Ahsoka Finale Review
Star Wars needs room to breathe.
After eight episodes, Ahsoka - the latest live-action entry into the Star Wars universe - has come to an end. It’s been seven weeks, thanks to the double premiere, and a solid season of television. The first couple of episodes struggled in a rut of exposition for viewers not familiar with the animated Star Wars universe and those who’d just forgotten what the hell happened in Rebels, but Ahsoka managed to find its feet, take off to a galaxy further and further away, and actually tell a decent story. Just like Sabine dealing with a couple of TIE fighters, however, the show struggled to stick the landing.
The Ahsoka finale - “The Jedi, The Witch and The Warlord” - was a mixed bag. Dave Filoni has demonstrated across the shows he’s been a part of that he has a deep love of fantasy, and a finale title that nods to Narnia sums up what Ahsoka did best - embracing the magical side of Star Wars. There were fantastic moments scattered throughout the episode - zombie stormtroopers, a witch with a sword (we need more witches with swords on television in general, in my opinion), and Ezra’s inevitable homecoming - but there was an unnecessary rush to the episode. It felt like Ahsoka was spending time on all the wrong things.
Admittedly, everyone comes at Star Wars from a different direction. For some people, it’s the films that are the only essential thing and the supplemental shows should be just that - stand-alone and supplemental. Some people fell in love with The Mandalorian. For some, the animated shows are a vital part of the story. For others, it’s the novels (both canon and no-longer-canon) that are key. Some people might even have a deep emotional investment in the Night Sisters of Dathomir thanks to a particular character from the Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor games. That last one might just be me. For the people coming at the Ahsoka finale from different directions, the big moments might hit differently. But for everyone, there were plenty of events that needed more room to breathe.
The fight between Morgan Elspeth and Ahsoka itself was a stunning watch, but Morgan’s death felt almost skipped over. This character was introduced as an antagonist back in the second season of The Mandalorian, and has been a key player in the events of Ahsoka. Abandoning her corpse on the battlefield in exchange for little more than a shrug from Grand Admiral Thrawn was a waste of a good character. The same could be said for Ezra’s return to the original galaxy far, far away. It was sweet seeing Chopper - the droid most deserving of being arrested for war crimes - recognise his friend underneath the stormtrooper helmet, and the stolen armour itself was a nice nod to the original Rebels series. But with nothing more than a brief shot of Hera’s best shocked pikachu face before the show moved on, it didn’t feel like a satisfying reunion.
There was a sense of “To Be Continued” hanging so heavily over every closing moment that the show felt like it didn’t have the confidence to wrap up the season properly. Sabine and Ahsoka’s resolution - “we’re stuck in this other galaxy but we’ve made friends with some crabs” - was anything but a resolution, even with the approving nod of force-ghost Anakin. A few moments, an acknowledgement that there’s work to be done, just a few more lines of dialogue and the scene could have been a satisfying wrap-up for the pair. Also, with no final return to Lothal, I’d really like some reassurance that Sabine’s lothcat is being looked after.
With a decent knowledge of previous Star Wars material, Ahsoka was a fun show. It feels like it must be lacking for those people that, fairly, didn’t want to do eleven seasons of television’s worth of homework (and that’s before you get to the novels). Thrawn, in his previous showings in both novels and Rebels, is one of the best villains to come out of Star Wars. He’s terrifyingly calm, calculating and completely unreliant on the force. In Ahsoka, without all of that context, he was a man that stared at magic holo-maps and apparently commanded impressive amounts of loyalty. Where Ahsoka was under-confident in wrapping up its storylines, it was over-confident in Thrawn’s villainy - assuming the audience would just take it as read that this is the bad guy to watch out for. (And that wig line. Oof.)
Baylan Skoll’s final moments, alone on a cliff looking at crumbling statues, probably mean very little to viewers not familiar with the Mortis story arc from the third season of Clone Wars. Even for the viewers that recognise “The Father”, the story is still left with another huge “To Be Continued”. With the sad loss of Ray Stevenson (Whose performance as Baylan was absolutely the best thing about this season of television), that continuation is up in the air. If the role isn’t recast, the obvious writing-out of the character will be a tricky thing to navigate. If creepy, unnecessary CGI resurrection is on the cards for Ray Stevenson, the story might just be a lost cause.
The problem with ending on “To Be Continued” is the promise that’s implied - that this story will go on and these characters will return. So far, Disney hasn’t confirmed a second season of Ahsoka or even a fourth season of The Mandalorian. There is, theoretically, an Heir to the Empire film in development that will eventually tie the threads of these shows together, but plenty of slated Star Wars films have disappeared into the ether recently. Will Ahsoka continue to be its own show? Will it be folded into the Filoni-verse of live action storytelling? Will the promised movie make it to the screen and make it all make sense? In a Hollywood recovering from a 146-day writers strike, with the SAG-AFTRA strike still unresolved, there are no guarantees. Shows shouldn’t have to have perfectly wrapped-up endings to be satisfying, but with no certainty that we’ll be returning to these characters, they deserved something concrete at the end of these eight episodes.
The bigger problem is with Star Wars itself. These Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau creations, set in the New Republic-era between the original films and the recent sequels (it occurred to me that this time period could be called The Galactic Perineum - I’m incredibly sorry) have been hit and miss. There have been high notes, for sure. There has also been The Book of Boba Fett. There are wonderful stories in there, but they have to fit into a bigger narrative - and as viewers we already know the ending. Despite everyone’s best efforts, the First Order will eventually rise. Filling in that gap between the films might help justify (or at least give some context to) “Somehow Palpatine Returned” and the overall pile of wreckage that was The Rise of Skywalker, but in getting there we’re having to emotionally invest in characters doomed to fail. That doesn’t mean these shows are doomed as well, but that they need to find a way to compel us outside of the fight against the evil empire.
After eight episodes, Ahsoka almost got there. If the characters return, let’s hope they get some room to breathe.