Five Reasons For You to Watch ‘Star Wars Rebels’ Before ‘Ahsoka’ Premieres
Before Ahsoka premiers this summer, you’re going to want to catch up on everything that got us here in Star Wars Rebels.
Ahsoka premieres in just a few months, which means that you have just a few short months to catch up some animated Star Wars. In a perfect world full of endless free time, I’d tell you to watch all of the animated Star Wars. Start with Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars (Is it canon? Who cares!) and just work your way forward until you’re caught up on The Bad Batch. Not every episode is a winner, but overall they’re fun and full of backstory and insider info. But we don’t live in a perfect world and we’re all busy, so let’s just focus on Star Wars Rebels for right now.
Thrawn
via Lucasfilm
The upcoming big bad of Ahsoka looks like it’s going to be Grand Admiral Thrawn. And if you really want to understand this character and his backstory, I’m going to have to supply you with an entire reading list. But for now, his first appearance on our TV screens was back in Star Wars Rebels where he’s introduced as smart, capable, ruthless, and seemingly always half a step ahead of the heroes.
The Entire Crew of the Ghost
We’ve already seen Zeb in The Mandalorian and Chopper for a moment in Rogue One, but Ahsoka will be reintroducing us to most of the rest of the cast. Now in live action! Consisting of a graffiti artist Mandalorian, an Order 66 survivor and his new Padawan, a Lastat freedom fighter, a very angry droid, and the group’s Twi-Lek leader, it was a vibrant and diverse group who could have each been the main character in their own right. Also, if you like a found-family trope, here is it. They’re the family, go find them.
Fulcrum
After her departure from the Jedi Order, Ahsoka Tano travels around for a bit and even disappears from the fan’s view for a while. But she returns in Star Wars Rebels as ‘Fulcrum,’ a secret agent for the Rebel Alliance. There’s a lot that happens to her between Order 66 and where we see her in The Mandalorian. And honestly, some of the best, most powerful, and most emotionally raw Ahsoka moments come from Star Wars Rebels.
Wild Force Stuff
There is so much wild, weird, and awesome Force lore in Star Wars Rebels that you may actually get angry over how lazy and generic Episode IX got. There are Force Gods. There’s time travel. There’s even a brief return of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Rebels shows us some of the oldest force users in the galaxy as well as the first Mandalorian Jedi.
And none of it ever feels like it crosses from sci-fi into outlandish. I truly don’t know if any of this will come up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of these things is a reference.
Ahsoka Seems to Be Picking Up Where Rebels Ended
Star Wars Rebels didn’t really end on a cliffhanger. But it also sort of did. And it looks like Ahsoka will be picking up from Rebels very last scenes. I’m sure they’ll do an adequate job of explaining who everyone is and what they’re off to do. But I’m also sure that you’ll understand it a heck of a lot better if you have the full story.
Have you seen Star Wars Rebels yet? If not, will you be catching up before Ahsoka premieres this summer? Which Rebels character are you most excited to see in live-action? Let us know in the comments!
May the Force be with you, adventurers!
