Return! After going through a harrowing and tumultuous encounter with her own Jedi people, accused of a crime she didn’t commit, and hunted down like a fugitive, Ahsoka Tano left the Order, losing trust in the very world she knew and understood. (Now ends my attempt to mimic the show’s opening voiceover.) Fans across the Star Wars spectrum have been looking forward to see this apprentice-turned-renegade back on the small screen, which raises the question: why is Ahsoka Tano so low-key popular? She’s a bit stubborn, a bit whiny, a bit reckless, and not exactly the shrewdest character we’ve seen. But all that describes Anakin as well, which makes (well, made) them a perfect pair. Ahsoka also has the benefit of being a “new” character within this Star Wars universe (in the fact that we don’t see her in the movies), a character who we got to follow for seven whole seasons. We’ve seen her learn, grow, mature, and generally get better at everything. She’s optimistic, hopeful, and generally positive, which made the betrayal and antagonism from the chasing Jedi hurt all the more–especially from Anakin. Unlike Luke Skywalker (and Anakin, to be honest), we’ve seen the (almost, metaphorically) day-to-day development of Ahsoka. Luke was a Chosen One. Ahsoka had to put in the work.
I, too, have been excited to see Ahsoka’s return, and while seeing “Snips” again is definitely a delight, I don’t know if “Gone With A Trace” is… the best re-introduction to the character. The opening sequence has her riding a bike into the depths of Coruscant–not too far from the Jedi Council she just fled from–only for the bike to malfunction. It’s a pretty audacious, visually impressive sequence to be fair, with Ahsoka clinging to the bike and springing off various cars and ships to maintain some sense of control and not die, particularly that wall-run she does towards the end of it. Still, it’s an intro that showcases Ahsoka’s return as kind of a clumsy one. She has been a bit klutzy in the past, sure, but after everything she’s been through, it seems odd to bring her back in such a “wacky” way so immediately. Her aerial misadventures causes her to crash-land on a platform outside a mechanic shop run by an spunky, intriguing woman named Trace, and here is where things really get odd, narrative-speaking.
Trace is kind of an enigma of a character–a relatively straight-forward, typical, slightly-smarmy Star Wars mechanic who feels less like a person and more of a sounding board for Ahsoka’s current predicament. She’s very nice and wholly accommodating, maybe too much so, and even though she lets Ahoska stay to fix her bike for credits, there’s something about her that suggests she doesn’t really care about that. Her primary goal is to get off Coruscant with her sister, and she and Ahsoka talk about various reasons why. The Jedi, Trace claims, start wars and care little about those below the “surface,” and while Ahsoka protests, there’s a reluctance in her voice that implies she may not quite believe what she’s saying anymore. Her defense of the Jedi is out of reflective habit, no longer a core principle or belief. She learned first hand that the Jedi can be indirectly careless in their own, specific ways.
I’m not quite sold on Trace as a character, but she and Ahsoka have a low-key, scrappy rapport going, which is pleasant enough. But when Pintu arrives demanding money from Trace, the episode goes in another odd direction. Ahsoka has to fight off Pintu’s goons with some impressive fighting skills, but it feels so random, and now Ahsoka is in the midst of a seedy, sketchy situation. It’s all due to Trace’s sister, Rafa, who dresses like something out of The Real Housewives of Coruscant and has a knack for making, to be blunt, bullshit deals with shady characters. “Gone With a Trace” is aiming for a “lost protagonist finds direction within a messed-up world” narrative, and this is as messed-up as they come–Rafa “runs” a half-assed droid-building shop in the back of a laundromat (which seems like it would be impossible; how much extra room do space laundromats have?). Ahsoka seems pretty aloof towards everything, which makes sense, but that she doesn’t just leave is strange–but that says that a lot about her as a character, still being helpful, probably feeling as if she owes Trace for all her help. The whole adventurous scenario involving the runaway binary load lifter droid was fun but felt overly long, when it could have been spent developing more of a sense of who Trace and Rafa really are, and how Ahsoka connects (or fails to connect) with them. Ahsoka uses some Force powers though, which means, she still got it!
“Gone With A Trace” is nether a good episode or a bad one. It’s more… offbeat, with a lot of vague, loose elements that allows the arc to go in whatever direction it deems. There’s no clear indication what will happen, aside from more nutty conflicts occurring among Trace, Rafa, and Ahsoka, and while the development between those two sisters need a bit more work for audiences to really care about them, it could allow Ahsoka to find some clarity, direction, or purpose. Ahsoka has enough goodwill in her character that watching her flail and search for some kind of post-Apprentice meaning is deeply entertaining enough, even if the whole mobbed-up sibling thing isn’t exactly the most entertaining or weighty storyline for it to come to fruition. Perhaps a future episode will help to bring it all together. But the Togruta is back!
Stray observations
- Star Wars has never been a franchise driven by nuance, but the brief scene of Ahsoka standing on the platform, quietly, watching a ship rise up above her and head off into the unknown is a fantastic moment. She says nothing, her eyes briefly darting around, taking in the smallness of moment. She knows she made the right decision but she doesn’t know what to do next, or how to move on. She’s “stuck” in these lower levels, just like she’s stuck in life, overwhelmed by everything around her–the circumstances of her current predicament. All of that subtext in what, twenty seconds of screen time? So well done.
- This ultimately depends on the direction of the arc, but I think thematically this may be about toxic relationships, even among loved ones, and how to recognize and escape them. Rafa is clearly a terrible influence on Trace, but Trace can’t escape her sister’s pull. Perhaps this is meant to parallel Ahsoka’s relationship with Anakin. After all, we know he’s destined to be evil, but he’s not evil at this point, so his relationship with Ahsoka wasn’t toxic. (Or was it? Have I missed the signs?)
- I’m going to assume shippers are going to make Ahsokace a thing? I don’t know.
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This was basically tailormade for me, as I’ve always been more of a fan of the offbeat, low-key Star Wars which plays out as the major stuff is going on, as opposed to another arc about the Jedi or the Separatists or another trilogy about goddamn Skywalkers. In fact this felt like an episode of the Mandalorian at parts which was kind of exactly what I wanted. And to be fair, Ahsoka’s last arc did not shy away from showing how seedy and nasty the below levels of Coruscant are – she made the choice to walk away from the Jedi so now she has to live in the world they never have to see or inhabit. We’ll get plenty of epic battling in the Mandalore arc I’m sure, but honestly this was as perfect a character reintroduction as I can imagine.
“Goddamn Skywalkers”Fuck’s sake. Odd how people can get so worked up when Star Wars dares feature its main characters.
hm, pretty sure I’m not worked up? just stating how much I prefer when the main characters, uh, aren’t the Skywalkers every time, because it restricts the storytelling and potential a lot.
I might go B+ in grading… then A- adjusting for Ahsoka fandom. I kept thinking there should be a tow-truck/traffic cop/EMT service that would “police” these high traffic areas. Otherwise, maybe the show could show us a scene of scrappers and vermin wa-ay at the bottom of the pit in Coruscant sifting through traffic-accident hover craft wrecks and dead bodies. You get the sense that folks are like, “Girl on a wonky hoverbike fell to her death today from up on 35. Yawn.”Other thoughts: – Trace is an extra cool Star Wars name.- The character design detail has improved again (as it does with every season if this show – because, computers). The guy who makes the Droid deal and the little girl who catches Ahsoka using the force pop with such detail – part of me wonders if it’s too much. I’m grooving on it now, but at some point it becomes like watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon, where Bugs has really fine grain detailed fur. Like every strand. Still, this is the first time I noticed and was fascinated by Ahsoka’s leather-looking head strap.- She’s doing a “let the force be your guide” type side adventure. The kind most of us were first introduced to when Qui Gon decided to stick around for a certain pod race and collectively as an audience we had to go from “Where the hell is this movie going?” to “Oh, I guess bumming around broke on Tatooine IS the plot of this movie. Okay then.”- That Droid rampage was fun to watch. No wonder it dragged on and on.
“fandom”… sigh
Is it just me, or is Rafa Martez a reference to Rafa Marquez, who has served as a sort of wrestling heel in the rivalry between the US and Mexican national soccer teams?
I love the nuanced storytelling in this cartoon for children. I suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2011
I’d go with ‘Trasoka’ for the shippers. ‘Ahsokace’ is a horrible portmanteau.
Akin to going with “Ahsokux” rather than “Luhsoka”
Your portmanteau game is strong.
Ahsokace is for Ahsoka/Ace from Doctor Who fanfic.
KISS fanfic too, coincidentally.
but my favourite part of Ath’Aprice is A’ight is the Ahsokace Ashowdown
I’d go with neither. I didn’t sense any chemistry between the two.
A couple years ago, Dave Filoni showed a couple clips of the rough cut of this arc. Originally, there were not two sisters just a guy who would’ve become a love interest for Ashoka. I’m curious why they changed it as the bad sister is barely in this episode.
They changed it mainly because they noticed that Ahsoka barely had any chance to interact with other girls of her age in the series.
The Padme/Ahsoka friendship that was hinted at in a few episodes of TCW was something I wanted to see more of and was disappointed at how little we got of it.
It wasn’t bad by any means, but when there are so few episodes, I think spending half the episode in wild chase sequences is a poor use of time. If there were still 20+ episodes per season and at least a chance of another season to come, this would have been fine, but I want more character development as the clock is ticking to the end.
That whole first meeting with Trace was weird.I guess you could explain it away with her having a crush on Ahsoka or something, but Trace was way overly aggressive in trying to keep Ashoka from leaving for having only known her for like 5 minutes.BTW, Ahsoka meeting two sisters with one of them getting a crush on her is a plot point taken right out of the ‘Ahsoka’ novel that came out a few years ago. (which took place after order 66 happened, only there it was the older sister with the crush on Ahsoka)
i am guessing rafi dies and trace and ahsoka leave the planet
More likely it’s going to be a one off adventure for Ahsoka where she eventually leaves alone to do other stuff.What’s going to happen with the sisters can go either way.
BTW, Ahsoka meeting two sisters with one of them getting a crush on her is a plot point taken right out of the ‘Ahsoka’ novel that came out a few years ago. Yeah, that was in the back of my mind as well. I’m hoping this arc doesn’t spend the whole time cribbing off of bits of the novel.
(Now ends my attempt to mimic the show’s opening voiceover.)I thought you were doing the intro to The A-Team.
There are quite a few parallels to be drawn from this episode to Battle Angel Alita, with Ahsoka filling in for ‘Alita’, trying to find her path in this new world and Trace and Rafa filling in as ‘Hugo’, as the hopeful, charming friend who’s dream is to get away from the subterranean hell of lower Coruscant and a knack for getting into trouble. I just left it at that.
It was an enjoyable episode on its own. It may not have lent anything to the broader story but I’m fine with that, so far.
I enjoyed this episode. While I also felt that the encounter between Ahsoka and Trace was forced and awkward the abundance of Loth cats hints that there may be a Force related twist to the pairing. No doubt Trace will lose her sister and leave Coruscant with Ahsoka on their rebuilt ship and that the Force is still guiding her even if the Jedi aren’t…Also, nice Easter egg with the Level 1313 reference. We get to see it again at least in cartoon form.
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“Where’d you learn to fight like that?”“My big brother taught me.”Awwww …
Tracoka? Man every female friend has to be queer for each other nowadays don’t they?
“The opening sequence has her riding a bike into the depths of Coruscant–not too far from the Jedi Council she just fled from”As this episode shows, the depths of Coruscant might as well be on another planet compared for how far away they are from those that live on the surface, including the Jedi.