ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Why ANDOR is Better than AHSOKA

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

This video compares and contrasts the Star Wars series "Andor" and "Ahsoka," discussing their similarities, differences, and overall quality. The analysis focuses on character development, plot, and storytelling techniques, particularly through key scenes. It explores why one series is considered a standout while the other falls short, delving into the creators' approaches and their impact on the final product. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. It's time to move on. Uh, okay. Hey, welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie, and I want to talk about Andor and Asoka, two shows that I think are the very best and worst of the live-action Star Wars series. I think there are many similarities between these two shows, but there's one scene that really sets the most. apart and shows why one show was this,

Who are you? And the other was more like this. As always, remember that screen crushes on all of your favorite podcast platforms and later I'm going to tell you about some fun new and or parody merch that we designed for you guys at our merch store. We just dropped this Calibrate Your Enthusiasm shirt, and the links

for those are below. And right now we have a summer sale 20% off site wide, and you can check out the links below for that for a limited time only. Now, I want to compare these two shows specifically because I think they tell us a lot about Lucasfilm, Star Wars, and the two factions of Star Wars fans. But first of all, I want to make something very clear.

I am going to say some critical things about Dave Filoni's work, but I think the man is a genius. He directed the first episode of Avatar The Last Airbender. Clone Wars is one of the all-time best Star Wars stories ever told. Normally, I am a huge fan of his work, which is one reason I was so disappointed with the show, Asoka. Now, I understand that these shows have very different tones. Andor is a dark, grounded series,

while Asoka is a continuation of a children's Disney XD show. But kids' shows, when done right, can have powerful emotional impacts. Like, there are parts of Rebels that get me every single time I watch the series. So, I'm looking forward to explaining why I think Asoka fell short. So first, let me talk about the similarities between these two shows. They each center around two-side characters and Star Wars who get their own two-season spinoff streaming series that will lead into a movie. And both of these series have strong ties to Star Wars Rebels and duplicate scenes from that show.

There's a figure who was key in organizing the Rebel Alliance, who is now mentoring a young person who is struggling to sacrifice their own happiness for the greater good. Sabine can't sacrifice Ezra and Cassian can't sacrifice his desire for personal freedom. This young person is also separated from the person they love, highlighting their loneliness and devotion to their cause. The imperial villains in the series are trying to construct a device that will lead to the imperial domination of the galaxy through the construction of the Death Star and the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Both stories also show the bureaucracy at work behind the scenes for the good guys, and subplots that are featuring Mon Mothma. And the main characters in each show face a reckoning where they realize that it is their destiny to keep fighting.

So now let's break down these two key scenes. Now, I want to be fair to the show Asoka, so rather than choosing one of the many scenes from the show that I don't like, I chose my favorite scene, the dream ballet between her and Anakin. This fight is the culmination of several themes in the series, and the similar scene in Andor is the street fight between Cassian and Cyril. So let's start with that scene. First of all, the backdrop of both of these fights is failure.

Soka just let Morgan get away with the map and the rebels are helpless as Gorman falls to the empire. Now the second Gorman massacre is, I believe, the climax of the entire series. Everything that follows is falling action. This series is showing us how the empire's construction of the Death Star led to the revolution that eventually overthrew the Emperor. Or, as Leia said, the more you tighten your grip talk, the more star systems will slip through your fingers. The massacre was not only key in the construction of the Death Star, but it led to Mon Mothma leaving the Senate and formally forming the Rebel Alliance. But that's all like world-building stuff. None of that really matters to the story. And this is going to be important. We're going to keep talking about the difference between story and plot.

The plot are the events that happen, literally point A, B, and C. But the story encompasses everything. The theme, the characters, the setting. Put another way, plot is what happens, but story is why it happens. Now, let's get back to the crucial scene in Andor. So this scene is a reckoning for two characters, Cassian and Cyril. For Cyril, he had spent his entire life seeking the approval of male authority figures. We know that when he was little, his dad ran away, and he bristles under his doting mother. A young, delicate boy with only a mother's love and determination doesn't like being called delicate. But when Partagas says three words to him, Excellent work, Cyril.

He is elated. If I say this is the greatest day of my life, does it spoil everything? New friends, special day. But a year later, Cyril realizes that the empire has been lying to him. They're not trying to subjugate Gorman, they're trying to dismantle it. There's mining equipment being dropped all over the planet. What kind of a beam are you? Cyril and Cassian are both in this world for the same reason, because of Dedra Miro.

Cassian wants to assassinate her and Cyril wants to impress her. So this scene is actually a culmination of both Cyril and Cassian's stories. This is a watershed moment for these characters. After seeing the Gorman Massacre, Cassian no longer wants to be in the rebellion, and Cyril no longer wants to work for the empire. So let's break down this fight, not the actual battle like beat for beat, but more what the fight means. Cassian, even when he's surrounded by all this chaos,

remains laser-focused on his objective. He has Dedra in his sights. Cyril, by contrast, is frozen in place. He's going through shell shock, and he has no idea who he is or what he's supposed to do now until he sees Cassian. Now remember, Cyril's quest for justice and approval started because of Cassian. He sees Cassian as a wanted criminal, and in his mind, Cyril is the main character of his own story. He's the Javert destined to bring down his Valjean.

So he throws his body into Cassian, setting the tempo for the entire fight. Like, I don't know if any of you guys have ever been in a real fight or watched a real fight, but this fight is scary accurate to real life. Fights are not epic dramas framed by the Moonlight. They're ugly little scrapes that are all about who can get on top and who wants it more. And we see these two struggle for the literal upper hand. Cyril strangles Cassian and Cassian uses candy dishes as weapons. And I especially love this moment where Cassian hits Cyril and his lat muscles, a real sore spot to take a hit. Every blow feels

like it has physical consequences. This is not some epic culmination of their personal history. This is chaotic and real. It's as chaotic as the massacre itself. And the tempo of the fight also is important for this scene because it gives the massacre real grounded stakes. The brutality happening outside is so big that we struggle to comprehend it. But having two people who we know really kick the shit out of each other, those are stakes that make this entire conflict feel more real. And think about this battle from Cassian's perspective. In the middle of all this craziness, he is attacked by a total stranger. And from Cyril's perspective, this fight is what gives his life meaning. That means that the character stakes in this fight

matter. And all of this careful character work that's been laid out over the past 20 hours culminates in one amazing line. Just as Cyril believes that his mission is complete, he finds out how irrelevant he always was. Who are you? This is the only line spoken in this fight, and it tells us everything we need to know about Cyril and the empire. His entire existence is distilled into three words. And the fallout from this fight directly affects Cassian. After the massacre, wants to quit the rebellion. In order to keep him in the fight, Bix has to leave him, so the Gorman Massacre has lasting effects on Cassian's character, and it connects directly to the theme of the show. Sacrifice. Bix has to sacrifice a happy life with Cassian so he'll stay in the

rebellion because she believes that he has a greater destiny. And Cassian has to sacrifice his happy life with Bix so he can stay in the rebellion, steal the Death Star plans, and save the galaxy. Everything connects to a central theme. So, now let's talk for a moment about how this story was actually crafted. Like Tony Gilroy, the showrunner, is a season screenwriter with films like Nightcrawler, Michael Clayton, and The Born Identity, and many others under his belt. But Tony Gilroy is not like a Star Wars lifer. In fact, he barely likes Star Wars. We went to see Star Wars. It was an event. And, um, did I hang in? No. So Gilroy did not sign up for Andor because he wanted to be a part of the Star Wars saga or because he loved playing with Luke Skywalker toys as a kid.

Tony Gilroy just wants to tell a story about revolutions. He was inspired by historical events like the Wanasi Conference, the Highland Clearances, and the Holocaust. His characters are inspired by real people like Joseph Stalin or Patty Hurst. And he also drew from incredible films like the Battle of Algiers or the Battleship Potemkin and the spy who came in from the cold. According to this amazing video on the channel film Can't Die, highly recommend that video it's linked below.

And Gilroy also has a relevant message in this show. Just as George Lucas later admitted that the first Star Wars was actually inspired by Vietnam. I think we call those guys terrorists today. We call them Mujahideen. We call them Al-Qaeda. When I did it, they were Vietnam. Gailroy was obviously inspired by current events like immigration rights. I'll be checking visas. On our live show tour, one question we kept getting a lot was, well, why don't studios just let fans make these shows and movies? And my answer always was, well, fans shouldn't make shows and movies. Writers should make shows and movies. Like for instance, look at Nicholas Meyer. Now here is that. Nicholas Meyer is the man who saved the start.

Trek franchise. After Star Trek the motion picture was a creative and financial disaster, Paramount hired a guy who barely watched the original show to write and direct what is arguably the best Trek film, The Wrath of Khan. And this is because Nicholas Meyer treated the job as a storyteller first and a Star Trek fan second. And all of this made me think about a couple of behind the scenes clips from the Mandalorian season one. In this first clip, John Favro says, When I went in, I said, look, I don't want to be influenced so much by Star Wars. You know, we definitely want to be consistent with stories. But I want to be influenced by the stuff that influenced George.

And we see this through the first two seasons of the show. It is a perfect mashup of several classic films and genres. In fact, the editor of New Hope and Empire Strikes Back Paul Hirsch set in his autobiography that when he saw the first rough cut of the film, it was, quote, like George Lucas had conjured a dream from every movie he had ever seen. Just like how we have conjured these new shirts for our merch store for you guys. Guys, we love designing these Star Wars shirts for you. We have some really fun ones.

We have the I Have Friends Everywhere, Fight the Empire, free Gorman, and of course Star Wars classics like Hello There, original trilogy, and many more. And here's a reminder, right now we have a 20% sales sitewide with a discount applied at checkout. So this is the perfect time to get your very own calibrate your enthusiasm shirt. Shopping our merch store really does help out our channel, and you can find links for those below. So now I want to talk about the second scene from the making of the Mandalorian that I think tells us a lot about how different creators approach Star Wars. So this is when John Favroo and Dave Filoni are talking about the Stormtrooper helmets that are on spikes outside of the the cantina in season one and Favreau leans heavily on classic film inspirations it's more of a like

passer-by moment throw away apocalypse now it adds a little menace while Dave Filoni god love him only speaks in Star Wars everyone three feels head gets blasted and they all walk by and empire and they pan over to it and they don't see it no I don't remember that so let's talk about Dave Faloni a man who is currently living his dream Faloni loves Star Wars I remember when he talked about how he got the call to work on the Clone Wars and then my answer was oh you have no idea how the guy I am I am so the guy I have a plokoom costume in my my garage like this is a dream come true for him he has a reverence for the source material that borders on religious and loves inserting really obvious Easter eggs into

all of his stuff I can't see how am I supposed to fight with the blast shield down I can't even see how am I supposed to fight he's shown great insight about small details in the movies so he's fighting for Anakin and that's why it's the duel of the fates it's the fate of this child. That's a failing for Anakin. He doesn't have the family that he need. And Star Wars ultimately is about family. Now there's a lot more to it than that, but you should watch this whole rant. It's great. On so many levels, Dave Filoni understands the core of Star Wars. He worked hand-in-hand with George Lucas on the Clone Wars, and so many people see him as the heir apparent to George. But the big difference is, George Lucas wanted to tell Star Wars stories about

politics and classic cinema with the theme of escapism, and Dave Filoni wants to tell Star Wars stories about Star Wars. His desire to further the story of the galaxy into a larger narrative means that in shows like Asoka, he rushes ahead instead of crafting a story based in fame and character's desires. And this is bizarre, because this man is a certified genius, and yet the characters in this show feel hollow. Now, Dave Filoni reveres Star Wars so much that he has actually resurrected great characters from legends materials such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, Assange Ventress, and the Knight Sisters of Dathamere. And he's also created some great Star Wars characters like Cadbane, Rex, and Bo Catan.

But Filoni's greatest creation was Anakin's former Padawan, Asoka Tano. So, before we talk about Assoca the show, let's talk about Assoca the character. She is awesome. When she was introduced in the Clone Wars movie, let's face it, she was pretty irritating. You're stuck with me, Sky Guy. What did you just call me? But over the course of the series, we watched her grow from a tempestuous, annoying Padawan to a mentor, and then into a young woman who decides to leave the order.

And eventually, she defeats Darth Maul and Connie. All of her character growth felt organic and in universe and she was always motivated by, you know, relatable human emotions. Remember that because I think the show Asoka loses a lot of that character development. But also, Asoka was introduced as a tragic figure. From the moment she was introduced, we knew that she had to die. Yoda said that Luke was the last Jedi, and we know that she wasn't in Revenge of the Sith, so the assumption was that her death would be key in driving Anakin to the dark side. But Dave Filoni loved the character so much, he can never bring himself to kill her.

her. Instead, she left the Jedi Order, which was great, and it began the rift that separated Anakin from the Jedi Council. But then, she just kept coming back. She survived Order 66, and because she left the order, technically what Yoda said about Luke being the last Jedi was true. From a certain point of view. And then, in the show Rebels, we find out that, hey, she was actually a key member of the early days of the rebellion, which is cool, but then you're thinking, wow, so there was still a Jedi running around all this time. And then, when she finally faces Darth Vader, it seems like yes, now, she has to die. This will be Vader destroying the last part of Anakin Skywalker that was left. But instead, it turns out that she was pulled into a

magic portal that's in between time and space, and then she's released just before the events of a new hope, meaning that Asoka was actually around during the original trilogy, but did nothing to help Luke or fight Darth Vader. The longer Asoka sticks around in the saga, the more it becomes clear that Filoni just can't bring himself to end her story. At Star Wars celebration, John Favreau confirmed that Dave Faloni's favorite Star Wars character is his creation, Asocatano. And of course, first and foremost, his favorite character, Asoka. Now, imagine if Tony Gilroy had the same attachment to say Luton or Dedra or Cyril or Andor. The show would lose dramatic stakes because we know these characters will always find a way out of every jam because they have

plot armor. I think that Dave Filoni is trying to tell a larger story that will lead into the rise of Grand Admiral Thrawn, but I just don't think that Asoka fits in that story very well. So now let's talk about the show Asoka, a series that is a perfect example of making a Star Wars that is about Star Wars just to set up more Star Wars. Now I should start off by saying, I don't really hate this show, but I also don't think it's very good. When it comes to Star Wars, I'm easy. I'll watch anything, but I'll watch anything is not high praise for a TV series. So I'm going to talk about the flaws in this show and how the Anakin versus Asoka fight perfectly expresses why the show didn't work. But first, I have to talk about a couple of other key weaknesses in this show that are the reasons why that fight between Anakin and Asoka doesn't land very well. First, in order to understand this story, you have to know an insane amount of backstory. I mean, think about it. If I had to explain this show to somebody, it would be the craziest conversation. You'd have to not only explain clone wars and rebels and the Mandalorian, but there's also all of this other stuff that happened off screen, like Sabine, training to be a Jedi. I mean, Sabine's failed Paduaan experience.

ends up being key to Asoka's story in this season, and it's really weird that we never saw Sabine's failure actually play out on screen. Instead, it's all backstory that they awkwardly reveal through expository dialogue, like this. I never had the talent, the abilities. Not like Ezra. Would have been nice to have actually seen that on screen, right? But another big problem with the series is Assocato herself. She's different in this show from the character we've known for all these years. She's stoic and cold. and doesn't really emote. Like Rosario Dawson was cast in this role as literal fan service. Fan art of her as Asoka went around the internet, Dave Filoni saw it,

and he admitted that he never thought of casting her before he saw that art. Look, I bring this up so you understand that for Filoni, seeing Assocato in live action is basically his dream come true. There are moments when I just stare at her and I'm like, wow, she just looks like this thing I've drawn. It's almost like he's enamored by the image of her, but doesn't have her actually play the character as we We've known her in the past.

Dawson plays her as this stoic Jedi and that's just not who Assoca is. She didn't even act that way as an adult when she was in the show Rebels. She's passionate and emotive. But Rosario Dawson plays her as this kind of wise, staring off in the distance, boring sage. I bring this up because her aloofness feeds into the show's central flaw. We have no idea what the main character wants. Well, she wants to find Grand Admiral Thron. No, that's what she's trying to do.

That's the plot. Let's talk about the story. Why does she want to find Thron? For instance, Cassian wanted to join the rebellion because he realized that he could never be free of the empire. And ultimately, what he wants is to be free to make his own choices. But Asoka wants to find Thron because she's a good guy, who wants to stop the bad guy,

and because Thron is going to be the villain of the movie that Dave Follode he's going to write. Asoka and Thrawn had no interaction on the show Star Wars Rebels, and she actually barely interacted with Sabine. Like, Sabine painted Assoca's owl on her armor when she thought Asoka died, but that's about the extent of their interaction. And this means that the show's key relationship between Sabine and Asoka has to be filled in with all of this poorly delivered backstory. So this means that there aren't any emotional stakes between Asoka and the villain or Asoka and her apprentice.

So ask yourself, what are Asoka's emotional stakes in this story? What is it she really wants? And most importantly, what is preventing her from getting what she wants? Kurt Vonnegut said that every character should want something even if it's a glass of water. You see, what the main character wants to do is secondary to their emotions that are driving them forward. And the show actually does reveal Asoka's true desire, but this reveal is buried under a convoluted story and turtle-paced dialogue. Asoka is haunted by her past, specifically what happened to her former master, Anakin Skywalker. And this finally takes us to the scene that I'm talking about, probably the best fight in the show that still pales in comparison to the fight in Andor.

I'm talking about Asoka versus Anakin. So Asoka has just lost a fight with Baylon's skull and seemingly fallen to her death. But then she wakes up in the world between worlds. Full disclosure, I hate the world between worlds, but I like that you don't have to know anything about it to understand this scene. It's a weird spirit realm and there's a dead guy there, and that's enough information for the audience. After a little bit of corny banter,

You look the same. You look old. Asoka tells him that she remembers losing a fight, and Anakin replies, That's good. It means you still have a chance. To live. Now, I think what they're going for here is that because Asoka remembers her physical life,

she isn't quite dead yet and so she can return to the land of the living. But the stakes of this battle are supposed to be if Asoka learns her lesson and chooses to live, then she will survive. And I think it would have been great if we could have, I don't know, like cut to clips of her in the water, nearly drowning, you know, to raise the stakes. But instead, we keep cutting back to Hera and Jason looking for her in the ship. And all of these Hera clips, frankly, undermine the spiritual drama because they make me think that no matter what,

they're going to find Asoka's body floated in the ocean and rescue her. Anakin says he's here to finish her training, and of course, Philoni can't resist an Easter egg. I won't fight you. I've heard that before. Now, of course, Anakin's talking about this. I will not fight you for them. If you will not fight, then you will meet your destiny. But this does establish that this is really Anakin's spirit in that Asoka's not imagining this.

So, they fight. But unlike the fight in Andor, this fight doesn't feel dangerous at all. I mean, think about it, Asoka is suspended over a void of nothingness, fighting one of the most powerful Jedi who's ever lived, and she never teeters on the edge or looks down into the abyss. Every shot is very clinical and choreographed. It's a movie fight, it's an animation fight, and not a real fight. And by removing the physical stakes from combat,

you also remove the emotional stakes as well. Then Asoka falls into a pink mist, and we're in the Clone Wars. And I've got to tell you, this is fun. It's one of the reasons I like this scene because I'm a dork. I like seeing these characters in live action. It's cool. But it's just surface level cool. It's the equivalent of like seeing a cool cosplay in a short film.

Because this isn't really a scene where there's a beginning and a middle and an end and characters want something and lose something and then learn something about themselves. We don't even really know what's going on. Hell, they have to tell us what is happening. Personally, I think if the show was going to do these flashbacks, then they should have started like way earlier in the show and been recurring throughout the series, you know, to give us a sense of Asoka's past and trauma, you know, like they did in the show Andor.

And then we go straight from the battle to the aftermath, and Asoka telling us, It was my fault. They were following my orders. I got them killed. Guys, this should be some heavy, heavy stuff. Like a child soldier was just forced into combat and then gave military orders that had people killed. But we don't see it. We hear about it afterwards. It's more expository dialogue.

This seems like it would be a core emotional trauma for Asoka. For example, could you imagine what Tony Gilroy would have done with this material? We'd see Asoka during the battle, giving orders, making mistakes, being unsure of herself, reaching out to the force to figure out what to do. We would feel her trauma instead of hearing her talk about it later on. And you don't even need to show that much of the battle. Hell, they already did this way better in the show Andor. And Luthan's flashback, we don't see the battle outside the ship,

we just hear it and we see Luthin's emotional response. to it. Make it stop. Make it stop. But this episode is trying to tell us that Asoka's life has been marred with violence. And she feels tremendous guilt over this violence. But the problem is, have we seen any evidence of that? I mean, she's been fighting for this whole series. And after her spiritual awakening, when she becomes Asoka the White, she still fights people when she gets to Peridia and she also teaches Sabine how to fight. And then Anakin tells her, When Obi-Wan taught me, we were keepers of the peace. But now, to win this war, I have to teach you to be a soldier.

And then we hear what should be the key line of the series. Is that all I'll have to teach my own Padawan one day? How to fight? Now look, there is a kernel of an interesting idea here. Later in the series, we learned through more expository dialogue that Asoka started to train Sabine, but then she saw darkness in her, darkness that reminded her of Anagan. Sabine's headstrong Mandalorian ways made her tap into the dark side of the force,

so Asoka abandoned her training. But this reveal is also undermined because we also know that Sabine wasn't really that force sensitive and she kind of sucked at being a Jedi. I have known many Paduaans over the centuries and I can safely say your aptitude for the force would fall short of them all. But the problem here, like everything else in this show,

is that we don't see any of this shit happen. We hear about it afterwards. Now, if we had seen Asoka train Sabine from the start, they go on mission, she sees the darkness rising within her, and she's afraid. That would have been cool. If we would have seen that darkness rise, then this battle with Anakin would have real emotional stakes. We would understand that Asoka is scared of failing another person like she failed Anakin.

But all we ever hear her say about Anakin is... Anakin never got to finish my training. Before the end of the Clone Wars, I walked away from him. And then she does add... Just like I walked away from Sabine. Now, all of this is really important information, but again, we're being told these events instead of actually seeing them play out. So there's really no emotional impact.

And also, when she talks about Anakin in the book of Boba Fett, it's more wistful and proud. So much like your father. All right, so back to the scene. This part makes no sense. Anakin says, I'm teaching you how to lead, how to survive. And to do that, you're going to have to fight. And she replies,

What if I want to stop fighting? And then Anakin replies. And you'll die. So, which is it, Annie? Is she supposed to fight or not? And then he runs back into the mist and flashes as Vader for a second, which looks awesome. It is a cool visual to show that the fog of war, led to Anakin to fall to the dark side. But again, maybe this shot should, I don't know, matter.

Or what do you mean? Well, what does Anakin falling to the dark side have to do with Asoka's emotional journey in this show? Her goal is to find Thron, right? And we hear a heavily sedated Asoka say, before the end of the Clone Wars, I walked away from him. Which doesn't exactly sound like she's filled with guilt and remorse. But in Rebels, it's clear that Asoka blames herself. I won't leave you. Not this time. Asoka should feel crippling guilt about Anakin's turn to the dark side. She should take responsibility for his turn.

And we should see this play out in this flashback. Maybe she sees him do something in this battle that breaks the Jedi code and she failed to report it. Hell, even in the Clone War series, we do see Anakin murder two people in cold blood. And when Asoka quit the order, she told Aniken that she knew he was secretly with Padmay. I understand wanting to walk away from the order. I know. So this means that Asoka should actually blame herself for the rise of Darth Vader because she never tattled on her master to the Jedi Council.

And then we go to Asoka's last battle of the Clone War is the Siege of Mandalore. Now this is where she was at the height of her skills of combat and even defeated Darth Maul in a duel. Anakin tells her, You're a warrior now as I trained you to be. And you're part of legacy. And then she takes an abrupt turn, finally telling us what she thinks. more Anakin, but more powerful and dangerous than anyone realized.

And after she confronts him about his past as Vader, he turns. Live or die. And then we're back on the bridge with Anakin showing flashes of Darth Vader. And now, this should feel terrifying. Anakin should loom over Asoka. And yet, it's not scary. It's like the rest of the show. It feels surgical and bland.

Like this is Asoka's worst nightmare come to life, and it feels choreographed and painted by numbers and precise. There's no fear or emotion. Things just play out exactly how they were storyboarded. The fight ends when she gains control of his red saber. Now she could strike him down, showing her own temptation to the dark side that she's never once displayed all throughout this series, but instead she refuses to fight. I choose to live.

Except she doesn't refuse to fight. She continues to fight after this. In fact, there are several fights left in this show. Now, you can say that this is more of an internal fight, but we haven't seen any sign of an internal struggle at all in this. this series, in part because Rosario Dawson chose to play Asoka with all the charisma of a butter knife. Asoka has also not shown a history of being overly violent. We haven't seen her haunted by Vader's legacy at all.

She hasn't been murdering Vader's former lieutenants. She's actually been pretty chill and fun to hang out with. And all of this is because the show is concerned with plot instead of story. Asoka wants to find Thron so he can be in the next movie, and I guess Asoka's disappointed in Sabine, but that's all we know about her up to this point. So this battle, which should have been this great emotional catharsis for Assoca Tano, just becomes about cool cameos and Easter eggs. These scenes are the equivalent of AI fan art.

They're cool to look at, but ultimately pointless. But if you'll indulge me, I would like to walk through perhaps an alternate approach to this series that could have provided higher emotional stakes. First of all, the show, as it is right now, is not about Aso Catano. She isn't even the main character of her own show. Sabine is clearly the main character. She has the most interesting dynamic character arc. She's the underdog who has a big goal and struggles to achieve it.

And she's conflicted. Remember, she offers up the map to the empire in order to save her friend. I think this is why as soon as Sabine is introduced in the show, the story grinds to a halt. Like as soon as we see Sabine, we have to have all of her backstory and all this other backstory explained to us. Who is Ezra? Where did he go? When did Sabine train with Asoka? When did Sabine show any kind of force sensitivity? So let's imagine a series where Asoka's story and not the plot is put first.

Let's go back to that all-important central question, what does Asoka want? So at this point in the timeline, about six years after return to the Jedi, it would make sense if Asoka wanted to help Luke, you know, form the new Jedi order. But in the book of Boba-Fet, we already saw that she had no interest in that. There's nothing now, but will someday be a great school. But this fight does establish that Asoka has lingering emotional trauma over Anakin's turn to the dark side. So let's make a series about that, right? Asoka starts off the show, going through the galaxy, hunting down Vader's old lieutenants, or she's finding planets that Vader ruined, and she's trying to atone for his sins and make everything better.

She would do this out of remorse for her role in Anakin's fault to the dark side. So the driving theme of this series would be redemption. Asoka is seeking to redeem the legacy of Anakin Skywalker and to free herself of his sins. And if we want Sabine to become her apprentice so she can show flickers of the dark side, then that's fine, because again, that contributes to the central theme. of guilt and redemption and, you know, her remorse over Anakin's fall. But we should actually see Sabine's turn to the dark side play out. Sabine's dark side should really scare Asoka and trigger her childhood trauma. And as they travel all these different worlds together,

Asoka can have these cameo-filled flashbacks of the Clone Wars or Darth Vader that we all love so much. But Sabine wouldn't really care about fixing Vader's mistakes. She would be scouring the galaxy, listening for clues about Thron and Ezra. And this could lead into the larger story of Thron's return if we need to do that. Like Asoka does at one point mention that she's after Thrawn because she heard some kind of a rumor. Thrawn, his death was never confirmed. I started hearing whispers of his return which led me to Morgan.

She knows something. And you know, this would all be like the Mandalorian season one. It started off as a pretty simple show about a guy looking out for his own clan, and then he gets attached to this little guy and then they go on episodic adventures, and those adventures culminated in a finale that eventually feeds into a larger story. But the Mandalorian always puts its characters first through its main theme of found families. Asoka, as it stands now, doesn't have a central theme. It's just about trying to go get Thrawn.

But it should be a show about redemption and atoning for past mistakes. But ultimately, I think that Dave Filoni didn't center the show on theme or characters because he approached the series as a Star Wars fan first and a storyteller second. He was excited to bring his animated creations into live action. And look, it is fun seeing Ezra and Super Bowl. Bean and the Clone Wars and everything else in live action, but the story only works if you've already seen these characters before in Rebels. Pheloni, like myself, probably likes every single Star Wars story just because it's fun to play in the galaxy. And he's developed such a

personal attachment to his characters that he thinks everything they do is interesting, even when they're doing nothing but pretending to drink coffee out of a thermos. Star Wars is at a crossroads right now. They're torn between giving us member berries, like Asoka and the Book of Boba Fett, or inventing new characters like the Acoly or Skeleton Crew. Now, I love that. Andor because I think that show perfectly rode this line. It had legacy characters. It tied into the original trilogy, but it also explored these legacy characters in new ways. It was inspired by outside sources and elevated Star Wars to new levels. Andor was able to make a small fist fight between two men feel epic, while Asoka struggled to make me feel anything about one of my all-time favorite Star Wars characters fighting Anakin Skywalker. The Easter eggs and fan service cameos are fun, but ultimately they're like the world between worlds. devoid of any color. These two series show the important difference between shows like Asoka, which give fans what they think they want, fan service cameos, or giving fans what they actually want, shows like Andor that challenge us to expand our ideas of a galaxy far, far away.

But guys, that's just my thoughts on Asoka and Andor. What do you think about the two shows? Am I wrong about Asoka? Let me know in the comments below or on our free to join Discord server. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe and smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie. I'm going to be. ...and... ...toe... ...and...

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