Ashoka Ep 3 Review
After starting with a “how we got here” prologue bringing fans up to the final scene in Rebels, Ahsoka is now ready to fly. As Ahsoka and Sabine discovered, an Imperial Remnant led by Morgan Elsbeth is trying to reach Peridea, a mythical location in another galaxy. Morgan believes that Grand Admiral Thrawn can be found there. Ahsoka, Sabine, and Hera hope that that’s where Ezra is. While this episode doesn’t give anymore hints regarding what lies at the end of this pathway, it does reveal why the Purgill might have taken Ezra and Thrawn on it in the first place. Piggybacking off the reveal of Peridea being located in another galaxy, it’s clear Dave Filoni is working to expand Star Wars into uncharted territory.
It’s too bad that the New Republic doesn’t see how important this quest might be for the future of the galaxy.
New Republic Continues to Be Useless
A disturbing trend in both timelines of Star Wars canon has been how useless the New Republic can be at the worst possible times. In the original Expanded Universe, the New Republic frequently got dragged down by the red tape that doomed the Old Republic, to the point where its founders had to reorganize it into something else entirely. In the new canon, though, the sheer uselessness reaches criminal levels of negligence. This was seen in the recent season of The Mandalorian, and it’s front and center in this episode of Ahsoka.
Despite Hera informing Chancellor Mon Mothma and her advisors that Thrawn might still be alive, they refuse to prepare a military response. While Mothma’s one advisor, Xiono, points out that Hera’s using this as an excuse to keep looking for Ezra, who many now believe dead, this point is undercut by Xiono’s ignorance. Having never fought in the Galactic Civil War, he has no idea how dangerous Thrawn is, while Hera knows full well that his return could lead to another war. While Mon Mothma wants to help Hera, it’s clear her hands are tied. Ahsoka, Sabine, and Huyang are on their own.
Seeing how inept the New Republic’s already become is beyond frustrating for Star Wars fans and in-universe veterans like Hera. The galaxy’s ready to give up the fight, even though history will prove that the fight’s not over. The silver lining to all this is that it marks the live-action debut of Hera’s son, Jacen. Hearing the young boy call Sabine his aunt is heartwarming, but for his sake, let’s hope he doesn’t become a Jedi. Or, if he does, he stays away from Luke’s temple.
Is Sabine Force Sensitive or Not?
Meanwhile, Sabine resumes her Jedi training under the tutelage of Ahsoka, with poor results. Despite her best efforts, Sabine can’t shake the fact that her connection to the Force is potentially too weak to work. Which does make many fans ask: since when is Sabine Wren Force-Sensitive?
In Rebels, Sabine never showed any signs of being able to tap into the Force like Kanan, Ahsoka, or Ezra can. Thus, the idea of her now being able to do so has riled a lot of fans up, saying it contradicts how the Force works. However, George Lucas recently revealed that, in truth, every living thing is Force-Sensitive. What most people lack is the willpower and training to commit to using it. That, and some people, like Anakin, have an inherently stronger connection to the Force than others. In other words, Sabine could learn how to use the Force herself. She wouldn’t be that strong in it, but as Ahsoka says, she may not need to be to become a Jedi in this day and age.
Props go out to Dave Filoni and his team for Ahsoka and Sabine’s training session. It leaned a lot into the Jedi’s samurai inspirations, and that’s interesting to watch.
The Purgill Return
With Ahsoka, Sabine, and Huyang on their own, they arrive in the Denab System where Morgan and her allies are building the Eye of Sion. What follows is a dogfight that not only calls back to the ones in the original film, but to the World War II-era dogfights that inspired space combat in Star Wars. Filoni takes it a step further by having the fighters chasing the trio resemble fighter planes from the era. It’s a nice touch that shows how much Filoni’s learned from his master.
There are two big reveals at the end of the episode, though. Firstly, fans get to see the Purgill in live-action for the first time. Secondly, Huyang reveals that the route to Peridea is based on the migrational routes of the Purgill. This means that it wasn’t a coincidence that Ezra and Thrawn would get sent to Peridea. The Purgill took them there on their migration.
Overall, while this episode was a bit slow, it had plenty of nice callbacks to Filoni’s previous works. That one scene with Ahsoka fighting outside the ship was a nice nod to what Plo Koon did in The Clone Wars tv series. It’s another work that Filoni created, and it shows Ahsoka’s come full-circle. Hopefully, the next episode will see the race to Peridea pick up in earnest.
