Ahsoka and the Star Wars Immersion Problem

When Ahsoka's at its best, it's a perfect case study of how to immerse a viewer. However, at Ahsoka's lowest points, it's just the opposite. Join me in this video essay as we discover how to immerse an audience. #ahsoka #starwars #davefiloni

0:00 Intro
2:28 Good vs. bad fan service
3:38 What is immersion?
7:18 Perceptual immersion, imagery, and motif
11:36 Write what you know
14:30 Imaginative immersion and context
20:35 Systematic immersion and verisimilitude

All clips used in this video fall under fair use as they are part of my critique/review.

Editor: Khabi Javan

Music:

[RoughestDrafts]

Hey everyone!


Lastly, I'd love to hear what kind of channel content you'd like to see. Please let me know. I always love hearing new video ideas. from my viewers. Have a good one!

[sparksdog]

Honestly, Ahsoka gave me the most immersion I had ever felt from alien characters, with the bland dialogue and regrettable actor direction, even the human characters felt like aliens from a galaxy far far away.

[ZelphTheWebmancer]

That idea that Star Wars is a lens is quite interesting, never saw it that way but it makes sense.

[ButchersNailsEnjoyer]

For me Andor was what made me truly feel like i was in star wars. Showing the monotonous day to day life on ferrix and coruscant from both the pov of rebellion and the empire showed you could be on either side. The prison break and riot in the finale were so moving i legit felt like i could fight and die for a greater good

[Arob]

I agree fully with Sabine’s wound. That’s a fatal wound. She should’ve just lost a hand, THAT is very Star Wars. However, hardly anyone loses a hand in Disney era stuff. And that could’ve even been a nice way for Sabine to remind Ahsoka of Anakin

[pingew]

(speaking as someone who hasnt watched the show) around 9:04 you talk about the visual compositions and I'm just.. not struck by anything. it looks so bland. theres no color, the horizon is sitting in the direct middle of the frame, it seems so incredibly utilitarian to me

[mckenziepearmain]

i was raised on Star Wars, so in spite of the flaws we’ve seen throughout the franchise and especially after Disney took hold, it’ll always have a special place in my heart. i really enjoyed seeing your perspective on the show, Star Wars, and the concepts of immersion. you really have to suspend disbelief and let yourself get sucked in, and there’s different elements that help and hinder that as you pointed out. and again i was reminded about how context is so crucial: what purpose does this event or object or character serve? why is it important? why should we care? overall, great video!

[godofthecripples]

As a fan of TCW and Rebels in particular, I unfortunately have to disagree on Anakin being effectively used, as Ahsoka's arc was very inconsistent across shows.

In Rebels, she dealt with the guilt of feeling responsible for Anakin's fall due to her decision to leave him and the Order behind in TCW. In Ahsoka, she's afraid she'll become him. This new fear is introduced without the previous ever being addressed or resolved.

Additionally, Anakin largely emphasizes that whether she lives or dies here is her choice. But, why? The show has never suggested she has any interest in giving up. It's like killing a regular person and asking them if they'd like to resurrect. It's a meaningless question.

[hjalpmig]

This gives Ahsoka (and the prequels tbh) a lot of undue credit imo. I only watched Ahsoka because the cinematography and the sets were pretty good. Otherwise I found it to have boring characters that the show assumed you must already care about and a story where little actually happened. Which I suppose illustrates how subjective this stuff really is.

[benjip]

the first time i ever heard someone use the word “verisimilitude” was one of mr. b tongue’s fallout videos. he defined it as “very simulation, dude.” i don’t think i’ve ever heard a more succinct definition.

[maybeiamepic]

Don’t even get me fucking started on Star Wars characters surviving fatal wounds. Reva survived the same wound TWICE her “death” was my favorite part of the series, I HATED her and I even said “there’s no we she lives the second time”

I felt insulted the first time it happened, then I just felt betrayed when they let it happen to Sabine AGAIN

[yagamifire]

But it did make my eyes roll.

Also it's reddit...reddit is a terrible barometer. Ahsoka is a badly written show in basically every conceivable way.

[moontravellerjul]

i think there are some good points here and it’s nice to see a more positive take. i think ahsoka’s greatest strength is in its broader additions to the star wars cinematic canon relating to extragalactic matters. the costuming was also particularly good, like you mentioned.
i was most surprised by your praise of ahsoka’s writing in reference to imaginative immersion - personally, i felt that was one of the show’s weakest parts; (even having watched all the parts of clone wars and rebels that are important to the characters, ) until almost the end of the show, i struggled to become emotionally invested; i felt let down by the bland dialogue and empty character direction (and the casting of the actor playing ahsoka, especially) and the slow narrative pacing. my imaginative immersion only left me invested in the next narrative beat, and even then it was often motivated by a want to see the next piece of worldbuilding reproduced in live action.
as for systematic immersion, it is certainly a big problem in general for star wars. besides the usual smattering of systematic inconsistency, i felt like the fight scene (read: lightsaber) choreography, although containing some of the best moments in star wars combat choreography, usually sat at a duller and emptier baseline than most other lightsaber duels in star wars, and didn’t carry the same coherence that is expected from a canonical pool of well-documented “forms” of jedi lightsaber combat. they just felt like underwhelming swordfights.
but hey, that’s just my uneducated opinion based on a single viewing from a couple months ago! and regardless, i enjoyed the video.

[joshwent]

Glad the comments here are confirming that I haven't lost my mind. I wasn't able to make it past 2 episodes of Ahsoka without becoming utterly immersed... in thinking about the hundreds of other things I'd rather do with six hours of my life than watch more of that painfully boring show.

A line in a Star Wars series being praised by the Star Wars reddit doesn't necessarily seem like the consensus opinion to build a video essay around.

[Traveler_]

Ashoka is very immersive. The entire show makes *you* feel like the alien. Everyone speaks in a way they never would in real life, which really makes me feels immersed in the space setting. Environments are entirely nonsensical and completely ridiculous, but of course that’s only because of my limited human point of view, truely a stoke of genius form Disney. But most of all the way the story was complete dogshit, made no logical sense and was boring as hell, especially how the rules of the show and series seemed to randomly bend in a way I couldn’t comprehend, like when hand grenades destroy entire cities, or superheated 25000°C blades make no lasting damage to internal organs, it was truely a perfect representation of what it must feel like to exist in a completely alien world.

[maxwell_j_R]

Your "Melt the Bean" video got recommend to me; I enjoyed it, scrolled through to see your other videos, and clicked this one to check out your "normal" videos.

Really well done. Subscribed.

I'd be curious about your continued thoughts about all this with 'The Acolyte'.

I'm not sure the retroactive context of the 7th episode worked to actually make tte story any good? (And we already got Torbin in the 2nd episode saying "We thought we were doing the right thing.") Oh, and the credit song instantly broke immersion, instead of letting viewers dwell on what happened.

[MataNui.]

I don't think it's the lack of a headband that makes her look more alien, but more so the crappy makeup which the headband was hiding that's making her look more alien.

[brendanwiley]

First time I've heard some talk about this show without calling it ass

[GKnapptime]

You’ve quoted Oregon State University in several videos now. Do you go there? 👀

[tuppot]

I love your videos and your insight and I mostly agree with them on other videos or at least learn something of value. But I was surprised (when I watched this video months ago and left it in Watch Later so I could come back and write this comment) how you take as a given that a lot of scenes were effective in the use of their devices. I mean, of course always someone's going to disagree with anything, but I have the feeling that the show was more divisive than you present it.
I -personally- think its flaws surpass its good moments. I read someone say that Filoni spent too much time with this characters in his head that he forgot we didn't see everything he imagined that happened in between. Still, I grinned from ear to ear everytime Ezra was on scene - which was carried by him being the protagonist of Rebels, which in turn shows how small of a character the title characters in this shows are.
I hope I make sense.