Star Wars : Ahsoka [Lucasfilm - 2023]

Il y a encore trois ans, j'étais hyper emballé en imaginant Dave Filoni reprendre les rênes de la saga. Aujourd'hui, mon enthousiasme a complètement chuté. Dieu sait à quel point j'adore son travail sur The Clone Wars et Star Wars Rebels mais depuis le final de la saison 2 de The Mandalorian, plus aucune de ses séries n'a provoqué le moindre frisson chez moi. The Bad Batch m'a poliment ennuyé, Tales of the Jedi fait le minimum syndical et Ahsoka vient confirmer ma déception grandissante.
C'est un projet qu'il a en tête depuis des années, où il est seul maître à bord, où il peut enfin poursuivre l'histoire de son personnage-fétiche et quand on voit le résultat complètement mécanique du rendu final, je me demande si on a vraiment gagné au change en lui confiant la réalisation d'un des prochains films Star Wars.
Depuis qu'il a les mains libres, on dirait que Filoni n'a plus envie de s'embêter à faire ses preuves. C'était déjà quelque chose qui m'avait frappé avec le chapitre 6 du Livre de Boba Fett, épisode qui mettait en scène un rêve de fan mais en supprimant tout le bagage émotionnel requis pour les personnages. Tous les épisodes de Ahsoka ressemblent à cette rencontre avec Luke. Du pilotage automatique, des visuels et des dialogues attendus, une prise de risque inexistante. Le pinacle étant l'épisode 5 où le retour de Anakin, sa première apparition post-Retour du Jedi faut-il le préciser, arrive n'importe comment dans l'histoire sans jamais avoir été préparé. Le traumatisme de Ahsoka, qui devait normalement être au centre du récit, est incroyablement sous-traité. Son face-à-face avec son ancien maître avait tout pour être une tornade d'émotions mélangeant tristesse, colère, frustration, joie, soulagement, déception, acceptation. Et au lieu de ça, on reste en terrain connu, on ne cherche pas à chambouler le spectateur. Tout est trop sage, trop facile, trop évident. Ces 20 minutes avec Anakin sont censées boucler 15 ans de parcours avec Ahsoka et tout ce qui vient en tête c'est : Tout ça pour ça? Alors qu'à côté, des questions vraiment importantes sont purement ignorées comme Ahsoka qui décide de former Sabine, un retournement passé hors-champ dont les motivations ne seront jamais expliquées.
Même chose pour les héros de Rebels. Eux qui sont si hauts en couleur, si expressifs et si riches dans leur version animée; les voilà réduits à des personnages-fonction froids, creux et sans relief. On a quand même trois scènes de retrouvailles avec Ezra, avec trois relations fortes complètement différentes (frère/soeur pour Sabine, mère/fils pour Hera, maître/apprenti pour Ahsoka). Aucune n'est fichue de varier un petit peu l'écriture. Un sourire en coin, une ligne de texte puis une embrassade (encore que non, Hera n'a même pas le droit à ça, on cut direct alors que c'était une des réactions les plus désirées par les fans). Ezra est le moteur émotionnel de l'intrigue mais est exploité par la réalisation comme une formalité. Le choix/mensonge de Sabine condamne l'entièreté de la Galaxie? On le met sous le tapis.
J'ai tellement été déçu que je me suis mis à revoir des extraits en vrac de la Postlogie et c'est marrant d'y voir quelque chose de totalement absent dans Ahsoka : Des émotions. Un personnage doit pleurer, il pleure. Un personnage a mal, il crie de douleur. Un personnage est énervé, il est violent. Un personnage est heureux, il ouvre grand ses bras. Et surtout, l'émotion est mise en scène, elle est comptée, validée, prise en compte par la caméra. Elle est au service d'une histoire bête et opportuniste mais elle est là. Filoni, sûrement pour imiter son mentor, enfouit cette émotion. Comme s'il ne comprenait plus les personnages qu'il a lui-même créé.
Si c'est lui qui doit poser les bases du futur de Star Wars au cinéma, je me pose des questions. On est passé de films qui ne citaient que le passé pour exister à un homme qui ne fait plus que s'autociter pour faire accepter sa vision, comme s'il était devenu incapable d'émouvoir le public en leur proposant du neuf, sans avoir à rappeler tel personnage culte. On a juste échangé du fan-service stupide et crade (les Épisodes VII, VIII et IX) contre du fan-service confortable qui ferme toute porte à la création. Aucun des deux n'est la solution.

La seconde partie de la Bande Originale, pour les épisodes 5 à 8, toujours composée par Kevin Kiner, est désormais disponible :

Divers concept arts par Jama Jurabaev (1), Matt Allsopp (2 et 6), Anton Grandert (3), Ryan Church (4) et Ric Lim (5) :

Suite à la fin de la grève, les acteurs ont partagé de nombreuses photos et vidéos des coulisses sur leurs réseaux sociaux.

Natasha Liu Bordizzo a écrit:

As you probably know, the strike has lifted ‍. All I’ve wanted to say for these many weeks is thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the love on Ahsoka 🤍. Thank you for coming along with us on such an epic journey!! Sabine taught me so much, especially about receiving mentorship, love and guidance, even when you least deserve it. This show was made by a huge team of genuinely good, kind people (hi Dave Filoni) who are all obsessed with Star Wars and even with all the other incredible experiences that came along with it, that part stood out to me.

Alright now enjoy some fun snaps from set!! More to come!! Star Wars Ahsoka

P.s. We miss you Ray. We miss you Shawna. X

Eman Esfandi a écrit:

THE RUMORS ARE TRUE…
I am Ezra Bridger.
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Thank you to everyone that worked on Ahsoka for welcoming me with open arms into your beautiful Star Wars family. ‍
Growing up I wished for friends who loved what I loved (anime, cartoons, etc.) and little did I know it would be all of you. It’s an honor to work with people who pour their hearts and souls into this franchise and keep the Force so alive. Made it easy to go all in and follow suit. Thank you Dave Filoni & Jon Favreau for trusting me to bring Jabba the Hutt himself back home. There are so many more moments that went undocumented but deeply lived and loved while being a part of this project. To the fans… I’M HOME!! 🥹
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Dearest Ray & Dearest Shawna,
Rest in beautiful peace and power

Ariana Greenblatt a écrit:

From my family to yours, Thank U, Thank U, Thank U for all the love & support, comment's, reactions &  just over whelming love you all have shown me, the cast & 600+ crew members/artisans who worked on Ahsoka "Shadow Warrior"  
Im deeply grateful to the Star Wars family🧡~snips

Tout chaud sur Chronique Disney, le site, retrouvez, en cliquant sur l'image, la critique de la saison 1 de Star Wars : Ahsoka.

Tout chaud sur Chronique Disney, le site, en cliquant sur l'image, retrouvez la captation audio*  de notre émission consacrée à la saison 1 de la série Star Wars : Ahsoka.


*Podcast à retrouver sur toutes les plateformes d'écoute (recherchez "Chronique Disney Le Live" et abonnez-vous)

Dave Filoni est nommé directeur de la création chez Lucasfilm.

Vanity Fair a écrit:

FAR, FAR AWAY
Star Wars Undertakes Universe-Shaking Changes After Ahsoka
Creator Dave Filoni, Rosario Dawson, Hayden Christensen, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo reveal how their show altered the galactic landscape.

Dave Filoni has a new mission in the Star Wars universe after guiding Rosario Dawson’s Force-wielding hero to distant celestial realms in the first season of Ahsoka. The writer-producer-director, who started out working alongside George Lucas on the animated Clone Wars show nearly two decades ago, has ascended to a new position at Lucasfilm—one that will give him input into all the galactic storytelling going forward.

“Now I’m what’s called chief creative officer of Lucasfilm,” Filoni tells Vanity Fair, which places him into the development process much earlier and in a much more expansive capacity than his previous advisory duties. “In the past, in a lot of projects I would be brought into it, I would see it after it had already developed a good ways.”

Filoni will now work more directly with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and alongside Carrie Beck, a veteran producer turned head of development, to originate and shepherd the next generation of Star Wars shows and movies. After spending many years involved in the creation of Star Wars animation, including the Rebels series, he became increasingly involved in live-action as a producer with Jon Favreau on the The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. “In this new role, it’s opened up to basically everything that’s going on,” Filoni says. “When we’re planning the future of what we’re doing now, I’m involved at the inception phase.”

The news comes a little over a month after the conclusion of Ahsoka, an eight-episode Disney+ series that explored how Dawson’s Jedi grappled with her legacy of being trained by Anakin Skywalker, the mentor who became the galactic tyrant Darth Vader. Due to the long-running Hollywood strikes, neither Filoni nor Dawson were able to speak about the show when it debuted. In a Vanity Fair exclusive, both of them are now free to discuss the changes the show brought to the broader Star Wars narrative—both onscreen and behind the scenes.

Hayden Christensen, who returned to play the spirit of Anakin Skywalker in Ahsoka, also spoke about reprising his role from the prequel films and what the series says about how Darth Vader reckons with his own terrible history in the galactic afterlife. And Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who plays Sabine Wren, the Mandalorian troublemaker who becomes Ahsoka’s own Jedi trainee, addressed the ways Ahsoka opens up this world to a new generation of fans by simultaneously embracing tradition and trying to forge new storylines.

“You just learn a lot from Dave in general, I think,” Bordizzo says. “I know that he’s traditional in the sense of how he learned so much from George. He has these pillars of storytelling that are dear to him, and then everything else can be untraditional.”


Filoni’s New Role

Now that Filoni will take on the role of chief creative officer, what does it mean for other writers, directors, and producers?

“I’m not telling people what to do,” Filoni says. “But I do feel I’m trying to help them tell the best story that they want to tell. I need to be a help across the galaxy here, like a part of a Jedi Council almost.” He described his responsibilities as understanding the intent of the filmmakers and being a resource to them, based on his mentorship under Lucas himself, and his years spent steering The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Ahsoka. “Literally, hours now of Star Wars storytelling I have done,” he said, before pausing to rethink his syntax. “See…I even phrased that like Yoda.”

At the Star Wars Celebration fan convention this past spring, a number of new projects were announced by Kennedy, including a feature film from Filoni that would help bridge the decades-long gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens—a space that The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka are already busy filling.

Filoni will continue developing his film, as well as exploring a possible second season of Ahsoka, while serving in his new position. “To truly help filmmakers, it was really important for me to experience it firsthand,” he says. “I can also lend a perspective on the challenges that telling these stories will present. I feel more capable of actually being helpful outside of just saying, ‘Well, Jedi are like this, and Sith are like this…’”

All the titles from Star Wars Celebration are still on the books, Lucasfilm officials say, including a historical epic about the early origins of the Force from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny filmmaker James Mangold, and a story revisiting Daisy Ridley’s Rey from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Upcoming television projects include The Acolyte, set in the High Republic era about a century before the Star Wars story fans first encountered in the 1977 original, and Skeleton Crew, a show about a group of lost young space travelers set sometime after the Empire’s defeat in Return of the Jedi.

As president of Lucasfilm, Kennedy will continue leading the overall company, and Beck’s role will involve recruiting other storytellers into the Star Wars fold, while Filoni weighs in on a narrative level.

Darth Vader’s Legacy in Ahsoka

Although Star Wars has literally thousands of characters populating its various stories, the single greatest touchstone remains Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader—two sides of the same individual, one honorable, the other deplorable. Ahsoka was distinctive among Star Wars projects for delving into what it is like for denizens of the galaxy to emerge from that darkness.

Ahsoka Tano was his padawan apprentice. Just as Luke Skywalker wondered about how much of his own nature was inherited from his father, Ahsoka questions in the series whether it is possible to trust—let alone pass on—everything she’s learned from the same man.

“She had a very particular idea of him, the Jedi order, and who she was in all of that for a very long time until that image was shattered,” Dawson says. “The point we graduate to here is, yeah, he did some terrible things, and he also did some really great things. And it’s always up to you how you choose the direction. She can look back at her own life. She’s gone through some hardships that could have been the moment that turned her dark. She didn’t go there. So I think she’s starting to trust herself.”

The series continues an arc from the animated Rebels series, set at the beginning of the galactic uprising, when Vader was at full power as an Imperial enforcer and Ahsoka came face-to-mask with her former mentor. “While I had introduced in Rebels the idea that she came to understand that Anakin had become Darth Vader, I never really dealt with the fallout from that,” Filoni says. “How does that affect somebody when a person that they really admire and looked up to turned out not to be the person they thought they were? Are we all just capable of a fall from grace? And what is forgiveness? What shape does that look like? Did I take the good parts of this person with me as well as the bad, or am I just the good? I thought there were a lot of interesting challenges for her.”

In episode five of the Ahsoka series, Dawson’s character is defeated and nearly killed in battle by a fallen Jedi turned mercenary named Baylan Skoll (played by the late Ray Stevenson), who casts her off a cliff into a raging sea. She then goes through what appears to be a near-death experience, transporting her to the liminal space known in Star Wars lore as the World Between Worlds, where the spirit of Anakin helps guide her through the conflict roiling inside her. “Maybe he’s also a warning of what can still happen, but that’s still significant in a positive way if you want it to be,” Dawson says.

In many ways, the character of Ahsoka Tano is growing up along with the fans who first encountered Ahsoka when they were children watching the animated series in the late 2000s. The things she asks in the Ahsoka series are grown-up questions of legacy and destiny. Is she on the right path? Should she discard her past in order to move forward? Or are flawed things still worth preserving?

“We were able to take a little bit more time to go, ‘What does this feel like? What does this mean?’ and [explore] the choices that come from that kind of reckoning,” Dawson says. “We’ve seen that when she decided to leave the Jedi order. We saw that when she walked away from Anakin. There’ve been pivotal moments; this felt like that seminal moment again. This is a different rite of passage.”

Hayden Christensen’s Return as Anakin

The World Between Worlds sequences in Ahsoka opened the door for Christensen to return as Anakin Skywalker, reprising the role of the brash young Jedi he first performed in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The actor previously came back as the scarred and broken Vader in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, but Ahsoka offered him a chance to revisit the character post-redemption.

Christensen says he played it with a deliberate sense of uncertainty: Is this really him, or is he a figment from Ahsoka’s troubled mind?

“That’s the beauty of how the episode is constructed, in my opinion,” the actor says. “Inevitably, the audience has to question what it is they’re watching. Is this really the World Between Worlds? What is the World Between Worlds? Is this actually the spirit of Anakin Skywalker, or is this all in Ahsoka’s subconscious and we’re just going down the yellow brick road as she’s drowning and fighting for her life? I think that the episode provides a few really good clues, but it doesn’t spell it out for you.”

Filoni prefers to leave the mystery open to interpretation. But he defers to Lucas as the definitive storyteller on Vader. For him, this show was about how Ahsoka’s character dealt with her past, rather than continuing the cautionary tale of Anakin Skywalker as a Force ghost.

“My feeling about Anakin is that George resolved everything about Anakin. I don’t think I have anything to do there. I’m not trying to add anything to that,” he says. “Everything Anakin’s involved with is about her. It’s about her point of view on Anakin. It’s about what Anakin taught her. He’s there in more of an Obi-Wan role that we saw in the old movies.”

Still, Ahsoka suggests that even after Anakin’s story was completed, the character continues a Jekyll-and-Hyde struggle to maintain his decency with Vader still lurking somewhere within. Flashes of Vader lurch out of Ahsoka’s visions. Or maybe that’s just Ahsoka’s imagination. There’s also an interpretation that the spirit of Anakin intercedes to save her from death, rescuing his old apprentice from her fall into the ocean.

“There’s a lot there to unpack, potentially,” Christensen says. “I was getting to play a version of this character that I hadn’t before, and that was the all-knowing, all-powerful Jedi master who could wield both sides of the force—light and dark—at will, and maybe has the power to save Ahsoka’s life, which also is very interesting because that’s the power that he was trying to achieve when he pledged himself to the dark side.”

In the final shot of the series, the Force ghost of Anakin quietly watches Ahsoka from afar as she speaks with her Force-sensitive trainee, Sabine. Like planets in a solar system aligning, that one shot gives viewers a perspective on three generations of Jedi.

“Anakin…of course he’s there with her,” Filoni says. “He’s always been there with her, but she just couldn’t see it. She couldn’t feel it. She didn’t know. She had isolated herself and made herself alone because she was afraid.

“He has done a great deal to alleviate that fear in her. And so there’s a moment. I think he’s proud of her in the end. He sees that she’s going to be a better mentor. I debate Force ghosts with people all the time. To me, what they are mainly is inspiration. You have people in your life that I’m sure have inspired you. And you feel that all the time. You feel that when you need it.”

Sabine Wren and Echoes of Vader

“I was geeking out at that scene,” says Bordizzo. “We were on a stage outside that was not the Volume for that scene. We shot it basically exactly as it is. He was standing there, for real. It somehow makes it feel even more epic to bring those original characters into the fold of our story.”

Now that there are multiple generations of Star Wars fans, with those who grew up with it passing it on to their own children (or in some cases grandchildren), history and legacy are natural themes to explore.

“But the line of descendants is full of nontraditional Jedi, and then Jedis who have turned. So it’s not necessarily a very steady, solid line to be trusted,” Bordizzo says.

Sabine has no blood relationship with Anakin, but she has a certain recklessness in common with him that makes her mentor Ahsoka more than uneasy. “Part of the reason Ahsoka originally had issues trusting Sabine was because I reminded her so much of her master in some ways, in terms of the internal struggle I was going through,” she says.

To her, this is another way for Star Wars stories to resonate with fans by speaking to real-world experiences within the context of a space fantasy. Sabine was a teenager in Rebels, but by the time of Ahsoka she’s no kid anymore, even if she hasn’t quite perfected what’s known in both our world and the galaxy far, far away as “adulting.”

“We’re the same age, actually, Sabine and I,” Bordizzo says. “I was 28 when we shot it, and everything I was going through in life at that age, I wanted to channel it. She wasn’t a teenager anymore, but she’s still someone who needs guidance. Where I was at in life was very parallel to her. I was just at a big crossroads. Your late 20s can be kind of rough. You’re getting past a lot of stuff that used to interest you and moving into a new chapter.

“The Force, and Sabine trying to achieve use of the Force, was such a metaphor for me of trying to achieve that groundedness in real life. It just made me laugh,” she says. “A lot of the time I would read the episodes and be like, ‘I can relate to that.’ Obviously, I’m not trying to achieve the Force, but it’s all related.”

She sees the first season as setting up enduring drama between Ahsoka and Sabine, whom she describes as “stubborn with lots of walls up.” “Hopefully that can evolve,” Bordizzo adds. “It didn’t have enough time to evolve that much in season one, because as you’re learning about these characters, they’re also going through crazy upheaval and war and problems. So we’ll see where that goes.”

Opening an Entirely New Galaxy

Another innovation of Ahsoka was expanding beyond the familiar far-flung galaxy to an entirely different one, where the heroes track down their long lost friend Ezra Bridger (played by Eman Esfandi), as well as the blue-skinned Imperial known as Grand Admiral Thrawn (played by Lars Mikkelsen). At the conclusion of the Rebels animated series, both of them vanished into deep space and remained missing for years.

Filoni felt he had to expand the Star Wars universe in order to justify their absence and add an extra-large obstacle to their eventual recovery. “If they were in the Star Wars galaxy—the old Star Wars galaxy that we know—I think somebody would’ve found them,” Filoni says. “There’s too many starships, there’s too many people traveling. You get a signal out, and I think you could have found them if they wanted to be found. I had to really throw them far afield.”

Lucas himself laid the foundation for this solution, which Filoni found tucked away in one of the prequel films. “I think it’s in Attack of the Clones,” he says. “If you look, there’s an image of the galaxy, and then there are actually these smaller galaxies near it. So I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’”

By vaulting Bridger and Thrawn into an entirely different galaxy, he created an opportunity to explore ancient rituals for opening those gateways, the way nature flows between them in the form of galaxy-hopping space leviathans, and perhaps clear the way for other storytellers to explore these new realms themselves. “You know me, I plan for a long game. I really do. And that encompasses a lot more than it used to, as I help other people as well,” he says.

Expect this broader universe to be a factor in any future season of Ahsoka or that feature film he is developing. “I’m setting up what seems to be a larger conflict with the Imperial remnant,” Filoni says. “That conflict can’t just mirror what we’ve seen before. It has to take on a different shape. It can’t just be the Empire versus what looks like the Rebellion, or even the Republic. It has to be visually different.”

Ray Stevenson’s Untimely Passing

The unexpected death of Stevenson at age 58 this past May, after he had finished shooting his role as Baylan in Ahsoka, left an emotional void for his colleagues, but also a narrative one for his character.

The series ended with his morally “gray” former Jedi standing on the ruins of a mountain-sized sculpture of the Mortis gods. This trio of supernatural beings first appeared in a particularly trippy episode of The Clone Wars, with one of them representing the light side of the Force, one of them standing for the darkness, and one the father-like figure between them who balances both.

“You have to be careful with that,” says Filoni, the ultimate Star Wars geek who nonetheless knows the peril of getting too arcane for casual fans to follow. “I know it’s a very specific group of people that would even know what those statues are, but I thought it was an exciting image, and it does give you the shape of what Baylan is after,” Filoni says.


To Filoni, Baylan is a seeker just like Ahsoka, someone wrestling with the memory of what he was taught and the subsequent disillusion that has set in. “He’s a person that survived the Clone Wars, that was trained in the waxing-waning days of the Jedi Knights, just like Anakin,” Filoni says. “He saw his order, his way of life fall apart. And he’s basically deemed it a failure: That way did not work. That it’s not something worth resurrecting. Which is why he tells [his apprentice] Shin [played by Ivanna Sakhno], ‘I didn’t teach you to be a Jedi. I taught you to be something more.’”

That “something more” would seem to be rooted in the Force version of deities.

“He’s tried to take these teachings that he learned as a young person and create his own way of being. And he’s looked at the cycle of things and said, ‘Enough with this. If I have this power, I should wield it. I should be the one making decisions,’ which a lot of people with power decide that’s the way to go,” Filoni says. “He’s also very certain that what he’s doing now is the right thing.”

While Filoni isn’t yet sure what will become of Baylan in Stevenson’s absence, he acknowledges that the character’s journey is not complete. “Obviously, there’s a story there,” he says. “We’re in a wait-and-see pattern at this point. But I’m glad the conversation is about Ray and how great he was…. I used to have mini debates with him and say, ‘Ray, you’re the villain here.’ And he’d be like, ‘I don’t think so.’ I was like, ‘I know you don’t think so, but you are. I love that you’re playing it like you’re not.’ Which is exactly the way Baylan thinks.”

The character became one of the standouts of the series, a new fan favorite. “I think he would’ve been over the moon. The big regret here is that he didn’t get to experience that,” Filoni says. “I’m glad he was at Star Wars Celebration with us, that he got to see the trailer and get a taste of that from the fans. And they’ve been nothing but wonderful about Ray and the character.”

Ahsoka’s Next Steps…

Dawson has said she hopes to play Ahsoka Tano “for the rest of my life,” following her journey into whatever counts as old age for a Togruta alien with a penchant for getting into life-threatening danger.

While the prospect of a second season seems assured, nothing is finalized except Lucasfilm’s willingness to continue Ahsoka’s story. “I mean, they’ve not said anything officially, but I remember when we were at Star Wars Celebration in London and they were like, ‘We’re giving Dave a movie!’” Dawson says. And I was like, ‘I kind of feel like that means we’re probably going to get a second season.’ For a while now, and especially now with the strike and everything, no one can say anything. But he did say he was working on an outline. So, we’ll see.”

Whatever happens next, it’s clear that the future of Star Wars is moving beyond Vader and the scope of the originals, but it is still powered by the emotion generated with those initial Big Bangs.

“We had so many moments of literal tears,” Dawson says. She cites one in particular: the day Darth Vader was on set for a flashback sequence. “I have a video of some of us with the crew just watching when Darth was walking up. We just wanted to be on the edge, just off camera, so we could watch him unencumbered with our own eyes and just take it in. Are we really seeing what we’re seeing right now? This is unbelievable.”

J'ai confiance en lui, je pense que c'est une bonne décision. Il faudra qu'il soit bien entouré évidemment.

Qu'est ce qu'il est surcoté Dave Filoni... J'ai vu le premier épisode, la scène où l'autre avec ses cheveux roses fait de la moto sur une musique kikoo jap ça m'a suffit.

-10nez- a écrit:

Qu'est ce qu'il est surcoté Dave Filoni... J'ai vu le premier épisode, la scène où l'autre avec ses cheveux roses fait de la moto sur une musique kikoo jap ça m'a suffit.

Effectivement, la série n'était pas parfaite. Mais n'oublions pas qu'il passe d'une série animée à une série live action avec un format différent en plus de ça. Moi ce que je sais c'est que Filoni aime vraiment Star Wars et qu'il en a compris une bonne partie de l'essence. C'est grâce à ça que je suis confiant.

Tiens, ça doit être la première série D+ de la franchise où j'ai la sensation de retrouver un certain esprit SW, c'est presque indéfinissable mais ça frémit un peu, comme une petite lumière là-bas, au fond.  

Ok, ça reste de la série robinet qui papote en étendant la sauce pour produire de la minute utile à bas coût (relatif), mais il y a un petit quelque chose pour une fois, notamment lorsque ça s'agite. Peut-être la musique ? Ils ont trouvé un certain équilibre entre des sons électroniques assez lourds, voire tribaux, et l'identité sonore indissociable de la saga à coup d'envolées de cuivres, donnant du pep's et de l'épique au bon moment.
Du coup ça fonctionne plutôt correctement cette fois. Pas toujours mais parfois, ce qui était un peu inespéré à mes yeux.

Bon, j'ai crains le pire avec le fan service/come back d'Anakin, confondant d'artificialité tant dramatique qu'esthétique. Et surtout manquant tellement d'intensité. Comme le reste, soyons juste.  

Au passage, quelle blague cette absence d'ellipses sur une multitude de trucs filmés en temps réel. On se croirait revenu au temps de Mission Impossible où Barney passait des plombes à connecter ses fils, coincé dans la conduite d'aération. Tic tac tic tac
Bon sang, dès l'intro, s'il y avait eu 15 poteaux/boules, on y passait 30 mn haha.

Heureusement, les batailles spatiales, certains combats (pas tous hein), le design général toujours top et surtout l'excellent Huyang/Tennant tiennent le route. D'ailleurs c'est intrigant comme l'univers Star Wars a toujours su proposer des personnages robots réussis au niveau de l'écriture. Ici en plus, la voie choisie pour le mettre en image est vraiment épatante. Pourtant je ne suis pas hyper fan du design de base, mais ça marche bien.

A contrario, la direction d'acteurs bat la campagne:  ça croise les bras, puis ça soupire, ça recroise les bras…. Alors que Rosario Dawson notamment est une excellente comédienne par ailleurs, il n'y a qu'à voir Dopsick pour s'en rendre compte. C'est donc bien l'indigence de la réalisation qui pour moi est en cause. Ce n'est pas pire que les autres séries SW hein, c'est juste pareil.
Je redoutais surtout l'absence de vilain réussi : si Baylan Skoll/Ray Stevenson est correct, le perso de Shin Hati m'est apparu ultra bidon, tant esthétiquement qu'au niveau du jeu.

Et puis… il y a l'arrivée de Thrawn. Bam !  

Seul véritablement moment soigné qui sort de la réalisation industrielle : plans, bande son, personnage, acteur, climax. Combo gagnant. Top. Jamais vu ça dans une série SW.
Comme quoi c'est possible lorsqu'on se casse un peu le popotin et qu'on a un peu de bol aussi (on dit parfois "inspiration" ^^), comme toujours avec la chose filmée.
Quoiqu'il en soit : premier vilain réussi et charismatique de la logorrhée télé SW, ça se fête.  

Le problème étant qu'ensuite on n'en finit pas de tenter de rejouer la scène façon fauché, à tel point qu'on a la sensation que tous les plans ont été filmés en une seule fois dans le même décor. Ce qui était exceptionnel tourne presque au running gag, où comment une série ne sera jamais un film. Bon allez, on se dit quand même qu'il faut savourer ces moments où "il se passe quelque chose".

D'autant que la saison se termine dans la platitude la plus navrante :  on plie vite fait, on pardonne (forcement), on se hug avec entrain comme dans n'importe quelle série teenager, descente redoutable lorsqu'on a réussi à faire un tant soit peu monter la sauce (et donc l'attente) dans le dernier tiers.

Au final je suis tout de même curieux de voir ce que le gars va faire dans un format ciné censé offrir plus d'ambition formelle, plus de temps pour filmer et moins enclin au remplissage/radotage-de-souvenirs-devant-stagescraft. Je croise les doigts.  

12 concepts arts de la première saison d'Ahsoka :