Huyang is not a new character. He was in 2 or 3 episodes of Clone Wars. He teaches younglings how to build their first Lightsabers.

I love the classic trope of being ran through by a lightsaber not doing anything.

Now I understand why at the end of Episode 1 the credits start with "For our friend, Ray." RIP Ray Stevenson

Alex and I are thinking the same, stop making them so damn incompetent. Otherwise it seems like it’s off to a good start

Alex has a point. He made a comment on a previous review where he said shows like to dumb down people so when the big bad strategist villain pulls off something, it makes them look super intelligent. I do have a feeling that they may use this same sort of setup mechanism in Ahsoka. All of us who know Thrawn love him because he is a strategic and tactical genius with the likes of Alexander or Rommel. However, I don't know if the shows writers are able to provide a scenario that will show off his true skill. It very well may end up being something that seems brilliant but only because the show made the Republic dumb and illogical.

The map puzzle was like a early level puzzle in a video game. Made for kotaku to solve

At this point, it has to be tradition where AJ gives 8/9 out of 10 for the first 2-3 episodes in an show and will give 3 out 10 last 3 episodes lol

Alex: You could hand it to a 12 year old and they could do it. [Gives a quick recap of the puzzle] AJ: Oh, well that went over my head 😂

29:10 To be fair in rebels Kallus was transmitting info through that same tower, but Thrawn sneaked up on him with 2 seath troopers. Its the same tower. No one knows when anyone's coming up apparently.

I suspect the question about the HK droids was a way for Ahsoka to confirm what she suspects, that Morgan still has operations active on Corellia. The question about HK class droids would be alluding to her appearance in "The Mandalorian" as Morgan has HK droids in her service on that planet.

I want more Andor style Star Wars. That was the perfect tone, ambience, writing. It was heads and shoulders above so much of everything else.

Joe takes it so personally when Alex dislikes something he likes

Chopper throwing that Tracker in outer space instead of shooting it out of a Launcher WAS BULLLL SHIIIIIIIII

Ray Stevenson was taken too soon from us. At least he went out on a badass performance!

RIP to Ray Stevenson, hope they give him a glorious death in the series if that's possible

Aj: *Talking about E-Wings*🥹 Oj and Alex: Outside - Look interested and involved... Oj and Alex: Inside - 😒🙄😮‍💨

Love Ray Stevenson, his character and acting in Rome was excellent.

It's funny to me how Joe is the only one who's watched Rebels and yet he is the furthest off the mark in his opinions here

It’s certainly strange watching Jedi in video games like the old republic compared to on screen shows. The power difference is like Superman vs daredevil.

Going into this series having zero knowledge of the rebels series, it’s not bad at all but I feel that a lot of the early fights are lost on me because I have no connection to the characters yet and so there’s no risk in the fights and it just feels like 2 people clash for a min then leave, but I did like the start of ep 1 with the map chamber, very cool way of using the lightsabers by Asoka so I hope it’s gets better

when i saw Ahsoka i felt like she has grown to be something between Anakin and Obi-Wan, more serious and wanting to keep people at a distance but still having personality.

"Luke, Did I Ever Tell You About Ahsoka Tano?"

The Sabine running from the cops scene felt like it was ripped straight out of Star Trek when Kirk runs from the Robo Cop

HK droids were literally the ones that attacked Sabine on Lothal, that's why they asked

Alex is right. I have such an issue how it started. That ship is carrying a highly valuable prisoner and the captain lets them dock claiming to be Jedi. I haven't watched Rebels but know the characters from some of the games I have played. I think the best thing is that it FEELS like Star Wars.

Even though I am a fan of rebels I really think they should have had like a 2 min intro to rebels just to give some context. I am sure it is weird for non rebels watchers (or really clone wars watchers when Ahsoka should up in mando season 2) to connect with these characters

joe got that way wrong, Sabine was not force sensitive. They trained here to wield a lightsaber because she recovered the DARKSABER from Darth Maul. She is the same Din. There has never been any scene that I can recall of her showing a connection to the force.

The droids that attacked Sabine were HK droids. That’s why they went to corellia in the first place. When Sabine pulled up the memory unit from the HK droids head in the hospital

1:41 This is why I like andor so much. It makes the actual military powers feel powerful, intelligent and tangible. I feel like a magical lightsaber wielder would be far more hard pressed in that tonal shift of a show - and that's great. That's called tension.

I totally agree on the issue with the lame bad guys. The only time I really found the bad guys in the second Mando season truly threatening was when the Dark Troopers got into the picture - they felt like the terminators of the Star Wars universe, and nearly unstoppable and indestructable. Or... the only memorable good moment from "The Force Awakens" - the badass baton-Stormtrooper. Why can't we have more of that instead of the legions of boring cannonfodder?

It’s funny that Joe said he was such a huge fan of Rebels but missed the fact that Sabine is living in Ezra’s house 😂 that pylon tower is where we first get introduced to him and it appears a few time across the show

I completely agree with everything Alex said!!

Spaceballs called it a long time ago, Darth Helmut, "Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."

Why does AJ feel the need to put down Alex whenever he disagrees with him? How about not having the ship attacked during prisoner transport at all? What about when they are on planet when they are on the Prison planet? Wasn't it so cute when the Android got upset when the ship was being shot at by a turret with tracking worse then todays! never knew droids could feel fear and give sass!!! I also , like when the assassin droids waited for Ashoka to talk and give sass before attacking. Why wouldn't the initiate self-destruct and chase her? How did she vut those holes for those two droids? Exceptional writing, 10 out of 10.

The way AJ dismisses everything OJ and Alex say, when he doesnt agree, is messed up. Typical narcissistic behavior.

This is what they should have started the new Star Wars but they could have done it better. It would have been nice to see this love for the other series. At least Alex understands.

AJ "whoa this thing is unbelievable and a huge stretch to tie everything together and I loved it" Alex "yeah that's a no from me dog" AJ "well you don't have 4 seasons of rebels behind you" 😮‍💨

It feels like someone paid Joe Vargas to boost Ashoka. OJ, Alex, and a lot of people who have seen this show think differently.

Idk what AJ is talking about in regards to Sabine, she only trained with kanan and Ezra with lightsabers so she could wield the dark Saber to lead Mandalore before she gave it to bo katan. She never once showed any aptitude or premonition with the force idk why filoni is adding this in. Reserving judgment until series is finished but I'm skeptical Edit: i gotta say the more i watch this video the worse AJ is. Needs a refresher in rebels for sure and claims he watched first 2 episodes twice and missed a ton. Usually enjoy these vids but this one was a slog to get through. Alex and OJ should be able to steer the ship more.

Joe actually has the lowest of standards. You could dangle keys in front of the man and he'd be satisfied..

AJ tries not to be an overbearing asshole when his friends are expressing their opinions: impossible

At this point Alex should have his own channel. Even though I really like Joe, it’s like watching two people and a child talk.

There is one thing I want to comment on regarding the puzzle. I too thought it was a bit silly at first but actually appreciated it when she talked to Huyang. The robot mentions he could’ve solved it but wanted Ahsoka to reunite with Sabine. I feel this comment is going over looked by most people but might make them enjoy that part a bit more.

Clancy Brown has played three star wars charaters. Savage Opress, Leader of Lothal, and the deveronian in Mandalorian season 1. And as far as I remember they never ever hinted that Sabine was force sensitive.

Ezra: "You're like a sister to me..." Sabine: *FRIENDZONED*

Pretty solid, some stupid stuff like Ahsoka not taking the map back from Sabine when she asked to take it with her and Ahsoka said no but still left it with her anyway lol. But other than a few things like that yeah its solid

The two episodes were pretty enjoyable. Lightsaber fights were pretty decent and the story is interesting so far. Hopefully it gets better and not worse.

Write a story. Regardless of the audience. Write a story that is good. Don't dumb the material down. By dumbing it down, what kind of product are you ultimately left with? Younger audiences are smarter than most give them credit for. Challenging children through movies and stories is a great way for them to learn. A great way to learn human behavior as well as problem solve. Learning that somethings can go differently than one hoped are leasons of life and should be taught in as many forms as possible. Many are so used to predictable dumbed scripts, they don't know how to handle a good story with some complexity. You can expand a mind outside of a classroom. Outside of even books. And it is every important to trigger that creative part of the mind for understanding others and their unique perspectives. Writing got lazy. Every movie company has seemed to follow Disney's format with simple and harmless story telling complete with all the jokes (consistently bad comedy writing ) and little mental stimulation. Little risks as well. When it's done well, movies can be a great tool and not just entertainment. Hollywood forgets that a lot. Perhaps they have abandoned that thinking and are purely about profits in this era of script writing. I'm hanging on to hope.

21:56 Sabine also held the dark saber before the events of ANH and was very skilled without before she gave it up to Bo Katan

Did anyone else notice that in the space dock scene the Mon Calamari guard was wearing a gun that with his fin hands he would have no chance of even getting out of the holster. How did this guy get through the academy?? and wtf is he doing on a detail transporting an HVP??

My scores for the first two episodes are closer to OJ and Alex's, but my interest/excitement to see what's next is closer to AJ's. The fights were solid and the mystery seemed interesting enough (mainly the new galaxy). My favorite part was the master/apprentice dynamic between Baylan and Shin. I dug their ambiguous dark jedi standing, and I can see myself loving this show if the writing for Ahsoka and Sabine's master/apprentice relationship is just as solid.

31:38 OJ: "If your name starts with a Qui..." Alex: "You´re Gon"

I'm liking how the show is going so far, but agree that Ahsoka is being a bit too serious for my liking too, she was in Mando too, but it's even more pronounced here. I'm wondering if there's a reason for it that we'll get to see later, beyond her just being older, or something from Rosario or the director of the show, because Rosario is usually naturally speaks/acts closer to how Ashley Eckstein portrayed Ahsoka in CW/Rebels, so I feel like it's something that's got a reason behind it that we'll see later.

The David Tennant robot isnt a new character, AJ. He was in Clone Wars. And you call yourself a fan.

This seems so much better than Boba Fett, Kenobi, and Season 3 of Mando were. Hopefully the quality keeps up.

Mary Elizabeth winstead in those orange pants…..yes please

Poor joe can never remember anyone’s names or pronounce them right

Alex. I think you would love the Red Rising books by Pierce Brown if you don't already. Lightbringer (book 6) just came out and i think its right up your alley.

Alex always has logic without him I couldn’t ever watch these reviews without bashing my head against a wall listening to Joe 😂 Also the only male character in the show is a bad guy LMFAO

The combat is soooo lackluster Rosario is far too old to do lightsaber duels at speed.

42:08 There was a line from the corporate guy stating that the ships being dismantled were going into building the new republic defence fleet.

didn't like how sabine was introduced as a character. but i really liked how she got ready to be a padawan again at the end of episode 2. it was a real pity that the EXTREMELY long screen time to introduce her in episode 1 could have been better used on her when she readied herself at the end of episode 2.

Can someone explain how a 1000 year old map shows how to find Thrawn?

If Morgan is a night sister.. why didn't she use her powers in her fight against ahsoka in the mandalorian?

How did Sabine survive the saber stab?

The explosives those droids had at the beginning were so freakishly big, I mean, why even bother with any assassination droids? Just strap an explosive to a small flying droing and boom, you could kill anyone, even any Jedi...

Just reminds me of Cartman going whateva whateva I do what I want whateva lol

I'm assuming that the droids that attacked Asoka in the first episode were HK droids(at least the current version of them cuz they obviously arent the old ones) and that is why she asked the manager at the factory about HK droids

For context all the assassin droids they are using are HK units....they said it multiple times in reference to them specifically. HK 47 is like 4-500 years old model wise but HK droids in general didnt stop production.

If I was writing that initial encounter, I'd have it so that Baylin and Shin would be pretend-injured in some run-down ship, with an emergency beacon and a message about the Empire attacking them. The New Republic takes them in, puts them in the medlab, then they can wake up and slaughter the bridge crew with their Force powers.

Great first 2 episodes with some minor issues but overall well done. Sabine running off like a child from Ahsoka and having the map stolen was dumb though.

I think the inquisitor is someone we know. They're making effort to keep the identity hidden. He never talks. You never see his face. He's probably a major spoiler.

Stilted and wooden acting. Long pointless pauses. No emotions. Dull as dishwater

Sabine’s artistic ability allowed her to solve puzzles in the animated series, so it made sense that they went to Sabine to solve the map puzzle. If Alex finished watching the animated series he would have more context.

Yea I agree with Other Joe and Alex on this one about the characters. Also, It feels like the same plot as the sequels finding a map to find someone. I thought overall it was fine, but I wish it didn’t have to depend a bit on the viewer to watch Rebels.

I'm going to guess the Grysks will be introduced as the advanced civilization that created the starmap pedestal area. No, we will never see the Yuuzhan Vong from Disney's LuscasFilm.

It would be pretty cool if this was all leading to the Yuuzhan Vong coming over from the other galaxy and everyone needs to work together to defeat them. I'm not a huge fan of Ahsoka training Sabine and I really hope she doesn't have the force. Also where the hell is Hera's son Jason? If anyone should be Ahsoka's apprentice I think it should be him.

Alex: maybe she’s from space Alabama. Me: spits out my drink laughing

The puzzle solving was shot like it was in a third person adventure game. Also some of the dialogue was weird with characters repeating similar lines to each other.

I think AJ is putting too much faith in Filoni considering KK is still in charge but I admire his optimism

I interpreted Sabine’s low level like the Donnie Yen’s character in Rogue One.

TBF, Qui-Gon was left unattended bc Obi Wan was stuck between the shield & prolly overwhelmed with anger and just wanted to get Maul. But yeah, he could’ve chilled out & called for backup lol

I would love to see a threat of a Yuuzhan Vong invasion from the other Galaxy. Even if it doesn't happen and they cut off travel back and forth.

I have no idea why we decided to make sabine a "jedi" when she apparently has littke to no knwoeldge or ability in the force (as confirned by the droid). It feels weird considering sabine has a pretty clear mandalorian arc. Feels really weird

If you are going by rebels joe she didn’t survive her fight with darth vader. Ezra pulled her through time when the killing blow was going down on her and she was stopped him from doing it again with his master

Editors: Hey guys everyone can become Jedi now! Me: 😑😑😑

Grievous was trained in the Jedi Arts by Count Dokuu.

It’s a good start but I pray it can keep its momentum

It was a great start hopefully it stays that way throughout the series, I have a couple major nitpicks like the plot armour stab that has suddenly become a thing in Disney, everyone except Qui gon can survive that shit

Before watching the review! I just wanted to say the music performance was amazing! I’m excited to see this through out the whole show. Also the CGI was awesome so far

44:58 the assassin droids are HK model, I think HK- 87 from what was written about them in the mandalorian

The friendzoning of sabine for ezra was my only real complaint there was too much set up in rebels to kinda just be like yeah no friendzone they even show live action sabine she clearly has deeper feelings than "i need to find my friend" she needs to find her man lol

One thing I didn't hear you mention was the visuals. This show looks absolutely fantastic

If they had removed all the dramatic pauses between line reads (I assume to make it feel more 'grown up') the two episodes could have been one 50 minute pilot that moved along at a pretty good pace. My wife was *SUPER EXCITED* (counting down the days to the premier) but fell asleep halfway through the first episode. NOT a good sign. She never watched Clone Wars or Rebels so she didn't really care that so many beloved characters where stepping out of animation into the "real" world. She was excited to see the character from her favorite Mandalorian episode get her own show. The follwing day, after saying she wanted to try watching again, she remarked, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get the idea that Sabine is such a 'punk rock wild-child'! I didn't need a 10 minute musical biker intro to beat me over the head with such an overused trope." At this point. I'm not sure if Ahsoka will become our regular Wednesday watch party. It didn't have the best launch in my household.

I've said this before on a fandom community page , But I hope Sabine doesn't have Force Powers beyond anything Chirrut Imwe has demonstrated ? I mean Sabine shouldn't use Telekinesis or even great feats in Agility like Force Jumping etc. Instead knowing she can't use The Force like a Jedi Master / Knight / Padawan , she has to rely on a combination of everything she's learned in Saber Training , Weapons - Blaster* , Intelligence and Cunning , Her Mandalorian Armor / Techniques and Tech. To fight at a disadvantage but using her own ability , skill , training and know how to compensate for her limitations. Maybe at best being about to sense danger or traps sensitive in intuition and reflex that's it. The rest is handicapped so Sabine has to be focused to looking for advantages against Force Users which is difficult but not impossible we've seen Non Force Users get the better of Jedi w/ Strategic Planning. I feel it's ok if Sabine isn't a Force User but is trained in Saber Combat and Jedi Mindset / Unconventional* similar to how Anakin trained Ahsoka to bend rules and take opportunity when possible vs following the rules.

AJ’s blind fandom is quite frustrating, I thought he is trying to be more as a critic trying to approach the piece “critically” - disappointing

Yuuzhan Vong is who you keep trying to remember, but I dont think its them, at least it had better not be them because they need a TVMA to be done right. No, Im fairly certain the "builders" from another galaxy is the Rakata which adds 10s of thousands of years to the new canon history if thats the case which I hope it is because the truly ancient Old Republic era is my favorite Star Wars era and I believe Filoni has said in the past its his as well, so maybe we'll eventually get something from then and not attached to Kathleen Kennedy or the Skywalkers

Off to a good start. Liking it so far 👌

I watched 0 Rebels and 0 Clone Wars and I'm still able to appreciate how this is INFINITELY better than Kenobi, BoBF, and some of the Mandalorian

I hope Ezra is evil AF a dark side user and is working with Thrawn