Why Ahsoka Tano Deserves Her Own Series.

This fan-favorite Padawan and hard-fighting veteran of The Clone Wars, (in various animated shows and The Mandalorian) is ready for her close up and deserves a show of her very own.  

Introduced as a 14-year-old apprentice to the young Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano made her impactful debut in 2008’s Clone Wars 3D-animated feature film that served as a pilot for the eventual series of the same name.  Tano’s trajectory as a supporting character may have seemed fairly predictable at first, but as her friendship with Anakin Skywalker evolved, a compelling and thoughtful persona emerged, a “rebel with a cause” of sorts. Ahsoka carried a youthful idealism with her all the way to the Star Wars “Rebels” animated episodes, eventually reuniting Ahsoka with her old master, now known as Darth Vader.  Now, 13 years after her first appearance in a series, there are several compelling reasons why Ahsoka Tano should have her own show:  She’s been everywhere: Ahsoka Tano is one of those very special characters in the Star Wars universe who tie the “old” world of the prequels and the newer world of episodes IV-VI together. Tano’s presence across varied storylines and her interactions with key iconic figures move her through the different phases of the rise and fall of the empire and across the eternal conflict between the Jedi and the Sith. Girl power: The force is very strong with this female jedi who turned away from the council, but so is the depth of her character. Tano has been a driving force in the narratives of many stories, and the fact that she debuts as a young teenage girl navigating the intricacies and intrigue of The Clone Wars makes her an important female presence in the roster of Star Wars characters.  Tano remains one of the most complicated and unpredictable characters in Star Wars: It is through her challenges and ethical conflicts that we see a dynamic view of the morality in the world of Star Wars. Through Tano’s eyes we see a world where the Jedi are far from infallible, and may in many instances be out of touch and misguided by the application of impractical ideals and principles. Ahsoka Tano leaves the Jedi order before Anakin Skywalker does!  Tano’s questioning nature: It was at first a theatrically adolescent trait (that enabled story exposition early in the animated Clone Wars) but it became a burgeoning conscience within the show. Tano’s questions are often the audience’s own questions and it is her coming to grips with the world of Star Wars that bring us into it much closer. ...and lastly, who can ever say “no” to twin light sabers? -No one who has seen Ahsoka Tano in action in The Mandalorian. Ahsoka Tano is ready for her own adventures. 

With Rosario Dawson having worn her robes most recently to passionate and energized fan reaction on The Mandalorian, the timing may be perfect for a heroine to lead the next Star Wars show. 

-SJ

Invincible Episode 8’s Staggering Importance for Animation…and for Horror

 (Warning: This article contains season 1 ending spoilers.)

Amazon’s animated production of Invincible has concluded its 8-episode first season and has already been renewed for two more seasons. All this, to the excitement of the comic book’s existing franchise fans and its new viewers.

In 2003, Invincible, the comic book, may have seemed (at first) yet another exercise in updating or taking a mature or “realistic” look at the established superhero concept. Many other comic books over the years have deconstructed the superhero world by colliding decades-old tropes with the physical, ethical and political realities that most mainstream comics always sought to avoid: (E.g. Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme, Moore’s Watchmen, Waid’s Kingdom Come, and more recently Ennis’ The Boys) -But it was Robert Kirkman’s Invincible that did so through the eyes of an adolescent. Invincible told its coming-of-age story with a harshness, accessibility and violence that seemed all too logical and obvious especially for a world with superheroes. Invincible was at its core, a series of stories about sobering disillusionment, eye-widening/gut-punching disappointments that were only slightly more terrible than the familiar and mercurial world of the American teenager. The animated series has managed to effectively build upon the source material, yet take things further, to the benefit of animation as a whole.
Episode 8 of Invincible is a landmark program in animation, for reasons that founding masters and producers of the animated medium have maintained are key to animation’s worth as an artform.

—The significance of this show, and its episode 8 in particular has to do with its ability to shock audiences in ways that previously only horror movies could manage. The challenge of animation, in regards to scaring or shocking audiences has to do with its innate artificiality. Animation, 2D animation (there are cel-shaded 3D elements in this series) is inherently an other-reality, - a flattened, stylized abstraction and as such, looks “fake” by design. For those creators who have wanted to make an animation as scary as William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, or as explicitly violent and gore-laden as the opening of Saving Private Ryan, animation’s lack of verisimilitude has defeated prior efforts to scare or shock despite some incredible work in Japanese anime in recent years. Live-action horror films themselves will often fall short of the mark if the blood “looks fake” or the stunts and effect work are unconvincing. What then, do traditional animators (who will never approach the texture of reality and don’t intend to) do to affect their audiences with the proper shock required of a story like Invincible?

—In short, they must do what Robert Kirkman did in episode 8: raise the emotional stakes so that the violence that the animation illustrates evokes a shock that exceeds the actual gore and trauma depicted on screen: Episode 8 horrifies and shocks because the viewer is made to care.

Walt Disney is said to have been unconvinced of animation’s legitimacy until he saw his own production of Snow White with an audience and witnessed people crying and reacting uncontrollably to a series of flickering drawings and sounds projected on a screen – the audience reacting as they would to a movie with live actors — reacting as they would to “real” events.

Season 1 Episode 8 of Invincible and its many violent set pieces may indeed be looked upon as the moment wherein 2D animation, both enabled and limited by its inherently abstract nature, finally exercised the ability to horrify in as visceral a way as any scary movie.