– Spoiler Review –
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, this show, and those it continues stories from, wouldn’t exist. Consider supporting the strikes here.
Once the lingering threads from Star Wars Rebels’ finale were teased to continue in Ahsoka Tano’s first live-action appearance, for long time fans there’s been a lengthy wait to see where it would all go. With the premiere of Ahsoka, what was animated is now live-action and plowing forward to the future of Star Wars storytelling, both giving the previous series’ fans plenty to enjoy, but adding enough they might just be on the same level as fans hopping on now in some aspects. As far as starts go, while choppy at times, it’s a solid foundation which looks, feels, and sounds like its big screen counterparts and offers plenty of promise.
Before I dive into each episode a little below, I wanted to give some general thoughts on the two-part premiere. Let’s begin with a big one: discussing this being live-action instead of an animated follow-up to Rebels. I’m all for an artist or creative trying new mediums, wanting to test their talents and work within the boundaries of whichever they choose, but by the end of the premiere, never once did I feel like this story needed to make the jump to live-action, other than because higher-ups believe it’s superior to animation, somehow someway, and this is why we have this all in live-action instead. I don’t think it’ll ever make a direct case for why this couldn’t be animation and I’ve come to make peace with that by the end of “Part II: Toil and Trouble,” while it will just depend on other fans if and when they can too, though not doing so is totally understandable as well.
Regardless, it’s clear big funds were shoveled Ahsoka and Dave Filoni’s way, as the production value feels the most grandiose of the Star Wars TV shows yet, though Andor’s not far behind, it was just so focused compared to this more adventurous, action-packed, and larger-scale feel giving Ahsoka visual effects comparable to the films. There were moments where the Volume, the LED screen shooting system over-popularized by The Mandalorian, felt like it was in use, but those instances were rare and I was often left wondering which scenes were more traditional sets or Volume. Noticeably, the HK assassin droids sometimes felt grounded in each scene and other times it felt like they were floating, not quite grounded or weighted, clearly CGI, same with a moment when Ahsoka chases the Inquisitor-armored Marrok into a ship’s laser barrage of the ground around them but once again, those moments weren’t enough to be distressingly noticeable. As I said, these two opening episodes felt grand, from the beautiful views of the renewed Lothal, Sabine’s speeder sequence, everything with the maps like Sabine working on it to the map-henge with the villains, Hera’s flight in the Phantom II chasing down a fleeing stolen ship, the scale of the Eye of Sion ship meant to bring Grand Admiral Thrawn back, the lightsaber clashes, and even the unique effect for the holograms aboard the Eye of Sion (made me ooohhh out loud). As we look to get into some strange and weird new things, seemingly headed to a whole new galaxy, these effects will more than make the journey visually memorable.
On top of the great effects, Kevin Kiner’s score, who has wowed fans for years in the animated shows, especially Rebels, really benefits from the full orchestral sound. There are familiar melodies and themes which helped certain moments hit for fans like myself who enjoyed the previous shows, though new fans should quickly begin to associate these moments to their characters in no time. There’s a grander scope and scale to the musical palette employed here which feels like a fitting expansion for not only his work from the animated shows, but for the scale of this series itself. The theme for Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati might be my favorite new piece, as the thudding bass and rippling trumpet-like sound are loud and abnormal, dangerous even, pointing out the depth the threat they can pose for our heroes. I’m glad so many people who might not have heard Kiner and family’s work in the past will now and if these first two episode are anything to go by, the interplay with new and old themes will be an audio treat going forward (really excited to hear how Kiner handles Thrawn’s theme eventually).
Part I: Master and Apprentice
As someone who adores Doctor Aphra and all the weird, archaeological finds she gets involved with, having the show centered on a mysterious map and unlocking it was definitely my jam, even if it seemed like brute force easily could’ve solved the mystery/there were far more archaeological-minded individuals out there who probably would’ve been called on first. But if it serves the story to make two characters, now with more history than the last time we left them (and yet now seeing a story taking place before the last time we saw them), collide again and help them begin to grow once more, I’m all for it, especially due to the energy and heart Natasha Liu Bordizzo brings to Sabine Wren, informed from Tiya Sircar’s memorable performance in Rebels, which serves as a stark, engaging contrast to the still somewhat stiff delivery of the current Ahsoka Tano performance.
The episode begins with Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), actually not dead from her encounter with Ahsoka in The Mandalorian “Chapter 13 – The Jedi” and instead a New Republic captive, rescued by mercenary Force-wielders Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson, whom the episode is dedicated to after his untimely passing earlier this year) and Shin Hati (Ivanna Skahno). These two chew up scenery whenever they come around, with Stevenson delivering a reserved, yet dominating personality you can’t look away from, while Skahno’s looks scathe the air in front of her and make one instantly want to know more of her story. Ahsoka’s not around to learn about this right away, as she’s following the lead she got from Lady Morgan about a map which could help the villains locate Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and the heroes bring back Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi). After some archaeological investigating, Ahsoka receives the map but doesn’t know how to unlock it, though doesn’t get to try as a series of HK assassin droids, much like what she dealt with in “The Jedi,” swarm her and cause her to flee when they initiate their overly efficient, yet conveniently slow self-destruct sequence. Escaping thanks to assistance from Huyang (David Tennant returning to voice the character), the centuries-old droid helping Jedi build their lightsabers, they receive a message calling them back to the New Republic, where Ashoka meets up with General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to learn the bad news about Lady Morgan.
Winstead, at least in the opening episode, doesn’t get as much space to run as Hera, but she starts off on a decent footing as she talks with Ahsoka regarding the plot. Her initial disbelief about Thrawn’s survival seems not to stem from the threat he could pose to peace if he came back, but rather having pushed down hope for Ezra’s survival some time ago, or at least that’s what I got from Winstead’s performance. But Ahsoka revealing the map could take them to Thrawn, whom Ahsoka is inclined to believe is alive due to their enemy’s belief he is, also means maybe finding Ezra happens to bring Space Mom Hera out, seeing it as a chance to push Ahsoka back to Sabine, and maybe find Ezra in the process. This is when the show pivots to Sabine on Lothal, where we see she’s skirting the ceremonial introduction of her mural we know from the Rebels epilogue and would rather hide out in Ezra’s old make-shift home, no longer wearing her armor and rewatching a hologram he left for her before taking his selfless actions to remove Thrawn from the galactic playing field. It’s a wonderful introduction for her, even if the speeder scene goes on a little too long despite having such a cool song* involved, and Bordizzo’s performance basically steals the show from the titular character.
When we technically last saw Sabine and Ahsoka, they were teaming up to go and look for Ezra, so Ahsoka could uphold her promise to the young Jedi years ago, at the end of the Rebels series finale. It turns out this scene hasn’t happened yet by the start of this show, and somehow in the years between Ahsoka took Sabine on as an apprentice, yet it turned sour and they parted ways. The animosity of how they treated one another rolls off of Bordizzo as they two sit down in Ahsoka’s ship, discussing the map and what it could mean, and when Sabine tries to connect a little bit, Ahsoka continues to keep her distance and the two aren’t able to break through their walls for one another. It’s an interesting wrinkle to the story, and while it doesn’t seem to exactly fit from what we knew before, it injects interpersonal drama where there was none, considering the two hadn’t actually really met during the events seen in Rebels, and gives the heroes more than some bad guys to overcome. As for Ahsoka training someone, despite her famous “I’m no Jedi line,” Filoni himself explains how she basically still is one but doesn’t agree/believe in the organization, while her rejection of Grogu, beyond his rolling emotions, makes even more sense after knowing she had faulty attempts with Sabine. And as for Sabine training to be a Jedi, which gets a smaller clarification in the second episode in a funny exchange between her and Huyang, George Lucas has gone on record to state everyone has the Force, technically, given the definition of midi-chlorians (thanks to Kelly Knox pointing this out again…no wonder she’s been honored in canon as a Jedi librarian!), so one could still train despite a lack of aptitude for its mystical skills. As long as you uphold the ideals and protect light and life, why not allow others to be Jedi, both to wear off the stigma of a cloistered group removed from the galaxy and to open its numbers as it struggles to become a thing again? Not a bad idea and I’m curious if this will go anywhere.
As Lady Morgan, Baylan, and Shin learn Ahsoka must have the map, Morgan sends Shin on a collision course with Sabine to draw Tano out to get the map. Well, lucky for the bad guys, Sabine absconded with the map to puzzle it out, against Ahsoka’s wishes to keep it on her ship (which leads her to discuss Sabine with Hera), while Shin and her HK droids make their move, overwhelming the Mandalorian and managing to steal the map from her. She makes a valiant effort to get it back, even pulling out Ezra’s/her lightsaber and facing down Shin in a duel as Ahsoka and Huyang rush to the rescue, but they arrive too late, only to see Sabine run through with a lightsaber blade (!!) and Shin escaping thanks to Ahsoka’s efforts to rescue her ex-Padawan. Even though Sabine dying was a literal impossibility in the series at this point, I still was left a bit in shock as the episode faded to the credits. It does seem like more people are surviving lightsaber stabs than ever, but I didn’t find this too egregious.
Part II: Toil and Trouble
In fact, Sabine’s condition forces the wedge between her and Ahsoka even wider, but in turn it means other people can step in, helping them realize how much they actually need one another, now more than ever; not a bad trade off, character-wise, if it means another lightsaber stabbing survivor. Case in point, we get a fantastic scene between Sabine and Huyang, while calling out her next to zero aptitude for the Force in a hilarious exchange between them (so she’s likely not going to be lifting things with it), he suggests to her by not trying again, she’s wasting her life away. As we saw in the opening episode, she’s back to avoiding authority or ceremony, content to wallow in her routines and avoiding connection, as now both Ezra and Ahsoka have left her, while Hera’s too busy being a General for the New Republic, so why try? But she still does, from her little moments in the first episode when she and Ahsoka first chat to her trying to prove herself her by digging through one of the HK droid’s memory cores to track down who sent them. While Hera is less available than ever before, she does take a moment here to talk with Sabine about their fractured relationship, prior to Huyang’s galvanizing words, pointing out how much Ahsoka really does need her help no matter how she sounds/acts around Sabine.
Hera gets to work her magic a bit on Ahsoka as they head to Corellia, which is where Sabine uncovered is where the HK droids came from, and they investigate the shipyards there to make sure Lady Morgan’s interests there were shut down as originally reported. Hera tries to be surreptitious about mentioning Sabine, but Ahsoka asks her plainly what she’s getting at and Hera admits she wants Ahsoka to take Sabine back as an apprentice, providing them both some structure. Ahsoka still believes Sabine isn’t ready again and points out the other party has to know they are ready too, so Hera leaves it be for the moment. During their investigation, the kind yet shifty business orientated Supervisor Weaver (Peter Jacobson, who I know from House) is great at dodging questions by answering without any real answers, until one of the droids reveals they saw the HK droids in the shipyard and Hera notices a hyperspace drive meant for a ship sized beyond anything in the Defense Forces is fleeing the shipyards , causing Imperial Remnant-aligned workers to reveal themselves. Hera chases after the hyperspace drive in the Phantom II, while Ahsoka finds herself battle an Inquisitor-armored Marrok (no actor has been revealed for them…yet; begin your theories). Hera and Chopper, who gets to brilliantly make his presence known to new fans and old again in a fun little scene, manage to get a tracker on the drive before it jumps away, while Ahsoka’s duel with Marrok ends in a draw as Shin picks him up.
What’s the hyperspace drive for, you might ask? The episode actually starts with Baylan and Shin placing the stolen map in the middle of a strange, ancient structure of randomly placed rocks which I’m naming map-henge, calling Morgan to join them. When she arrives, she opens the map and reveals what episode one hinted at when Sabine unlocked it: Thrawn seems to have been taken by Ezra and the purrgil to a whole different galaxy. Baylan claims younglings in the Jedi Temple, as he was once a Jedi before the fall of the Republic per Huyang’s information in episode 1, whispered about this Peridea as some type of mythical place, almost scoffing at the idea of going to another galaxy. Lady Morgan has no doubts, hence why she’s been working on a giant ring-ship, similar to the hyperspace rings Jedi Starfighters used to take early in the way, to help not only get to this other galaxy, but return with Thrawn, hence the giant hyperspace drive they just brought from Corellia to finish the project. This has some very unique potential for the future of Star Wars storytelling as I’m very curious how much time we’ll actually spend in this Peridea during the show…and after it, as Lady Morgan hints beings in this other galaxy are the ones who made this map-henge in the first place, so they either came here and returned to their galaxy or left here for the new galaxy. Throwing around extragalactic adventures can turn heads towards some Expanded Universe ideas, first and foremost the Yuuzhan Vong from the 19 book New Jedi Order series (which the Manor’s Chris recently covered in his Legendary Adventures series), as Filoni even toyed with the idea of bringing them into canon during The Clone Wars, but another ancient society of powerful beings comes to mind too: the Rakatan Empire, mentioned briefly in canon for the first time in Andor, of all places. There’s a great article at Gizmodo which delves deeply into all the hints pointing towards the Rakatan, but I’d love it if the ultimate answer is something else, something new, though my preference if they go with something from Legends is the Rakatan. In fact, Lady Morgan naming her ship the Eye of Sion further points to the Rakatan, only because they were part of Legends’ Knights of the Old Republic story and there was a Darth Sion, a crumbling body of hatred and pain, in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. But for now, this at least means there is a way to get to Thrawn, and get him back, and nothing more yet. Aboard the Eye of Sion, Lady Morgan asks Baylan to sense where Ahsoka is now, and while he can’t, his intuition of the feelings he can sense from her tell him she’s on her way, so they begin to prepare for her arrival.
Thankfully, Ahsoka won’t be going alone, as Huyang’s chat with Sabine has helped her get out of her shell and don her armor again, cutting her hair, and now finally showing up for the Rebels finale epilogue scene! Since she knows she’s ready, Ahsoka seems to agree, willing to take her back on as a Padawan as they set out to prevent Elsbeth, Baylan, and Shin from bringing Thrawn back to the galaxy, while hoping to return Ezra at the same time. It was great to see the two begin to move on and start trying to heal over their contemptuous past by the end of the two-episode premiere, but I’m sure it won’t be an easy ride as they both have their own baggage to deal with as well.
Here are a few other things:
- The case against Rosario Dawson and her family was never truly resolved, as it was only due to the court not rescheduling that the charges were dropped, so this is still an outstanding issue if and when the plaintiff decides to reopen things. This disclaimer will come with every episode reminding readers of this, as it’s the very least we can do for trans fans of the Saga.
- Curious about Marrok? According to the official site’s Databank, he was once an Imperial Inquisitor who is now a mercenary for Lady Morgan, but no reveal of his casting and the mask always one certainly starts spinning the theories…is it Ezra undercover, for some reason (least likely), or else brain-washed somehow; how about one of the younglings Ahsoka took to Ilum to get their kyber crystals, as their stories are still open and the way Marrok battles Ahsoka feels sort of personal, somehow; or well, he just could be another Inquisitor!
- Hera being okay with Sabine’s potentially deadly efforts digging into the droid’s memory leads to the premiere’s funniest exchange with Huyang.
- I don’t know how people noticed them, but I’m glad they did: you can see purrgil moving in the clouds over Seatos, where map-henge is!! Are they watching over the path to the other galaxy, to see if anyone will figure it out and come for those there (or their society)? Either way, this builds off of their brief cameo in The Mandalorian‘s third season opener.
- How about some beautiful fan-art of Sabine that shows the pain she feels over Ezra still being gone?!
- I liked the opening red crawl and wish Solo‘s blue text had been a crawl more like this, but both work for me.
- Ryder Azadi being the governor of Lothal was great to see and even cooler to have the voice actor for Azadi play him in real life: Clancy Brown! The Lothal senator being Jai Kell, also from Rebels, was a nice touch, and while I sort of get way Dante Basco (aka Rufio in Hook, Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender) couldn’t play the part, it still would’ve been neat if they tried to make it work a little; either way, very glad to see him, even for a moment!
- *Much like the video game Jedi: Fallen Order bringing in a real band to sing new music for Star Wars, Sabine’s little anthem during her speeder bike sequence was sung by Illuminati Hotties’ singer, Sarah Tudzin. “Igyah Kah” is the name of the song, which was a collaboration with Kevin Kiner, Ludwig Göransson, Deana Kiner, and Noah Gorelick, per the Pitchfork article where they interview Tudzin about it.
Ahsoka’s two-part series premiere, “Part I: Master and Apprentice” & “Part II: Toil and Trouble,” doesn’t quite make it the easiest for new fans to hop in, but there’s enough new information everyone’s sort of on the same playing field, while the immense production values, large-scale story, and potent potential make this feel like no other Star Wars TV before it and more like the films.
+ Bordizzo’s Sabine Wren
+ Villains pack lots of intrigue
+ Production values overall, especially Kiner’s score
+ New story threads offer plenty of interesting potential
– Still a little too stiff from Ahsoka
– Density might put off new fans
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Bluesky, Twitter @MynockManor, and Instagram @mynockmanor.