– 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.
As Sabine Wren, Ahsoka Tano, and Huyang rush to investigate whatever Morgan Elsbeth has up her immaculate sleeves, getting into more trouble than they bargained for, Hera Syndulla makes the case for New Republic intervention, though to them it might not seem like “Time to Fly” on Part III of Ahsoka.
The episode opens with Sabine training with Huyang, slicing through holographic staffs using forms he barks out at her, as they are taking advantage of the travel time to the Denab system to dive back into the Mandalorian’s training. These training scenes and Hera’s part between them are my favorite aspects of Ahsoka’s “Part III – Time to Fly,” as it lets us catch up with the characters and explore where they are now, as while the action scenes were well-shot and the effects were wonderfully rendered, it felt like they went on a little too long when we could’ve had more character development. As someone who has watched all of the animated shows, more than once, I’m invested in their stories and want to see what happens next, but between my wife revealing she’s not attached to anyone yet (due to her job, we only really had time to watch Star Wars Explained’s Rebels recap for her get some background beyond what I’ve told her) and my feelings on how the space battle was fun and exciting yet largely felt stake-less, it certainly highlighted how this episode could’ve balanced these moments a little better. Steph Green’s direction is not to fault here, as she frames this all in an exciting and kinetic fashion, even the deeper conversations, but rather the writing has some issues, as Dave Filoni feels like he’s writing this from a place where fans know everything, and less like those who don’t. The first two episodes felt reasonably accessible for newer fans, but if we’re getting shorter episodes like this one and they are so action-focused, this takes away that accessibility more than necessary only three episodes in. It’s a balancing act the first season of The Last of Us had trouble with as well, as coming from someone who played the game over 20 or so times since it has come out, the show often felt like it just expected viewers to already feel Joel and Ellie’s connection rather than focus on building it and Ahsoka feels much the same, as while it is building the complex relationship between Ahsoka and Sabine that’s new to all fans, it’s not quite building them up beyond their relationships to one another yet. There’s five episodes left, so plenty of time to work on this, but given how much of Rebels or The Clone Wars wasn’t only written by Filoni, having only him writing plus Jon Favreau as executive producer, who had his own problems with The Mandalorian, I don’t have as much faith time will fix this, but at least if the forward momentum of the plot remains interesting, there will be plenty to enjoy still. Oh, and Huyang; he’s been a real damn blast!
Since Sabine said she was ready, Ahsoka feels ready to train her and they waste no time in the opening segments of the episode, going so far as to ignore Huyang’s correct but demoralizing assessment of Sabine’s aptitude for the Force. To test Sabine beyond her skills with a blade, as while her marks were off in Huyang’s test, she’s still proficient, Ahsoka pulls the ol’ Jedi training technique: the blast shield to blind the apprentice, as we’ve seen with Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Falcon to Rey on Ajan Kloss, or even when Kanan Jarrus had Ezra Bridger close his eyes. It’s a well-shot scene, Ahsoka popping in on the fringes, lightly tapping Sabine, though she slowly begins to anticipate and sense her Master, before she relies more on anger and frustration than peace and concentration, and falters. The following scenes build on this training in interesting ways which answer questions about this path for Sabine: she confirms she can’t feel or use the Force, at least like Ahsoka and other Jedi can, and Ahsoka reiterates what we already know on how everyone can has it (George Lucas’ scripts for the original trilogy, anyone, if you doubt that), but it takes training and discipline, and some talent, to actually Master it and use it, hence why not everyone’s sliding cups across tables with it. And later, when Huyang and Ahsoka trade barbs over Sabine’s candidacy as a Jedi, Ahsoka reveals she just needs Sabine to be herself, not necessarily a Jedi.
As I said in my review of the series premiere, training to be a Jedi, to act like them and have similar enough skills, like say Chirrut Îmwe from Rogue One and the whole of the Guardians of the Whills order, would be more than enough for me to be willing to call someone a Jedi in spirit or consider them someone who can uphold the light to the darkness in the galaxy (thank you, The Last Jedi), and given Ahsoka’s desire to bend the rules away from the Jedi Order’s methods given her experiences of their failures, this more than makes sense for training Sabine. But how and why the two started in the first place is the one question I’m more interested in, as was it so she felt comfortable taking Sabine on her initial quest to track down Ezra? I hope we’ll shine a little more light on the past between these two in future episodes. Natasha Liu Bordizzo has inhabited Sabine in such an impressive, smart way, it does feel like a natural extension from Tiya Sircar’s performance in Rebels, and she really sells the Mandalorian’s determination to prove herself and become a great student, while also showcasing the frustration in her progress, grounding it in a desire to be good quickly and avoid another lightsaber to the gut. In all their scenes, from the premiere and even now, Huyang, thanks to David Tennant’s performance and the puppeteers for the droid himself, has been stealing everyone he’s in, his bluntness and analytical focus keep him impartial, wise, and rude, in a good sense. This show easily could’ve been Huyang and either Ahsoka or Sabine and still be quite damn enjoyable, but all three make for quite the entertaining group I’m looking forward to episodes after episode.
While Sabine and Ahsoka try out their Master/Apprentice relationship again as they follow the stolen hyperdrive from Corellia, Hera Syndulla makes a request to New Republic Chancellor Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly!!) and the Senate Committee to take the fleet and follow her friends. Mothma, who argued for the demilitarization of the New Republic and making a Defense Fleet instead, a plan with good intentions, starts things off with pleasantries, though Senator Hamato Xiono (Nelson Lee) interrupts and Hera then delivers news of the Imperial Loyalists they found on Corellia. Senator Rodrigo (Jacqueline Antaramian) thinks they are only outliers and Mon has a lot of faith shutting down the shipyards is more than enough for now, until Hera name drops Grand Admiral Thrawn. The committee, even Mon, sees him either as a ghost or dead, with Xiono cutting down any concerns the name could bring by claiming this could all be a ruse by Hera for more resources in her search for Ezra (which, at least by the end of the Alphabet Squadron Trilogy, wasn’t something she had quite done yet). Hera counters his assertions by calling out his approach to the Galactic Civil War, which was stay out of it and wait to see who prevails, while she makes the case on how she’s fought for far too long and wants their help preventing another war for her to fight or the citizens of the New Republic to deal with. Mon calms down Hera, appealing to her friend, and ends the meeting saying they’ll discuss it further, but it seems clear she’s going to have a hard hill to climb changing the Senators’ minds.
Lee’s performance of Xiono is frustratingly good, as he never gets as emotional as Hera gets, not helping her case with the Committee, and fits with what we know of the character from Star Wars Resistance (the animated show set around the time of The Force Awakens), where it often felt like he might be on the First Order’s side, as he calls the Resistance ‘extremists,’ and seems to be doing his best again not to pick a side in the fight and see who comes out on top. Regardless, he certainly felt like a Legends character who loved to belittle the heroes and their ideas, doing everything he could to stay in power and out of entering any fight, including the one with the Yuuzhan Vong I mentioned in my previous review: Borsk Fey’lya, and if you don’t know who that is, count yourself lucky because Xiono might be the canon version of him. I appreciated seeing O’Reilly keep up the Mon appearances, especially since it’s the first time we’ve really spent any real screen time with the higher New Republic government, let alone its Chancellor, and I liked how she was definitely shocked and worried to hear Thrawn’s name, more so than her cohorts, but seemed unable to say much, as if she knew this was a losing battle before it started; dibs on the idea she’s going to go behind their backs and help Hera, and it’ll come to help to dampen Thrawn’s initial return. As Mary Elizabeth Winstead seemed to settle more into the role of Hera by the second episode, I quite enjoyed her work in “Time to Fly,” as it channeled even more of Vanessa Marshall’s very powerful, nuanced performance of the leader, especially when she gets heated in response to the committee’s arguments against her.
And while it’s a short scene, when Hera leaves, she’s greeted by…her son, Jacen Syndulla (Evan Whitten, who I recognized from Mr. Robot)!! The first and last time we saw Jacen was the Rebels series finale, though she did mention him in the Alphabet Sqaudron Trilogy at one point, and fans have been curious how much he’d be involved with the show, especially after a LEGO set leak for the Ghost revealed a glimpse at what he might look like in live-action. Jacen, thanks to Chopper, knows “auntie” Sabine is going off to be a Jedi and asks his mother if he can be one, though her only response is to deflect. Does she know about Luke’s academy, as I can only assume Ahsoka would’ve mentioned it to her, though if not, why not ask Ahsoka to train him? Or is she not eager to see him train because of what happened to his father, Kanan Jarrus, and later Ezra, that taking such a path leads to selfless actions, up to and including giving their life to help and save others? It’ll be fascinating if Ahsoka will dig into their relationship and her choices about Jacen’s future or if that’ll be covered in other material in the future. And if you’re concerned about him being named Jacen due to the Legends connotations that go with it…look no further than Ben Solo.
The first two episodes balanced focusing on the villains rather well, but the first time we check in with them in “Time to Fly,” it’s mainly for some good old-fashioned conflict. Shin Hati, along with Marrok and a few other fighters, pursue Ahsoka’s T-6 as the group barrels towards Seatos, trying to figure out what the hyperdrive is being used for and scanning the Eye of Sion once they make their way to it. Due to Sabine’s initial issues fighting back, though Ahsoka and Sabine sync up enough to start taking out some of their pursuers, Huyang takes a little too long to scan the hyperspace ring and its turbolasers put their ship out of commission. As Sabine works to fix it, Ahsoka steps outside to hold off Shin and crew, in a scene which animation fans should be thrilled with since it feels scenes we’ve seen similar moments there, and once the ship’s up and running again, they flee towards the planet. In the clouds they run into, which shouldn’t be a surprise to eagle-eyed viewers who caught them in episode two: the purrgil! That’s right, the space whales Ezra befriended and later called on to banish Thrawn from the galactic playing field (literally, as we’ve learned in the show so far)! They seem apathetic to the fighters in front of them, but they provide Sabine enough cover to lose their pursuit and settle down in the planet’s eerie, red forest. After they wait their pursuers all powered down, Huyang is reawakened and explains to them what he’s scanned, something we’ve all concluded: a giant hyperspace ring with enough power to make an extragalactic hyperspace jump. Could they send this off to Hera, once they are out of the comms blocking range, and could it be enough to help convince the committee about what is going on? It’s going to be difficult though, as Baylan, Shin, Marrok, and more goons are searching the forest and their ship is already in rough shape. We’ll have to wait until Part Four to see what happens next.
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.
- The dogfighting in space was very fun and well done, but like I said, lacked stakes as Shin and her team hit the T-6 shuttle a ton and it never felt like they took on any damage, and this happened while the Eye shot at them for quite a bit too. It finally took them out, for a moment, but even then the length of the fight made it seem like it shouldn’t have been as easy as Sabine made it look to fix it. It’s nothing that ruined the experience, but it did highlight the length of the sequence and how it took up room for more character development.
- Maurice Irvin plays the other named Senator on the committee, Mawood, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it’s a sly reference to Matthew Wood, Lucasfilm’s Sound Editor!
- Designer Benjamin Last shared his concept for the New Republic Cruiser Vesper on Instagram! (thanks to r/StarWarsLeaks).
Ahsoka’s “Part III: Time to Fly” exposed New Republic politics and the renewed attempt by both Ahsoka and Sabine to get the Mandalorian’s training right, though it focused a little too much on the action, as fun as it was.
+ Huyang’s quietly stealing the show
+ Hera’s Committee meeting
+ Sabine’s renewed focus on training
– Focusing a bit too much on action in a shorter episode
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.
AHSOKA REVIEWS
Season One: Part I: Master and Apprentice / Part II: Toil and Trouble