is. So I'm glad you mentioned that. Now, in the spirit of me, like being greedy and wanting more Anakin, like I talked about earlier in the video, I want to ask both you, do you think we are going to get any more Anakin this season? There have been trailers where we hear more Anakin. Now, that could just be cut dialogue from this episode, but I'm kind of hoping we get some more. Do you think we'll get some more? Dodd, I'll throw that to you first. I would have to go through and look back at the actual cut dialogue that we haven't seen in the trailers to see if it's actually stuff that I think would fit in like cut things from this trailer to like officially make that call. But my gut tells me that no, I feel

like this is kind of what we needed Anakin for, right? Like this episode, I was talking with somebody about this online. They were like, I don't like episodes that are solely for character buildup. And I was like, okay, I don't even think this, this episode did do that, right? Right. But I don't think this episode is only that, right? We got, not only was it like this big triumph over her own darkness and this big metaphor, Asoka the White and all this cool stuff, but like we found how she's going to get to Ezra. That was the plot step that needed to happen in this episode, right? And so I think that like the arc, my point being is that I think the arc that we really needed Anakin for,

that overcoming her own personal darkness and that like that big kind of, belly of the beast trauma, I think that's it, right? I think that that's where she learns her lesson. She's clearly a changed character from here, right? I think the rest of the story is going to be indicative on how that change affects the situation versus her going through more challenges, if that makes sense. I believe it was something along the lines of Anakin saying, I know you can do this, Asoka. I know you can do this, Asoka.

That could totally be a cut line from this episode. But I'm kind of leaning toward maybe in her rematch with Baylon, maybe we'll hear Anakin come to her kind of like the Force Ghost did and Rise of Skywalker with Ray. Brianna, what do you think? Do you think we're going to hear any more Anakin, see any more Anakin? I think we might have sort of what you talked about. Like I can see like in the finale having a very short Anakin moment, but I don't think we're going to get much more than that. And in all honesty, I do love Anakin, but I kind of hope we don't because for me, this episode was the, the first episode of the show that felt like was actually centered on Asoka and not Sabine.

And I really like Sabine, but the show is called Asoka. So I liked having Anakin there because of how it let Asoka's story progress. But I think putting a lot more Aniken in would just distract from her. And I really just like want the show to be about her. Very true. I've said from the start, this show should have just been Rebel Season 5. I think that would have been a better title. I love Asoka, but this is not an Asoka series, really, until this episode, it's more of a Sabine series.

Exactly. I hope this is the pivot. I'm really hoping this is the pivot because I really like Asoka. I hope so, too. And the fact that Hera stayed behind could kind of be a sign that we're going to get some more Asoka-centric storytelling. I mean, especially with, like, how many episodes we have left, right? Like, you can kind of look at these first couple of episodes where we felt that it was so Sabine-heavy as, like, she loses Sabine too. and that's her biggest moment into the belly of the beast kind of thing.

And, like, that buildup kind of looks like it makes sense there. And so if this, if the story ends up being, like, just like we saw on this episode, kind of showing how her change and, like, how her finishing her training with Anakin has really changed her, right? Then I think that overall I can look at the series as more of an Asoka show than Rebel Season 5 at this point, possibly. Yeah, I hope so. Before we go, I wanted to complain about something, and I think you too will enjoy this.

I wanted to talk about how incompetent and ineffective and just eerie the New Republic seems. Like, when those New Republic ships came in toward the end of that episode, it felt like Star Destroyers flying in there. Like, why did I feel scared of this new republic? the government that took over after Return of the Jedi. Why is a character like Chancellor Mothma, who is supposed to be this badass rebel who we've seen in Andor in like the exact same position that Hera was in when begging for help,

now all of a sudden she's acting like this crooked, corrupt, out-of-touch politician, and that, oh, that bothers me so much because I love that character. And I mean, it makes sense. that this is happening because we know what happens with the first order and all that. But what did you guys think about how seasons like Mandalorian season three and now in Asoka, we're getting to see just the incompetence of the new republic. I'll throw that to you first, Brianna.

I do agree. It definitely like when they showed up, I was like, oh, they seem like the bad guys here because they are the bad guys here. I think it's actually really, as someone who's like who likes politics, in Star Wars, which I know is kind of controversial. I actually am really enjoying being able to see it because I think, especially what you're seeing with characters like Mon Mothma is they've been in some sort of war or rebellion for like over 30 years at this point.

Like there was the Clone Wars and then there was the Empire and there was like years of rebelling against the Empire. And I think all of these characters, it's not that I think Mon Mothma is like incredibly evil, I think she's tired and I think she's really wants there to be peace. And I don't, I think she's willing to like turn her head if she thinks there can be peace. And I don't think she's necessarily, she's not looking at the flaws of the old republic that allowed it to fall. Like the bureaucracy of the old republic was one of the biggest ways it could fall. If you see it in the phantom menace where they won't go and help

Nabu because they need to do it a whole investigation. And you're seeing a lot of those same problems. Now, what sucks is you would need a giant bureaucracy to manage thousands and thousands of planets. Right. So there has to be a bureaucracy. but she's not looking at where that failed. Instead, she's just trying to sort of reset everything as it was, but now they don't even have a moral compass at all because the Jedi Order no longer exists. So it's even more fraught.

I don't think that it comes from, like, yeah, I want everything to be bad. I think she just really wants everything to be good, but isn't actually looking at the work it takes to get there. And she's letting a lot of bad apples rot all of it, which is exactly how the first order came to be. Yeah. And I mean, don't get me wrong. I love her character. And I think you're right that she's probably in some state of denial. And you're right that she probably is exhausted. You know, we didn't get a lot of focus on her character in the original trilogy. But as we know in the canon, she was at the front line of all of these battles and the war to bring down Palpatine. So I think you're right that she's probably trying to juggle this, you know, dilemma of I want. I want to listen to Hara and I want to be able to do the rebellious things I used to do, but I also want to be able to maintain this democracy we fought so hard to build.

And with a democracy, she can't just act as like this Supreme Chancellor who just says, okay, do this, I don't care what the senators say. So yeah, to your point, that would be undemocratic and show poor leadership on her part, even though Harrah's right in this case. What do you think about the chancellor, the new republic, all of that? I know we always say people hate politics in the Star Wars. This channel loves politics and Star Wars. Like everybody here loves politics in Star Wars, all right?

And this is so satisfying for us, for these kind of fans, right? Because it is right. I felt that same thing y'all felt as soon as they pulled up here. I was like, they have really positioned them as the antagonist in this. story right now and that's because right now the whole thron squad is is gone they're they're they're not even a part of the picture and this episode they're absolutely 100% the antagonist i think it's really really interesting and me for me my mind immediately went to some of the conversations um you know uh with like the interviews of george lucas where he was talking about

like the rebel alliance and what those would be labeled as if they were in If people did those things in the real world, what they would be labeled to be labeled as terrorists, right? And Asoka was labeled as a terrorist by the empire, right? And we've seen when actual terrorists can form a government, they usually don't form the most cohesive system there, right? It has a lot of faults there, right? It's kind of, it reminds me of the Joker at the end of Dark Night. I'm kind of like the dog chasing the car. I don't know what to do when I get it.

you know and it's the same thing with with this they the the the rebel alliance there was so much of it that was moral based right we see and door and i just i love all the the moments in empire are so great because they're they're the easy moments right it's the really really easy bad guys and the really really easy good guys right and um and you can you can play with those elements there now once the dogs finally caught the car at the end of endor here right That's when people like Mon Mothma are like, okay, well, do you have anything I can go off of here? Right? It reminds me of like people that are like working for feeding the hungry and different charities, right? They're like, hey, I need this amount of dollars so I can feed these people or I'm taking food out of other people's mouths, right? They're still doing a good thing, but they just have limited resources and they can't do what it is. And what that looks like extrapolated out over years and years is someone who is kind of snippy, like, hey, do you got them? of things that I need or I can't do anything. So I think to me it matches perfectly with her

trajectory. And I think that like, you know, she was always kind of brought on as this kind of like almost angelic politician character in the beginning, right? This is the Mon Motho, the one good guy that comes in here and to see her character like kind of drug out to the point where she's like, do you have anything I can go off of? No, okay, bye. I think is actually very fitting and very like Star Wars. So to me it works. It rhymes. I love to see it. That's funny you say. I was going to say it rhymes, exactly. And it's really, it's perfect. I mean, it wouldn't be good storytelling if everything just went according to plan and there was peace and all of it. And I know at the end of return of the Jedi, you, you wanted to feel that way. And myself and others are, you know, critical of how they

handled the first order and all that in the sequel trilogy. But I think what they're doing with shows like Mandalorian and Asoka, to your point, they're really showing the downfall of the new republic and how a good intention to government can fall. Because we've never seen a good intention to government really fall in Star Wars because even in the prequels, it was all being manipulated by Palpatine. Now we have actual rule. The good guys are actually in charge. And yeah, it's your point. It's just, it's falling apart. It's harder than it looks. All right. Well, I want to thank both of you so much for being on here. Dodd, where can the people find you? Hey, you can find me on Twitch, Twitter, and TikTok at Roos underscore Bain.

Brianna? You can follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Brianna T. McClarty. All right. And I want to thank all of you so much for watching and thank you for putting up with me. Ryan and Doug will be back soon. Let us know your thoughts down to the comments below on Asoka, episode five. And if it's your first time here, be sure to hit that bell for alert, subscribe, all that good stuff. All right. Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you next time. Bye.