For the Star Wars: Ahsoka novel, see here.
- Alternative Character Interpretation:
- In "Fallen Jedi", Shin is shocked when she sees Marrok die. Is her reaction because she is now outnumbered, because she was surprised that he dissolved into smoke upon dying, or because she had a certain camaraderie for Marrok?
- Even though Ezra calls her sister, does Sabine feel the same level of closeness or could it be something more than that? She refers to him as a "friend", but never calls him brother.
- Because of the visual language when Ezra expresses when he claimed that he saw Sabine as a "sister", did any attraction he had towards her really disappear, or is he just lying to himself, and still has feelings towards her?
- The exact nature of Sabine and Ezra's relationship also comes into question, is it really a strong platonic bond or do both of them have stronger feelings for each other than eitheir of them are willing to admit, judging from their behavior as well Sabine's unhealthy determination to find him as well as Ezra being nervous talking to her as well giving her flirtatious vibes in their interactions?
- Base-Breaking Character: Sabine Wren's portrayal in this show is quite controversial among fans. There are those who empathize with her difficult life post-Rebels, having lost so many people she considered family, and see her depressed, self-aggrandizing personality as a reflection of that. Others however see her as a rebellious, irresponsible and selfish woman who dooms the entire galaxy to be reunited with one man, is unnecessarily snappish towards Ahsoka throughout the series, and the confusing nature of her relationship with Ezra Bridger.
- Catharsis Factor: Senator Xiono is a smug, self-righteous member of the New Republic who not only refuses to take any threat of a possible Imperial return seriously, but rubs his authority in Hera's face when he denies her permission to investigate, and is all too willing to court martial her for it. Watching him get taken down a few pegs by C-3PO himself, with the formal authorization of Xiono's boss, Senator Leia Organa, along with a reprimand of him denying Hera's request without Leia's presence, is enough to make any viewer grin as he has to seethe seeing Hera let off the hook like that.
- Continuity Lockout: Viewers who didn't watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, or who only watched a season or two, can find themselves seriously lost. Disney+ has a suggested list of "essential" episodes to fill in the blanks—and there's 20 or 30 hours of viewing there. It's nearly a full time job if you want to be fully prepared for this series. There are also a few things that require having watched The Mandalorian to fully understand.
- Draco in Leather Pants: Shin Hati, due to a combination of her physical attractiveness, and the popularity of the ship with Sabine (wolfwren), it didn't take long for fanfics to appear that paint her as a poor Jerkass Woobie who only hopes to be redeemed with the power of love (usually by Sabine).
- Die for Our Ship: Due to the popularity of the Wolfwren, a certain sector of the fandom hopes that Ezra was Dead All Along, has turned evil, or that he ends up despising Sabine, for what she had to do to find him.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Captain Enoch, Thrawn's right-hand-stormtrooper commander, quickly got a lot of attention from fans for his creepy appearance (including meshing the face of a statue directly into his helmet), despite not directly partaking in combat or having much else to do. It doesn't hurt that he bears a slight resemblance to the Ben 10 character of the same name; and that he's played by Wes Chatham, who played Amos Burton on The Expanse.
- Epileptic Trees: Before the series was released, the potential (and later confirmed) inclusion of the World Between Worlds made many vocal fans who disliked the sequel trilogy to claim that it was going to be used to Cosmic Retcon the sequel movies out of existence, it was prevalent enough for the rumour to be picked up by news outlets.
- Evil Is Cool:
- Baylan Skoll and his apprentice, Shin Hati, both deliver on villains that are a unique to screen take on Force wielders (being Dark Jedi with limited stakes in the Empire) that are competent, deadly, and very attractive, including an atypical dynamic in the Master-Apprentice chain, and Skoll's philosophy about breaking the cycle that the galaxy seems to be stuck in winning over a lot of fans.
- Grand Admiral Thrawn is back, and he hasn't lost his touch as The Chessmaster in the slightest. Bonus points for being reprised by his actor from Rebels, Lars Mikkelsen.
- Though it's only for a brief moment, seeing an armorless, pre-Mustafar version of Darth Vader push Ahsoka to her limit in the World Between Worlds while wielding a red lightsaber is nothing short of spectacular. It helps that Hayden Christensen truly knows how to embody Vader even without the suit or James Earl Jones overdubbing his voice.
- Fan Nickname:
- The show as a whole has been jokingly referred to as "Rebels Season 5" from the moment the plot was revealed to feature the Ghost Crew as its main characters.
- Baylan has become known on Reddit as "Darth Daddy". Others took to calling him "Darth Tituspullo" after his original Star-Making Role.
- Shin has gained the nicknames "Darth Bangs" and "Shin Hottie".
- Not unsurprisingly, Huyang's continues to be "Whoyang", what with David Tennant's tenure as the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors.
- Because Ezra Looks Like Jesus with his new beard and clothes and is played by a Middle-Eastern actor instead of a European-descended one, he's "Biblically-Accurate Space Jesus".
- Foe Yay Shipping: A fandom for shipping Sabine Wren and Shin Hati quickly developed after their duel in the first episode, despite them being enemies, with fanfics and fanart about the two sprouting up on sites like Tumblr, along with them getting their own Idiosyncratic Ship Naming, "WolfWren".note The shipping only intensified after Sabine became Baylon's prisoner at the end of the fourth episode, resulting in her and Shin being on board the same ship together for an extended period as it travels to the other galaxy, and even more so after the finale, where they are stranded on the same planet for the foreseeable future,and with Ezra no longer being in Peridea, as a potential hindrance to the relationship.
- Fourth Wall Myopia: The New Republic captain in the first episode got a lot of flak from some viewers for not taking enough precautions against Baylan and Shin when they arrive on his ship, despite the fact he had no way of knowing that the individuals in question weren't just run-of-the-mill Imperial infiltrators, as he suspected they were, but full fledged Dark Jedi capable of overwhelming his entire vessel until he was run through by a lightsaber.
- He's Just Hiding: Although Clan Wren seems to have become extinct with the exception of Sabine, there is a certain sector of the fandom that truly hopes that some members have managed to survive the purge.
- He Panned It, Now He Sucks!: Sam Barsanti from The A.V. Club caught significant flak from not just the fandom but even loyal A.V. Club commenters for his overwhelmingly negative weekly reviews. In a rare divorce from the usual case of "fan outrage" over bad reviews, a lot of commenters pointed out that his reviews largely consisting of things he wanted to see in the show, while the little bit he did talk about that was already present was chock full of errors addressed in the very episode itself that he was reviewing, leading many to legitimately question whether he was even watching the series at all. To the commenters and fans' credit, it wasn't the first time The A.V. Club was caught red-headed posting inauthentic negative reviews just for attention, harkening back to their infamous Fargo season 3 review scandal.
- Ho Yay: As is to be expected from the character, Thrawn's meeting with Baylan Skoll, where the two men look each other over very approvingly, has led many fans to note there feels to be something between them.
- Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Those who ship Sabine and Shin call them "WolfWren", a combination of Sabine's last name Wren and the fact that Shin Hati gets her last name from a wolf from Norse mythology.
- I Knew It!:
- With Thrawn in Rebels being modeled after Lars Mikkelsen, it was correctly predicted by many that should Thrawn have shown up in live-action, Mikkelsen would be the one to portray him, as was announced in Celebration 2023.
- When Mary Elizabeth Winstead was announced to be cast in an undisclosed role in Ahsoka, a certain amount of people guessed that she would be playing a live-action version of Hera Syndulla (as she is about the same age Hera would be in that period on the Star Wars timeline), and were proven right come 2023 when the first trailer was released. Before then, the revelation that Chopper would appear in this series also led strong credence to the theory of the casting, as Chopper is unequivocally Hera's droid and appeared with her in the Rebels post-Endor epilogue.
- When this series was first announced in 2020, some fans noticed that the title's font resembles the World Between Worlds seen in the eponymous episode of Rebels, which made them predict that it was going to feature in the series. Sure enough, it appeared in Episode 4, although Ahsoka accessed it though a different mean than in the aforementioned series.
- After years of extant hopes that he would play the character in live action, Temuera Morrison has been confirmed to play Captain Rex from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
- Improved Second Attempt:
- Though his portrayal of Anakin in Obi-Wan Kenobi was lauded as a great comeback for Hayden Christensen, there was some slight nitpicking about the lack of digital de-aging for him, as it showed how much visibly older Hayden had become compared to when he first played the character in Attack of the Clones, which the flashback takes place before. Here, Anakin is shown to look exactly how he did in Revenge of the Sith, both in terms of costuming and his youthful appearance. Although the reception was mixed (with negative reviews focusing on the quality of the CGI and questioning whether it was really necessary), it was still more positive compared to Anakin's appearance in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
- Relatedly, many fans of The Clone Wars were disappointed that the events of said show were never referenced once during Obi-Wan Kenobi, especially since it was the show that helped bring some much-needed Character Rerailment for Anakin. This show has Ahsoka relive her past during the Clone Wars, allowing us to see the events of the show in live-action, and how it affected Ahsoka as a person. For bonus points, we even get to see Anakin in his Clone Wars armor.
- During Ahsoka and Morgan's first duel in The Mandalorian, a few fans voiced criticism of what they saw as stilted and limited choreography, not giving a chance for Diana Lee Inosanto to shine properly. In their climactic duel during the season 1 finale, this is very much not the case, with much-improved choreography and bladeplay that shows off the skills of Rosario Dawson and lets Inosanto prove why she's the goddaughter of Bruce Lee.
- It's Short, So It Sucks!: A common criticism of the first season is that it's only eight episodes, which some felt wasn't enough for Filoni's longform storytelling. Because the show's first season has less runtime compared to a season of Clone Wars or Rebels, several plot threads and characters were cut short. Some argued that a longer season lasting 10 episodes, as standard among most sci-fi shows, would be better as the greater screentime would allow for more plot contextualization and allow more opportunities for fan-favorite characters to shine.
- It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: One prominent criticism of the show is that it essentially follows the exact same story beats as The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker, where it's a race between the heroes and the Imperials to recover a MacGuffin that is key to accessing a map that will show a location of great importance. However, instead of Luke Skywalker or Exegol, it's Thrawn and possibly Ezra Bridger this time. It should be noticed that this was also the overall premise of The Hand of Thrawn duology.
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: The villains of the series are either considered cool (Baylan, Thrawn) or sexy (Shin). Meanwhile, Hera's plot has Senator Xiono, who is face-punchingly smug, rude, obstructive, and eventually descends to outright hypocritical and petty. And he insults C-3P0! It's little wonder his son ran off to join the New Republic fleet as soon as he could. Viewers familiar with the Legends Thrawn Trilogy have also likened him to a human version of Borsk Fey'lya.
- Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Sabine Wren within the fandom is paired with most characters, the ships with Ezra and Shin being the most popular.
- LGBT Fanbase: Both Ahsoka and Sabine bring their pre-existing WLW fanbase into the series, a fanbase that only grew with the popular WolfWren ship (Sabine and Shin Hati).
- Like You Would Really Do It: Sabine Wren's survival after being stabbed with a lightsaber by Shin Hati. It is incredibly unlikely that they would kill off a main character in the first episode, especially after stating how important she is in the search for Ezra Bridger. Any remaining tension is ruined by the fact that Disney published the first two episodes at once, and the second episode's thumbnail clearly shows Sabine still alive.
- Lost in Medias Res: One of the frequent criticisms of the show is how so much of Sabine and Ashoka's relationship hinges on offscreen events that the audience never got to see. By the time the show starts finally starts giving much needed context, Sabine and Ashoka have reconciled, rending most of the investment moot.
- Memetic Loser:
- Due to her obsession with Thrawn, despite never appearing in any part of his extensive backstory, Morgan Elsbeth is often jokingly portrayed as a desperate Loony Fan wannabe who Thrawn doesn't even know exists. This gained more traction when Elsbeth starts showing confusion towards Thrawn's strategies in action, with Thrawn himself showing minor frustration towards Elsbeth's inability to understand his mindset.
- Sabine Wren. Due to her devotion to searching for Ezra, to the point of being willing to give the map to Baylan, many have come to portray her as a desperate and selfish person who has a strange obsession with Ezra. This interpretation ended being detable in the final episode of the first season, when Sabine gives up returning to the galaxy with Ezra to help Ahsoka. Sadly the reason is Unknown
- More comically the fandom has a lot of fun with Sabine's lack of Force abilities, which are often voiced by characters in the show as it seems everyone but Ahsoka thinks Sabine has no chance of being a Jedi. Which becomes Hilarious in Hindsight after the finale, where Sabine finally unlocks some Jedi powers of her own.
- Memetic Mutation: See here.
- Memetic Psychopath:
- Chopper maintains his status as one after he casually suggests shooting down a massive transport ship over a crowded city regardless of how many civilian casualties it would cause down below. This grew even further during Hera's Senate hearing when Senator Xiono expressed a distaste for droids (including in front of C-3PO!), and Chopper sounds about ready to tear his guts out.
- In a slightly more serious example, Sabine has been memetically compared to Darth Vader, due to her refusal to destroy the map in order to find Ezra.
- Nightmare Retardant: The Night Troopers are a lot less creepy if you're aware that their aesthetic is inspired by repaired Japanese kitchenware.
. - Most Wonderful Sound: When Anakin Skywalker finally does appear in the World Between Worlds, it brings tears to ones eyes to hear him proudly call his old apprentice "Snips" for the first time in years. Especially as it is Hayden Christensen uttering the expression for the first time.
- Older Than They Think: While some fans have balked at the idea of a non-Jedi being trained in the force, they forget that the concept has already been realized as not-so-far back as Chirrut Imwe in Rogue One.
- One-Scene Wonder:
- While Captain Rex only appears in Ahsoka's flashbacks to the Clone Wars, the fact that he's finally appeared in live-action after so long, gets to wear both his Phase I and Phase II armors, and is voiced by Temuera Morrison, makes his appearance all the more memorable. He even got a character poster.
- C-3PO himself appears to help clear Hera of wrongdoing in her court martial and delivering a polite middle finger to Senator Xiono for trying to throw her under the bus.
- Salvaged Story:
- One of the most controversial aspects of the prequels was the inclusion of midi-chlorians and the importance of having a high amount of them in one's body being an essential quality for a Force user. This lore was disliked by many viewers because it was viewed as making "good genetics" the most important condition for Jedi recruitment, and thus endorsing a eugenicist worldview. While the existence of midi-chlorians is still canon in Star Wars post-Lucas, their necessity for Force-sensitivity is diminished, as Ahsoka claims that since every living being is connected to the Force, any person could theoretically learn to access its power with enough training even with a genetic disadvantage.
- After having not been seen and barely acknowledged in any Star Wars related content outside of the final season of Rebels, Jacen Syndulla finally makes a reappearance in this show, where he and his mother are shown to have a very close relationship, and he dreams of being a Jedi like his father was.
- One of the most controversial aspects of the prequels was the inclusion of midi-chlorians
- Ship-to-Ship Combat: Wolfwren fans have a rivalry with Sabezra, Ahsbine and Ketbine fans. In canon, Sabine has not yet shown romantic-level feelings for anyone — which gives rise to a third side of fans who are against shipping Sabine with anyone at all, seeing her as asexual and/or aromantic.
- Special Effect Failure: Ahsoka jumping out of Huyang's ship and landing on the surface of Peredia in Episode 7 suffers from having really bad greenscreen in the background, making it very obvious that Ahsoka is doing a landing on a poorly disguised soundstage.
- Testosterone Brigade: The show has plenty of male viewers declaring watching the show only for the female characters fanservice, especially Hera Syndulla's rear, which even spawned the "The plot thickens" meme.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Zeb. The other four (or five, counting Jacen) living main characters of Rebels all have major roles, but Zeb is only mentioned once and doesn't appear at all despite his role the animated series as a Cool Uncle for Ezra. Also, after his cameo appearance in The Mandalorian S3, a lot of fans predicted his return in this show, figuring that they wouldn't have done all of that CGI just for a cameo.
- Rex, one of Ahsoka's closest friends and a significant figure in both The Clone Wars and Rebels, only appears briefly in Ahsoka's flashbacks to the war, something that disappointed a number of fans, who liked the idea of Temuera Morrison playing the character in live-action and getting to interact more with the adult Ahsoka after she was presumed dead in the second season finale of Rebels.
- Marrok. His being an Inquisitor who not only outlived the Inquisitorious but even Vader and Palpatine might imply an interesting backstory, yet his backstory is not explored and he only serves to give Ahsoka another opponent to fight before dying. What makes this particularly egregious is that, despite being a former Jedi hunter, he is working with a former Jedi and his apprentice, people who would have been his targets in the past. This ironic dynamic is not explored at all, nor is it explained how he met Baylan and Shin or explained how he survived the fall of the Inquistours when it's implied Palpatine had them all killed once they were of no more use to him. Further adding salt to the wound is the fact that when he died green magik left his body, implying either empowered by night sister magic or even brought back from the dead. However, it's not clarified.
- Clan Wren being revealed to have been victims of The Purge inflicted by Gideon didn't sit well with some viewers who lamented their Bus Crash after much of the later portions of Rebels revolved around Sabine reconciling with them and leading them to reject the Empire.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Sabine's initial Jedi apprenticeship and subsequent falling out with Ahsoka all took place in the Time Skip between Rebels and this show, and it's not until the finale that it's explained why the two split apart in the first place. Not helped by the fact it's never explained why Sabine decided to train as a Jedi in the first place. A number of viewers, particularly those who were newcomers to the characters, were confused as to why the story starts In Medias Res of their partnership and felt their story would've been stronger if it showed Ahsoka and Sabine training together and then coming apart instead of leaving it all to exposition.
- Sabine's relationship with Ezra Bridger could've been furthered exlplored, due to the implications left in Rebels and in Ahsoka that she might've developed strong romantic feelings for him. Despite Ezra's statement regarding Sabine as the "sister he never had", many were still hoping for a relationship to develop. Unfornately, Sabine's choice to stay with Ahsoka on Peridea, while Ezra returns to the main galaxy complicated things. Still many still hoped Sabine and Ahsoka could find a way to escape and return home, hoping for her relationship with Ezra could be given more depth than what was shown in the first season.
- Ezra never finds out that Sabine is the reason Thrawn got the opportunity to escape, sidestepping a potential source of drama from Ezra learning his best friend nullified his sacrifice.
- Ugly Cute: The "Howler" Sabine is given in episode six isn't really cute by normal measures, looking like a cross between a wolf and a rat, but its puppyish behavior makes it very endearing all the same.
- Unexpected Character:
- Huyang, the lightsaber-building instructor droid from the Youngling Arc in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, being shown alive and well definitely caught a lot of people off guard.
- Mon Mothma showing up in the first trailer for this show was a surprise, given that she had not appeared in any live action post-Return of the Jedi stories up to this point.
- Hamato Xiono's live-action debut took fans by surprise given how Star Wars Resistance had largely fallen into obscurity after never truly getting a dedicated following during its run.
- The return of Ryder Azadi and Jai Kell was not anticipated, either. They even brought Clancy Brown back to reprise his role.
- In the case of Marrok, its not so much a returning character as a member of a certain group. Its probably safe to say anyone familiar with the Inquisitors would have been pretty shocked to see an Inquisitor like Marrok alive during a Post-Return of the Jedi time period, especially considering this is a long time after the Inqustioruous was rendered defunct in canon and they are implied to have been extinct well before the start of the original trilogy even began.
- The reappearance of the Nightsisters in Episode 6 was nothing short of a surprise for viewers of The Clone Wars, especially since their last appearance as a species had them all being wiped out by General Grievous.
- Who was expecting C-3PO to show up in Episode 7?
- The Woobie: "Fallen Jedi" solidifies Sabine as the woobie. In Rebels it is revealed she had made weapons for the Empire that they had turned around and used to enslave her own people. When she destroyed the Dutchess, a weapon that targets beskar, and spoke out against the Empire, her own family abandoned her and sided with the Empire. Sabine would for a short while become a bounty hunter but would be left for dead by her friend, Ketsu. She would eventually reconcile with both her family and friend but the experience would leave her with abandonment and trust issues. For a time, she would have the Ghost Crew that would become like a family to her but her father figure, Kanan, would end up sacrificing his life to save her, Ezra and Hera’s lives from an explosion. Shortly thereafter, her closest friend Ezra would pull his own self-sacrifice by sending himself and Thrawn to parts unknown. Come the start of the Ahsoka series, it is revealed that Sabine had taken up a short period of becoming Ahsoka’s apprentice in a bid to become a Jedi like Kanan and Ezra only for the Night of a Thousand Tears to happen, wiping out most of her people, her family among them and Ahsoka cutting her training off and leaving shortly after, leaving Sabine to believe that Ahsoka didn’t trust her. For years she is left alone on Lothal embittered and isolated. Then Ahsoka arrives offering her a chance to find Ezra, the only family she feels she has left. Only for Shin to show up and steal the map after she figures out how to unlock it. Ahsoka takes her back on as her apprentice only for Sabine to watch her get thrown off a cliff. She is then forced to make a decision. Destroy the map and her chance to be reunited with Ezra to prevent Thrawn’s return or surrender but have a chance to see Ezra again. After everything she has lost, it's no wonder she caves to Baylan’s offer to reunite with Ezra.
