I thought we might get a breather episode, but nah.
Recap
As Ahsoka and Huyang travel in the purgill’s mouth, she tells him the truth: That Sabine went with the enemy willingly. She laments not having the time to help Sabine make the right choice, but Huyang disputes that, believing that in the Force, perhaps Sabine made the only choice she could. Ahsoka asks Huyang to tell her one of the historical stories he told the younglings in the temple and he begins—
“A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”
The Eye of Sion arrives in another galaxy at a planet known as Peridea—the original home of the Dathomiri. Elsbeth and company head down to the planet and meet the Great Mothers Klothow (Claudia Black), Aktropaw (Jeryl Prescott), and Lakesis (Jane Edwina Seymour), who are immediately suspicious of the Jedi element in their visitors’ midst that they did not foresee. They imprison Sabine below and call Thrawn to meet them. His Star Destroyer emerges over the Dathomiri temple, greatly altered in their time here, along with his troopers who have patched and revamped their armor. Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) emerges, giving respect to the Great Mothers and speaking with Elsbeth. She tells him of their unexpected visitor, Sabine Wren, and Baylan Skoll explains that he made a promise to let her go search for her friend. Thrawn insists that the promise be kept and his Captain Enoch (Wes Chatham) sets her up with a mount called a howler and provisions, sending her off.
Thrawn then sends Skoll and his apprentice after Sabine, telling Elsbeth that the fact that the man was a Jedi means that they cannot fully trust him. They begin loading cargo from the temple onto the Star Destroyer in preparation for their journey home, planning to leave Baylan, Shin, and Sabine behind. Sabine runs into another native group in red armor, who attack her, but she fights them all off. Baylan and Shin later come across the site and discuss Baylan’s plans now that they’ve arrived at this place of Jedi legend; to his mind, the problem is that the defeat of the Jedi and rise of the Sith is merely a never-ending cycle, one that he means to stop. He also insists that he is training Shin to be something more than a Jedi.
Sabine’s howler fled the scene when she fought, and when they reunite, she tells it off for leaving her and to go home. It follows her anyway, and its nose leads her to another species who live on Peridea called the Noti, one of whom recognizes Sabine’s Rebel Alliance symbol… and is wearing the original version of it, her rendering of the firebird. She asks if it knows where Ezra Bridger is, and a group of them lead her to their camp. There, she finally finds Ezra, who is grateful that she came to get him, as he knew she would. He wants more information on what’s happened in his absence, but Sabine isn’t ready to tell him everything yet—or what she did to get here. They pack up with the nomadic Noti and prepare to move camp. The Great Mothers sense that another Jedi is coming with the purgill, and Thrawn tells Elsbeth that this likely means Ahsoka Tano survived and that they should behave as such, preparing for a fight.
Commentary
Gotta admit, I was unprepared for how emotional I was gonna get seeing Ezra Bridger.
Part of this is down to Eman Esfandi’s performance, which so instantly snaps into the impression left by his animated rendering that he comes off almost hyper-real: the trying-too-hard-to-be-blasé body language, the smirk, the immediate rejoinder of “Hey, it worked—didn’t it?” when Sabine points out that his plans (truly do) always suck. All the other performances we’ve been waiting on the actors to seep into their roles, to bring their signature attitudes and shimmer to live-action. But here, from the moment the camera finds him, your brain goes EZRA!! There you are where have you been young man what hour do you call this your mother Hera is worried about you and your father Kanan is so proud.
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The Jinn Bot of Shantiport
It’s so good that he actually elevates Liu Bordizzo’s Sabine—together, they are entirely themselves. Having said that, this was a much stronger episode for Sabine overall, which was frankly down to letting the character loosen up and do what she’s best at: fighting like a Mandalorian and giving people a hard time.
I dunno, y’all, the last episode cleaved my heart in two, and now this episode might be the most Star Wars thing I’ve seen in years. It’s got everything—big capital V visuals, vibes on vibes on vibes, new aliens and creatures that are just combos of things you already love, high drama and high camp, deep emotions overlaid with hilariously minimalist dialogue. It was dragging a little at the start of the season, but the show’s hitting its stride now and it is giving.
So it wasn’t truly made clear before that the Dathomiri came from this other galaxy, and that’s a big freaking deal. I’ve given a little background on their people previously, but this helps to make sense of a few oddities in their presentation on The Clone Wars, namely in their relationship to the Zabrak males on their world. The world that the Nightsisters were based on contained Zabrak men that they regularly controlled, enslaved, and offered up to other powerful galactic players. (This is where Darth Maul and his brother Savage Opress—do not @ me, that’s his real flipping name—came from.) It was always something of a mystery how/why this relationship emerged, given that the groups appeared to be different species, but now we can infer that when the Dathomiri first came to the galaxy, they decided to take over a world with the Zabrak on it and use them as they saw fit.
This is in keeping with their initial Legends appearance in The Courtship of Princess Leia, where the Dathomiri witches (who were not all dark side users) subjugated the men on their world as “husbands.” Yeah. It was a weird thing. The Clone Wars essentially revamped them to be a combination between Bene Gesserit and… vampires? Which has been real fun.
The Great Mothers are an example of something that Filoni does extremely well in Star Wars narratives (in keeping with Lucas’ entire oeuvre), taking our own real-world stories and myths, sticking them in a blender, and spitting them out in a mildly altered fashion to add texture. We’ve seen Dathomiri Mothers before, but these three seem to be the main crew in charge and they are modeled on the Three Fates (even using “threads” as a way of communicating their understanding of the Force and its patterns). I do wish they’d dig into what all this means, because the fact that the Dathomiri use the Force and come from an entirely different galaxy is kind of… momentous? Changes everything? And also, I would like to know why they hopped galaxies in the first place? If there are any of them left on Peridea at all?
This is without getting into Baylan Skoll’s angst hour, in which he’s finally a little bit clearer about his point of upset and potential goals in all of this. It seems that he thinks that the cyclical nature of light and dark in the Force is a problem and possibly wants to… end all of it? Somehow? It’s a little weird to be getting a Wheel of Time argument in Star Wars, but I suppose it was inevitable at some point. The dynamic between Baylan and Shin is fascinating, but we need more of them, and I fear we won’t get it. (We’ve got two dang episodes left.) The Great Mothers perceive Jedi shenanigans in their midst when they zero in on Sabine at the start of the episode, but it’s him, I’m telling you. He’s the true wrench in every way that matters: He had his own plans going into all of this; he tells Elsbeth that Ahsoka is dead when he knows full-well that she’s likely not; he’s the one who brings Sabine here.
It’s pointed that only Thrawn immediately clocks the danger Skoll poses because that’s his whole thing—Grand Admiral Thrawn typically wins by never underestimating the tenacity and capability of his opponents. He lets his environment be grandiose for him while he sits back and observes quietly. (This is why he and Vader, uh, did not get along.) Speaking of which: That entrance.
Every Star Wars filmmaker wants to try their hand at the “Star Destroyer pans over the landscape and fills it with sheer enormity” opening shot because it’s the iconic thing, the moment in the very first film that Star Wars proved it would be something new to its audience. And while plenty of folks have done a real good job at aping that shot for fun, this is maybe the one time it was earned—and simultaneously showed up and showed out.
And do I love that we later see the extremely phallic temple run by a society of women positioned beneath the opening of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s Star Destroyer, as they proceed to, erm, load her up for the next step in their terrible plan? Uh, yeah. That was great. They did that.
But what’s better is that they juxtapose all of this extremely pregnant (stop me) imagery with the goofy stuff that Star Wars is made for. The fact that we take a break from the operatic action and machinations to watch Sabine yell at her bat-wolf-horse for abandoning her—and it pathetically choosing to follow her regardless—is primo storytelling. The fact that this then leads to hermit-crab-hobbit-brownies who can take her to Ezra is even better. Are the Noti and the red warrior folks essentially the Jawas and Sand People reskinned? They sure are. Does it matter? Not a whit. It’s time for silly problems (and not asking questions about why any of these people can even pretend to understand each other).
I also appreciate that we start the episode with Ahsoka insisting that Sabine made the wrong call, and Huyang immediately calling bullshit. Mostly I appreciate that Huyang is very firmly in Sabine’s corner because he is more ready to entertain her perspective and needs than Ahsoka is at this point. And that wisdom in turn reminds Ahsoka that she has more to learn, hence asking for a story. A story that begins with that familiar refrain…
…a story that I can’t believe they didn’t let us hear.
Bit and Asides
- I’m a huge fan of Farscape, which means that when the camera panned over the Great Mothers, I screamed aloud “That is Claudia fucking Black! Claudia! Look at you, girl, you look goooood in that witch getup.” I was way too excited to see her, particularly after it already felt like the episode had a Farscape shout-out earlier on—the purgill space graveyard is incredibly similar to both the Leviathan resting place and the budong corpses that we see on the series.
- Okay, but the mythology element here is pristine because Thrawn’s flagship is called the Chimaera, and now it’s effectively become one? Like, did Filoni know he was going to do this years ahead of time during Rebels? I need to know if this was always the plan or just excellent random happenstance. It’s too good.
- Campaign to fix Grand Admiral Thrawn’s hair in a special edition, that’s the one thing that’s off right now.
- Thrawn’s eyes are a little weird in the CGI, too, but it does lend him a properly uncanny vibe. I forgot that they were likely to alter Ezra’s eyes, but more bemused by the fact that they were determined to make them the exact shade of electric blue that the animation made them. The effect is jarring, but I kinda love it.
- The stormtrooper armor altered and mended with gold-sheen metal beats everything by a mile, just eat your heart out, First Order, you literally look like clowns by comparison. Though I do have some questions about Captain Enoch, namely whether or not that man saw Agent Kallus once and decided to build his entire identity on that, because there are some similarities…
- The symbol that the hermit crab buddy shows Sabine is the progenitor of the Rebel Alliance symbol, which was designed by Sabine herself and used as a graffiti tag that she often upended to the Ghost crew’s missions. It’s a firebird, which later became the namesake of Hera’s Phoenix Squadron (the emblem of which you can still see on General Syndulla’s jacket), and then morphed into the more recognizable symbol you see all over the Alliance.
Next week is the penultimate episode and I am not prepared.
Yes, I grinned throughout this whole episode and also this whole review. Episode 5 was amazing – I love anything that touches on Skywalker drama – but in some ways, this is the most exciting episode for what it can open up to.
My own thoughts:
-Huyang’s story intro was a bit too on the nose, but it does play into the old idea that the original Star Wars was just a re-telling from the droids point of view :)
-Regarding Huyang and Ahsoka’s discussion – I’m still not convinced Sabine made the ‘wrong’ choice. I love Huyang keeping her humble.
-There were multiple times during this episode where I realized I was just genuinely excited and had no idea what was going to happen because we’re in a new galaxy and this could open up a ton of new possibilities
-Live action Nightsisters are so gorgeous. Morgan is clearly not a good person (as we know from her treatment of her subjects in her Mando episode) but there is something really cool about her getting to return to her ancestral homeworld/galaxy. I really hope Star Wars will dig in more to Nightsister magic and alternate views of the Force (and in a non-evil way – Merrin, where are you!).
-Ezra befriending the locals and just living a simple life and keeping his generally cheerful demeanor is just so on point. I think we are going to find he has also seriously matured and grown in the Force
-However, I do anticipate a lot of tension with him and Sabine as I don’t think he’ll be too happy to realize that she basically hitched a ride with people who want to rescue Thrawn, and there may not even be a way back.
-A bat-wolf-dog is so Filoni I can’t stand it, haha
-Baylan and Shin have such a fascinating dynamic and I just want to know more about Baylan. His speech about the ‘inevitability’ of such conflicts and the rise and fall of powers in some ways evoked both Tolkien’s ‘long defeat’ and also Maz Kanata’s phrasing in The Force Awakens about the ongoing battle. However, he clearly has taken a more cynical view. As soon as he started talking I had a feeling he was going to say he wanted to ‘break the Wheel’; so, he’s basically an Ishamael/Daenerys type villain.
-I also wondered if the ‘stink of Jedi’ that the Nightsisters were sensing was from Baylan
-His “I miss the idea…” when asked about his feelings about the Jedi Order honestly gutted me in a really personal way. I relate to this feeling so much.
-But it also makes me wonder if there is theoretically a path back to hope for him, or if we will realize there is some bigger threat out here. There are a lot of interesting paths they could go, but then I also remember the sequels exist. I really hope they are going to do more than just fold them back into that plot.
-Speaking of Thrawn, I loved the half-repaired, half-crazed, half-desperate feel his troops had. Thrawn has kept them more or less in line (plus there could be magic brainwashing involved), but it’s clear they’ve also been through a lot and are now totally devoted to him. And it’s one of those things where they might not even know the war is over (Thrawn might, if the Nightsisters were able to divine it, but I doubt he told his troops) and are just even more fanatically pro-Empire.
-The name Enoch could just be a Hebrew name Dave Filoni likes (like Ezra), but he’s a figure in the Old Testament who is known for being taken up directly by God instead of dying so I wonder if there is some symbolism there (I was honestly worried it was Ezra for a minute, so I’m glad they quickly debunked that)!
If I have one nitpick it might be that nobody seems as jazzed about being in a NEW GALAXY as I feel like they should be, and there really isn’t that much about it that to me feels like a new galaxy as opposed to some other planet. That said – I am admittedly not an expert in how astro-biology would work, and if it would necessarily be any more significantly different than a cross-planet difference. I am assuming the laws of physics are generally the same across galaxies, meaning that basic chemistry/biology principles themselves still work. Presumably evolution/genetics would have a different source material here, but would things be THAT different? Any more different than evolution occurring independently on the billions of planets in the known galaxy? Our midichlorians a universal thing, or just something that evolved in the known Star Wars galaxy? So maybe realistically planets from galaxy to galaxy wouldn’t necessarily be that fundamentally different, I just don’t know enough about the topic.
I could make fun of the fact that they can apparently all breathe just fine or didn’t drop dead from invading microbes, but that’s honestly true even from planet to planet, so… :)
Ezra learning their language is kind of fascinating to me too in that sense – like, could Threepio be able to understand their language? He wouldn’t know it or any of its related languages (presumably, unless they exist as ancient/forgotten languages that in turn influenced the galaxy we know), but is it the kind of thing he could logically deduce/decode due to independently arrived at similarities in how other languages evolve?
As soon as I saw Sabine’s interplay with the howler, I said to myself, “This guy’s going to be the new fan favorite.” I look forward to seeing the behind-the-scenes special — I’d assume Bordizzo was actually riding a horse or pony that was digitally altered, but it’s not out of the question that there were stagehands carrying her or she was on some kind of mechanical device.
Mikkelsen doesn’t look much like Thrawn; he appears much older, for one thing. I guess being stranded in another galaxy ages you. But it was nice to hear that familiar voice unchanged. I’m very voice-oriented, so a character that looks different but sounds right works better for me than one who looks right but sounds different.
I like how Thrawn’s Stormtroopers’ armor is mended with gold like the Japanese kintsugi art of repairing broken pottery (which was also the inspiration for Kylo Ren’s restored mask in Episode IX). And Enoch’s golden face is no doubt cannibalized from one of Thrawn’s collected artworks. It goes to show that he values other cultures’ art as something he can exploit for his own use or aesthetic enjoyment, without respecting its integrity or the rights of its owners — like his treatment of Hera’s family heirloom in Rebels.
I hadn’t realized that was Claudia Black as one of the Nightsisters, and I didn’t know they were named after the Fates. That seems to be going around — in the Japanese tokusatsu series Kamen Rider Gotchard, which premiered 3 weeks ago, the main villains, the Three Dark Sisters, are also named for the Fates.
I know Star Wars is a fantasy universe and they have humans in an alien galaxy, but I’m not comfortable with the idea of humanlike forms evolving independently in two different galaxies. It seems more likely that humans originated in one galaxy or the other, migrated between them by riding the purrgil, and diverged into separate civilizations/species which later came back into contact.
Esfandi is pretty convincing as Ezra. It helps that he’s older and bearded, which glosses over any differences in appearance, and the voice is pretty close.
Baylan Skoll may just be the best original villain yet in the Disney SW shows, a very rich and nuanced character who’s easy to like despite his apparent villainy. He seems to have a noble motive but an amoral way of going about it. And he’s a good foil for Ahsoka, another Jedi who left the order and struck her own path.
Oh, and regarding the Chimaera – that was the name of his flagship in the Zahn novels, so while it’s possible, maybe, that Filoni always knew he wanted to take Thrawn to another galaxy from the time he introduced him in Rebels (not knowing if he’d ever get to continue the story) he didn’t come up with the name.
@2 / CLB:
Mikkelsen doesn’t look much like Thrawn; he appears much older, for one thing. I guess being stranded in another galaxy ages you. But it was nice to hear that familiar voice unchanged. I’m very voice-oriented, so a character that looks different but sounds right works better for me than one who looks right but sounds different.
Yeah, similar concerns about the physical look aside, Filoni absolutely made the right choice not to recast.
I can’t imagine anyone else playing Thrawn.
Oh, there was one other thing I wanted to comment on – because I’m a music person. I knew they would have to bring back in Thrawn’s iconic organ theme, but I loved how in that opening scene it was an almost deconstructed version of it – it was just so ragged and wild which just fit the whole mood so well.
@5,
The benefits and joy of Filoni bringing Rebels composer Kevin Kiner along.
I’m very happy they reused Thrawn’s leitmotif too.
I initially had a bit of a hard time with the plot of this episode, because while it makes sense not to drag it out any longer I thought it was a little too easy for Sabine to find Ezra on, you know, a whole planet. I had hoped that we might get a more action-oriented, dramatic, and heroic entrance for Ezra, not just him popping up and saying his version of hello. That being said, I too instantly believed that he was Ezra; he’s perfectly cast, right down to looking like the animated depiction of Ezra’s dad Ephraim.
So even though I was mildly pulled out by that, as I’ve thought about the episode some more I’ve decided I don’t think I care too much because this was probably the most Star Wars episode out of anything Disney has done. I have to imagine that George Lucas would simply love this episode.
We learned a lot about Baylan in this episode. I thought it was interesting that the Great Mothers picked up the “stink of Jedi” on Sabine, but seemed surprised to learn that Baylan was one. That tells me that he’s moved further from the Light than even he realizes. His attitude about the Order, his plan, and what he’s training Shin to be struck me as incredibly arrogant. I suspect that he is not going to like the thing he is looking for when he finally finds it (especially when it kills him).
Anybody else thing we’re going to find out that most, if not all, of Thrawn’s stormtroopers are Nightsister zombies like Marrok? They give the sense of their armor being repaired in the state that it was when they died.
Lastly, Jane Edwina Seymour has had quite the year playing scary space ladies: first she was the Borg Queen in Picard, now one of the Great Mothers. Good gig if you can get it.
First things first. That shot of the Star Destroyer Chimaera descending on the skies? Yikes! This is the first time since 1977 that they crafted a shot of a Star Destroyer that’s truly frightening. And talk about that chilling score by Kevin Kiner. Something out of a horror movie. Loved it.
Second, the Star Destroyer stands on top of a very tall spire building on Peridea. That building is eerily reminiscent of something called “The Hand of Thrawn“, a fortress that served as Thrawn’s personal base on the planet Nirauan and was created by Timothy Zahn for the 1998 book “Vision of the Future” – part two of the final duology of the SW Bantha Spectre book era and possibly my all-time favorite SW novel. That’s the novel in which Mara Jade is forced to sacrifice her ship by crashing into the Hand of Thrawn and where Luke finally proposes to her.
Third, Grand Admiral Thrawn himself. The voice is pitch-perfect. Although I felt Mikkelsen is a little too heavy-set for the character. My first exposure to Thrawn was playing 1994’s TIE Fighter on PC. On the game’s cutscenes, Thrawn looked slim and small by comparison. But otherwise, Mikkelsen nails the way he moves, his commanding presence, the way he instantly distrusts Baylan and Shin. This is a near-perfect live-action introduction to the character.
I was joyed to see Sabine and Ezra reunite. Speaking of which, Ezra is yet another perfect live-action rendition of the character. Older, but still the same playful and optmistic Padawan. I only started watching Rebels after it came to Disney+, which means I only finished it back in early 2021, mid-pandemic. And given how happy I was to see the two Rebel brothers reunite after this long, I can only imagine what it must have been like for fans who hadn’t seen Rebels since 2018. Five long years.
And Baylan Skoll shows his true colors. Not surprised, but definitely intrigued. I’m assuming his desire to end the cycle isn’t the same as Kylo Ren’s attempted seduction of Rey with his whole “kill the past speech” (which ultimately went nowhere thanks to that trilogy’s haphazard storytelling). I’m so aching for a Order 66 flashback involving Skoll’s POV (and just how old is Shin by the way? Did she witness the massacre back in ROTS? Questions. Questions).
I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again. It feels so refreshing to have a live-action version of Star Wars written with this much confidence. You can tell everything has a purpose, and it never feels random or contradictory. This is a result of Filoni understanding a major aspect of Star Wars writing that came from George Lucas: plot matters. You have to give plot the same level of attention as character. Otherwise, you have a disaster like Rise of Skywalker (you can tell Abrams, Johnson and company didn’t). That’s not to say character can’t come first – Andor did it beautifully. But you can’t lose the plot. SW is after all based on old movie serials that always came down to elaborate plots and cliffhangers.
Weirdly enough, the “previously on” segment implied we were getting Hera scenes dealing with the consequences of disobeying Republic orders on this episode, but instead we got an episode 100% focused on the new galaxy.
@7 Chase. I also suspect Thrawn’s minions are Nightsister-created zombies. And Marrok existed to foreshadow that development.
I liked everything about this one, especially Sabine’s battle, loyal mount and new hermit crab pals. And of course Ezra. And I have no idea where Baylan’s story is going, which is great!
@7/Chase: “Anybody else thing we’re going to find out that most, if not all, of Thrawn’s stormtroopers are Nightsister zombies like Marrok? They give the sense of their armor being repaired in the state that it was when they died.”
I didn’t get that sense. It’s evidently been a number of years, and the ship was damaged when the purrgil took it, so a lot of the armor and gear probably sustained damage and has further deteriorated over time, without any way to replace it from Imperial stores. So they’ve had to mend it as well as they could.
On the other hand, Enoch did have a weird voice treatment, so there could be something Nightsistery there. But I hope not. I mean, Thrawn’s defining attributes are his calculating, intellectual insight, his measured confidence, and his eye for art. Turning him into “master of a creepy zombie army” would be too big a departure.
@8/Eduardo: “and just how old is Shin by the way?”
I’d been assuming she was born years after the fall of the Jedi, but then I remembered that Ezra was born the day the Empire was founded, and Sabine is two years older. So if Shin’s about their age, she may have been an infant at the time the Temple fell. But they did say she’d never been in it.
@9/Alan: I don’t think the “hermit crab” analogy works, since the Noti’s shells are apparently parts of their bodies; the baby had one too. Although that does make me wonder very much how their clothes work.
I’m curious if your use if the of the word “clock” in that way is a reference to some other media? You did it twice in consecutive sentences and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone else do it.
@10 Christopher – To be fair, ‘Turning him into “master of a creepy zombie army”’ is kind of a more extreme version of what he was using the Mad Jedi clone for in the original Thrawn trilogy.
@11 Would that be “clock” as meaning something like becoming aware of or recognizing what something really is? If so, it’s just a new usage. I first ran into it a couple of years ago on Critical Role, but I’ve seen it a lot since then. Checking right now, I find a bunch of variations showing up on Urban Dictionary.
Baylan has obviously never read The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries…
Maxim 29: The enemy of my enemy is my enemy’s enemy. No more. No less.
@11 – Unless the article has been edited, there is only one usage of “clocks.” I thought the usage to be self-evident; it means he becomes aware of or senses the danger Skoll represents.
@12/FourDs: “Clock” in the sense of “recognize” or “notice” has been part of British slang for nearly a century, though it’s caught on more recently in the US: https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/clock-new-senses-verb-usage
@12 Yes that’s exactly the usage I’m talking about, I’d never heard it before, although I understood the intent just fine. Just thought it might have come from some other source like “grok.”
A legit good episode! This was the first episode that I connected to and it really felt liked it worked on every level. The new Nightsisters lore is pretty great and made it feel like they are building the universe again like they did back in Clone Wars or Rebels, instead of falling back on nostalgia to carry the episode.
The new threats on the board are actually interesting. And the space dog energy was just delightful. More space dogs, please!
I just really wish we could have had more filler episodes in between, just to give the characters more time to breathe. The quiter moments from Rebels are really missing here. Also give us more Zeb.
First things first – Ahsoka and Huyang’s dialogue contains the following: “History of the Galaxy, parts 1, 2, and 3. Part 1 being the best, of course.” Combined with the “Long Time Ago” line, I think it’s safe to say this is also a meta line. So now the debate may commence – is the meta inference that the original trilogy is the best, or that the prequels are?
On to business. I cannot express my excitement when the Chimera appeared and the organ music kicked in. Based on Thrawn’s appearance along with his ship and crew, I get the feeling that he doesn’t wear his full uniform often – he was never one to stand on formality or ceremony, and I wouldn’t be surprised if in the absence of the Empire he relaxed his standards of appearance. The parade was likely calculated to impress Lady Elsbeth.
Ezra was excellent. Of all the recast roles so far, his is the most like the animated version.
My biggest complaint would be we don’t let the fact that we’re in a new Galaxy sink in. We exit hyperspace and boom! We’re at Peridia. I would have greatly appreciated at least a few shots establishing the alien-ness of the new environment. I also wasn’t a fan of the “Thrawn!” chant by the stormtroopers. Made it feel too like a cult, which Thrawn never gave the impression of.
Of all the Star Wars tv shows, this is the one I feel really needs more episodes. Even two more episodes would give time for my above mentioned issues with the “hurray we’re here! Oh and here’s the right planet! Oh and here’s Thrawn!” to be resolved.
Also, did anyone else see the Nightsister citadel and think “Minas Tirith!”?
@18/Ecthelion: “So now the debate may commence – is the meta inference that the original trilogy is the best, or that the prequels are?”
I was thinking maybe it meant the original film was the best of its trilogy. Or maybe the line was written as it should have been, as something that had in-story meaning first and was an in-joke second, rather than being exclusively an in-joke. In-story, Ahsoka and Huyang were talking about the earliest legends of galactic history, so it worked in context for Ahsoka to find the oldest part of the saga to be her favorite.
“My biggest complaint would be we don’t let the fact that we’re in a new Galaxy sink in. We exit hyperspace and boom! We’re at Peridia. I would have greatly appreciated at least a few shots establishing the alien-ness of the new environment.”
While, granted, SW is fantasy, there’s no astronomical reason why one galaxy should look that different from the inside than any other galaxy of a similar type.
@19 I didn’t mean the new Galaxy would look different, just that they could have emphasized through various means that we are in an unfamiliar environment – an extended shot of the Eye of Sion by itself away from any planet would have done the trick.
Speaking of imagery. The Star Destroyer inserting the phallic tower into its womb had an even more precise juxtaposition. Those pods they were loading into its hold, were dead bodies to be resurrected as new soldiers; think eggs waiting to be fertilized by the Nightsisters. I suspect that is what animates his stormtroopers and the recently deceased Marrock.
Am I the only one who thought the crab people (noti) looked like the Harfoots from Rings of Power? Small people that hide and move around.
Star Wars just arrived in a alternate version of the Lord of the Rings galaxy.
Also I should call them rock lobsters.
Solidly echo everyone’s satisifed sentiments above regarding this episodes impact, mystery, and overall appeal.
i remain hopeful Filoni will restore Ahsoka’s charm, positivity, and relatability. i accept the annoyed, knows-better, jaded version comes from the suggested causes ( unresolved-Vader-fight, unresolved-Sabine-training, unresolved politics of a unhelpful/dysfunctional New Republic, etc. ). I miss the Ahsoka as Fulcrum or in Coruscant/1313 bowels helping others, or pondering the Mystic Condor-stuff…
Anyone else think the presence that Baylan Skoll alludes to, the power beyond the cyclical good & evil sides of the Force/Whills/Midi-c’s, is the Bendu, having left Lothal?
@23 -I was actually pondering that earlier! Wondering of the Bendu would return, or not. Which may mean that this is not going to go how Baylan thinks.
I suppose theoretically it could be related to the Whills as well.
I did not realize that the usage of ‘clock’ to recognize/assess something was an unfamiliar usage – I feel like I’ve always been aware of/used it in that way! Probably picked it up in a book or something.
I hadn’t realized that was Claudia Black; I went back and watched it and now wonder how I missed it, hah.
The plot elements of this show are still not really congealing for me. Sabine meeting Thrawn is the first time in the series where two opposing characters with history have actually met, and for all the buildup the interaction itself is pretty brief and ends abruptly (though I agree, at least Sabine finally sounds like herself again.) Baylan Skoll’s characterization is still thin; Stevenson did what he could here but there’s not a lot to work with. And I don’t think Ahsoka and Thrawn even know each other, so there is very little at stake in any future confrontations between them. Also yes, traveling to a new galaxy is very underwhelming here–you just pop out after a little while and see another badlands Star Wars planet huh?
The way Thrawn was used in Rebels always bothered me, and I have a feeling it will continue to bother me here. Timothy Zahn wrote his novels very cleverly; he was aware of some of the limitations of translating Star Wars to the page, and Thrawn was one his answers. We got to see him operate from over his shoulder, and see exactly why he was a threat: he thought through his opponents’ mindsets, anticipated their moves, and acted against them before they even knew they were acting. When he lost, it wasn’t because he was foolish or outmaneuvered, merely outmatched.
That portrayal never quite made it to Rebels. He has the trappings of the novel character–an appreciation for art; a reliance on (or manipulation of) mystics; an appreciation for sticking to the letter of his word. But he doesn’t have the menace that the show is trying to invoke. It is hard to imagine this guy who got taken out by a kid and some space whales actually being a galactic threat.
@25/Colin R: “Timothy Zahn wrote his novels very cleverly; he was aware of some of the limitations of translating Star Wars to the page, and Thrawn was one his answers. We got to see him operate from over his shoulder, and see exactly why he was a threat: he thought through his opponents’ mindsets, anticipated their moves, and acted against them before they even knew they were acting. When he lost, it wasn’t because he was foolish or outmaneuvered, merely outmatched.”
Maybe that’s true of the original Thrawn trilogy (though I lost interest in it after book 2), but I didn’t care for Zahn’s approach to Thrawn in the “new canon” trilogy. His mistake there was making Thrawn the viewpoint character. A master chess player who’s five steps ahead of everyone else and never makes a mistake is an effective antagonist, but a boring protagonist, because there was no suspense about whether he’d succeed and no journey of growth he had to go on. I lost interest in that trilogy after book 2 as well.
“But he doesn’t have the menace that the show is trying to invoke.”
I dunno, I thought Rebels Thrawn was pretty effective at posing a challenge to the heroes and forcing them to raise their game. Having him steal Hera’s family heirloom was a nice way to make it a personal conflict and to underline the exploitative, imperialistic form his “art appreciation” took.
@26 / CLB:
Maybe that’s true of the original Thrawn trilogy (though I lost interest in it after book 2), but I didn’t care for Zahn’s approach to Thrawn in the “new canon” trilogy. His mistake there was making Thrawn the viewpoint character. A master chess player who’s five steps ahead of everyone else and never makes a mistake is an effective antagonist, but a boring protagonist, because there was no suspense about whether he’d succeed and no journey of growth he had to go on. I lost interest in that trilogy after book 2 as well.
Yeah, that was always the joy and wisdom of using Pellaeon as the Watson to Thrawn’s Holmes.
I can understand Zahn going a different route with the new canon (esp. as Pellaeon wasn’t his to re-canonize at the time). But yeah, getting inside Thrawn’s head was a misstep.
I have to agree with those who have found the “alienness” of the new galaxy lackluster… I know it’s just one planet, but it feels boring, empty and lifeless in a bad way. Yes, it was the seat of a powerful dark side users’ kingdom, but aside from the statues you don’t see anything remotely interesting anywhere outside the fortress. It would have been cool to get an approach similar to the art direction Shadow of the Collossus had, where you are left with enough weird scattered pieces to puzzle thing in your head (did the proto-sisters die, flee, migrate, decay, etc.? Are the 3 mothers the only ones there?). The only hint we get that this place has anything interesting going on is Baylan’s comment. We see there’s tech here (the bandits’ armors, the crabby peoples’ stuff) but unless this galaxy has space travel (and it’s with folks with very similar aesthetical sensibilities to the other galaxy), this place doesn’t seems very “industrial” tbh.
And speaking of force users… I would have expected them at least to have some sort of reaction to the new galaxy! People go to Dagobah and are all “oooohhhh… tis place is super focry”; a placet is blown up and force users in hyperspace can feel the loss… but suddenly you are a crapton of parsecs away from everything you know and it’s just “neat, look, some Skyrim looking grasslands and a bunch of Nightsisters, whatever…”. Getting something out of the not-jedi (or even a reaction from Sbine!) would have been a nice and cheap way to make this a bit more meaningful.
And speaking of meningful… Neither of the big two (re)encounters felt very deep to be honest. Sabine and Thrawn felt very flat and Sabine and Ezra was rather dull, even a bit anticlimatic. Would it have killed them to cut a bit of the banther between Sabine and the Howler (which actually felt stupid and made Sabine look really dumb and mean) and allocate more time to Thrawn, and to Ezra/Sabine?
Honestly this felt like a super weak episode, especially after the previous one. Where that one provided interesting challenges and growth possibilities for Ahsoka, well-made fan-service, and even though no one “went” anywhere it moved things forward; this one was basically “they arrived; let’s sprinkle some mitery-sounding tidbits here and there so we can use them later, and provide some fancervice. Oh, and here’s Ezra real quick!” This should have been an episode filled with interesting things, but it felt like stuff happened just in order to happen. Nightsisters are from another galaxy and have been guiding Morgan? Shure! Thrawn has some sort of power (or deal) over them? Just put it there!
Maybe the only intelligent and justified thing in the whole episode was Thrawn saying that untill they have proof, they should treat Ahsoka as alive. They should have shown more of that sort of behaviour if they want to show a new audience wy Thrawn is such a menace. This, in my opinion, felt too much like those rather hollow episodes from the Kenobi show. At least it looked good! And I’m all for the idea someone mentioned above, about the stormtroopers actually beign (at least some of them) undead or mended.
I’d say this could be the most Star Wars thing I’ve seen in years too, since the better parts of early Mandalorian.
Unfortunately, Sabine’s fight with the locals was sloppily choreographed (or sloppily executed). I also felt her body language and dialogue with both the beast and Ezra were quite mannered and stagy, fetching as Natasha Liu Bordizzo may be. Speaking of fetching, I remain close to hypnotized by Ray Stevenson’s beard as Skoll and fascinated too by Ivanna Sakhno’s whole Scandinavian asylum-inmate look as Shin Hati.
I guess if you already have ships named Phoenix and Chimaera — or even people named Luke, Hera, and Enoch — it’s not too weird for the Great Mothers’ names to be modeled on the Greek Fates’ but… it’s weird for the Great Mothers’ names to be modeled on the Greek Fates’. (Due to watching the credits all the way through, I saw their names at the end and kinda rolled my eyes.)
Not as laughable as Roy Thomas naming a pseudo-Jedi Don-Wan Kihotay in Marvel’s original Star Wars run, I grant you (nor as flat-out gobsmacking as the sight of that Star Destroyer penetrating itself with the Night Sisters’ obelisk).
I have no prior experience with Thrawn, and I’m glad if his entrance worked for those who do, but seeing his procession through the stormtroopers as shot from the neck down for suspense I found his plump gut rather less than imposing, although I don’t mean to either body-shame or ignore how those in high station have often been portrayed as physically soft as a sign of plenitude.
The usage of “clock” under discussion here always struck me as being a casual elision from the military/tactical metaphor of referring to one’s surroundings as number placements on a clock: “Bogey at two o’clock,” “I have your six,” etc.
@2. CLB: “so a character that looks different but sounds right works better for me than one who looks right but sounds different”
Yep. For me too. Gary Cole sounded so eerily like Robert Reed in the Brady Bunch movies it freaked me out.