Tales of the Jedi Review: Missed Canon

The latest animated Star Wars entry is so close to being brilliant. But like a loveable character losing their head in battle, so too does Star Wars when it retcons unnecessarily.

Note: Tales of the Jedi is an anthology show following two narrative arcs, mostly centering around Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku. The events of the episodes are intended to fill in hitherto offscreen action that impacts the events of the movies and the Clone Wars. Most of these events take place during the Clone Wars animated series, the Ahsoka novel, or during the events of Dooku: Jedi Lost. Unfortunately, I have not watched the Clone Wars or read/listened to Ahsoka or Dooku: Jedi Lost in quite some time, so my recollection of these events is not perfect. Take this into account while reading these reviews.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room. I was not predisposed to look kindly upon Tales of the Jedi. There are a number of reasons for this, but the most serious have to do with Disney/Lucasfilm’s handling of “canon.” When the old EU was wiped, part of the stated objective was to place all Star Wars media into a truly unified canon – the idea being that every movie, show, game, novel, or other form of media was held in the same regard. This would eliminate the prior “levels” of canon that existed under George’s Lucasfilm. It didn’t take long for this stated objective to get chucked out the window. In a way, it’s easy to understand why this would happen – the cinematic adventures are always going to have more eyeballs on them, and casual fans don’t want to keep up with a convoluted canon. Likewise, its difficult to bring in talent to work on movies and TV shows if their “vision” is going to be constrained by what has gone before.

Even so – it’s always seemed a little funny to me how willing someone like Dave Filoni is to chuck existing storylines to service his own vision, when adhering to what had gone before would literally not impact HIS stories. In general, I have mixed feelings about Dave Filoni. I think his instincts are correct more-often-than-not, but I also think he’s a little too precious about his own stuff. He has shown a willingness to further some of his own more outlandish ideas and provide plot armor to his own characters while using his tutelage under George as cover. I think overall that Jon Favreau is a wonderful moderating influence on some of Filoni’s excesses, which is why I think they should always operate as a team.

Now that you can see my own biases, how did I feel about Tales of the Jedi? Let’s talk about the individual episodes first – and then we can get into my concluding thoughts.

Episode 1: Life and Death
Life and Death is a fairly simple story, and opens with the birth of Ahsoka Tano. Upon her first birthday, her mother takes her on a ritual hunt to learn the nature of both life and death, which goes badly. After killing a kybuck, a saber-toothed tiger attacks mother and child. Ahsoka’s mother struggles fiercely with the beast to protect the child, and the sounds of the struggle draw the villagers to help. Ahsoka’s mother is struck down, and the tiger begins to approach Ahsoka when the villagers arrive, driving the beast off with blaster fire. As it flees, it snatches Ahsoka by her swaddling clothes and lopes off into the forest. The mother and villagers are sick with worry, with scouts scouring the forest for her. At the clearing where the tiger flees to, Ahsoka makes a mental connection with the beast, calming its anger and coercing it to allow her to mount – riding back to her village. When she emerges from the shadows riding the creature, the village elder proclaims that Ahsoka is a Jedi.

Episode 2: Justice
Count Dooku and his Padawan Qui-Gon Jinn are dispatched to a frontier planet to try to mediate a hostage situation. Upon arrival, it is seen that the countryside surrounding the local village is burned and blackened. The village itself is quiet and suspicious. There are heavy shades of Chapter 13 of the Mandalorian, the episode which introduced Ahsoka into live action. When Dooku and Qui-Gon enter a local bar, they come to realize that the entire village is in on the kidnapping of the local senators son. They are taken to verify the welfare of the boy, and he reveals that he has been well cared for and is ashamed of the actions of his father. The villagers reveal that their senator has been selling off their land to corporate interests, who have ravaged the countryside. While he prospers, they suffer – and they have kidnapped the son to force a confrontation. In the midst of their discussions, the senator arrives with armed guards. Threatening the villagers, Dooku and Qui-Gon try to protect them, but when blaster bolts fly, many are injured. Enraged at the actions of the Senator, Dooku taps into the dark side and begins choking the senator. While Qui-Gon and the senators son appeal to him, he comes to himself and releases the senator. At the conclusion, the son vows to the villagers that he will not allow their plight to continue – the son having shamed his father into reforms.

Episode 3: Choices
Mace Windu and Count Dooku are teamed together to retrieve the body of a Master of the Jedi Council after her mysterious death. Reports from Raxus Secundus (subtle The Force Unleashed reference there!) indicate that she was killed by separatists while guarding the local senator, and yet somehow the senator survived. Dooku argues for investigation, while Windu argues that that goes against their mandate. While questioning the senator, it is obvious that he is nervous and lying. Dooku and Windu ask to be taken to the site of the attack. Several inaccuracies in the senators account are exposed, and as the tension rises, they challenge the senators story. His resolve broken, the senator reveals that his guard killed the Jedi, and he tries to run to the Jedi for cover, but is shot in the back. Dooku and Windu fight off the guards and reinforcement droids. After the carnage, they question a survivor, who reveals that this senator was also using his position to enrich himself, selling off lands to corporations and selling out his people. When asked why they didn’t go to the Jedi, the guard tells them that the Jedi are lapdogs of the senate, not the people. Dookus disillusionment with the Jedi grows. At the climax, Dooku visits the surviving guards in prison. He informs the ringleader that his sentiments may not be wrong, but his tactics were. Back at the Jedi Temple, Mace Windu is given a seat on the council to replace the dead master they have brought home. Dooku believes the seat would have been his, but that Windus testimony of the events on the planet cast him in an unfavorable light, for exceeding his mandate.

Episode 4: The Sith Lord
Count Dooku surreptitiously enters the Jedi Archives and deletes all references to the planet Kamino. Shortly after, he encouters Qui-Gon Jinn after having given his report on a troubling encounter with what he believes was a Sith Lord on Tatooine. The council is unmoved, though Yaddle and Dooku both believe there may be more to the encounter than the council at large. After a time jump, Yaddle approaches Dooku – Qui-Gon has been killed, and the funeral is happening. Dookus mood is dark, and he demurs on the invitiation. Sensing something dark in Dooku, Yaddle surreptitiously follows him as he boards his ship and flies to the Industrial District of Coruscant. There, she overhears a meeting between Count Dooku and Darth Sidious. Dooku is angry about the loss of his apprentice, while Sidious is angry about the loss of his own. Lamenting the acts he has already committed, Sidious is given a chance to test Dooku’s loyalty when Yaddle confronts them. Trying to sway Dooku from the dark path he has started down, a lightsaber duel commences. At the conclusion, Dooku recognizes that there is no redemption for him, and decapitates Yaddle – cementing his place as Sidous’ new apprentice.

Episode 5: Practice Makes Perfect
Anakin hurries to view a test given to Ahsoka demonstrating her combat prowess against remotes. In attendance are several Jedi and padawans (including a cameo by Kanaan Jarrus). As Anakin sits to watch, he is unimpressed even as the challenges ramp up – including a tightened field of battle, and advanced remote capabilities. Frustrated that Anakin doesn’t seem to respect her abilities, Anakin challenges her with a more realistic test. She agrees, and Anakin sets up a test against Rex’s clone troopers, using blasters set to stun. Anakin is a brutal taskmaster, and Ahsoka is stunned over and over, knocked unconscious each time. Each time Anakin rebukes her with “AGAIN.” At the time of her greatest frustration, Ahsokas tells Anakin that the test is ridiculous – that the droids aren’t half as good as Rex’s men. Anakin reveals that that is the point of the exercise – that he wants it to be difficult, because it’s about life and death. He is responsible for her, and the best way that he can protect her is to teach her to protect herself. If she can hold off Rex and the boys, she’ll be prepared for anything on the battlefield. With renewed resolve, Ahoska tries again, and finds her groove in the force – using what to the audience are very familiar tactics. We flash forward to Order 66 – with Rex and Ahsoka entering the hangar where she will use these tactics again to survive against Jesse and the other clones.

Episode 6: Resolve
After the events of Order 66, Ahsoka has taken on the alias of Ashla and works on a farm, helping natives with the harvest. During what could have been a fatal accident, Ahsoka uses her powers in such a way that the person she saves becomes aware of what she is – and unfortunately, so does her brother. The jealous brother calls to turn Ahsoka in to the Empire, who dispatches an Inquisitor. When Ahsoka and her friend return from the market, they find the village burning, and her friends brother held hostage by the Inquisitor. A brief duel ensues, and Ahsoka kills the Inquisitor. She contacts Bail Organa to relocate the surviving villagers, re-engaging in the fight against the Empire and beginning her new journey as a Fulcrum agent. Final Thoughts: I have mixed feelings about this series. There’s nothing to complain about when it comes to the art, animation, voice acting, etc.

As usual, it’s beautiful. I can’t help but take issue with some of the timeline issues, though.

There are debates about whether or not some of these episodes actually retcon events of the Clone Wars, the Ahoska Novel, or Dooku: Jedi Lost. My memory is just fuzzy enough that I can’t be *certain*, but I do think some events were changed. There is nothing more irritating to me in Star Wars than deliberately changing story details when there is no need to do so. All this does is convince me that you don’t care about continuity, and it tells me I shouldn’t invest in spin-off materials. More than that – in some ways, Tales of the Jedi feels like a missed opportunity. The title itself suggests a framing device – these could have been “What if” stories, or parables from the Star Wars universe – in which case continuity issues wouldn’t matter. I think the show is mostly inoffensive if you’re not an absolute stickler for continuity. I was surprised to find that the episodes were longer than I expected them to be, though still minor events in storytelling that don’t hurt anything if you miss them.

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