I wasn't overly excited about Tales of the Jedi, mostly because Ahsoka has been milked enough and as an audience we already know her motives, personality and struggle throughout the Clone Wars and Rebels era. But I was curious about the prospect of seeing a young count Dooku explored in a TV show. Unfortunately, there is not much to see here. The potential of the series is held back by a lackluster script and having too few episodes.
The episodes with Ahsoka feel like unnecessary filler that don't really serve any purpose or tell us something new about Ahsoka herself. It mostly boils down to nostalgia and the retelling of stuff we already knew. The stuff we didn't know is either generic or rushed retellings from the Ahsoka novel (released in 2016).
The episodes with Dooku are a bit more enjoyable, but still suffer from the same problems as above while simultaneously failing Dooku as a character. It's very rushed and paints a picture of Dooku as an impatient, jealous Jedi who's becoming evil for no real reason. In the prequels, Dooku was always described as a political idealist by the Jedi before they realized his true intentions. He was cunning and manipulative and that's why he managed to leave the Jedi Order without them noticing his fall to the Dark side. Dooku was also someone who enjoyed wealth and luxury, he looked down upon the poor - yet in this series we are given the impression that Dooku gets his political ideology from seeing the poor being oppressed by the rich. It's a very generic and uninspiring take on politics. You don't have to be against the rich to be against the system. Politics aside, the writers throw in callbacks and references to important events from the movies but don't do anything with them - that's what I call lazy writing.
It is beautifully animated, however, and I applaud the craftsmanship that went into it. But I just can't rate this higher than 5/10 because of its many missteps. It had potential, and I wish they'd focused on making 6 episodes about Dooku instead. We're already getting an Ahsoka live-action series next year which will explore a completely new era in her life, so I don't really understand her filler presence in Tales of the Jedi. The people who are giving this series a 10/10 are blinded by fandom and failing to notice any flaws. They see Ahsoka flinging with her lightsabers and they go "Ooohhhhh".
The episodes with Ahsoka feel like unnecessary filler that don't really serve any purpose or tell us something new about Ahsoka herself. It mostly boils down to nostalgia and the retelling of stuff we already knew. The stuff we didn't know is either generic or rushed retellings from the Ahsoka novel (released in 2016).
The episodes with Dooku are a bit more enjoyable, but still suffer from the same problems as above while simultaneously failing Dooku as a character. It's very rushed and paints a picture of Dooku as an impatient, jealous Jedi who's becoming evil for no real reason. In the prequels, Dooku was always described as a political idealist by the Jedi before they realized his true intentions. He was cunning and manipulative and that's why he managed to leave the Jedi Order without them noticing his fall to the Dark side. Dooku was also someone who enjoyed wealth and luxury, he looked down upon the poor - yet in this series we are given the impression that Dooku gets his political ideology from seeing the poor being oppressed by the rich. It's a very generic and uninspiring take on politics. You don't have to be against the rich to be against the system. Politics aside, the writers throw in callbacks and references to important events from the movies but don't do anything with them - that's what I call lazy writing.
It is beautifully animated, however, and I applaud the craftsmanship that went into it. But I just can't rate this higher than 5/10 because of its many missteps. It had potential, and I wish they'd focused on making 6 episodes about Dooku instead. We're already getting an Ahsoka live-action series next year which will explore a completely new era in her life, so I don't really understand her filler presence in Tales of the Jedi. The people who are giving this series a 10/10 are blinded by fandom and failing to notice any flaws. They see Ahsoka flinging with her lightsabers and they go "Ooohhhhh".