This is MJ, I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
Welcome to my fully operational Star Wars analysis. I am discussing Ahsoka Episode 6, which was kind of weird.
Overall it was interesting, but it was definitely kind of weird. I didn't really pay super close attention to who the director was.
I think her name was some lady. Oh my gosh. Woo!
That's actually not a sexist misogyny, it's a comment for me. That's a deep cut, it's become an inner joke.
An inside joke with my family between me and my wife and kids.
And hey, here it is! Here it is! Popped into my show, ruining it, driving people away from me, making sure I'll never...
Well, nevermind.
So anyway, yeah, it was interesting. Despite the fact that it's about some lady named Ahsoka, we hardly got to see your girl Snips.
So that was kind of interesting. We did get to spend a lot of time with your girl Sabine Wren.
And I gotta say, I did not like her like at all this episode. She wasn't very compelling.
I didn't like those weird creatures that Ezra has been slumming it with.
And I don't know, I didn't even really like the Howler, which was the name for Sabine's hulf mount that Filoni wanted to give her.
And I don't know. Honestly, it seemed less like a wolf horse and more like a rat horse.
I got R.O.S. vibes big time from that thing. The flat-ishness and the wideness of its mouth feels very unlupine.
I guess you could say unlupine? How would you say that?
It don't feel wolfy to me. So I thought that was weird.
And then like the little, I don't know, white trash RV retirement turtles or whatever that you had there.
Sorry, you see what I was going for. It didn't quite work.
But yeah, like the weird, you know, turtle rock shell guys, they were kind of weird.
And like, I don't know, if you think that they're sentient beings and yet the Howler sensibly eats them like they're, you know, like common turtles or something.
And he's a coyote. A little weird. I don't know, kind of odd.
I got to tell you, my favorite part, oh, speaking of things that I thought were odd, I have to say, and I'm sure this will be heretical to some.
I did not enjoy the look of Grand Admiral Thrawn. I'm vaguely familiar with Lars Nicholson.
He's a brother play Krennic. And now he anyway, that's that's seems weird to me.
But regardless, I'm like, I think they should have gotten the brother who played Krennic and painted him blue because I didn't like something about the Thrawn.
Like, I mean, look, I got to be honest, I could probably lose like 30 pounds, but I'm not paid to be on screen and be like,
you know, in a past life, no, I still like Bruce Campbell.
Bruce Campbell talks about in the commentary for one of the movies that he did that he would hardly see his wife, who he just married at the time.
She was a costume like she was a seamstress working on costumes for the movie he was working on.
And he's, oh, honey, I'll see you later. I got to go work out.
And after that, Sam's going to wait, Sam. Yeah, Sam's going to he says he's got to shoot some extra scenes with me.
But I don't think anybody's going to be there.
That's a joke about Sam Rami and how he likes to just like beat up his friend, Bruce Campbell, who did movies for him.
It's a weird joke. Sorry. It's not a joke. It's true. It's just a funny reference to that.
So, yeah, I didn't really like the look that they had going for Thrawn.
I got to be honest, he looks a little punchy. And that was surprising to me because you'd think living on a wasteland of a world with minimum resources,
we saw the guy was into fitness during Rebels and you would think he would have kept up with that.
And I understand that the actor is not the person, but the actor is a person who's literally played to pretend that there's somebody else and play a role.
And they could have gotten anybody to paint blue and put red contact lenses in or, you know, CGI their eyes red or whatever they did for him.
And, you know, it didn't have to be the guy who did the voice. Ashley Eckstein isn't playing Ahsoka.
I can't remember the name of the young man or something.
Taylor, I believe, is not playing Ezra Bridger. Tia Sergar is not playing Sabine Wren, etc, etc.
Add infinite him. The only person who's playing the character who they voiced in Rebels is Clancy Brown because I'm pretty sure I'm like 98 percent sure that the character of that
Mare guy was designed to look like Clancy Brown because they wanted him to be voiced by Clancy Brown, who maybe Floney was like a big fan of Highlander and whatever else
he's been in live action because I don't really know. That's the only thing I know him from live action besides Rebels or not Rebels.
He voiced the guy in Rebels and then besides, what you might call it, Ahsoka. So that's that's weird. That's weird.
So, yeah, I was not a fan of the look of Grand Admiral Thrawn. He didn't look grand. He didn't look admiral and he didn't look Thrawn to me.
And I know I guess it's just something I'm going to have to live with.
And I really thought it was too bad because I think they could have gone a different direction with him.
I don't know if it's that they could have gone a different direction with him or if I just plum didn't like it.
I like Baron Papanoida played by one George Lucas and one of the Papanoida girls played by his daughter.
I believe it was Katie Lucas, but I'm not 100 percent sure. Please don't quote me on that.
I thought they looked really good as blue people, as the Pantorans who they played in a revenge of the Sith.
Like I said, I thought they looked really good. There was nothing off putting about their appearance.
I'm pretty sure from looking at the special material, special material like the extras, the bonus material from the movies,
that they were just like in blue face paint makeup stuff, whereas the guy playing Thrawn looks like he's in some other sort of thing.
I know that's not the best way to put it, but I know it looks like they're doing something else with him.
And I don't think I like the thing that they're doing with him. And I mean, yeah, I just I don't really like the look of it.
And like his eyes look OK, but just something is off. Something's off and I don't like it.
And I mean, I'm not like angry and I'm not hurt. It's just.
I saw the still images from him or the snapshots we saw of him in the trailer, and I thought he looks kind of weird.
I'm not really sure I dig this look. And it never got any better. I expected it would.
And then it didn't. So that's kind of interesting, isn't it?
It's kind of interesting. So, yeah, that was I don't know. I don't know how to feel about that.
It's strange to me. It's strange to me. And I'm disappointed that I don't like the look of him better.
And, yeah, I'm not sure what else to say about about that.
This. This thing where he seems to be into like the idea of destiny
that the Nightsisters are obsessed with these great mothers is, I guess it's interesting.
What I think is more interesting is that he has this alliance with them.
And I mean, I guess it makes sense, but just it makes it feel like he's always had an alliance with the Nightsisters.
And I just don't know that that's true. And I don't know where that idea came from.
Other than the mind of Dave Filoni, I certainly don't remember it being part of Rebels or basically anything else.
But, you know, I haven't kept up on the the new Thrawn books that the original author and creator of Thrawn,
Timothy Zahn, has been doing for Disney Lucasfilm.
So, yeah, I mean, I very well am, you know, I'm admitting my ignorance there and and I feel good about it.
I don't actually feel good about ignorance. I think ignorance is a bad thing.
But what I am saying is, you know, I'm not going to let it hurt me that I don't know this thing because I wasn't following up on these books.
I have nothing against Zahn. I enjoyed Timothy Zahn's work.
But I just wasn't that interested in Thrawn as a character. He never really compelled me.
Like he was an interesting foe for Luke Hanaleah. But beyond that, I just wasn't he wasn't he wasn't the guy for me.
He was not the guy for me. Jorah Sebaev I enjoyed. But Thrawn, not so much.
Never really made sense to me how he was that smart. Maybe it's because I was dumb.
I was in high school when I first read the books, but even I revisited them recently and I just thought, I don't know, I could take him or leave him.
Take him or leave him. So like it's like I'll be honest, it just seemed like too much sometimes.
Like really, you're predicting that based on this little information that seems odd, like the whole, you know,
Chewbacca must be in the ship with Organa Solo because this, that, whatever. It's like, really, dude, how do you know that?
How do you know that? So getting back to talking about this episode, which is what I'm supposed to be doing.
Yeah, it was, you know, it was it was interesting. It was weird.
I watched Willow for the very first time with my kids like a few months ago. And I got to say I get strong Willow vibes from this Wasteland planet.
And I don't know if it's a Willow or somewhere between Never Ending Story 2, the like Beatle armor guys that Atreyu and Cool Bastion fight.
I didn't realize this is a kid, but between Never Ending Story 1 and 2, they changed the kid who plays Bastion.
And the kid number two is like way cooler. And I'm very tangential this morning in the book.
Real Sebastian is a fat nerd kid. And they made him like a skinny nerd kid in the first movie.
And the second movie, they just said like, you know what? This is Hollywood. We're going to make this kid cool.
He's going to be so awesome. He actually bullied me in high school or no, in middle school.
That's not true, but he could have. But yeah, so it's interesting to see.
I'm sorry that whole Never Ending Story thing. Oh, yeah. The red armor guys.
Like they really reminded me of that. And that was kind of cool.
And like, I don't know, something with the howler kind of reminded me of some of the guys in Dark Crystal.
And I know it was just like it was like a really weird like I guess they did a good job of making this galaxy far, far away.
I can't believe they actually use that. It's kind of cool. Kind of crazy.
They made them feel foreign and they made them feel like they're from far, far away.
And that was interesting. That was really interesting.
But yeah, I'm not sure how I feel about all that.
I mean, I guess it's good that there was this totally different vibe.
You don't want it to feel the same because, you know, then what's the point of doing it different if it's just going to be the same?
Right. I mean, that makes sense.
It feels silly to say, but I think that's a completely accurate statement.
So anyway, yeah, I don't know. It's it was interesting. It was definitely interesting.
You know, I have some misgivings, but, you know, I've shared those with you so you know exactly what I'm talking about.
And. Goodness gracious me, golly, golly, I don't know.
I don't know what more to say. It's definitely.
An interesting show. I did not expect Ezra to be found so quickly and easily.
I enjoy spoilers because they don't really ruin stories for me.
So I have spoilers about some of the stuff he might be doing in the next episode if he ends up fighting or something like that.
And I think it's pretty cool. I like the sound of it.
It should be fun stuff to watch. But I just I don't know.
Are these I don't know who's going to go from here.
And like, I hate. So you've got this great, you know, smarmy picture of Ezra.
He must have known Sabine was there and he's like, oh, I'm going to stand here and I'm going to make an entrance.
That feels like something totally feels like something that Ezra would do as he's waiting for her because he can hear her in the camp.
But like, I just pictured that with the caption, local man's put local man or like, you know, man from different galaxy puts that other galaxy in complete jeopardy
because his friend is too dumb to stay away or whatever.
Like, you know, he's interested in going back home and I can understand that.
And he wants to go home. But the idea that him going home is going to cost like
if I'm going home, causes the sequel trilogy to happen basically and like, you know, Kylo Ren to come into power and what's his name?
Snape, Snape, Snoke, Snoke, Snape is the other one.
Yeah, he puts bottles in death anyway, but like Snoke to come to power and like all this chaos to happen.
Like, that's going to be really weird. And I think it'll like totally nullify any goodness of these characters or at least of Sabine
because, you know, you know, it just shows how evil attachments are because attachments lead you to jeopardize an entire galaxy
and put it into civil war just so you can see your brother again one last time or whatever.
And I don't know, that just seems really strange. It seems really strange. I don't like it.
So I'm kind of all over the place. It was just like a weird episode.
Like there were really interesting striking visual things to say or to say something about to talk about.
The Nightsisters, like, OK, I got to say this again.
How is Morgan Elizabeth a Nightsister? How is that possible? She's not Dathomiri.
What is going on?
Why can't they just say, yes, you know, as you know, I am half Dathomiri on my mother's side.
My father was a foolish human or whatever.
And now I'm cursed to not look quite like my Nightsisters or whatever.
When I saw the great mothers, I thought, ah, yes, those are Nightsisters.
That's the Dathomiri look I want in my Nightsisters. Like, what's wrong with that?
And obviously there's nothing wrong with that, but they chose to cast this lady.
She looks Mexican.
Anyway, so it's an odd.
Like there's a lot of odd choices, but there's a lot of interesting things going on as well.
Like these weird legends of fairy tales told of this other galaxy and perhaps of the Nightsister witch kingdom.
Full of magic with a CK at the end of it. It's interesting. And like, Balin says he's searching for the start of it all.
Is he looking for the World Between Worlds so he can go in there and like destroy the galaxy?
Like, what kind of power is he looking for? Is this a measurable power? What does he want?
Is it the power to go into the World Between Worlds and do something or is it some other sort of power?
And then there's the question of what is Thrawn loading up onto the ship? What cargo is he getting from Dathomir?
I'm going to assume it's dark crystals to eventually power up Starkiller Base or something like that.
Dark kyber crystals that the Night Witches have messed with or whatever.
That's the only thing I can think. It doesn't really matter. We're going to find out eventually.
Or we won't. Whatever. It could be a story for another time.
But yeah, like, I don't know. I was entertained. I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed the little conversations between Shannon Balin and I enjoyed...
I guess I enjoyed Thrawn, like... I don't know. He was okay. He was okay.
I'm going to have to see more. I'm suspending judgment for now because I'd like to see more.
And I want to know what more is going on.
I don't like that guy being named Enoch because I feel like that's a dishonor to Enoch having to be some murderous trooper.
Oh, and then apparently the Stormtroopers that are with Thrawn are called Nighttroopers.
Like, it's nighttime. Like, N-I-G-H-T, not K'Night. You know, like, soldier people.
And for some reason they were all, like, chanting when Morgan Elspeth and the other guys showed up.
So, like, is... And again, maybe I'm ignorant of this. Is Thrawn part of, like, a cult?
Are they worshipping something or someone with their chanting and singing?
And, like, why are they doing that? Was that to honor the Nightsisters?
Maybe they say, like, you shall give us tribute in the form of song by singing and chanting every time we come near.
Here are the lyrics. B minor. D flat. Yes.
Like, I don't get that. Like, that was dumb. Like, I get for ambiance.
Like, I mean, if you want to have...
Ahhhhhhhh. Oh, oh.
Like, I get it. The chanting is very, uh, profound. It, like, triggers something emotionally in people.
Um, because we're, you know, deep spiritual beings and whatnot.
But, like, I don't know. I just didn't, uh, I didn't get it. It didn't connect with me.
And it just, like, is Thrawn a religious figure? Like, is he some sort of... Is he the Chiss Messiah?
Um, and these guys are, like, helping his ascendancy? I don't know. It just... I don't know. It all seems very strange.
So it's like, it's new ground and it's, you know, quite squishy and makes me uncomfortable.
And I don't like the squelching. And, you know, but I'm... I want to stick around and find out what exactly is going on.
So that's what I'm going to do. And, uh, I guess that's what you're going to do with me.
So until next time, folks, this is... I hope you take care of yourselves and each other.
This is MJ signing out.
I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback you might have.
There you can find all of my analysis, art, and fiction.
I cover books, tokusatsu, comic books, anime, and more.
Look around. You're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as well.
This has been a Story Over Everything production.