Star Wars: Ahsoka Repeats a Mistake of Secret Invasion

The first two episodes of Star Wars: Ahsoka are finally here, and they see Rosario Dawson returning to the titular role after debuting the character in live-action in Star Wars: The Mandalorian. Critics and audiences alike both seem to be enjoying the new series, which currently has a 94% critics score and 89% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. ComicBook.com‘s Jamie Lovett gave the first two episodes a 3.5 out of 5, calling it “ambitious” but “slow out the gate.” While there is plenty to love about the new series, especially its ties to Star Wars Rebels, the first episode repeated a frustrating mistake of another recent Disney+ series, Secret Invasion…

Secret Invasion was not as well received as some of the other Marvel series, and one complaint about the show was that multiple episodes ended with deaths. Warning: Secret Invasion Spoilers Ahead! The first episode ended with the death of Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and a later episode ended with the death of Talos (Ben Mendelsohn). While those characters were confirmed to be dead, another episode ended with the fake-out death of G’iah (Emilia Clarke). When her supposed death occurred, fans weren’t buying it, especially since unseen footage of her from the trailers had yet to come. The first episode of Ahsoka did something similar with Sabine, which was a bit annoying. Warning: Ahsoka Spoilers Ahead! 

The first episode of Ahsoka ended with Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) getting stabbed with a lightsaber, a wound that would have proved fatal in earlier iterations of Star Wars. However, it was obvious by the trailers Sabine would be in more of the show. First of all, most of the footage of her featured short hair, and she still had long hair when she was stabbed. The fact that the first two episodes of Ahsoka were released together also made the fake-out feel pretty meaningless. It’s not as though fans had to wait a week to wonder about Sabine’s fate. 

Throughout television history, there have certainly been a lot of episodes that have ended with characters’ deaths or fake-out deaths, but Disney+ seems to be overusing the method. This is frustrating because most of these shows are only six to nine episodes long. In TV, not every episode needs to end on some shocking cliffhanger. That formula can get exhausting, especially when a season is so short. An issue many Disney+ shows have is that they feel like six-hour movies that have been chopped into pieces. If you’re going to make TV, just make TV.

In the case of Ahsoka, the stabbing of Sabine felt like a ploy to get people to tune in again, but it wasn’t necessary. Between knowing Sabine would be fine and having the second episode ready and waiting, it ended up being a choice that fell flat. It’s possible the ending of Ahsoka‘s first episode would not have been so eye-roll-inducing if Secret Invasion hadn’t just happened, but since they were released so close together, it’s hard not to compare the choices. 

Aside from this one complaint, Ahsoka is off to a strong start, and it’s exciting to see a follow-up to Star Wars Rebels in live-action.

What Is Ahsoka About?

Fan-favorite Star Wars hero Ahsoka Tano returns in the brand new series on Disney+. Rosario Dawson stars in Star Wars: Ahsoka, premiering August 23rd on the streamer. The series picks up after the events of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, in which we saw the former Jedi searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and helping Luke Skywalker train Grogu. Ahsoka will be joined on her new mission alongside longtime allies Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as they attempt to track down Thrawn, who was last seen disappearing to the far reaches of space after a confrontation with Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi). Star Wars: Ahsoka is the latest live-action series from Lucasfilm’s creative duo of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.

Do you agree that the cliffhanger of Ahsoka‘s first episode was frustrating? Tell us in the comments!