Dave Filoni and the opposite folks behind Ahsoka don’t have it straightforward. The notion of imbuing a live-action sequence with dozens of hours’ value of character improvement and lore from different exhibits is daunting—and attempting to do all that inside the bigger Star Wars lexicon, whose followers are unyielding and sometimes bitter, is an excellent harder job.
In some methods Ahsoka’s first episode falls sufferer to the calls for of that job, however its second exhibits the shimmering promise of what lies forward. I could also be an unabashed Ahsoka fangirl, however I can admit when issues really feel like they want some respiration room—Rosario Dawson can settle into the function of Ahsoka a bit extra; we may use much less lingering seems exchanged between the three girls; we’d like a greater depiction of Sabine and Ahsoka’s dynamic.
Learn Extra: Ahsoka Episode 1 Evaluation: It Actually Is Star Wars: Rebels 2
But when “Grasp and Apprentice” felt a bit prefer it was slowly strolling down Filoni’s private reminiscence lane, “Toil and Hassle” feels prefer it’s beginning to get away right into a brisk stroll—right here’s hoping a full-blown dash is down the road.
Her (Evening)sister was a witch
The episode begins with a reassurance we don’t really want—Sabine, regardless of taking feral Shin Hati’s lightsaber via the stomach, is alive and largely nicely in a Lothal hospital mattress (there’s no approach she was dying). Ahsoka can hear Sabine’s desires, that are taking her again via the battle with Shin, earlier than she wakes her as much as ask what occurred. Her disappointment in her former Padawan is palpable (Sabine did immediately disobey Ahsoka’s orders, in any case) and the fraughtness of their relationship is a little more clear than it was within the first episode. There’s *drama* between these two, guys.
Ahsoka heads to Ezra’s Tower, the place Sabine lives like a bit hermit Lothcat girl, and discovers one of many HK Murderer droids despatched to retrieve the map has lingered behind. She makes fast work of it, and we get a beat the place Rosario Dawson exhibits off how nicely she’s bodily embodying Ahsoka, earlier than bringing its severed head again to Sabine to try to hack it for info. The hospital scene permits us to see extra of Ahsoka, Sabine, and Hera’s dynamic—even when the latter is just there through hologram, you may see the figuring out glances she exchanges with Ahsoka every time Sabine’s cussed streak exhibits. It’s additionally loads simpler on the eyes to see Hera in holo-form, as a result of that make-up is a licensed leap scare. After Sabine nearly blows up the hospital attempting to reboot the droid head, they uncover that it originated from Corellia—sure that Corellia, the house planet of Han Solo himself. Ahsoka and Hera determine to satisfy there.
Learn Extra: The Finest Star Wars Easter Eggs In The Ahsoka TV Collection
After Ahsoka leaves the room, Sabine and Hera speak concerning the relationship between the previous grasp and apprentice. “You’re each tough, I at all times thought that’s what made it work,” Hera says, reminding us that there’s extra to Ahsoka than bemused judgment and stoicism. Clone Wars followers know she was a proper little shit as an adolescent, and that her choice to depart the Jedi Order endlessly modified her.
Morgan Elsbeth and her two guard canine (Baylan and Shin) have the map now, and so they head to Seatos, a really moody new planet within the Star Wars universe. Its blood-red bushes and steely, overcast skies set a creepy tone for the creepy issues Elsbeth is about to do—as a result of, shock, she’s a Nightsister! Sure, “Toil and Hassle” is a reference to the well-known Macbeth verse, as a result of Elsbeth is a member of an historical sect of witches that play a central function within the Clone Wars animated sequence. It’s a enjoyable little element, however one which jogs my memory of how badly I want I may see former Sith apprentice and Nightsister Asajj Ventress in live-action.
I’m admittedly not a fan of the reliance of Star Wars TV sequence on The Quantity, a large, immersive soundstage that’s used for lots of exterior photographs, however the scene on Seatos is gorgeous. Elsbeth prompts the map, and 1000’s of glittering stars and constellations challenge onto the setting round them. It’s visually hanging, even when Elsbeth actor Diana Lee Inosanto is a bit picket—Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno carry the scene sufficient to make it work.
The women are again on the town
Ahsoka and Hera arrive at Corellia and we get our first actual scare of the sequence—Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s make-up and costume in all its garish glory. There may be a lot unsuitable right here: the too-orange pants, the big Common emblem on her Ceaselessly 21-ass jacket, her closely caked-on inexperienced make-up, these god-awful contacts. I hope that they repair this in a possible second season of Ahsoka, as a result of proper now she seems like a extremely good Comedian Con cosplay, not an official, live-action Star Wars character.
Regardless of how she seems, Winstead shines as Hera within the flesh. She suffers no fools, however might spare them a wry smile. There’s a shimmery, barely-there veil of unhappiness over her, however she stays steadfast in her beliefs—primarily, that Ahsoka and Sabine ought to reconcile. Regardless of carrying heavy prosthetic lekku, Winstead is completely plausible as Hera, and a pleasure to observe.
As the 2 rebels tour the Corellian shipyard with its reluctant supervisor, Hera asks Ahsoka if she’ll contemplate bringing Sabine again on as an apprentice. “She may use some construction, so may you,” she factors out, however Ahsoka gained’t budge. Sabine needs to be prepared. Solely then can she totally embrace this course of, and Ahsoka can totally embrace her. Contemplating Ahsoka’s troubled previous with the Jedi Order, I respect how hesitant she is to convey Sabine again into the fray—keep in mind that the Jedi used to absorb and practice Pressure-sensitive youngsters, who have been hardly able to making life-altering choices, and Ahsoka was one in every of them. Although it might appear, at first, that this hesitancy to simply accept Sabine again in is only a plot gadget, I imagine it’s a vital look into Ahsoka’s internal machinations, that are closely influenced by her personal experiences.
Now, we’ve to see how Sabine feels. She’s nonetheless on the hospital, inspecting a scar that was as soon as a large, cauterized gap via her intestine from Shin’s lightsaber. Huyang finds her lightsaber (which was as soon as Ezra’s, she factors out) and asks if she’s stored up together with her coaching. “Clearly not,” she says with a wry smile, and I’m wondering if Natasha Liu Bordizzo is embodying her character one of the best out of the three girls—then I’m wondering if it’s as a result of she doesn’t need to act via prosthetics, make-up, and eye contacts.
Huyang just isn’t a bullshitter, and he tells Sabine that she doesn’t have numerous pure expertise (it’s revealed in Rebels that she’s not all that Pressure-sensitive), and that she’s clearly inferior to Ezra in that regard. Offended, Sabine guarantees to not waste Ahsoka’s time anymore, however Huyang hits her with the Uno Reverse: “The one time you’re losing is your individual.”
Again on Corellia, Hera and Ahsoka quickly notice the difficulty with hiring former fascists for work in your new republic—a few of them are nonetheless very a lot fascists. They’re attacked on the shipyard after they ask one too many questions on the hyperdrive core sitting on the lot and the HK Murderer droids which might be working there for some unknown motive. Ahsoka slices via the window of the shipyard’s HQ, touchdown lots of of toes beneath to try to catch the transport ship that’s taking the hyperdrive core with it. Although I hoped we’d get a wild Ahsoka Tano-esque leap onto the fleeing ship, there’s a nasty man standing in her approach.
This masked man is known as Marrok, and he seems to be a former Inquisitor who’s now working with Shin and Baylan. Naturally, he has an HK Murderer droid with him, so Ahsoka is in for fairly the battle. As soon as once more, Dawson exhibits off how bodily apt she is for this function, hunkering down in a deep squat with such grace I let loose a bit gasp. It’s clear she did numerous prep work to embody Ahsoka, and the lightsaber battle that ensues is snappy and thrilling—a lot in order that Hera, who takes off in her ship to chase the transport, friends down at it from the sky.
On this second, Rebels followers get what they’ve been ready for: Chopper, the maniacal, murdering droid in all his live-action glory (voiced by Filoni himself). As soon as once more, Winstead will get ample time to point out off her performing chops, as she and Chopper bicker back-and-forth whereas she’s piloting her ship—it feels lived-in and pure, such as you’re actually watching Hera and Chopper arguing over whether or not she touched his stuff or not (she didn’t). Although the ship will get away, Chopper manages to suit it with a monitoring gadget, so the chase continues to be on—however not earlier than Ahsoka makes a cease to choose one thing up.
The Kanan Jarrus Impact
Sabine, impressed by Huyang’s no-nonsense speech, heads again to her residence at Ezra’s Tower and decides to gear up in her Mandalorian armor to hitch Ahsoka and Hera. However earlier than that, she partakes in a ritual that precisely mirrors one Jedi Kanan Jarrus does in an episode of Rebels—kneeling earlier than her Mandalorian helmet, she takes a knife in her arms, gathers her hair collectively, and slices all of it off. This haircut signifies her need and readiness to shift into a brand new a part of her life, to step again into her function as padawan and throw herself completely into her coaching. When she calls Ahsoka’s ship, she seems to her grasp the identical approach she seemed years in the past—clad totally in Mandalorian armor, a purple pixie lower rather than her unkempt, sunset-colored locks.
“I’m prepared,” she says. And Ahsoka agrees. In a precise recreation of the ultimate scene of Rebels, Sabine lovingly faucets Ezra’s face on the mural she painted years in the past, then turns to see that Ahsoka is ready on the touchdown platform of the constructing that homes the mural. It’s time for the grasp and the apprentice to save lots of the galaxy, and with this second, we formally transfer previous something that came about throughout Rebels, and forge onward into uncharted territory. I can’t wait to see what Ahsoka provides us subsequent.
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