Ahsoka: Part Eight: The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord
What is it ? : Elspeth informs Thrawn that the cargo is loaded, so he orders the Eye of Sion brought out of orbit to dock with his Star Destroyer. He thanks the mothers for their alliance and they reward Elspeth for her service by giving her the gift of shadows which marks her face and involves energy flowing into her. They also give her the Blade of Talzin, a sword, and Thrawn dispatches 2 Tie Fighters to delay Ahsoka and her people.
Aboard Ahsokas ship which is slowly flying above the Noti caravan, Ezra is putting a lightsaber together, he refuses Huyang's advice until Huyang offers him a piece he recognises from Kanan's lightsaber and Huyang reveals that he taught Kanan, remembering young "Kaleb" and how he was shy, but those were troubling times.
Sabine and Ahsoka sit atop the ship and share a moment, coming to terms with each others feelings and agreeing to work together.
The Tie Fighters attack, and Sabine takes the controls, ramming the ship into the Tie's and destroying them, but crippling their ship and crashing it.
Ezra, Sabine and Ahsoka take the rat-wolves and race towards the temple, where the Eye of Sion is still docking with the Destroyer, they are fired upon by the Destroyer but make their way into the tower, and fight some of Thrawns Night Troopers, who when killed the Mothers bring back into life as Zombies and they keep attacking. As they get higher in the tower, Ahsoka faces off against Elspeth, ordering the others to get to the Destroyer.
The fight a pair of Night Troopers at the top of the tower as the Star Destroyer connects to the Eye of Sion and begins lifting away, and by the time they defeat the pair the jump is too far. Sabine offers to force push Ezra, and then he can pull her aboard, and they successfully perform this, but Sabine spots Ahsoka having been victorious against Elspeth surrounded by Night Troopers, so holds back to help.
Ezra takes out two Night troopers, and as the Star Destroyer reigns fire down on the tower reducing it to rubble, Ahsoka and Sabine leap off, only to land on Ahsoka's ship piloted by Huyang.
As they race after Thrawns ship, he taunts her and then leaps to Hyperspace leaving them stranded, they return to the planet and ride their rat-wolves back to the Noti.
Later, Hera is alerted to a ship landing on the Republic cruiser she is aboard, and a Night Trooper emerges, revealing themself to be Ezra. Thrawns Star Destroyer arrives at Dathomir, bearing it's cargo, Shin Hati ignites her lightsaber and joins a group of raiders, Baylan Skoll stands on the outstretched arm of a giant statue, and Ahsoka, Huyang and Sabine are living with the Noti, Sabine thinks she senses something, which Ahsoka smiles at, and we see the group being watched by the Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker . . .
High Points : It plays out all as expected, as leaves plenty hanging for season 2 (or the movie, or the other series, however they're planning this). The action is decent, and the characterisation seems more comfortable as time has gone on (Ezra disguising himself as a Night Trooper felt very much like something he or Kanan would have done in Rebels).
I really liked the zombie stormtroopers, with the Nightsisters animating their bodies, feels very on brand for them and looked absolutely fantastic.
But it all feels very predictable, Ahsoka is stuck in the other galaxy, Thrawn is ready to be the big bad of a future series, etc, etc.
Low Points : I really have to question why the Star Destroyer needed to stay docked to the tower while the Eye of Sion connected up to it? Or even if it did, why didn't they do the docking while they were loading the ship? It's almost as if Thrawn needed to be delayed to make the finale more tense!
And where did Ahsoka and Sabine get their wolves back? The last time we saw them they were locked in the tower which then gets destroyed! Did Huyang pick up the wolves first before collecting Ahsoka and Sabine?
But my main criticism of this episode is that it was so obvious how it was going to end, and it spent much of it's run time delaying that outcome. And that outcome would have had more impact if it hadn't been delayed. Thrawn is victorious, but only just, and that's supposed to be crushing for the heroes. But imagine how much more powerful and undefeatable he would have appeared if his victory hadn't been that close. If the heroes had arrived at the tower, for Thrawn to hail them from orbit to let them know that he was leaving (but had left them a surprise (the zombie troopers and Elspeth)), that the heroes weren't fighting to catch Thrawn and almost managing it, but they were fighting for their very lives with no other outcome than mere survival even possible!
So what do you really think ? : It was an enjoyable enough episode, but instead of just waiting for the next part for the resolution, now we've got to wait months or potentially years (with the Actors strike still ongoing) to see how it turns out.
While there's nothing much wrong with the episode, it really felt like it was just filling time to complete the series rather than giving us any resolutions to the storylines (and sadly with the death of Ray Stevenston, I'm not sure how much resolution to Baylan's storyline we'll ever get).
Final Words : So looking across this season of Ahsoka, I have to say it's been the season that most disappointed me. But that might just be because I adored Rebels so much, and this series feels like it's building on that series without really respecting what made it great (Ahsoka was a great addition to Rebels, but she was never at it's core).
The season was far from terrible, and I can understand why many are raving about it. But many of these people also didn't like Rebels, so perhaps I'm just out of sync with the Star Wars community.
Score : 9/10
Comments made about this Article!
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07/Oct/2023 17:03:45
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Posted by Hellstormer1
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Agreed on the high/low points. Personal thing that bugged me was that they didn't give Ezra his blue hair. But....as the series progressed after the new Ezra actor first appeared.....everything else about this actor really does do Ezra justice, IMO. Lack of blue hair aside, anything else that I "could" say negative about the actor/character, can easily be explained by how long he has been on Peridea. But truth is, this guy had Ezra's kindness, he had his eyes, the attitude, mentality, and also showed an older Ezra that seemed to have come to peace with himself....which also works well with him having improved in his Force usage!
Just...dang it....if he'd had the blue hair, I would have called it perfect. But 90+% of perfection in a charcter transferring over to live action is still a worthy effort.
Answer about Ahsoka and Sabine's puppies being regained from they castle....they're magic, eating Mycelial shrooms, and smoking dank Force kush, so....
*thinks*
....Freddy, how do you feel about "magical medicinals" from alien worlds being statted out and published on your site, sir???
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10/Oct/2023 10:03:00
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Posted by Freddy
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The characterisation across the series grew on me, Ahsoka was too cold at the start. The sparky girl who faced down Vader with a quip in Rebels, now was giving everyone the silent treatment. Hera was too close to Ahsoka, and not her Rebels family. Sabine was now a Jedi, forgetting everything Kanan had taught her about staying true to her Mandalorian heritage, as she could effectively fight Jedi that way. But they all eased into the roles, or I became more accepting of a different version of them, and could see that these were indeed the same characters.
I do keep getting annoyed at the treatment of the Purrgil, because the whole thing across Rebels was that Ezra had a special ability with animals, something Kanan hadn't seen before, and that allowed him to get the Purrgil to help. And Ahsoka doing the same took away from that (although I'm betting it's Ezra that comes to the rescue on Peridea with a Purrgil).
As for "magical medicinals", go for it, sounds cool.
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10/Oct/2023 12:19:31
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Posted by Hellstormer1
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I do think Hera would have dropped everything, including General responsibilities, and gone with Ahsoka and Sabine to get Ezra back, though being a mother now would hold her back (but they never sasid any of this, and if they had, it would have made more sense!). Didn't Hera know Ahsoka before the rest of her team? Like, as Fulcrum, forming the Rebel Alliance?
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10/Oct/2023 13:22:41
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Posted by Freddy
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Hera knew her as Fulcrum, but just as a disguised voice over the radio.
Ahsoka had a much closer relationship with Kanan and Ezra (and of course Rex).
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