With the latest success of the Disney+ Star Wars live-action collection like The Mandalorian, The Book Of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Andor, it could be straightforward to miss the animated aspect of that galaxy far far-off and dismiss them as ‘cartoons’ for children.
But right here’s an unpopular opinion: Lucasfilms ought to actually make extra animated exhibits and options somewhat than live-action ones, as a result of these so-called ‘cartoons’ have performed extra to counterpoint and construct the Star Wars universe than nearly each different live-action collection and movie outdoors of the Original Trilogy.
Between The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Bad Batch and even the Resistance animated collection, we’ve gotten extra canon and backstory and perception into the characters, plots and motivations behind a lot of the franchise’s iconic characters and storylines.
And now, we’ve the just- launched Tales Of The Jedi, a mini-series of six brief episodes in which we get much more perception into the lives of two of the franchise’s most iconic characters – Ahsoka Tahno and Count Dooku.
Ahsoka’s backstory is additional enriched by the three brief episodes in this collection.
The new collection, which is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar, primarily tells the story of two Jedi on completely different paths, heading in reverse instructions – Ahsoka’s accession from Force-sensitive toddler to fugitive former Jedi, and Dooku’s descent from Jedi Master to one in all the franchise’s most formidable Sith Lords.
To be sincere, Tales Of The Jedi doesn’t actually inform new tales of those two Jedi. Rather, it fills little holes in these two characters’ tales, solutions niggling questions on their previous, together with – why did Ahsoka begin utilizing two lightsabers? What was the final straw that sealed Dooku’s downfall?
Count Dooku’s story is the extra fascinating of the two, particularly since we have by no means had lots of background on him in the previous.
Showrunner Dave Filoni additionally takes the alternative to tie up some minor unfastened threads left by different movies and exhibits, from the destiny of Yaddle (the feminine Jedi council member from the similar species as Yoda who appeared in The Phantom Menace and was by no means seen once more), to the query of the place Ahsoka disappeared to after the Clone Wars ended, and what satisfied her to rejoin the combat in Rebels.
Between the two central characters, Count Dooku’s story is the one which fascinated me the most – since he arrived as a fully-formed Sith Lord performed by the one and solely Christopher Lee in Attack Of The Clones, we’ve by no means actually gotten a correct on-screen backstory as to why he betrayed the Jedi, and the way he turned to the Dark Side, which is perplexing for a personality that performs as large a job as he does in the Clone Wars.
Move apart, Baby Yoda, Baby Ahsoka is right here to take your crown.
That’s to not say Ahsoka’s story is any much less attention-grabbing, however we’ve already seen a lot of her in the Clone Wars, Rebels, and even The Mandalorian exhibits that the episodes right here don’t add a lot to her story, however somewhat, serve to spherical out her character a bit extra, and possibly put together informal Star Wars viewers for her upcoming live-action solo collection.
And that’s Tales Of The Jedi for you in a nutshell. Its six 15 to twenty minute episodes doesn’t actually add much more to the general story of the franchise, however it serves to counterpoint these two explicit characters additional and add a richer context to their actions and the penalties.
Think of it as the putty that’s used to fill in the little cracks in a wall after the bricklayers have completed it – it might be a small a part of the total course of, however one which in the end makes it a lot stronger.
All six episodes of Star Wars: Tales Of The Jedi at the moment are streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
