Ahsoka recap: Anakin Skywalker has one final lesson for his student
Ahsoka has something to say about the ever-changing role of a Jedi...but it's not totally clear what it is
TV Reviews Ahsoka
Was this the most dramatic 50 minutes or so in the history of Star Wars? No, right? So then why was this episode so convinced that it was? Early on, when Hera and Jacen arrive to try and figure out what happened to Ahsoka and Sabine, they find Huyang standing on the edge of the cliff where Ahsoka disappeared, holding Sabine’s helmet and making sad eyes. He mournfully says that he told them to stay together, “but they never listen. They never listen.” (I can’t resist noting at this point that the show is only telling us they never listen, because Sabine’s entire Jedi training in which she and Ahsoka developed this contentious relationship happened offscreen.)
Huyang thinks his buddies are dead, but we know they’re not. Sabine is off in another galaxy with the bad guys, and Ahsoka is in a mystical Jedi limbo, but they’re both alive, so this all felt overly melodramatic for a show that hasn’t heard this kind of “all is lost” moment. And it probably wouldn’t have even stuck out to me so much if the episode hadn’t ended with the exact reverse, where a straightforward plot development is treated with the reverence of Luke Skywalker’s return at the end of The Last Jedi. It’s another example of the kind of weird choice that I think has been consistently dragging this show down, because I generally liked everything that happened in between these two moments—at least in terms of it being entertaining television, because I do have some questions about the point of it all.
But anyway, Ahsoka is trapped in (what I assume is) the World Between Worlds, a sort of void in the universe that some Jedi are able to access, and I think the concept was used much better here than when it was introduced in Rebels as a series of magic time-travel doorways that allowed Ezra Bridger to go into his own past and pull Ahsoka out of a fight with Darth Vader before she could be killed. In this big empty dimension, as revealed at the end of last week’s episode, Ahsoka meets a younger version of her old master Anakin Skywalker, who tells her that she’s there for one final lesson: “Live or die.”
He takes out his old blue lightsaber and forces Ahsoka to fight him, and she pretty clearly has his number and could easily win…until he drops her into a pit and sends her into a flashback of one of their first battles together during the Clone Wars. She’s even a kid again! I like that this was all pretty moody, with Clone Troopers charging out of the ever-present mist, and it was cool that Hayden Christensen got a chance to play the quippier, more easy-going version of Anakin who was on The Clone Wars, but also all of this just looked like shit.
I complained about the generic forest in last week’s episode, which made already-straightforward lightsaber battles feel even more boring, and while I appreciate there’s some aesthetic creativity to all of this (like I said, it’s moody), it does mean that a good chunk of this episode happened in endless voids. Once the moodiness wore off, it was just looking at nothing; and since this is a show that has already had a lot of looking at nothing (some of these performances are very stiff), it all felt very bland very quickly. Say what you will about the cartoony CG sets of the prequel movies, but there was stuff in them to look at.
In between all of the nothing, Anakin pushes young Ahsoka into battle, and when the fighting is done and a bunch of clones are dead, he tries to get her to stop crying about it by explaining that the duties of the Jedi have to change with the time: When he was first trained, they were keepers of the peace. Now they must be soldiers. So, in order to survive, he says Ahsoka has to become a warrior. She asks what will happen if she chooses not to fight, and he says she’ll die, at which point he marches into the mist and briefly turns into Darth Vader.
Meanwhile, Hera is searching for her friends, and her son, Jacen, starts picking up some trace of Ahsoka in the Force. He can hear her and Anakin swinging their lightsabers around. There’s a nice bit where Hera asks Huyang about Ahsoka’s Jedi master, who he says was “intense,” with some actual earned gravity.
Back in the flashback zone, Ahsoka is older, fighting Darth Maul’s Deathwatch soldiers on Mandalore. She’s using two lightsabers and generally kicking ass, and she even does the “look how serious I am” arms-crossed pose that adult Ahsoka constantly does. Anakin appears, praising her for becoming a warrior and explaining that she’s part of a Jedi legacy that goes through him and his master and his master, with all of them passing everything they know down the line to her. But Ahsoka says that her only part in that legacy is death. Anakin says she has to be more than that, because if she’s not then he’s not, and she says that’s true. He’s not.
So they jump back to the original black void, with Ahsoka as an adult again, but now Anakin has gone full Revenge Of The Sith. His eyes are crazy, his lightsaber is red (he didn’t make a red lightsaber until later, but he’s a dream ghost so it’s okay), and he’s fully trying to murder Ahsoka. She fights back, with the two of them briefly locked together as the red lightsaber makes her eyes look crazy as well, but she stops and decides that, no, she’d rather not fight him. He accepts her choice and stands down, looking normal again. “There’s hope for you yet,” he says before disappearing.
Now, what was the lesson here? Ahsoka comes out of this experience visibly changed, with super-chillaxed The Dude vibes replacing her usual hard-edged stoicism, and after a moment of contemplation, she’s able to come up with a plan to reach the other galaxy. Is the idea that she was supposed to reject Anakin’s teachings and grow beyond the soldier he wanted her to be? That she’s supposed to look past his darkness and the mistakes he made to accept that people are often more complicated than she might think?
I think both could be right, since she seems to tap into some kind of zen-like Force-enabled calmness in order to “communicate” with the Purrgil after she wakes up from her death dream and is rescued by Hera. And perhaps she’ll now be a little more understanding with Sabine and her obvious lack of interest in learning the ways of the Jedi. After all, what was she doing if not forcing her reluctant student to become a soldier? (Sabine already was a soldier, but I think it tracks.)
I like that there’s not a clean answer to this, and I wished the show had sat with it a little more rather than treating the Purrgil scene like the most exciting and important thing ever, but whatever. Ahsoka attempts to reach out to the pod of Purrgil flying above the planet, and the biggest one opens its mouth and allows her and Huyang to fly their ship inside. Purrgil, as you may recall, are space-whales that can travel through hyperspace, and as Hera goes back to the New Republic fleet, Huyang asks Ahsoka how she knows that the Purrgil will take them to where Ezra and Sabine are. It turns out she doesn’t. She has no idea where they’re going, but she now seems to have the faith to accept that moving forward is “better than going nowhere.”
Stray observations
- I don’t have any issues with the specific plot points here, it’s just that Ahsoka and Sabine’s disappearance at the beginning is treated with such drama that it feels silly, and the big swelling music during all of the Purrgil scenes did as well. I think it’s because you know that this is where it’s going from the moment Ahsoka sees them flying above the planet, and you know it’s all going to work out because this is a TV show and things work out on TV. This show just can’t resist being almost pretty good before pulling the rug out from under itself.
- Y’know, it’s weird that there’s a kid hanging around with obvious Jedi abilities and an obvious interest in Jedi stuff whose mom is friends with Ahsoka, and yet it apparently never occurred to her to train him as a Jedi? You’re supposed to indoctrinate them as kids anyway, not grown-ass adults like Sabine. So why has Ahsoka spent so much time forcing someone who doesn’t want to be a Jedi to be a Jedi when she couldn’t be teaching Jacen?
- I liked Hayden Christensen in this episode! I wouldn’t mind seeing a little more of him at some point. Maybe the next TV series could be about Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda hanging out as ghosts? Qui-Gon could even be there. Maybe they’re all ghost roommates.
- Little cameo from Captain Rex during the flashbacks. He popped up on Rebels as an old man, and I believe that show mentioned that he fought in the Battle Of Yavin (Return Of The Jedi), but he’s gotta be dead by now, right? That’s kind of a bummer. Excuse me while I hold an old Clone Trooper helmet and stare off into the distance on the side of a cliff….
172 Comments
Anakin cameo in the headline? Go fuck yourself Sam Barsanti.
Bro, I am just going to be honest, as I have read your reviews from the start…..you REALLY suck at your chosen profession. Enjoy your snarky little in jokes and decidedly self indulgent ability to shit on everything. You remind me of a “cool kid” in high school and a weirdly toxic SW fan in equal measure. Why even review a property you have obvious biases towards?
But making snarky in-jokes and self indulgent shitting on everything are the two skills required for this job.
Barsanti and Disney Star Wars truly deserve each other.
It’s not just Bersanti. It’s this entire dipshit website.Remember, this is the same place that teetered between giving The Rescue a B- or a C.
Barsanti is a smirking troll through and through. That said, it’s interesting what you say about biases, as I’ve noticed Ahsoka reviews particularly seem split down a bias line: either you’re familiar with this story and these characters and like the show, or you’re not and you don’t. For example, ign gave this ep an emphatically good review.
I’m not familiar with the characters beyond Mando and an episode or two of clone wars, and I’m loving this show. It has a lot more forward momentum than Kenobi or Book of Boba Fett. These characters feel fresh and interesting and their adventures are exciting. Not sure why that’s not enough.
“Forward momentum?” The first four episodes could have been compressed into one. The pacing on the show is fairly dreadful.
Well, they said “more forward momentum.” In this context, any amount would count.
They spent four full hours of TV chasing around a map ball, only to reveal at the very end of the fifth hour that the map ball was unnecessary because they could just hitch a ride with space whales.
Which was the incredibly obvious solution in the first place, despite the fact that it was treated like some grand revelation.
I know, it was like Filoni thought we’d never seen a TV show before. Obviously the series can’t just end with Ahsoka having failed to find Ezra or Thrawn, so spending *that much time* pretending all hope was lost just made the inevitable reveal fall flat.
This. I’m generally enjoying the show, but if Purgills took Ezra and Thrawn away, wouldn’t hitching a ride on them be, like, the very first strategy?
“If Purgills took Ezra and Thrawn away, wouldn’t hitching a ride on them be, like, the very first strategy?”
That’s a bit like saying “Grandma makes amazing lasagna. Mom makes amazing lasagna. Can’t I just make amazing lasagna?” Why would anyone who knew what happened to Ezra and Thrawn assume that they could do what Ezra did?
Because it’s not the first time anyone has ever used the Force to commune with animals.
Perhaps it’s the fact that we really don’t know where the story is going and that’s inherently exciting. Kenobi was shoehorned into a specific niche in the timeline, so we know, for example, he’s not going to die or have his hand light-sabered off. We know how Andor’s story will eventually end. The prequels were by definition headed to a predetermined ending. We knew where the Clone Wars series was headed too, since Revenge of the Sith had already come out.While Ahsoka may technically be a “prequel” to the sequel trilogy (a weird sentence out of context) there’s no indication the events of this show, in this season or potential future seasons, is going to lead right up to that. Those events are a couple of decades in the future. So there’s a sense that anything can happen. I could see this series (not likely this particular season, but the show overall) even ending with Ahoska’s death. And while I doubt they’re keen to just kill everyone off soon, none of these characters are around during the sequel era, so…That sense of unknown/uncertainty is refreshing for latter day Disney Star Wars. It’s also, as the sequel trilogy can attest, risky. So far they seem to be handling things far better than they did with the movies. It’s clear that Filoni has avoided the most egregious of the sequel trilogy’s sins – he’s actually planned some things out ahead of time.
Because different people don’t see the same thing the same way.
I never watched either show, but I watch with my son who has seen Clone Wars and he pops in with little tidbits in as the show goes on. I’m enjoying it.
I’ve noticed a certain strain of SW fan get super defensive when you deign to criticize what they love.
You could probably change that to just “a certain strain of fan” because it’s certainly not unique to Star Wars.
Very true!
Sounds like it’s time to stop coming to this shell of a review site I used to love and hang out at IGN.
I’m familiar with all of this stuff and this is the first episode that isn’t a complete wet fart for me. Then again, I think Clone Wars is the inferior Clone Wars by far (hallowed be thy Tartakovsky) and did way too much to preemptively “redeem” Anakin before he becomes a villain… again… because he was already a villain in Attack of the Clones.
I’ve noticed Ahsoka reviews particularly seem split down a bias line: either you’re familiar with this story and these characters and like the show, or you’re not and you don’t. But Barsanti is clearly familiar with this story and these characters and doesn’t like the show.
And I’m familiar with this story and these characters and like the show overall (the music is especially good and it looks a million bucks) but don’t like the story pacing and chararcter performances.
Seems the situation is a bit more messy than what you’ve noticed.
Agreed with it all. This is the last time I’m reading the AV Club’s reviews for the show. The I09 review, recap is better and done by someone who actually watched the show.
Exactly. I feel like Im taking crazy pills when I read his tripe. It’s not even a fun read. How does one get paid to be this bad a reviewer? I should appply!
Dunno if they get paid well or paid at all, and that result is what we’re seeing here.
Yeah, isn’t it terrible when people are allowed to publish their own, considered, non-drooling-fanboy opinions?I’ve been on the fence about watching Ahsoka, and the more I read about it (from various sources, not just here), the more I’m glad I’m not wasting my time.
You can tell before he even watches an episode he’s gunning to tear Star Wars Disney down. He sucks at this job!
how is one supposed to excise their bias? everyone has bias? So is you issue just that they dont agree with your perspective?
No my issue is they are not a good reviewer and unnecessarily snarky to the reviews detriment.
I think it’s perfectly valid not to enjoy this show, even if you are a Star Wars fan. I’ve seen and enjoyed Clone Wars and Rebels, I was hyped for this show, but man it is boooooorrrrrring. Every episode I find myself asking “when are we going to get to the fireworks factory??” How long are we gonna hang around this Seatos set? (Hilarious that Jacen is just playing with his dog having a grand old time in the middle of this witch’s hedge where his friends were just presumably killed/kidnapped). I can’t really take issue with these reviews because frankly, I agree with them. The show is dull. Even for me who should be the target audience. The pacing is just as bad here as in Obi Wan and I think what I’ve gleaned from this and that is that some of these stories should have been movies so the stories could be tighter. I think Star Wars can work as TV (season one of Mando and Andor proves this) but not every Star Wars story needs to be dragged out to the length of a series.
I’m loving it. It feels like Rebels grew up. I like that they’re taking time to let the audience feel things, to explore the story and mythology.
Agreed. I actually fell asleep during the flashbacks and didn’t even bother to go back and watch the bits I missed. I could tell from the running length of the episode we were going to get a lengthy dream sequence (or equivalent) where Ahsoka learns an “important lesson” but I’m pretty sure the only reason why we got it was because it was penciled in as the time to have one in their by-the-numbers approach to storytelling for the series.
I knew as soon as we saw Anakin last week that this week would be primarily fan service and it would be yet another week before we potentially reach the fireworks factory. Unfortunately, with only 3 episodes left I have a bad feeling that all the Thrawn we’ll be getting is a menacing turn to camera and smash cut to credits before having to wait until season 2 to see if the fireworks were any good or just duds
That’s pretty much what we’re in for at this point. They’re grooming Thrawn as the big bad in their stupid movie project, so this is going to be just a big, pointless tease.
I’ve felt like the endgame is to have a Defender’s like show where all the heroes join forces to stop Thrawn. I have no idea how they’ll get Obi-Wan and Andor on it, but I’m pretty sure they will come up with something.
She didn’t really learn a lesson at all. But the episode doesn’t seem to realize that.
I guess she learned that she hasn’t really been living…which I agree with…but they did nothing to clarify what it will mean for her to start doing that, other than…smiling more? Jumping into space whales? It’s a mess.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion. This show checks all the boxes for me.
Indeed we all are, including Barsanti. Your comment just seems needlessly harsh. Perhaps instead of tearing the writer down you could spend your energy telling us WHY you disagree with them, and what you enjoyed about the show. Why bring so much negativity to something you like? Just tell us why you liked the show without the unnecessary hate on the author.
It’s perfectly valid to not like anything you don’t like. Why wouldn’t it be?
If I open an AV Club article and see his name on the byline, I go straight to the comments. It’s embarrassing.
I think Ahsoka is an entertaining but flawed show. But I agree 100% that Barsanti is terrible. He really represents the new A.V. Club, which used to be very good writers who were sometimes snarky, and which is now just snark.
Yep… Its like they are trying to tank their sites. Capture and kill I guess just like Twitter.
Can you point to anything specific that’s objectively wrong, or do you just not like this review because it disagrees with your opinion?I disagree with some of what he says here, but I share much of his concerns. The pacing is dreadful, and there’s no real suspense or tension; we know exactly where the episode will end up.
Done with his articles…at this point, bring on the AI writers, hopefully they won’t hate their job as much as Sam obviously hates his.
Battle of Yavin was A New Hope, not Return of the Jedi.I believe clones age more rapidly than normal humans if they aren’t Boba Fett (a genetically unaltered clone), but I suppose a really old Rex could still be out there.
“There’s a nice bit where Hera asks Huyang about Ahsoka’s Jedi master,
who he says was “intense,” with some actual earned gravity.”Never watched Rebels or Clone Wars… Do people generally not know Vader was Annakin? Did Hera know that Annakin was Ahsoka’s Jedi master?
I haven’t either, but it must *not* be common knowledge; even if Luke was hidden away on Tatooine and never overheard anything, he was with the rebels long enough that someone would have said “oh, shit you’re Vader’s kid” the moment he said his dad Anakin was a famous pilot.Honestly, “how did people basically forget the Jedi in less than two decades?” has always been a bit of confusing prequel detritus to me.
Far as I know, the world believes Anakin died during the Jedi purge. From a certain point of view, he did, I guess.
I’ve just been thinking about who definitely knows pre-ANH:
Yoda, Obi-Wan, Palpatine, R2D2, Bail (maybe his wife) and Ahsoka. Maybe Owen & Beru, but not strictly necessary. I legit don’t know what canon says about Tarkin.immediately post ROTJ:
Yoda Ghost, Obi-Wan Ghost, C3PO, R2D2, Leia, Han, Chewie, Luke, and Ahsoka. Maybe Lando, any rando Stormtrooper who happened to run by Luke and Vader on the Death Star and overheard something and then managed to escape.
In the Special Edition the meeting with Biggs in the hangar is cut because Red leaders full line was:
“Skywalker? I flew with your father, and if you’re half the pilot he was, you’ll be fine.”
Obviously that’s suuuuper awkward.
People didn’t forget the Jedi, but to most people, the Jedi were abstract and hypothetical anyway, as most people would never have actually met one.
The Empire waged a massive disinformation campaign to discredit the Jedi and make them out to be criminals.
It tracks, for the most part.
One thing I did really like about TFA, was how it established that the Jedi, Luke, Vader etc. were basically semi-mythical figures for most people across the galaxy.
It’s a galaxy of trillions and most people rarely actualy leave thier systems and have never met a Jedi, even pre Empire.
Our position as audience members is hyperprivliged compared to most people in the galaxy.
In-universe, I’m not sure a lot of people did know that Anakin is Vader. The Jedi who were close to him are all dead due to Order 66. Palpatine knew, Yoda knew, Obi Wan knew, and likely the Jedi who fell and became Inquisitors knew. The clones of the 501st are all dead, the clones who went to the temple to kill younglings with Anakin wouldn’t know what went down on Mustafar.I think it’s plausible that people just didn’t know.
I always assume that Jedi were pretty removed from the common folk. Like there are trillions of people but tens of thousands of Jedi, so most never have any real experience with them.It’s like the Swiss Guard. I know they exist, but if they disappeared tomorrow, would anybody talk about them in twenty years or so?
I believe, to the galaxy at large, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are perceived as two separate individuals. There is a novel (that I haven’t read) that takes place 6 years prior to The Force Awakens, where it is revealed that Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker, as a scandal to smear Leia. I believe canonically this is when most people would become aware of them being the same person.I believe Ahsoka takes place around six years after ROTJ, in the same basic era as The Mandalorian, whereas The Force Awakens is some 30 years after ROTJ. So I wanna say there’s still uhmmmmm 18 years between Ahsoka and the revelation of Vader’s true identity to most of the galaxy.
A tie-in novel to The Last Jedi features one of Leia’s political enemies digging up that her father was Vader and destroying her hopes for a Senate career, hence why she’s a general instead. So apparently that’s when it becomes fully known.
Is it widely known that Luke and Leia are siblings? If not it seems like if they wanted they could maintain the “leia’s career is ruined because vader was her dad” and still not reveal to the public that he was Anakin Skywalker.
In general, from what I remember reading somewhere, there are VERY few people that know Anakin turned into Vader. Pretty much just Yoda, Obi-wan, Ahsoka, and maybe Bail Organa. I think there was a side story at one point of Vader going out of his way to hunt down anyone who might know that used to be Anakin. When Bayline implied that he knew who Vader was, I was pretty surprised.
I came here to hate myself for reading. I got my way.
It started with, “But they never listen. They never listen.” and once they started listening, Ahsoka was saved. Then she got the space whales to listen and now maybe more will be.
The real meaning to the story was the friends we listened to on the way.
Well, first — I don’t think that was the actual World Between Worlds, since Rebels was pretty clear that you needed to enter via a door… and those doors were pretty well hidden. But that this was a Force vision she was experiencing as she was nearly-drowning. But second… what was the lesson? I mean, she was basically worried that her teaching would reflect her own teaching — from a Jedi order that failed, to being only a soldier or weapon (a lesson Luke learned in the Throne Room in Return of the Jedi), to her master being the greatest villain the remaining Jedi knew…
She needed to remember to be her. To want to live but not have to fight (I mean, yes — you’re drowning, you need to fight to live, but… y’know, not the other stuff, like as a soldier). Anakin’s problem wasn’t that he felt too deeply; Anakin’s problem was that he couldn’t reconcile it with the Jedi Order — and Ahsoka doesn’t have to; she left the Order, helped people, cared deeply.At least that’s what I took.
My take, the “Live or Die” was more literal in this setting as Ahsoka was on the verge of becoming one with the force e.g. dead. The lesson was her coming to terms with her master becoming Vader, how the various weights – feeling responsible for his fall by leaving the order, abandoning him, not finishing her training, worried the seeds of his turn were laying in wait – put simply fear. The last time we see Ahsoka is after Ezra saved her…she’s spent that time coming to terms with confronting the truth of who Vader is/was. Hence the brooding, stoic take on the character at the series start. Now, she’s come to terms with her & his darkness, acceptance to keep it simple, and has emerged renewed. IF Ahsoka was a Jedi Knight, this was her evolution to a true Master. As for the World between worlds, it’s a nexus of the cosmic force – think train station in Deathly Hallows where Harry meets Dumbledore after his ‘death’. It could be the same place as in Rebels however I tend to believe the Jedi Temple on Lothal was the primary point of access. It’s why the Loth wolf guided Ezra to it to prevent Palps from getting access, and even though Palps reconstructed the doorway he still needed a certain Jedi to open it. Ezra of course destroys it. That is the end of that story and plot device, don’t expect it to become a thing but I do enjoy it serving as a ‘train station’ in this particular story. And for casual viewers, it remains a mystery.
I thought that based on how she has given in to anger earlier in the series, especially in the last episode that the idea was for Anakin to tempt her to fully give in to her anger. She starts to realize how many were dying in one of the flashbacks, and Anakin kept trying to make her keep fighting. She didn’t let herself fully realize that Sabine would never give up on her chance to save Ezra, because other people came second to her after completing the mission. Huang in this episode and Hera in past episodes have commented on how Ahsoka and Sabine are better together, and her lesson with Anakin was about how she couldn’t do everything herself. If she tried to, she would end up like Anakin. She walked away from Anakin before. She walked away from Sabine before. Here, she had to make a different choice.That’s what I took from it. I have not watched Clone Wars or Rebels, so I don’t know anything about that, so I’m sure it’s possible that I’m off base.
Been reading these reviews from the start, and nothing personal against Sam, but can we please get someone to review this show who doesn’t have such open disdain against the franchise? I understand the value of a show being accessible to anyone, and that is certainly a fair knock against Ahsoka. But this one is very specifically made for the people who watched and enjoyed The Clone Wars/Rebels, and those who *did* appreciate those shows are absolutely loving it right now. Feels weird to keep coming here after back-to-back weeks of high-quality Star Wars content and see it get slammed with C grades and a redundantly dismissive tone. Again, not saying this show is the Wire or that it’s for everyone, because it absolutely does require an understanding of/appreciation for the source material. But the last two episodes deserved far better treatment than this.
High quality content ? This show is awfully bad. Whether you watched Rebels (who did ?) or not, the quality is subpar.
That line about Rex being at Endor at the end of Rebels was actually a nod to how a background rebel solider in ROTJ looked uncannily like the old Rex in Rebels, which naturally caused the fans to suspect it was actually him. Filoni held off on giving a straight answer while the show was running, as it would be a spoiler about whether Rex would survive, but finally we got that confirmation.
“Uncannily”? They just both had beards, there was very little actual resemblance.
Apparently Filoni has since said that bearded dude isn’t Rex, but that Rex was in there somewhere. Which, whatever…..
You’re not a lot of fun, are you?
I’m a ton of fun. I’m just not so imaginative that I think that this guyLooks “uncannily” like this guy:
Oooh, this is a fun game, let me try…
Guy on the left looks a little like Paul Giamatti.
Totally agree. If Filoni wants to retcon Giamatti as having been at the Battle of Endor, I’m all for it!
The one on the right looks like Michael McKean…
Guy on the right looks a little like Daniel Craig.
The young Ahsoka is played by Ariana Greenblatt, having a hell of a year between this, Barbie, and 65 (which I really liked and I don’t care what anyone else says). You might also remember her as the young Gamora in Infinity War. I can’t wait to see where her career goes from here after becoming so accomplished at her age.
She was great here, better than Dawson (though I don’t fault Dawson, I’m sure she’s been directed to play Ahsoka as boring. Hopefully that changes now.)
not better
What are you, Rosario Dawson’s agent? She’s been incredibly dull in the series. At least they let the younger one actually show a glimmer of emotion.
She just has a good agent who knows how to negotiate deals
So you’re saying you’ll be watching her career with great interest?
I knew I recognized her! She’s done some amazing work in some pretty extensive practical costume effects between Avengers and Ahsoka…
Would have been nice if she played a young Hera then, so she could have weird tendency to play younger versions of green aliens.
She should have played adult Hera, considering she’s acting circles around the even-worse-than-usual MEW.
I love this idea. “Wait, how is Hera roughly the same age as her own son?” “That is a story for another time.”
Heh. 🙂
An entertaining episode, but, yeah, the entire point of the flashbacks is muddy as hell.What does Ahsoka learn, exactly? That she “wants to live?” That’s not new information for her or her audience. She always wanted to live.What new insight or perspective or wisdom does she gain from her time with Anakin, either by listening to his vague pronouncements or by refuting them?Uh…nothing, really.I certainly enjoyed this episode more than the previous ones, but the episode thinks it’s profound and meaningful, but nothing at all connects, nothing really makes much sense.
I did like that Ahsoka seems capable of smiling when it’s all said and done and hopefully Dawson’s glowery (and boring!) performance is behind her.The actress playing young Ahsoka was infinitely more compelling in her few scenes.But, yeah, this show is still a bit of a mess.
But the whales were fun.
What does Ahsoka learn, exactly? That she “wants to live?” That’s not new information for her or her audience. She always wanted to live.She’s lived through the Clone Wars, the Rebellion, and at the start of this show is trying to root out Imperial remnants with essentially no meaningful support. I didn’t have a strong prediction of what the Anakin reappearance was going to mean, but ‘you lost because you didn’t want it enough’ makes as little sense here as it does in a locker room.And overall I just really do not see what the point of this show is. I haven’t watched Rebels and so maybe I’m missing the subtext and Ezra’s gone not as part of some self-sacrifice to get Thrawn off the board but merely an unfortunate coincidence?Do love the nod of consistency to the universe’s (and especially New Republic’s) incoherence, with the officer threatening to strip Captain Carson Teva of his rank from the bridge of some degree of capital ship also being a Captain, though.
Yeah. Missing all of rebels and not know a lot of the backstory of what’s going on is clearly hurting many people understand certai. Things or just exactly how emotional those flashbacks were after 7 years of following them together on clone wars…
It sounds like the point of the season is to produce a season-long prelude to Thrawn’s return to the galaxy, which will then play out over the next season, Mando S4, and the Filoni movie.
What’s that you say? That that means this season of content is thus pretty boring by design? Well, look, we brought Hayden back! Isn’t that cool? Please clap!
The show really doesn’t have a point other than to set up Thrawn for future projects.That sounds cynical, but it’s true. It was advertised as the return of Thrawn, but at this point, it’s clear he’s only going to show up at the 11th hour so he can be in the Filoni/Favreau movie (ugh.)
I’ve watched rebels and I just don’t get what the big deal about Thrawn is. He’s the rare competent imperial dude, but he’s not scary or anything. The vader-wannabee played by Esposito on The Mandalorian was a lot more intimidating if you ask me. I still can’t believe they capture him, had him escape and then just immediately killed him off.
He’s supposed to be hypercompetent and he was in some wildly overrated books 30 years ago. I liked the character on Rebels well enough, but, yeah, I don’t need the whole galaxy to revolve around him or anything.
But Filon and Favreau never met a corner of the franchise they weren’t in love with enough to bring back.
“he was in some wildly overrated books 30 years ago”In all of your comments here, this may be the most ridiculous one yet. And that’s saying something.
I was being generous. The Zahn books were ass.
Is that better?
Well, not just the Thrawn thing, the thirst for Ezra which drew Ahsoka back to Sabine.As somebody who didn’t watch Rebels, I haven’t been this excited about to meet a new character since Gabbo.
I mean, he’s definitely got that Poochie thing going on. Whenever he’s not on screen, everyone’s asking, “Where’s Ezra?”
That is not at all what the lesson was. The lesson was that just because I, as your master fell to the dark side, does not mean that you could have prevented my fall, or that you will fall as well. Which is what she was concerned about.
That’s as silly, though. Even if it’s something Ahsoka wrestled with all through Rebels, etc., it’s not something this show has spent any time on. What would being like Anakin even mean here? There’s nobody to massacre, and nobody’s tragically foretold death to prevent.Say what you will about Anakin going Sith, but the man had reasons. Exactly none of them are applicable to Ahsoka in this series.
“That is not at all what the lesson was. The lesson was that just because I, as your master fell to the dark side, does not mean that you could have prevented my fall, or that you will fall as well. Which is what she was concerned about.”
Absolutely none of that has been shown, mentioned, dramatized, or in any way even hinted at on this show.
IF that’s your take we are watching different shows. Enjoy your surface level understanding of the world.
Your weird knee-jerk defense of this show is weird. Especially since it’s never accompanied by any actual defense, just dismissal of others’ opinions.
But you’re welcome to cite any scene or line of dialogue or other signal on this show that indicates Ahsoka was worried about turning to the dark side, or that she felt she could have prevented Anakin from doing so. Since it’s so clear to you and since everyone who didn’t see it is so “surface-level.”
I think Teva’s an Air Force captain (O-3) and the skipper of that cruiser is a Navy captain (O-6).Star Wars ranks are weird, is what I’m saying.
A big part of Ahsoka’s Clone Wars/Rebels history is that she got accused of a crime she didn’t commit and was booted from the order. The record was set straight but because of the way she was treated by the Jedi while accused, she didn’t accept the invitation to return (and a reason why she dodged Order 66). She found out Vader’s true identity during a confrontation in Rebels, and was wracked with guilt thinking if she rejoined the Jedi she could have prevented Anakin from turning. It feels to me that part of the lesson from this episode was to show Ahsoka that Anakin was already well on the path to the dark side when she first met him, and there wasn’t much she could have done. Total aside the actor who played young Ahsoka was also the daughter character from Barbie. Been a helluva summer for her.
Young Ahsoka was great, so much more compelling than Dawson’s been (so far.)I don’t even think Ahsoka’s guilt over Anakin was ever really spelled out in any series and certainly not in this one.Like I said, the flashback/dream sequence just doesn’t really connect to anything tangible or meaningful about the character. It’s kinda fun, but ultimately pointless, although the episode treats it as if it’s the most profound thing ever.
The record was set straight but because of the way she was treated by the Jedi while accused, she didn’t accept the invitation to return (and a reason why she dodged Order 66).That’s not really true. Her leaving the order is the excuse for why she isn’t in Episode III with Anakin and Obi-Wan. The clones still try to order 66 her despite her not technically being a Jedi anymore.
This reading is a little cavalier with that story’s events.Ahsoka was framed for an act of terrorism, but the Jedi had diplomatic immunity, so they suspended Ahsoka and let her be tried in court for the crimes she was accused of as a citizen. Padme defended her in court and she was found innocent.Meanwhile, Anakin tortures a bunch of people to force confessions, but by the time he gets back the legal system has resolved it all without him.Ahsoka was upset that she wasn’t held above the law and insisted that Mace Windu call her a citizen from then on. And Anakin committed a bunch of crimes against humanity. When the two meet for the last time, the parallel is that Ahsoka should have stayed a Jedi because it’s in her nature, not because of special treatment. And Anakin should never have been a Jedi in the first place.What’s clever is that Mace Windu is the pivot point between both of these stories. Mace Windu never wanted Anakin to be a Jedi, but he keeps trying to recruit Ahsoka back into the Jedi order.Why? Well, this is why Filoni’s dialogue and familiarity with lore works for once and why I was kind of impressed.In this flashback, Ahsoka feels like war conflicts with her Jedi teachings and violates her beliefs. Anakin insists that, while they were peacekeepers once, they’re warriors now and this is what it means to be a Jedi.But Anakin’s line is a direct callback to another Jedi — Mace Windu. When Palpatine conscripts the Jedi into the war, Windu protests, “We’re peacekeepers, not soldiers.”So when Mace Windu keeps trying to bring Ahsoka back into the fold, it’s because he knows she’s a Jedi at heart and motivated by the light side despite her conflicts. At the same time, we also know something else about Windu. He never trusted Anakin and knew he would turn to the dark side.So this episode is an interesting examination of what Mace Windu saw about The Clone Wars and about Anakin and Ahsoka. He always knew the Jedi joining the war was a mistake, he never trusted Palpatine, he always knew Anakin would fall, and he always knew Ahsoka would rise. And Dave Filoni slips that all in there by literally using Mace Windu’s own words and pitting them against Anakin’s motivations.
It’s too late for me to get into it right now, but I just watched those episodes and you get several things just completely wrong here.
“Ahsoka was upset that she wasn’t held above the law”No, she was upset that the Jedi assumed she was guilty and didn’t support her and stand up for her. She never tried to pull any “I should be immune to these charges because Jedi have diplomatic immunity.” Her anger was that the Jedi assumed the worst of her without listening to her side.
her performance isn’t a problem
Yes, it is. She’s sleepwalking through the show.
She’s carrying the show. It would be lost without her
I agree. I think that a lot of actors have trouble with the “jedi demeanor”, and maybe part of it stems from Lucas’ directing of the prequels. I can totally go along with the jedi being serene and fairly dispassionate (passion being a key to the dark side), but there is a difference between serene and somnolent. I think too many actors go too flat, and Dawson often does too. I get that an older Ahsoka would not necessarily be as “bouncy” as the younger version (especially with all the things that have disillusioned her), but I often don’t get even a hint of that sparkle from Dawson.
It’s like there are two shows going on:
One show is the one that they think they’re telling, which starts with Ahsoka blaming herself for Anakin’s fall and the fall of the Jedi in general, so all her crossed-arm, slow talking straight faced-ness portrays her sadness and continued failure with Sabine because she’s basically given up.
And the other show is the one I’m seeing which doesn’t show or explain any of that so Ahsoka just comes across as standoffish and unpleasant, particularly to Sabine who as far as I know doesn’t deserve it. But now “Ahsoka the gray” has become “Ahsoka the white”, the storm clouds have apparently lifted and Ahsoka has gone from straight-faced to smile-time. Maybe she found some of Gandalf’s pipeweed? Anything is possible when you tell a bulk of your story off screen and just assume your audience can fill in the blanks on the character development you’re not showing.
“Anything is possible when you tell a bulk of your story off screen and
just assume your audience can fill in the blanks on the character
development you’re not showing.”And this is BY FAR the biggest problem with the show.
I too need everything explicitly explained to me like I am 5 to enjoy serialized television.
And I’m like a 15-year-old, in that I assume that a bunch of pseudo-pretentious gobbledeegook is actually, deep, man! It totally means something!
Sam Barsanti every week comes here to ruin episodes for everyone. He’s like Chris Gore. Everything new sucks or like Alex on Angryjoe. I nitpick and hate everything! Sam needs to write articles for other shows that more suit his cynical writing.
I believe that show mentioned that he fought in the Battle Of Yavin (Return Of The Jedi), C’mon man. Yavin was A New Hope, Endor was Return of the Jedi.
Meanwhile, real Star Wars fans loving it.While Sam is in the minority. Where he belongs.
This was probably the best structured episode of the series so far. Plenty of continuing ongoing issues: MEW(Hera) always seeming checked out, the plastic look, and the quickly set up on a sound stage look of the sets. One thing that really stuck out for me was the cinematography, i am more sure if they are using two different crews with a 2nd unit director or not, but some scenes were just flat, and cheese grater over the hand painful to look at. I re-watched The Fabelmans last night, and the John Ford scene and talking about the horizon, stood out for me watching this episode. The least engaging scenes in this episode had the horizon in the middle of the screen, there was no dynamic nature to the camera positioning or movement for scenes, as well as the actors acting in them. Clearly someone knows where and how to set up and use a camera, so it is confusing when the switch out of that. The world between worlds looks unfinished, in a this is clearly a computer generated environment way, that looked they like were on a sound stage instead of the environment they were trying to project them into. The interaction with Anakin and Ashoka were really good (minus how some of it was shot), with Haden bringing it (how are the best acting performances coming from the non-lead characters of the show) both in acting and with the saber play. RD still has a feel lack of dynamic to her acting the character. I has seen some suggest this is due to where the character is at in her journey. I dont think it is that simple. Haden was acting and giving off presence and having the character talk to Ahsoka. RD had no presence, and was talking at instead of with Anakin. The young Ashoka did not have this issue; was present and was talking with instead of at Anakin. This is the first episode that seemed to care about Ahoska and realised she is the title of the show. It moved her character forward with the overall story. Up to now, the show has been in a fight with itself over wanting to be an Ahsoka driven show or a Rebels driven show , and it was the worse for it, as neither side was done very well and suffered for it.
Nots of nonsense. You clearly are unaware of how and what technology they use to make these shows. The physical can not do certain camera angles as they are filming infrom of a giant HD TV screen for many scenes.
Someone watched The Fabelmans more than once?
This site just can’t help itself, can it?
wtf is a Darth Maul Deathwatch soldier and why am i afraid of the answer
The Siege of Mandalore – the final arc of The Clone Wars. It’s really good! Probably the best animated Star Wars episodes of any series.
Maul survived being cut in half, made some fly robot legs, became a crime lord, won the Darksabre and successfully staged a coup to take over Mandalore during the Clone Wars before the Army of the Republic took him out of power. His personal guard wore the spiky helmets.
Maul took over the Mandalorians for a while. The Death Watch was a super old-school militant Mandalorian faction/cult which backed Maul at one point. Death Watch was the group from which Dinn Djarin’s The Watch descends — hence The Armorer having those spikey things on her helmet, which is a reference to Maul’s, uh, horns, or whatever you call them.
My entire problem with this show is that it all feels like a means to an end. It makes no sense to me that Rebels, also written by Filoni, had a MUCH tighter narrative and the characters had very clearly defined motivation and purpose for their actions. So far most of the relationships and internal conflict in Ahsoka have been almost indecipherably mushy to the point that it feels incompetently written. I got more characterization (and fewer questions form my kids) out of watching Maya and the Three, whihc also did an amazing job of incorporating myth and lore into existing relationships. I’m not finding much meaning in anything watching Ahsoka. It all just sort of happens.
Everybody wants to see Rex, but if he’s alive he’s got to be biologically about 80 now right? He’s certainly not showing up to fight. Frankly, a bedside death scene for this fan-favorite character could be a moving farewell to him, if anything.I guess when it comes to Ahsoka we’re also supposed to take into account her refusal to train Grogu as being part of her reluctance to pass on her training from Anakin? Perhaps this is why she chose Sabine, someone who appears to have no real aptitude (yet) for he force as her apprentice? Less chance of losing an apprentice to the Dark Side?
Supposedly, based on the reporting of some leaker, originally Ashoka was supposed to fight Anakin in Obi-Wan’s place on Mustafar (sp?), in a sort of alternate timeline where Ashoka never left Anakin — the point being, I guess, that Anakin was always going to fall, and Ashoka staying wouldn’t have changed anything. This would have made A LOT more sense, considering how much the show has lingered on Ashoka’s guilt about having abandoned Anakin. So Ashoka’s change would have been much easier to understand — she was released from this pain, doubt, and guilt. As I understand it, she would have defeated Anakin in this other timeline — and one might reasonably speculate that Filoni was worried about a backlash against that for reasons that probably needn’t be spelled out. Also, maybe it seemed a bit too Marvel-ish, with the alternate timelines.
I saw something about those “leaks” as well. I think we just have to assume the leaker was full of shit as they often are. Without some actual evidence it seems odd to assume the plan changed.
It’s not like Filoni would’ve been getting any help from decades of Star Wars properties that turned Darth Vader from Palpatine’s sad, butthurt little bitch — and an obvious “mid bad guy that only seems powerful to the young hero but then is surpassed” trope — into the Grim Fucking Reaper of the entire Star Wars galaxy that strikes terror into the hearts of literally everyone all the time because he’s fucking invincible.Seriously, it’s actually a pretty big thematic point in the original trilogy that Luke Skywalker almost trivially powers up enough to defeat Vader in the traditional way (you know, laser-swording him to death.) He does a little bit of Jedi training with two different masters over the course of, what, a year or two? He starts super late! He even fucks off against orders because his friends need him, and he still gets to the point where Vader’s no big deal! That all matters! It’s part of what makes his wildly optimistic “pure Jedi” decision near the end of the trilogy so meaningful!
If that Vader had been maintained properly, then the idea of an apprentice growing up enough to be able to take him out in an alt timeline out wouldn’t seem so crazy. For people who grew up with Vader popping up literally everywhere as the invincible boogeyman, it’d seem quite incredible — as in, not credible.
Yeah that’s what I always found funny, and I think part of it is that the SW movies have been made over such a long time frame, like literal decades. In the OT Vader is supposed to be powerful but not Force Jesus that the prequel made him out to be, but he never shows any real power until Obi Wan. Yet you have someone like the hero in Force Awakens pulling a fucking star destroyer out of the sky, or Kylo Ren stopping a blaster bolt in mid air lol.
Sounds like a recent animated video on the Star Wars Theory youtube channel.
Reportings of leakers and rumors are mostly all just online fans wishful thinking and telephone game-esque comments.
But I agree, a scene like this would have helped show the character development more than what we got.
While I never, ever trust “leaks,” I like that idea much better than what we got.It would have been clean and would have had a point. Ahsoka has carried guilt about Anakin, now she gets to exorcise that and most past it. THAT would have been a nice little arc that could have explained why she’s been so emotionally constipated in live action and could have lead to her organically moving past it.Ahsoka fights Anakin on Mustafar and loses. Yes, it’s just a dream, but it’s given to her by ghost Anakin as a way for her to forgive herself, as it’s not remotely her fault what Anakin wound up doing.Damn, so much better than what we got! Sigh.
And like, maybe that idea isn’t the best, but it’s SOMETHING. It lets the titular character learn and grow and change.
This scene was actually filmed. I’m unsure if all the edits/CGI were completed but it was to be an alternative to the Clone Wars scene. I hope we get to see it in the future.
The show is so disappointing. We’re 5 episodes into an 8 episode run and it still hasn’t overcome the series biggest flaw. Chopper hasn’t murdered anyone yet. Not one person. Not one droid. Nothing. He’s been relegated to babysitter! What are we even doing here people?
It is the only flaw in the diamond: not enough murder by the murderbot. #LetChopperKill
The world between worlds is a euphemism for “Near death experience”. Ahsoka was almost dead.A Force-bond was a connection between two Force-sensitive individuals; the bond between a Force dyad was exceedingly rare and as powerful as life itself. A Force-bond spanned across space and time, allowing the bonded Force-sensitives to communicate over vast distances, such as separate planets across the galaxy.Ahsoka had a strong Force-bond with her master Anakin. This allowed Anakin to communicate with Ahsoka in her near death experienceForce spirits or ghosts, like Anakins ghost, were beings who gained immortality through the preservation of their consciousness after death. Qui-Gon Jinn learned the ability to become a Force spirit from the Shaman of the Whills. Later on, Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi were also able to master this ability. Although Anakin never received the training that allowed his mentors to become Force spirits, his redemption and sacrifice made it possible for his consciousness to be preserved after death by Kenobi and Yoda, much like how his grandson became a spirit in 35 ABY. In 34 ABY and 35 ABY respectively, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa—Anakin’s biological children—attained immortality like their father.The important point is that the knowledge to become a Force Ghost was open only to those who followed the light side, so sometimes only certain individuals, such as Jedi and the Force Priestesses, beings who dwelled within the Wellspring of Life, a location said to be the origin of the midi-chlorians, were able to learn the ability to manifest after death.Thus, Anakin imparts the final lesson to his Padawan. Choosing life over death, or light over darkness, and as a result, preserving her path to immortality. If Ahsoka chose death, she would have become part of the Cosmic Force.
I thought this might have been the first A- episode in a series of B- episodes so far. I don’t feel this harshly: but to boil it down in a harsh way – it’s like the “fake-it til you make-it” strategy. They faked it… til they made it, and imho, this episode, they got there. The epicness gutted it over the goal line, finally.Look, at the risk of setting myself up for self-disappointment, the lesson I feel like Ahsoka learned is that to continue her line of lineage with Anakin/Vader and not feel like shit every day, is that she has to be such a force for Good, that it counter balances his legacy. If that’s the lesson, then it tracks that she would awake and kind of be all smiles, forgiveness, and happy, frankly in an “Oh! Well shit, I can do that!” kinda way. It’s like finding out you’re the Jedi Dali Lama. If that’s the lesson, then yeah, this became Ahsoka’s show.I watched it on a big (10 year old) TV with headphones on, and I have no complaints about the look. The cinematography has been some of, if not The Best, of any of the TV shows so far – especially this episode. I tend to believe that different sized media can greatly effect the look of digital fx – like complimentary seasonings. Dill tastes great on Potato Salad, but tastes like shit on ice cream. Don’t be watching this show on your phone and then be complaining about the look. Just because you’re holding your phone 4 inches from your face, doesn’t mean you’re seeing it “big.” Personally, I would have liked to have seen this episode in a theater.Hang on to that young Ahsoka, guys, she going to grow into the role phenomenally.So, John Williams has what? 40… 50 Star Wars signature themes. “Battle in the Snow” … “It’s a Trap” … back-bench themes that still destroy – not even mentioning the main themes.So, Kevin Kiner has a few … 5 maybe compared to William’s 50. (KK would probably tell me to fuck off right about now) But I’m a sap for Star Wars music. I got a little choked up. He references this hardcore in last night’s episode:Only about 1:30 And this is one of my favorites. If KK ever does a live concert of his works, this will be among the standouts:
Thank you, yes, the music and the cinematography are by far the best things about this show.
the lesson I feel like Ahsoka learned is that to continue her line of lineage with Anakin/Vader and not feel like shit every day, is that she has to be such a force for Good, that it counter balances his legacy. And god how I wished they’d showed that. I wish Ahsoka had been actually, visibly sad and withdrawn, or spiraling into depression if they had to do it over multiple episodes, and then *bang* Anakin gives her an almost pleading wake up call to remember what a force for good the Jedi were, what he was, what she was and can be again. That would have been a nice story to see instead of us imagining it here. But hey, at least we can imagine it together. The music you posted helps.
You didn’t get the lesson? It’s that the Jedi as an order were never meant to be soldiers – so, of course her training, and Anakin’s destiny, were warped. BUT SHE SURVIVED, which was his intention. What she DOES with that is up to her. His fall, and the horrible circumstances of her training, were not.
What I expect her to draw from this is that it’s pointless to even try to train a Mandalorian as a warrior. Sabine is plenty skilled at that already. But she could stand to have someone take her seriously as an ARTIST and guide her to her unique connection to the Force, which is far more likely to be in arts of peace.
Alcohol helps your brain move at the pace of this show.
And by the end of episode 5 you too will probably have a change of clothes and be smiling like a dork.
This is the kind of review that you see from someone who is personally offended that the current Star Wars isn’t “their ideal Star Wars”.
I don’t really get this review. You say you like the multifaceted nature of the “lessons” Ahsoka learned here “I like that there’s not a clean answer to this” and “I think both could be right.” But you also seem to complain about it? Because the show doesn’t then spend more time on what? Analyzing the character development you just praised for being ambiguous? I loved the Anikan/Ahsoka relationship in this episode for all the reasons you seem to have appreciated it. Ahsoka is forced to reckon with what parts of Anikan’s legacy are in her, what legacies even mean, if it’s possible to take parts of a terrible and complicated person and accept them. Maybe you wanted her to wrestle with these questions for multiple episodes rather than leaving the scenario with resolve? I don’t know, but I don’t feel that that’s a fair expectation. The “Gandalf the White” moment is a result of Ahsoka’s choice “to live” but also her navigating what that even means. To me, her ability to navigate both herself as a complex person and Anikan made sense and for god’s sakes I don’t want the show to slap me on the head with its themes. Every reviewer seems to love The Last Jedi for some reason and that movie is thematically FAR messier. I don’t agree with you about the way the environments look either (the whole Seatos-in-Autumn thing is gorgeous and the flashbacks of the clone wars are intentionally grim and foggy because “war is hell” and all that. And I thought the space whales were cool as h*ll. But also why is your review mostly summary with a few stray observations and then a “C+”. C+ to me indicates aggressive mediocrity, which it seems insane to describe this episode as. And your review doesn’t really justify that rating.
Its a small thing, but the Battle Of Yavin is A New Hope, when they blow up the Death Star. Not in Return Of The Jedi
I think it’s because you know that this is where it’s going from the moment Ahsoka sees them flying above the planetUnless you didn’t watch Rebels, in which case you have absolutely no idea what’s going on or why the flying whales will be remotely helpful until like 10 minutes into the interminable scene when the fucking child character finally has the decency to deliver a line of exposition.Then their tails do that thing, and you go “hang on now, these are just Leviathans from Farscape with a dumber name.”
My favourite bit was Anakin/Vader/Christensen swinging the lightsaber very heavily Vader style but that is probably also that I just faced off with Vader in Jedi Survivor and he beat my ass into the ground for over an hour until I gave up and cranked the difficulty level down to Jedi Padawan
Enjoy your snarky little in jokes and decidedly self indulgent ability to shit on everything.That’s the definiton of “critic.”
As soon as this episode started I immediately thought, “Was the writer of this episode not allowed to know anything about what happened in the previous episode?” – but it’s Filoni the whole way through, so the opening scene is even more baffling:HERA (on the planet, looking around, having just gotten several pilots killed along with almost herself and her son when ALL of the bad guys in the giant ring thing went into hyperspace directly at them): I got nothing down here. Looks like we missed the party.TEVA (one of the few pilots who wasn’t just killed by the bad guys escaping moments earlier): Where is everyone?HERA: That’s what worries me…
I would actually be really into a What we do in Shadows style force ghost hangout comedy. Like Anakin would go to the ghost fridge and find out that Ben drank all the blue milk and but the carton back empty, then wig out into Vader mode for a bit while Yoda stares into the camera.
Set it post-The Last Jedi and make sure Mark Hamill is cast to play Force Ghost Luke.
I can’t believe how stupid you dumb mother fuckers all are. Fuck you Sam, you illiterate moron. I’m so glad the world correctly doesn’t value the “work” that you do.
This is kind of it for me…done with Sam Barsanti articles. If there was ever a strong case for this site to have AI writers, it is Sam and his reviews.
There’s a few simple answers to the Jacen thing.
1. Ahsoka doesn’t want to train him. She refused to train Grogu because he had connections and she knows what connections can do, and this was to a man she met once and would maybe never have to see again. Now try telling your friend and war buddy that you’re taking her son away and that they can’t be together because connections are dangerous for the Jedi?
Keep in mind that while Ahsoka keeps saying she’s no Jedi, she was still taught in a very traditional manner.
2. Hera doesn’t want Jacen to be a Jedi. She knows that despite the fact the war is over, the Jedi path leads to sacrifice and death and she wants to protect her son as much as she can.
I’m surprised nobody has commented on the Purgill / Tulkun from Avatar similarities. I gather the Purgill are from the TV series that predates Way of the Water, so OK, but I haven’t seen those and don’t intend to watch them, whereas WOTW is fairly recent in my memory and I couldn’t help but think it was a bit of a rehash of James Cameron’s spiritual-whales-save-the-day narrative.
AV Club really needs to find someone else to review this show. This clown is insufferable.
I dunno, I still liked it.
I really didn’t understand this episode at all. What was he trying to teach her? Was he successful? I have no idea. And here’s the bigger question: Why didn’t they get to just talk? This is such a huge moment for the titular character, wouldn’t it be interesting to see her interact with Anakin, or confront him, or be angry with him, or grieve him? And if he’s a force ghost and we assume he’s at least somewhat “good” or whatever, it’s weird that he just doesn’t mention anything he did? Like, don’t you have a few murders and attempted murders to apologize for? It could have been so cool seeing these two together again, but they did sword fights (WHICH CAN BE COOL, I liked the previous episode’s fights because they told a story). They don’t have to say everything, but I feel like they ended up saying nothing. Dramatic pauses and music can’t add depth to empty dialogue.
Hooray an episode where nothing actually happens for 98% of it!
“a good chunk of this episode happened in endless voids”The scenes don’t take place in real places, so it is actually reasonable that they are depicted as endless voids.
I think this episode shows script and direction were HUGE problems for Hayden in the prequels. I also know he says he watched Clone Wars as part of his prep for this show, and it’s not like he had to carry this episode as opposed to two whole films, but I thought he did real well here. Also, Togrutans look weird without their head bands:
Why are you constantly reading reviews of someone you don’t like?