Ahsoka Part Four: Fallen Jedi Thoughts
Ahsoka, Sabine, and Huyang find themselves against the clock as Hera gathers her own forces.
We are officially halfway through Ahsoka, and our lead perfectly lays out the episode’s stakes: the enemy has the map and the means. If it comes to it, Ahsoka makes clear that she would sacrifice getting Ezra back to avoid Thrawn returning. But would Sabine? Of course not. This episode plays this scenario out, following The Clone Wars structure similar to Part Three. While the action does not let up in “Fallen Jedi” as Into the Spiderverse director Peter Ramsey takes the reins, some lackluster moments keep this episode from surpassing “Time to Fly.”
What Didn’t Work
While there is a lot in this episode that worked, let’s get the bad out of the way. Morgan’s droids need the entire episode to calculate the coordinates from the map Sabine decoded. Therefore, there is much running around in fights and pulling punches as Ahsoka and Sabine race to try and stop their enemies. And the fight choreography and pacing still need improvement (nothing here has been as great as Vader and Anakin or Vader and Reva from Obi-Wan Kenobi). While fighting Shin, Sabine turns her head to tell Ahsoka to destroy the map, and Shin is just standing there waiting for her to finish talking instead of cutting her down. Baylan and Ahsoka’s brawl is the better of the three major lightsaber battles. I appreciate that Ahsoka had to be weakened by whatever witchcraft protected the map for Baylan to win against her.
The choice between destroying the map and potentially saving Ezra was set up initially, but Sabine handing the map to Baylan did not work for several reasons. It is difficult to believe she would give a map to the person who killed Ahsoka. There may be some Jedi mind-trickery going on, but that feels like it would be a cheap trick (for both Baylan and Filoni). The main reason why this moment does not work is that so many people have zero context for Sabine’s connection to Ezra because they have not seen Rebels. In Rebels, Sabine and Ezra’s arc towards the group’s younger brother/older sister dynamic was endearing (Ahsoka and Sabine had very few scenes together in the animated series). By contrast, the relationship focus in this series is Ahsoka and Sabine, so having Sabine be motivated by a character that has yet to appear in the show outside of a holovid makes this moment for Sabine fall short.
Perhaps seeing Ezra and Thrawn’s POV simultaneously and getting to know Ezra as the others search for him could have been a narrative solution for this. The stakes lie with Ahsoka (the title character) being pushed off the cliff to her death, not with the map to Ezra being destroyed. But I supposed this was the best way Filoni could get Sabine alone on Morgan’s hyperspace station.
I felt the personality of Sabine come through finally in Part Three from Bordizzo, but overall, she is still incredibly underwhelming. Finally, Inosanto continues to drag down the series with her limited range, making Morgan Elsbeth less threatening. I cannot help but wonder how a seasoned actress in the role would make all the difference.
Who is Marrok? Asked and Answered.
Despite some of the shortcomings, it is nice to see some surprises. Just last week, I was joining the fun in wondering who Marrok might be; a week later, that is no longer relevant. He was a green mist. Ahsoka critically wounds Marrok, and instead of taking off his mask to reveal he is Starkiller, he bursts into green powder reminiscent of the Nightsister magick. So, was he ever an Inquisitor or even a person? You can see remains before he turns to dust; thus, he could have just been a fallen Nightbrother. I hope they explain this in a future episode, as Shin sure did seem surprised. If he is a Nightsister manifestation, that is pretty powerful, as he flew a ship in the last episode. I am glad we can retire the theories, and we did not have to wait until the final episode.
Hera’s Heroes
“Hera’s Hereos” was an episode of Rebels that followed Hera and Ezra to her homeworld of Ryloth to recover a valuable family heirloom from the hands of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Hera has lost the most at the hands of Thrawn, so there was zero chance she would not get involved. In true Hera fashion, she knows when she has lost one battle (with the Senators) but successfully gathers allies where she can. The General takes some New Republic pilots, including MandoVerse veteran Carson Teva, and heads to Seatos. Unfortunately, by the time they arrive, they can only watch as the Eye of Sion jumps to hyperspace, killing a few pilots on the way out. Hera and Carson survive and are positioned to find Ahsoka, wherever she is, and figure out a way to follow now that they have Sabine AND are on their way to Thrawn. But why did she bring Jacen? Other than for him to say, “I’ve got a bad feeling,” aka “Yes, look at me I can Force, too.” It does confirm that Jacen will have a larger role in this series and the MandoVerse moving forward.
The Fallen Jedi
Ahsoka literally falls off a cliff to get to the World Between Worlds (apologies for the WTF moment non-Rebels watchers) and comes face to face with the ultimate Fallen Jedi, Anakin Skywalker. Using Hayden Christensen as a Force ghost here makes more sense than replacing Sebastian Shaw in Return of the Jedi, as this is the Anakin that Ahsoka remembers. I still think the World Between Worlds is dumb, and I hope it is used sparingly on this show (please, no time portals), but it was a certainty in this show, so we will see where it takes us and Ahsoka in the next episode.
Overall, the pacing of this show is the best out of the live-action series thus far, as we are at the halfway mark. It’s time for the crew to catch a Purrgil to where the Eye of Sion went. But before that, I suspect we will get a very Clone Wars episode next week with Dave Filoni directing.
Originally published at http://creditsandcanon.com on September 6, 2023.
