Ahsoka: Part Seven: Dreams and Madness
What is it ? : On Coruscant Hera is in front of a New Republic tribunal, where Senator Xiono is calling for her being removed from command for personal gain and disobeying a direct order. C-3PO arrives with a message from Leia saying that she ordered Hera to go on the mission to Seatos. Xiono calls to ignore the message as it's being delivered by a droid, but Leia's position as head of the defence council means that Hera is absolved of her actions.
Mon Mothma speaks to Hera afterwards and discovers that Leia did indeed give orders for her to go to Seatos, but only after she'd actually been. The two discuss the threat of Thrawn.
Meanwhile in the mouth of the Purrgill, Ahsoka trains while being instructed by the last training hologram Anakin sent her. Huyang informs her the Purrgil are slowing, so they are near to their destination.
The Purrgil emerge from hyperspace around Peridea into a minefield that has been placed there, Ahsoka pilots her ship out into space glad of the cover the Purrgil are giving her ship, but the Purrgil leap into hyperspace once more due to the wounds they are receiving.
The Eye of Sion launches starfighters to intercept her, so she hides in the ring around the planet among the Purrgil bones.
Thrawn orders the Nightsisters to use their powers to locate Ahsoka, and discovers from Morgan Elspeth that Ahsoka's master was Anakin Skywalker, so adapts his plans accordingly.
On the surface of the planet, Ezra and Sabine are travelling with the Noti in armoured repulsorlift pods, discussing how things have changed in the galaxy while he was gone, when Baylan Skoll, Shin Hati and their raiders locate them. Baylan calls in Thrawns forces, and tells Shin that this is where they part ways, as she has a lust for power that he does not.
When located Ahsoka flees for the planet surface, which matches up with when the raiders with Shin attack the Noti convoy. Ezra orders the Noti to form a circle, and their vehicles drop to the ground and seal over with armoured plates, leaving Ezra and Sabine to fight the attackers.
Sabine offers Ezra her lightsaber (the one he left her at the end of Rebels), but he refuses, telling her he has other ways of fighting. They fight the raiders, with Sabine using her Mandalorian weapons, and Ezra punching and using force pushes to defend himself, until they face off against Shin Hati.
However 2 LAAT/le transports filled with Stormtroopers arrive and surround the pair. Meanwhile, Ahsoka leaps from her starship as if flies overhead, leaving Huyang at the controls. She meets with Baylan, and the two fight, until she distracts him and steals his Howler to reach Ezra and Sabine. The three fight the Stormtroopers, until Thrawn orders their retreat, and face off against Shin, and she flees as well.
Elsbeth questions Thrawn losing a battle, something he tells her that he hasn't done, as his victory is in delaying Ahsoka and the others until his ship is ready to leave, and abandoning them here is the victory. He also notices that Baylan wasn't involved and questions his actions. . . .
High Points : There's some nice action, and although they've only made Ezra fight with his hands to make him different to the other 2 using lightsabers, I do quite like the justification with him just not having had access to the materials to build a lightsaber for all the time he's been trapped on Peridea.
And the fact that Sabine is finally fighting like a Mandalorian is fantastic, and she kicks way more ass that way. This has been annoying me for most of the episodes this season, and finally proves my point. She's not a Jedi, but that's fine as her people found ways of fighting Jedi long ago, and she can use those.
And because I've been critical of it in past episodes, I have to comment that all the characters are feeling a lot more like themselves in this episode, these feel like the same characters we've seen before.
Low Points : Although, the fact that Sabine is fighting like a Mandalorian makes me happy, but it still has one moment of annoyance, she get fired at, and uses the beskar on her forearm armour to deflect the blast to the head she was going to receive. Nice moment, but the fact that she's not wearing her helmet is just highlighted by this action, as if she was there would have been no danger at all.
Hamato Xiono is an over the top villain, his actions here are comically evil, even down to dismissing Threepios words as he's just a droid. But it would be nice to see some backstory to these actions, a reason for why he's so set against everyone else. I know that he gets his comeuppance by having his entire planet destroyed by the First Order (which seems like others paying the price for him though), and he redeems himself somewhat by supporting his son eventually. But at this point he's just being a bad guy because he's a bad guy.
So what do you really think ? : A very solid episode, where not a lot really happens. The fact that Hera's tribunal has been such a major plot point hanging over the story for a few episodes, and it's dealt with before the titles, and the rest of the episode is basically just one fight, leaves it all a bit of a time filler rather than moving the story forwards much.
Final Words : So, one more episode to go, and it looks more and more like this really is just going to be the story of how Thrawn returns. While it's better than "Somehow Palpatine returned", it does feel a bit excessive.
This storyline looks like it will dominate the live action shows set in this period for the next while, crossing between The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. I'm thinking we're going to get a cliffhanger where Thrawn and Pallaeon meet up and Thrawn takes control of the Imperial Remnant, and Ahsoka, Ezra and Sabine are stuck on Peridea (only to hitch a lift with a Purrgil at the start of the next season).
But I guess we'll find out next week.
Score : 8.5/10
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