SPOILER WARNING AHEAD FOR ALL STAR WARS CONTENT!
“Today, victory is mine. Long live the Empire.”
“Ezra is where he needs to be. And so are we. It’s time to move on.”
Ahsoka came to its conclusion Tuesday night, but it’s unclear whether that was a season finale or the final chapter of the series.
Regardless, Episode 8, The Jedi, The Witch, And The Warlord, was a real banger. Directed by Rick Famuyiwa (Dope, The Chi, The Mandalorian), we witness each of the show’s key characters take the next steps in their journeys. For fans of Rebels, this is the show that we’ve always wanted: one that added depth and context to some of our favorite animated characters and took them on new adventures. It was apparent that that every step, every detail and every episode was crafted with care by showrunner Dave Filoni, and it was extremely satisfying.
A quick recap…
Ezra Bridger makes a new lightsaber akin to that of his master Kanan Jarrus with some help from Huyang, just in time to fight off some ZOMBIE STORMTROOPERS. Ahsoka Tano and Morgan Elsbeth run back their duel from Season Two of The Mandalorian, and despite Elsbeth’s new weapon (more on that in a bit) the result is the same. Sabine Wren finally uses the Force in two crucial moments, saving her own life and giving Ezra a lift to join Thrawn on his Star Destroyer for another blast between galaxies. Huyang swoops in to rescue Sabine and Ahsoka, but the trio can’t quite catch up to Thrawn’s ship before he jumps back through hyperspace.
Shin Hati joins the bandits of Peridea, while Baylan Skoll is last seen standing on a mountain-sized structure resembling the likeness of the Mortis God, the Father. Neither Shin or Baylan are featured much in the episode – and unfortunately, it might be the last glimpse we get of Baylan because of the untimely death of the great actor Ray Stevenson.
Thrawn and the Great Mothers take their Star Destroyer to Dathomir, while Ezra steals a Stormtrooper suit – just like how his master used to – and escapes in a shuttle, arriving at a New Republic outpost where he is reunited with Chopper and Hera.
Ahsoka, Sabine and Huyang take refuge on Peridea with the same creatures Ezra had befriended. As the episode closes on a few cliffhangers, we get one more look at Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker as a Force Ghost, flashing a smile in approval of his former padawan.
Here’s what else we learned from the finale:
What is the blade of Talzin?
In the first few minutes of this episode, we see the Great Mothers reward Morgan Elsbeth for hearing their dreams by summoning the blade of Talzin and gifting it to her. If you haven’t seen The Clone Wars animated series, you were probably wondering: what, exactly, is the blade of Talzin?
During the Clone Wars, Mother Talzin was the matriarch of the Nightsisters and a powerful leader on her homeworld of Dathomir. She once used her witch magic to summon this weapon, wrapped in green flames known as magical ichor, to duel against Mace Windu. The ichor gives it the ability to clash with and resist lightsaber strikes, making it a powerful weapon.
This blade now belongs to Elsbeth, and she uses it to lead Thrawn’s army of Night Troopers and to fight against Ahsoka. Ultimately, it becomes part of her downfall, as Ahsoka takes it from her and bests her in a duel, again.
THE BLADE OF TALZIN?! #Ahsoka #AhsokaTano pic.twitter.com/lkDSb0qDFB
— themarvelousmarc (@marvelousmarc96) October 4, 2023
Why Ashoka stopped training Sabine
After Ezra constructs a new blue lightsaber, he gets a bit of alone time with the wise droid Huyang and asks him what happened between Sabine and Ahsoka. As he has done several times in this series, Huyang gives us a fact-filled download:
“Ahsoka became afraid that Sabine was training as a Jedi for the wrong reasons after what happened on Mandalore.”
And because Ezra has been isolated in another galaxy for a decade, Huyang has to explain to him what exactly happened on Mandalore. Viewers of The Mandalorian know this story through Din Djarin’s flashbacks and Bo Katan’s stories.
“At the end of the war, the Empire purged the entire surface of the planet, killing hundreds of thousands. (Sabine’s family) were all lost, sadly. At the time, Ahsoka felt that if Sabine unlocked her potential, she would become dangerous.”
In short: Ahsoka feared that Sabine would fall to the dark side, so, she stopped training her. This explains why Sabine has some lightsaber skills, but – before this episode anyway – no real grasp of the Force.
If they’re stuck on Peridea for a while, Ahsoka will have plenty of time to continue Sabine’s training.
The best trio ever#Ahsoka #Sabine #SabineWren #Ezra #EzraBridger pic.twitter.com/RwGVADSEYR
— 💭 (@comfortsabine) October 4, 2023
There has to be a Season Two, right?
With many plot threads left unsolved, it sure seems like something has to come after this show. Dave Filoni is making a movie – widely speculated to be in the vein of the Legends’ novel “Heir to the Empire” – that will tie together Ahsoka, The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett in an epic film set between the events of Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens, centered on the return of Thrawn’s reign.
But while Thrawn is back in the galaxy he aims to rule, there still seems to be a lot to answer before we get to a movie – one that won’t come out until at least 2026, at the earliest. For example, what are Thrawn and the Great Mothers about to get up to on Dathomir? Will Ahsoka, Sabine and Huyang get off Peridea? What becomes of Shin Hati? What about Baylan and the Mortis Gods? How will Din Djarin, Grogu and Bo Katan factor into all this? What about Luke Skywalker and his new Jedi Academy?
And of course, all of this will likely lead to providing more detail and context to Poe Dameron’s infamous words, “Somehow, Palpatine returned.”
Because every piece of Star Wars content that we’ve gotten since the Rise of Skywalker has aimed to do this. From the Bad Batch to The Mandalorian – and even in small, subtle moments in Andor – part of the goal of these Star Wars shows is to fill in the gaps and explain how and why things happened the way they did in the sequels. In the Bad Batch, we’re taken to a secret cloning facility. In The Mandalorian, a whole episode in Season 3 was devoted to “hey, what happened to that Dr. Pershing guy?” In Ahsoka, mainly through Hera’s storyline, we’re shown how incompetent the New Republic can be and how something like the return of Thrawn, the creation of the First Order and – gasp – Palpatine still operating in the shadows can happen right under their noses.
This is not really a complaint; it’s the reality of the Disney-powered content machine that Lucasfilm is. Luckily, most of these shows have been incredibly well made and are filled with uniqueness, creativity, expanding on fantastic characters and creating new ones, interesting plots, and have great storytellers – like Filoni, Jon Favreau, Deborah Chow and Tony Gilroy – helming them.
So, even if all roads eventually lead to “Somehow, Palpatine returned,” enjoy the ride, Star Wars fans, especially if Filoni is steering this rollercoaster that we’re on. It’s been pretty great so far.
