Ahsoka: Part Five: Shadow Warrior
What is it ? : Hera lands at the map site in the Ghost and searches the area, finding the broken map and Huyang looking out to sea who tells her "I told them to stay together, but they never listen."
Meanwhile Ahsoka speaks to Anakin, and he explains there is a chance for her, but she must fight, and the two clash with their lightsabers.
Jacen tells Hera he can hear Ahsoka, and can hear lightsabers, she listens and can hear the fight too, so orders Carson and the remaining X-Wings to search across the sea, even though they have received orders to return to base.
Ahsoka fights Anakin to a stalemate telling him he has nothing left to teach her, but he slashes at the platform below her and she falls.
She lands during a battle in the Clone Wars and she is much younger, Anakin leads her and Clonetroopers into a fight, and afterwards she holds the hand of a wounded Clonetrooper, telling Anakin there were so many deaths. Anakin responds that she must learn to be a soldier, and in the mist and explosions of the ongoing battle she sees his image flicker between Anakin and Vader.
Then she is fighting Mandalorians in the armour of Darth Mauls Death Watch, Anakin says he doesn't recognise this and she explains that this happened after she left the Jedi Order. He tells her she has done well, and that she has become a soldier. She argues and he becomes the version of himself as Vader but before he was defeated by Obi-Wan and needed the armour. They fight and end up back on the walkways of the World between Worlds, as he tells her she needs to fight, but she disarms him and discards the lightsaber, telling him that she chooses to live.
He tells her there is hope for her yet, and disappears and the place fills with water, and it engulfs her, a Rebel pilot dives in and they rescue her from the sea.
They take her back to the ruins, and she uses the force on the remains of the map to discover what happened after she fell, and tells Hera she has a way of getting to Sabine. They take off and fly to where the Purgill are flying, and as Ahsoka uses the force to communicate with the massive creatures, they detect that a Republic taskforce has arrived to take them back to Coruscant. Carson gives them time, and Ashoka and Huyang fly into a massive Purgills mouth, and the pod begin charging energy for a hyperspace jump. Hera tells the taskforce to move out of the way, and despite having orders to bring Ahsoka, Hera and Carson back to base they move, allowing the creatures to jump to hyperspace leaving Hera, Carson and the fleet behind. . . .
High Points : The fight between Ahsoka and Anakin was brilliant, while I'm concerned that it was just fan service, it felt like it was more meaningful than that, and it would be nice for it to be real rather than just in Ahsoka's head. That she is being visited by Anakin's force ghost, that he is taking back up his teaching position to help her from beyond the grave. However if it's just a dream I'll be pretty darn angry at this series.
Carson Teva also gets some good lines, helping Hera, but being aware that things have changed in the Republic and they are standing on very weak ground in disobeying orders.
Low Points : I'm getting pretty annoyed at the position they've put Hera in, while last episode I pointed out that stripping her forces from her weakens her position, putting her more into the position of an employee, rather than the leader of part of a volunteer army. The threats against her seem odd, as she politically is still very powerful even if the people under her command are loyal to the Republic rather than personally to her.
This is Hera, who led the forces that freed Lothal, the first world to break the control of the Empire before Yavin. She is the daughter of the leader of Ryloth, she saved Mon Mothma's life, she worked alongside a very young Leia, she fought at the Battle of Scariff and the Battle of Endor. And as my son pointed out, she's being asked to report to the New Republic council with the threat of stripping her of her rank, for taking her Son, Droid and personal Starship to help a friend.
While Teva and his squadron might be in trouble, as they weren't ordered to help her, she herself hasn't done anything except take some personal time off.
So what do you really think ? : A really solid episode, it slowed in a few places, as there did seem a lot of time spent on the search of the sea for Ahsoka, but we did need that time to give us the threat of the New Republic becoming annoyed at them disobeying orders. While showing us the Republic becoming corrupt is a building storyline across multiple series, and I really do appreciate that. We're seeing the Republic being weakened from within, while the Empire is making a display of being disorganised while pulling the strings from behind the scenes. Fantastic stuff.
But making our heroes comically weak is just annoying, they had power before, and if you're going to remove that power, we need to see that happen.
Final Words : So three episodes to go, with Hera going for a trial before the New Republic Senate, and Ahsoka arriving at a different Galaxy Far Far Away, lots to happen, and hopefully some new characters to introduce to get things moving.
Score : 9.5/10
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