This week gave the world what may be the highest anticipated episode of The Mandalorian yet. Set to introduce a fan-favorite character from Star Wars The Clone Wars to live-action for the first time, its arrival has been teased all season so far. The episode wastes no time in introducing its highly anticipated character, and as such neither will we. A spoiler warning is in effect from this point on.
Spoiler Warning
The episode begins by almost instantly introducing the world to the first live-action version of Ahsoka Tano, played by Rosario Dawson. She attempts to invade a city ruled by an evil Magistrate and makes quick work of the hired guards.
This intro gives new fans a chance to get to know the fighting style and power of Ahsoka, as well as showing her in action with her iconic two lightsaber fighting style for the first time, not in animation.
The fight is over quickly, but it is meant to be as it is only the prelude to the week's journey.
The titular Mandalorian then arrives on the planet and is let into the city with little struggle to meet with the Magistrate. We see then the full extent that she has caused, ruling the city like a warlord in the aftermath of the Empire's fall. This is different than the characteristic lawlessness that has befallen most of the planets visited in the series so far, although we have heard many stories of places like this so far in the series.
She meets with him in a palace, discussing a potential job for Mando.
The Magistrate offers Mando a spear of pure Beskar in exchange for killing the Jedi currently plaguing her domain, and Mando takes her information on Ahsoka's whereabouts.
Upon finding Ahsoka, she immediately begins attacking the Mandalorian, who quickly proves himself to be a worthy opponent of the Jedi, utilizing his armor to protect himself from her lightsabers before he quells her attacks with the knowledge he was sent by Bo Katan.
It is at this point Ahsoka Tano is introduced to The Child, with whom she is able to communicate through the force. Through this, we find out some major information about Baby Yoda, including his backstory and his name.
Grogu, as he is now known, was a Jedi youngling being trained on Coruscant at the time of the fall of the Republic, where he was hidden from the rising Empire during Order 66. He then had a dark few decades before the start of the series when Mando found him.
Ahsoka Tano decides to test his force abilities, and he is unwilling to show them to her, but he will when the Mandalorian tries a similar task.
Tano then shows just how much she has changed since her first appearances in The Clone Wars. One of her last appearances before this was in Star Wars Rebels where she found out her old master, Anakin Skywalker, had fallen to the dark side and become Darth Vader. She now sees how Baby Yoda has a similar bond to the Mandalorian that she saw in her old master, and is unwilling to teach him out of fear of what he might do.
Mando and Ahsoka then make an arrangement that she will train The Child in exchange for help in defeating the Magistrate.
The two return to the city, with Ahsoka making the first attack, allowing them both entrance to the city.
They work together and easily defeat most of the guards before separating into two separate battles for control of the city.
Ahsoka Tano battles the Magistrate for information on the whereabouts of Grand Admiral Thrawn, another returning character from the multiple animated Star Wars series, and actually one of few Star Wars Legends characters to survive into the Disney version of the franchise. This is a hard-fought and visually stunning battle that gives us one of the best lightsaber duels in recent memory, despite the fact only one of them has a lightsaber.
Meanwhile, Mando has a western-style standoff with the last remaining guard, whom he easily conquers, freeing the people of Corvus.
After this battle, Ahsoka still refuses to train Grogu, but gives the Mandalorian a path forward. She tells him to bring The Child to Tython and place him in the Jedi Temple in the hope that another Jedi will reach out to him through the force, making it his decision to become a Jedi. This isn't without Ahsoka's final warning though that there are so few Jedi left.
Ahsoka Tano makes a strong first live-action appearance as one of the most popular Star Wars characters to never appear in a film (outside of a short cameo in Rise of Skywalker). Hopefully, this isn't the last we see of her in The Mandalorian or another Star Wars Disney Plus series. She has changed a lot since we first saw her as Anakin's apprentice, but we have seen her grow now through three TV series worth of appearances, and her arc isn't complete yet.
Comments
Post a Comment