Ahsoka Ahsoka Episode 1.08 (SEASON FINALE!!!) - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

There may be a bit of a time jump in the episodes of Ashoka.

Or Morgan was detained for a bit post capture for questioning by the military before being given up for a proper trial.

Baylan and Shin showed up when Morgan was in route for transfer to another ship. That might have been their first opportunity to retrieve her.

 

The opening scroll says Morgan is being transported to stand trial. She wasn't being transported directly from Corvus. Charges would have to be filed, arraignments and bail hearings done, attorneys hired, depositions taken, pre-trial conferences held, plea bargains done and getting on the court calendar. That could easily take months.

 

I would very much rather the character of Baylan be recast than simply implying what he did and have the aforementioned characters tell us what he was up to but MAN OH MAN can I totally see Filoni doing the former over the latter.

Yup, the GFFA was in a better place before our heroes got involved. Like its been said before the new galaxy feels more like a parking lot/waiting room where characters are sent to sit on the bench for a while until they're needed later. At the beginning of the season Ezra was trapped in the new galaxy. Now he's free but Ahsoka and Sabine are trapped in the same place? Great job team! But wait! All of this is meant to happen because...I don't know...Ahsoka and Sabine need to be on Peridea to stop Baylan from doing...something? Except that Baylan's only on Peridea because Sabine failed to keep the map safe in the first place and then chose to give the map to Baylan instead of destroying it.

Speaking of the new galaxy, the writers had a huge opportunity to show how Ezra was affected by being marooned in a far off galaxy with seemingly no chance of escape. They could've showed how much of a struggle that was for Ezra to endure. Instead he was totally chill and in very healthy shape. It's like if Tom Hank's character in Castaway looked and acted the same way after being stuck on the island as he did at the beginning of the movie.

It was all super easy. Barely an inconvenience! On a related note, that scene where Ahsoka, Erza, and Sabine waltzed in the front door of the bad guy HQ and then stood there in plain site twirling their lightsabers as the Night Troopers shot at them looked VERY silly to me and did NOT feel like they were in any real danger. On that note...

Yes, it felt very ridiculous that our heroes didn't dismember any of the zombie Night Troopers but instead kept poking them with their lightsabers only for them to get back up and continue lumbering after them.

Yes and...

Yes! I have a feeling that Thrawn is going to be largely off the New Republic's radar. Ezra's eye witness account of Thrawn escaping will be hand waved away by Xiono who will prevent the NR from chasing after Thrawn, who might never leave the area in and around Dathomir. Since Xiono will refuse to believe that Thrawn is a threat, (which might explain why the OT heroes don't spring into action), eventually all the heroes from the Ahsoka show will team up with the heroes from the Mandalorian and say, "well since the NR isn't doing anything about Thrawn I guess we have to take him out" and then they do but then years later...somehow Palpatine returns.

 

Should have shown him get off the Chimaera. And should not have been in Stormtrooper armor when he showed up at the NR fleet. He would have had to contact them on coms and announce who he is. Even with that I could see security being in the hangar considering they can't confirm who he is and the ship he is on.

 

I am wishy washy on this season as a whole and the finale in particular.

I loved it at first and then started nitpicking it and am in a "liked it but with a lot of reservations" kind of place. It was a weird show. Started out slow but got really good in the middle... then kind of fizzled rather than popped.

I feel like the lack of a writer's room on these favreau/filoni shows hurts them. They're trying to do Lucas star wars (and when it works, it's absolutely awesome but when it doesnt...) but they aren't Lucas. He would take big swings knowing a lot of fans might hate them. Favreau and filoni are playing it much safer. I feel like these shows, if they had the polished storytelling/dialog that andor did, would be satisfying. But without them, they often feel oddly flat.

Sabine's character arc is poorly written in my opinion and her heroic moment is unearned in my opinion. (I don't have a problem with a "muggle" learning to use the force but that massively powerful force push felt too much to me...) she never even has the moment where she tells Ezra what she did to reach him which should have been a huge character moment considering she basically undid his sacrifice.

We never learn anything about Ezra and thrawn over the past 10 years, ahsoka's arc seems weird when you place it within the mando shows (her happiness about anakin with Luke feels like it would have taken place after her near death experience but it is before that when she hadn't reconciled with anakin?)

I don't know... I loved peridea and I loved baylan and shin... and I think Eman esfandi nailed Ezra. But there's a lot that left me kind of empty...

 

A decent finale to watch, although I cannot imagine Filoni was allowed to write this without a blood spilled guarantee of a second season.

 

What, you didn't think it was impressive that this brilliant military genius couldn't figure out how to stop three people from galloping up to his front door and barging in?

YES! The one thing I wanted the most of all from the finale was some clarity about what the heck Baylan was up to but as somebody that didn't watch the cartoons I was completely baffled by what Baylan standing in front of a statue was supposed to mean. I still don't know what it means. I guess I'll have to watch a thirty minute Screencrush video to find out what Baylan's five second scene was supposed to convey.

The New Republic still letting an Imperial ship land after Baylan and Shin Hati slaughtered a whole ship full of people is peak New Republic stupidity. The NR continues to let Imperial ships dock on their cruisers but they won't sign off on Hera preparing for Thrawn's return. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Also, this scene made zero logical sense and is only in there so that Ezra can dramatically reveal to Hera that he's back.

I don't know what will be worse, either 1) Thrawn coming back and avoiding the New Republic so that Xiono can continue to say, "Thrawn's fake news! He's not back" or 2) Thrawn does attack the New Republic and the New Republic STILL continues to maintain a tiny military after Thrawn's defeat because despite Thrawn coming back the NR still thinks the Empire won't come back and then we get the First Order.

But it's only telling if you know what the heck Dathomir is and what its significance is. If you didn't watch the cartoons or play the video games, "for Dathomir" doesn't really land that powerfully. I know, (at least I think I know) that Dathomir was Morgan's home planet but that's all I know.

I'm fighting a losing battle. The fact of reality is that I'm not going to get what I need out of the Ahsoka live action stories because I didn't watch the cartoons. Maybe Star Wars isn't for me anymore. I'm probably going to skip Skeleton Crew and the Acolyte and just stick to Andor season two. Cue up the celebration! I won't be around to complain about the next two Star Wars shows. You're welcome everybody!

 

And yet, his episode has the most clunky action scenes of the whole season, even more than in Part 7

For me this episode could have been elevated to the epicness of Parts 4-5-6 if someone else had directed it. The only action scenes I really liked were the one with Sabine destroying the two TIE fighters, and then when all three of them were riding through the hellfire of lasers and into Moria's gate.

All the scenes with the Night Troopers and with Elsbeth made it impossible for me to suspend disbelief. Ezra should have been killed at least 2-3 times, Sabine another couple, and the moment where all the Night Troopers stop shooting at Ahsoka when she's fighting with Morgan Elsbeth was almost a facepalm moment.

Having said that, it was a good episode overall. The ending leaves much to be desired, but I presume that was the point. Based on what journey they're now on, I think Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati appeared as much as they probably should have. Since they did not interfere with the whole Thrawn mess, there was no reason to have them appear longer in the episode. But I do wish we had gotten a bit more information about Baylan Skoll.

The really good part of Ahsoka (the show) is that it opened so many opportunities and ways to do more SW stories in the future. We will have to wait and see how these will take place, but I am really hoping for a 2nd Ahsoka season. I don't want all these storylines to be presented in a different show, or in a movie 4 years from now.

 

It all happens at the Night Sister tower but Sabin does start using Force powers. She helps open the door. Then she does a successful force pull on a light saber.

I did think the depiction of Ezra’s Force jump successfully split the difference between how that would have been animated on Rebels and how we see the Force in live action. There was a bit of a comic cartoon fall happening before Sabine gave him a push and the the comedy leveled out with the Stormtroopers.

 

It did feel abit like she went from not being able to do it to hey this is easy very quick. Which is probably the result of wanting her to unlock her powers in the final.

But trusting her to force push on her very first go.

 

She finally unlocked her potential. It seems she’s more powerful than Huyang thought. I thought it worked well.

 

I definitely rate this episode a 9/10. Not perfect by any means, probably a few too many ambiguous endings, and why didn't Hera get to hug Ezra?

I felt good watching this show, and as an avid viewer of the animated material, it was so wonderful to see some of the characters come to life in live action. A lot of heart and love went into making this series, and it shows. It completely exceeded my expectations!

I really got the feels when Ezra was making his lightsaber with Huyang. And Baylan standing on the Argonath...err the Mortis Statues, it was momentous.

Let's hope that Rick Famuyiwa is directing the movie all these series are supposed to lead into!

 

"Ultimately, the Daughter sacrificed her life in order to protect their Father from the Son, who tried to kill him using the Dagger of Mortis. Though mortally wounded, the Daughter used the last of her powers to help Skywalker save his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano. Afterward, she was buried with the Dagger that ended her life."

And in terms of Shin and Baylan -- well, they are still on the same planet...

 

She unlocked her potential when she finally started caring for something other than her own needs/desires. She could have followed Esra, but she did the right thing. And sacrificed that, to save Ahsoka. She finally opened up a bit.

If there's a S2, I just want the Force to start impacting her in more spiritual ways. Take away some of the too cool for school aloofness and replace it with genuine humbleness.

 

Mortis is a location in the GFFA, not in the same galaxy as Peridea.

So, if they are worshipped on Peridea, that is something from eons ago, when perhaps these three super beings in the Force were residents of that galaxy. So, there is actually no reason (to our knowledge at least) that the Perideans know about the Daughter's death. Plus, if they know about the Daughter's death, then they surely know that all 3 of those super beings died in the Mortis arc.

I think that the statue of the Daughter being destroyed is symbolic, and it means that Peridea (and perhaps that entire galaxy) is not in balance anymore. The dark side prevails, that's why everything seems so bleak and miserable.

I think Filoni will play a lot with combinations of George Lucas and Tolkien concepts and ideas about good and bad. He already has started to do that, and he will expand on "the great mystery" by showing us a lot more about the mystical aspect of the Force and what these super beings mean. I am 100% down with that. I would like to see Star Wars lore being expanded and give us a more complete idea of the Force, outside of how the Jedi and the Sith see it as.

RE: Sabine's Force abilities. We all knew it was going to happen. We all expected it. And the expectation of it may have made it "bothersome" for a minute, but it actually made sense. All she needed to see is her master trusting her to the fullest and supporting her to the fullest. As soon as that happened, she unlocked her potential. Which is still the smallest potential in the history of the Jedi, but good enough for a simple Force pull and a simple Force push. Those are the fundamentals. Using the Force is a mental type of work. Once you unlock it in your brain, you don't suddenly forget how to do it. She had already pulled the saber, so it makes sense that she knew exactly how to push Ezra.

 

I will be surprised if there is no season 2, definitely appears like there will be one. But with all the strikes going on it does not look like season 2 will be happening anytime soon. I like your analysis about Sabine using the force because she was acting selflessly to help Ezra and Ahsoka. In a way, this felt more like Sabines show than it did Ashokas show. She had a big arc throughout the show and has learned and changed a lot since episode 1.

 

I actually thought this was one of the weakest episodes. Anakin at the very end was a nice touch but it was only a couple seconds. I hated the zombie stormtroopers. Now we have zombies in Star Wars?? Please no.

 

I don't really see them as zombies. Zombies are the undead. These are more like mummies, beings who died, and are brought back with ancient magic. They even have red bandages.

 

We’ve had zombies (and zombie stormtroopers) for a long time

 

This is what I mean, yeah.

Baylan is after something real. But he's not literally the Father. He's not a Force God. Just as Ahsoka isn't literally the Daughter. In a metaphorical narrative sense, sure, these characters might be taking on these Force God roles. The ancient story is replaying itself on the galactic stage.

But at the end of the day, Baylan is after something very real. Something powerful that will reset the galaxy and bring about his new beginning.

 

That was pretty lame finally imo.
Ashoka is perfectly fine being stuck on that planet, knowing Thrawn made it back?
The Star Destroyer seriously couldn't hit anyone as they were riding those dogs right under it.
The Zombie Stormtrooper were pretty cool but we've kind of seen this before in The Clone Wars Season 4.

 

Not in live action though I guess. I guess it just seems like that sort of thing dsesnt fit into Star Wars for me, but to each their own.

 

What’s with the weird obsession with hugs?

It’s supposed to be an uncertain and bittersweet scene. Joy that Ezra is back but…where are Ahsoka and Sabine? Hera intuitively knows they didn’t make it back, not least due to Ezra’s expression. Perfectly done scene. Glad they didn’t go mawkishly sentimental with it as it’s not that kind of syrupy scene/ reunion. It’s a complicated one with highly mixed emotions. Great that you’re back, but…my other two friends are gone.