Ahsoka's Opening Crawl Has An Embarrassing Blunder Most Star Wars Fans Missed
The opening crawl is one of the most recognizable aspects of the "Star Wars" franchise. When people first saw "Star Wars" in theaters in 1977, they were treated to a block of text getting most of the exposition out of the way, so they could just enjoy some sci-fi action. Most of the movies have continued this tradition, but it's been conspicuously absent from the Disney+ series. That changes with the first episode of "Ahsoka."
The new Disney+ series brings "Star Wars" back to its roots with an opening crawl, getting viewers up to speed on Anakin's former Padawan, played by Rosario Dawson, and what's going on with Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). However, some English majors may have noticed grammatical errors in the opening crawl. Twitter user Brian Hiatt pointed out, "No one copy edited the opening crawl to Ahsoka. Here we have a painful dangling modifier and a that/which mixup. 'Once presumed dead,' as written, refers to the rumors rather than Thrawn."
The "that/which mixup" refers to the sentence, "Former Jedi Knight AHSOKA TANO captured one of Thrawn's allies and learned of a secret map which is vital to the enemy's plans." While it's a minor mistake, the "which" should be "that." It may not necessarily change much, but considering "Star Wars" is a billion-dollar franchise, one would assume Lucasfilm and Disney would have a proofreader handy to make sure the text is correct.
It's not the first time people have nitpicked a Star Wars opening crawl
As with any major franchise, mistakes are bound to happen. "Star Wars" knows this better than most. One of the most notorious examples of an error getting past editors is a scene from "The Mandalorian," where a guy can be seen in the background wearing jeans. He's obviously not supposed to be there, and the crew eventually edited him out of the episode. It's the kind of blunder that's become increasingly more commonplace with the advent of the internet and people being able to go through an episode frame-by-frame to locate inconsistencies.
Eagle-eyed fans also spotted a grammatical snafu in the opening crawl to "The Force Awakens," "With the support of the REPUBLIC, General Leia Organa leads a brave RESISTANCE. She is desperate to find her brother Luke and gain his help in restoring peace and justice to the galaxy." There should be commas placed around Luke because it's nonessential information within the sentence. If Leia had multiple brothers, then signaling out Luke would be essential and commas wouldn't be necessary. But since she only has one brother, the audience can infer who the brother is, making the inclusion of "Luke" not necessary.
It's incredibly nitpicky, and more than likely, Disney+ will simply edit the "Ahsoka" crawl to be grammatically correct (if it does anything at all). But for the moment, it allows copyeditors to have a glorious moment in the sun.