Rosario Dawson uses the force with attitude and style.

Ahsoka Tano is the former Jedi Padawan and apprentice to Anakin Skywalker. You know, before he went to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader. She was made for the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” series, which began with the awful theatrical animated movie. I’ve never watched the series, but the movie version is awful beyond words. The kind that made gave some film critics Yoda insults (Michael Phillips said: “Skip this thing you should,” while Richard Roeper said: Sucks this movie does”).

However, Rosario Dawson played the character on the made-for-Disney+ series “The Mandalorian,” and was absolutely entertaining. Now, she’s given her own series “Ahsoka” on the streaming service, and she carries it impressively.

As the show begins, the fall of the Empire has brought some joy, but some upcoming threats resort to evil. The kind of evil this Galaxy is always facing.

Ahsoka retrieves a map sphere of the last Imperial Grand General Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), who supposedly died, but his death was never confirmed. She also has a prisoner, Thrawn’s alley Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), who escapes from custody.

That’s when she enlists her droid assistant Hyang (voiced by David Tennant) and her former apprentice Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo with purple and red dyed hair) for help. Ahsoka tells her that the lost Jedi Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) may still be out there.

Sabine lives alone with her feline-like pet, and rides her scooter the way Tom Cruise would ride a motorcycle. And she’s often the difficult one, being more adventurous than responsible, especially if she didn’t have an easy connection with Ahsoka, and Sabine takes the map off her ship, against her wishes.

There are also some evil former Jedis on the move in search of power, like Baylon Skoll (the late Ray Stevenson) and his apprentice Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno from “The Spy Who Dumped Me”).

We were given a 2-episode premiere, but so far, “Ahsoka” delivers with some amazing fight sequences, fresh performances, and vulnerabilities. There’s a strained relationship between Ahsoka and Sabine that is on track for development as we continue to watch it. Even though the evil plot about ruling the Galaxy has been told so many times, and it’s not much original in this series, we’re still eager to see how the Light Side will thrive against the Dark Side.

The performances I’ve enjoyed so far include Dawson, Bordizzo, the late Stevenson, and the voice of Tennant. They’re all given direction by creator Dave Filoni, and I just love the make-up done for Ahsoka.

I think we can all agree that “The Mandalorian” and “Ahsoka” are both much better than the movie version of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” And we’re off to a good start, two episodes in.

Streaming on Disney+ Tomorrow

This article was written by me with full support of the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild of America strikes.

Categories: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci Fi, Series