Ok, I agree with 1. But Baylan is just such a charismatic character that it was just a joy to watch his performance.
After some thought, I can concede that the characteristic does add to his mystique.
as for 2, I want to agree with you, but even within the movies, we have contradictions, going all the way back to ANH when Han is talking about needing to calculate the jump correctly (although he's talking about supernovas and such). But if you look at R1, we see several ships attempt to jump into hyperspace, but run into the recently emerged SD. Sticking with R1 for a second here, they jump from within the atmosphere of Jedha, which should cause all sorts of issues, but it didn't (maybe because the atmosphere was already messed up due to the DS test, and maybe it couldn't cause anything to happen to the planet itself because it was already so broken). And then we go to Rebels. I believe it's S5 that Hera jumps through a space station. And then in TLJ, the Holdo maneuver causes all sorts of devastation (as you mentioned), and was supposedly 1 in a million or something like that (though then shown not to be the case at the end of TROS 🤦🏼♂️). So it's hard to really know what would actually happen with that. But I think it's safe to say that it depends on how far away from the object you are when you initiate the jump. The closer it gets to hyperspace, the more damage it will do. Or something along those lines. Who really knows for certain.
I'm having a slightly hard time following. In ANH, Han is worried about literally flying through an object at light speed. Unlike the the Halo universe (and various other sci-fi), hyperspace in SW is not a different plane of existence, it's merely the view as you travel at the speed of light. I don't know where you get that the Holdo (Force I hate even saying the name) maneuver was a long shot. It was a one-way trip for sure, but not a long shot. And I did a bit of research; the Supremacy made the the Executor look tiny. (Which in and of itself is ridiculous because where tf is the ragtag FO getting all these resources to build their war machine?) I didn't remember the instances in R1, but they shouldn't have been able to. Atmospheric friction should have ripped the ship apart. And any reference to erratically jumping to HS should just be scrubbed because anything less than what Han did in ANH is Russian roulette that you'll make it to your destination. As for TROS (read: TRASH
) I assume you're talking about <UGH> lightspeed skipping? That was a bad plot point to reinforce an even worse plot point. You can't track a jump without a tracker. So the TIEs wouldn't be able to follow the Falcon. More to the point, all of these examples are from
standard jumps. The jump in question is
intergalactic (planetary); meaning it has to have way more push to make the distance. And considering the way that Morgan ordered the jump despite the numerous obstruction.....she was counting on the shock of the launch to annihilate the NR ships.
Alright, now to the good stuff!
Yes, Anakin. All the Anakin. Just utter perfection. The lightsaber truly looks like it belongs to him, and that he's been wielding it all his life. TCW flashbacks were utterly brilliant (no surprise), and young Ahsoka was perfect (far better than Rosario has ever been). And it absolutely is the nuanced performance of Anakin that we've been looking for. I always knew Hayden was great as Anakin. I'm just glad everyone else can see it now too. But also if you watch the BTS stuff about this show, Hayden is heavily involved in the process of bringing Anakin to life. And the way he thinks about the roll and the suggestions he has, it's abundantly clear that he knows this character (and how Lucas wanted him to be) so well. It's just great to see.
Hayden's post-Anakin work surprised many. It was the end-all-be-all argument that a good actor cannot trump bad direction. And as has been said before: if you want to know what he was actually able to bring to the character, pay attention to his unspoken lines; particularly when Anakin is very troubled or hurting.
I think you appreciated young Ahsoka more than you're letting on. The version that was still hopeful; that hadn't been jaded by a literal lifetime of fighting. Name one period of Ahsoka's life (pre-Anakin excluded) that she wasn't in the thick of it. That kind of life is going to result in the type of person that Rosario is depicting. (IMO)
As for the unsettling nature of the Lekku without the foreheadlace, yeah, that was weird. Didn't like it, and didn't need to see it. But you are right in that it makes sense design-wise. I do believe that we have seen examples once or twice of other Togruta withought the thing though. Tales of the Jedi, maybe, and maybe even TCW once.
I like when lekku go smooth.