I'm a sucker for Star Wars, so I understand that me using multiple superlatives to describe any Star Wars show or movie won't come as a shock to you. I'm not, however, such a fanboy that I'm afraid to say when a Star Wars project sucks. The Book of Boba Fett was a letdown; the best parts of that show involved Din, Luke, and Ahsoka (I did enjoy the story with Boba and the Tusken Raiders, but that was done early in the season).
I was a lot higher on Kenobi and Andor than the rest of the Internet (I couldn't care less about the opinions of mindless, anonymous forum hoppers and commenters, anyway). Sure, the Reva story was mostly stupid and way overacted, but the finale was chalk full of emotional highs and payoffs that brought the season to a satisfying conclusion, and young Leia was a pure joy. From a production standpoint, Andor is the highest-caliber Star Wars show Disney has ever made. I like the slow moments more than most, and I wasn't bothered by the adult tones; sure, that's not typical of Star Wars, but that's okay! It still fit in with the story they were telling in that show.
I say all that to say, without trying to sound too hyperbolic, that if the first two episodes of Ahsoka are any indication for how good the entire season will be, this will be hands down the best Star Wars product Disney has released other than Rogue One. Ahsoka can even surpass Rogue One.
The moment-to-moment action screams Star Wars throughout the episodes, including the tense opening scene. Two non-descript hooded figures are given stern warning not to proceed, so they ignite their orange lightsabers and crush the security party waiting for them. Baylan and Shin eventually bust out Morgan Elsbeth - the woman whom Ashoka fought in her first live-action appearance back in Season 2 of The Mandalorian - thus establishing our antagonists. We then see Ahsoka hunting down artifacts (a map, as it turns out, because everyone who gets lost in Star Wars somehow leaves behind clues to their whereabouts), and we're off to the races. What does this artifact do? What are Morgan and her two Dark Jedi up to? (Baylan and Shin don't seem to be actual Sith). And thus, the beginning of a grand adventure has been uncovered. And I couldn't be more excited to see where this goes.
Ahsoka is for the fans
While it captures the fuzzy feelings Star Wars typically evokes, make no mistake that writer/director Dave Filoni's fingerprints are all over this. Filoni is the original creator of the Ahsoka character in The Clones Wars series. Other than George Lucas himself, Filoni has understood and impacted the timeline of Star Wars the best since the mid-2000s. In two episodes, Filoni already has fans mining left and right for Easter eggs while creating the potential to open up the Star Wars universe more than ever before.
Filoni is also directly building off of what he started with Rebels. When Disney first bought Lucasfilm, Rebels was actually the first Star Wars project Disney released. Rebels was okay at the beginning, but when it really kicked into high gear was when it crossed over with The Clone Wars and brought Ahsoka into the fold. From then on, Rebels' best episodes involved key characters such as her, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Palpatine, Thrawn (more on him later), and, of course, Yoda. Still, the Rebels characters had strong story arcs that held up on their own. Sabine was one of my favorite characters in Rebels - she's sassy, artsy, and knows what it feels like to be pressured to do great things - and her live-action iteration works well so far. Hera Syndulla is also back, though I was less impressed with the actress' rendition of her. By the way, yes, I noticed that all but one main character is female, and no, I don't care about that.
The story in Ahsoka is basically continuing the major cliffhanger that ended the Rebels series. Ezra's and Thrawn's fate are intertwined (quite literally) as they disappear into hyperspace, carried by the space whales called purrgil. We got zero hints of their fate until the recent Ahsoka cameo in The Mandalorian when she cried out to Morgan Elsbeth in their sword battle, "Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?" Now, the Ahsoka show is centered around finding Thrawn; hopefully, it doesn't take all season, because I would like to see Thrawn in action for a few episodes before an inevitable spin-off or movie announcement (Thrawn has been rumored to be the new big bad for a while and may even challenge Luke Skywalker at some point). The way they ended the second episode of Ahsoka was so beautiful and perfect as they reimagined the ending of Rebels when Ahsoka comes back for Sabine a few years after Ezra disappears (they even got the artwork right with the painted mural). What an incredible callback. So in a lot of ways, Ahsoka feels like Rebels Season 6. I don't think the show onboarded newcomers all that well, but honestly, they'll pick up the key aspects of what's going on easily enough.
Will the lore from Thrawn books come into play?
The challenge Star Wars shows are facing is staying focused. The Book of Boba Fett wasn't that great until Ahsoka and Luke showed up and basically stole Boba's thunder. Kenobi definitely was about Obi-Wan and Anakin, but Reva and, to some extent, young Leia, got more time than they needed. Season 3 of The Mandalorian not-so-stealthily switched the focus from Din Djarin to Bo Katan, who's role is only going to increase in future projects (plus, is Din, like, retired? Surely not, right?).
Now, just two episodes into Ahsoka, I'm worried that the show will become too much about Thrawn. One of two problems will happen. Either we won't get enough Thrawn because they waste the whole season just trying to find him, or Thrawn's story will become the main focus. Hopefully they balance the danger of Thrawn's imminent return with Ahsoka's search for personal closure. She ran away from the Jedi Order at the end of The Clone Wars (rightfully so since she was framed for murder), and she apparently ran out on, or at least gave up on, Sabine. Seriously, what is Disney's fascination with weakening Jedi Masters? They already tore down Luke's character, and now they've apparently done the same with Ahsoka. My suspicion, though, is that Ahsoka's arc will involve her learning to face her fears and her challenges instead of running from them, and taking her place among the pantheon of the Jedi Order, especially if part of her arc this season deals with her feelings on Anakin's transformation into Vader. She may not want to abandon Sabine the way she feels Anakin abandoned her.
As for Thrawn, it's hard to say for sure, but it appears as if he's in a different galaxy entirely. My hope is that Star Wars doesn't take the lazy route and introduce a multiverse story line, nor do I want them to split off their timeline by telling stories in that galaxy. The way they could bridge all of that in a neat way, though, would be to follow the story lines started in the Thrawn Ascendancy books. The Chiss Ascendancy is basically Game of Thrones set in space. There are nine ruling families in charge of everything, and these families go to war with outsiders, but also sometimes with each other. I don't expect Star Wars to do that whatsoever, but even bringing elements of that into Ahsoka and future projects might be interesting.
What likely will happen with Thrawn is he'll become the successor to the Empire. He was a part of the Empire in Rebels, and maybe his return will rally the Empire's remnants around him. Thrawn could even view himself as, say, the heir to the Empire (see what I did there?). The original Thrawn trilogy is Legends now, but that doesn't mean Disney couldn't bring some of those stories back into the fold. Those are some of the best Star Wars books ever written (authored by Timothy Zahn), so pulling from them would be awesome.
Imbalances with the Force
Not everything about the first two episodes of Ahsoka was perfect. Sabine's encounter with Shin at the end of Part 1 ended with Shin stabbing Sabine in her side, but not killing her. Seriously, what is up with people surviving being stabbed by lightsabers? Reva survived twice, including an attack from none other than Darth Vader (what a joke). By the end of the episode, Sabine was already walking around and wanting to get back out and help, as if having parts of her organs and flesh melted and punctured by a lightsaber wouldn't do more damage to her.
Speaking of Sabine, Ahsoka and Sabine apparently had a falling out after Ahsoka walked out on her during training. But what was Ahsoka training her to do, exactly? Surely she wasn't trying to be a Jedi, right? The professor droid (originally from The Clone Wars) laughed at Sabine for having such low connection to the Force, so hopefully they're shutting the door on that; otherwise, they're insinuating anyone in the universe can train to be a Jedi, which is absurd. My hunch is that Ahsoka is training Sabine to learn how to fight, particularly with those glowing laser sword things. Sabine did, after all, once possess the Darksaber before losing it. Maybe Sabine will try to earn it back? (The last time we saw the Darksaber was at the end of Mandalorian Season 3, but I'm not convinced it, or Moff Gideon, will stay destroyed). Losing the lightsaber fight to Shin clearly indicates Sabine needs practice, so who better to teach her at this time than Ahsoka?
With six episodes to go, there is still a lot of ground to cover and not enough time to get it all done. But I'm willing to bet that one day, we'll look back on this Ahsoka season and point to it as a turning point for the Disney Star Wars era, especially if Thrawn gets to be the main bad guy in a movie trilogy. So much is going on with the timeline in this era (still 5-7 years after Return of the Jedi) that it would be hard to imagine them not blowing the top off all of it and fully connecting everything with a movie saga, with Filoni at the helm. I sure hope so!