Another solid entry and a nice action packed companion piece to last week's more gentler paced adventure.
Random thoughts and notes: -
- Wait, so is that a new senate building? Did Palpatine just flatten the old one or something? Not sure why it surprised me to see they're using the old galactic congress seal, but it's nice to have some iconography other than just the starbird.
- Does kinda highlight how impractical it is to have the the whole government up-sticks and move to another planet every so often. Does Chandrilla have an identical building like that that just stands empty now that it's Coruscant's turn? Is Hosnian Prime or Mon Cala building one of their own in preparation right now? Seems like a redundant waste of resources for what's essentially a symbolic gesture . . . not that this in any way precludes it as a believable government initiative. Quite the contrary.
- Wow, this is as close to an actual uniform as we've ever seen Hera wear, and yet she's still in a high cropped jacket! I wonder if she even owns a dress uniform.
- Is that Hera's bare ear-cones? This feels like even more of a personal intrusion than seeing Ahsoka's montral join.
- Admiral Akbar lives! Take THAT sequel trilogy!
- What about the conflict on Mandalore indeed. The chronology of this is going to give me a headache.
- For a second there I thought we were in for a deepfaked Leia. I'm glad they hired Anthony Daniels instead.
- Not sure why it surprised me to see Mon Mothma react to Threepio with such familiarity (she has known him since Leia was even born after all), but I suppose this is the first time we're actually seeing them interact in live action.
- So Leia just up and falsified government documents to retroactively approve Hera's mission? Cool, cool. I'm sure this kind of thing won't see her perceived as an old warhorse, and marginalized in the Senate a decade or three down the road . . .
- Seriously though, if Leia had the authority, then why not just overrule Xiono and approve the mission in the first place? I suppose the idea is that if she were present for the initial meeting before Hera left, she'd just be out-voted, but by manoeuvring Xiono into calling a vote in her absence, she created enough of a procedural justification for invalidating his decision, and potentially landing him in trouble for looking like he's doing and end run around her. She may have her mother's intelligence, but she has her father's ruthless cunning.
- She's actually using a reverse grip? Wow. Though it does kinda show off how utterly impractical this approach is to actual combat.
- OK, did not expect to see more of Hayden! Nice touch that his eyeline aimed lower than Ahsoka's since when he recorded this, he would have been imagining her at least a good head and a half shorter than she is now.
- First mention of Ventress in live action? And from Hayden? This feels so weird.
- So wait, does this imply that this T-6 was his/theirs'? I mean I doubt she's had these recordings on her this whole time from when she left the order. I guess the logistics of it doesn't matter too much.
- I like that they're continuing what Rebels did with using the term "forms" for lightsaber training in a more credible way; as in it's an exercise, not an entire school of combat in and of itself as in the EU, which is just silly and not at all how that works.
- Seriously, look into that! That whole nonsense all stems from one magazine article written by someone that knew nothing of sword or martial arts combat, who's "technical advisor" was just a mate who did fencing occasionally as a hobby. Hardly a scholar or sword master. Which if fine for a magazine article, but then the authors started repeating it at face value, and the games adopted to nomenclature, and all of a sudden you have fans saying "ah, see how they're using form III?!" every time someone takes up any kind of defensive stance, as if that even means anything.
- How much you wanna bet he made those 20-odd recordings to give himself more time to sneak off an visit Padme more often, rather that actually supervise his pupil?
- Interesting that they took the time to show the box full of Anakin's recordings. Something Sabine is going to inherit?
- I like how Huyang isn't like other droids and doesn't bother to calculate the exact odds, just says "no the chances are astronomically terrible!"
- What the hell are Purgills even made of? They can headbutt destroyers with no injury to themselves, and a swarm of anti-ship mines are just an uncomfortable aggravation!
- I guess I should wonder how the hell Morgan got access to the Inquisitorius database . . . but given she had a possibly undead Inquisitor in her employ, it's really not all that surprising.
- Thrawn's reaction to seeing Anakin was Ahsoka's master is well played. There's enough recognition there to read into some foreknowledge, without going to the bother of extraneous explanations about how he actually met and worked with Anakin once.
- I love Ezra immediate confused reaction to Sabine being a Padawan, before also immediately backpedalling. He's a lot more mature, but he's still Ezra.
- Of course Shin would be riding the one white howler, and Baylan a black once, while ever single other one is brown.
- Uh . . . space shrimp? I guess it makes sense something would evolve to feed of the star whale carcasses. There's probably a whole ecosystem in those rings.
- Every scene Baylan is in is just so fascinating. He's willing to let his apprentice go and pursue her own ambitions while he continues on his path. We still don't know what drives him and I hope we find out since we only have one more episode left with him, ever.
- Amazing that with all the old west movie influences in Star Wars, I think this is the first time we've actually gotten a "circle the wagons!" scene. Well, except maybe that one time with Obi-Wan on Geonosis, but those were tanks, so doesn't technically count.
- Huyang & Ahsoka's patter continues to be one of the highlights of this show. That is all.
- Is it weird that I was actually wondering just the other week is those steps did that? Now we never have to question how the hell R2 or Chopper would ever be about to board one of those ships.
- Knew it. Shaolin Jedi!
- Interesting contrast with Ezra anticipating attacks while Sabine just keeps tanking them. I suspect this will be one of the markers of her progress when she doesn't need her armor anymore (even if she continues to wear it, regardless. She's still Mandalorian after all.)
- Some very well thought out sword combat choreography. Ahsoka's entire approach has changed from last time. She's no longer trying to meet Baylan head-on, but is instead redirecting his attacks and getting in much closer, negating his advantages in both power and reach.
- Cool detail having Shin's blade distort when Ezra grabs it with the force. I don't think we've ever seen that before!
- Strange edit though. It cuts from Ezra holding her blade straight to her facing Sabine. I smell deleted footage!
- Nice touch having Ahsoka use Baylan's own strategy against him; they were both just playing for time.
- It looks like Baylan was considering abandoning his path and going to help Shin . . . but chose not to. Very interesting that he visibly had to think about it. In a lot of ways, just like Ahsoka he's more Jedi than he likes to admit. He clearly has an attachment to his apprentice and was able to let her go.
- I don't know why seeing these gunships in live action is so pleasing to me. Maybe because they're a remnant of 1313 (and I think 'Underworld' too?) and I've always enjoyed the design.
- Nice use of a sentry droid in combat. I kind of wish they'd thought to do this in Rebels as standard procedure.
- Weird that even the bad guys mark themselves as red and the Jedi as blue on a tactical map.
- Of course Ezra tries and talk his way out of it. I'm surprised he didn't try and pull the old "I'm the Emperor's nephew!" gambit.
- Neat how Ahsoka didn't even feel the need to draw her sabre against Shin. Also interesting that she offered her help.
- Why do I get the feeling that the T-6 will be going home filled with Noti? Well at least Huyang will have someone to man the turret for him.
Would have been a good moment to Recast Leia, and have her come into the senate hearing.. but owell..
They've already recast her, but obviously that actor isn't old enough for this scene yet. Seriously though, this works better as it reads as much more of a power move if Leia is dismissing Xiono's objections with a protocol droid.
An okay episode. Didn’t really progress the episode.
Nope, all it did was reunite all of our protagonists, split our two secondary antagonists apart, resolve Hera's plot thread and put all the pieces in place for the finale. No progress whatsoever!
We also seem to have gotten a fairly conclusive indication that this does take place after the most recent season of the Mandalorian.
Speaking of Zeb, we finally got confirmation on when exactly this season takes place...and it's actually after the third season of The Mandalorian. Which is surprising considering all of the evidence to the contrary, even if I didn't want it that way. Really puts the conversation Gideon had with the Shadow Council in a whole other context.
Yeah, that's going to bug me somewhat. Star Wars is always a little wishy-washy on the chronology (and that's fine) but it's starting to strain credibility how little time has supposedly passed since season 1 of Mando, and yet how much time should have passed.
Loved seeing this different side of Ezra and I wasn't at all surprised when he refused to take back his lightsaber, saying he's better suited with just the Force...even if that was undermined a little when he used a blaster a short time later. And of course, the long-awaited reunion with Ahsoka was quite touching.
What? Ezra? Showing off and grand standing!? Never!
That all said, there's no way this whole conflict is going to wrap up with the finale. We're going to get some big cliffhanger (undoubtedly Thrawn's big return with the New Republic shitting bricks) and we have to wait two more years for the second season (which we damn well better get!).
I've been saying for a while now that the promotional photos in the press packets have a "season 1" tag in the metadata, and that the crew gifts that wound up on ebay before the show even premiered were marked "Ahsoka Season 1". I think it's a safe assumption that there's every intention for at least a season 2.
You're probably thinking of Kazuda Xiono, the main character of Resistance. He's the son of Senator Xiono, who makes a couple of appearances in the show as well.
And it should probably be remembered that he "coincidentally" managed to not be on Hosnian Prime the day it got vaporised. Between that and his blatant droid prejudice, he's almost certainly in the pocket of the Remnant and later, the First Order.
When Shin said " Fire " and no one fired, that looked really silly. Either they got the timing with Ahsoka appearance wrong, or made it look silly scene on purpose.
Or the Night Troopers don't take commands from random mercenaries are were waiting for Thrawn to confirm the order. Remember, he's deliberately playing for time here. Also, Imperial troopers have never exactly been bright.
There's a ton of lightsabers available on Ahsoka's ship, there's no problem getting a temporary replacement. I seriously doubt they'll close off the season without him having a sabre in his hand.
That's assuming they're not all just training sabres, which can block and deflect just fine, but cuts about as well as a nerf bat.
Well, that was better, at least.
But this show is literally about 40 minutes from the ending and there's still no actual point to any of it.
