WARNING: SPOILERS LIE AHEAD FOR CHAPTER 13 OF THE MANDALORIAN, IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE EPISODE, GO BACK AND WATCH IT!
This is the way.
That was the best episode of the series so far. It’s going to be incredibly difficult for Jom Favreau and Dave Filoni to top that one.
Well we didn’t have to wait long for that arrival, did we. And GOOD GOD does she look good.
I’m of course talking about Ahsoka Tano in live action. Rosario Dawson might have been the perfect choice to bring out the life of Tano. The rumors and speculation were all true. We even got a Michael Biehn sighting. Just not in the role that we all probably wanted.
Starting off with the less obvious aspects of the episode, because this one is going to be all about Ahsoka for Star Wars fans. Corvus is a descriptive and decrepit planet. Very much like a dying Dagobah, the Imperial presence here is seen. The Imperial base is juxtaposed with the barren, deforested planet. The entire vibe of the Imperials here is much more menacing and creepy than any of the others we’ve seen. They capture and torture the citizens of Corvus. Finally, the “Stormtroopers” of this planet have strange gas masks and breath differently. It all adds up to a great aesthetic for the entire episode.
So I Thought That The Last Episode Dropped Some Knowledge Bombs
Ahsoka Tano would be the easiest and most logical bomb for the writers to drop on us. But oh no, we get more. We get Ahsoka Tano, we get Beskar tanking lightsaber strikes, AND The Child’s name? Grogu (spelling?). So now all the people who were whining about him getting called Baby Yoda, can finally rest. The Child has a name. Grogu is an adorable fit for an adorable creature.
Oh I think I actually forgot one more knowledge bomb. Admiral Thrawn.
Yeah, that Admiral Thrawn.
I mentioned it before, but this was simply the best piece of Star Wars that we’ve gotten since the Disney acquisition. Rogue One was incredible. I really like The Force Awakens. The Last Jedi is flawed, but I think it’s good. Rise of Skywalker had to close up an entire nine-movie saga that is basically a religion, so I give it a pass. The seventh season of The Clone Wars was choppy, but also good. This episode of The Mandalorian is what Star Wars is all about.
Take Those Nit-Picks And Shove Them
We waited for so long to see a live-action Ahsoka Tano. This appearance, however brief, was well worth that wait and then some. For the people that wanted Ashley Eckstein to do the role, I’m sorry, but Rosario Dawson took it and made it her own. Dave Filoni should have already had a Star Wars movie or trilogy for him to spread his creative wings with. This was forty-five minutes of pure bliss.
Let’s run through just why this was so fantastic.
1. It Was Well Paced
We’ve had some pretty short episodes so far in season two of The Mandalorian. Some have just barely passed the thirty minute mark. This one was a whole forty-five minutes, and none of it was wasted. No unnecessary sub-plots, no wasted space. We meet Ahsoka before the titles drop. Making us wait the entire episode to see her would have been cheap and this was the best way they could do it.
2. We Learned SO MUCH
We learned The Child’s name, we learned his backstory. Now we know that he’s not a Clone. Grogu was training to be a Jedi before the fall of the Republic. Then there’s a big gap, that gap could be key to the story of The Mandalorian. We learned that Beskar can tank a lightsaber hit and keep ticking. That’s good to know for the future or the past of Star Wars.
The sight of the remnants of the Empire are in full force here. It’s more mercenary force than well-oiled machine in certain places in the Galaxy. Finally, we get a parallel to Rebels and the Legends universe with Admiral Thrawn’s name being dropped.
3. Samurai And Western Action
The scene where Ahsoka is fighting Elspeth and the showdown between Michael Biehn and Mando is perfect. You get your Samurai-inspired weapon combat and then you get a high-noon style showdown. I love Michael Biehn here. You might know him as heroic roles in Aliens and Terminator, but he plays a perfect sleazy merc in “The Jedi”. His final moments are pure Western nostalgia.
That whole section of the episode had me captivated beyond belief and I just want more of it. I don’t normally rewatch these episodes more than a couple times, but I have a feeling that I’m going to be watching this one tens of times after.
Where Do We Go From Here With The Mandalorian?
Well we still have our confrontation with Moff Gideon and his supersoldiers from the last episode. There’s also the wrinkle of the Darksaber. Ahsoka Tano refuses to train Grogu at the end of the day. So she refers Mando to another place where Grogu can find his own path. Where will that path lead to? With them name dropping Admiral Thrawn, could Ezra Bridger be the one that answers that call?
Kyle Katarn perhaps? WHO KNOWS. That’s what makes this show so great. We expect something, and it blows that expectation out of the water. We all knew that Ahsoka was going to be in this episode, but I don’t think anyone expected it to be like this. If this was a “test run” for the character to get her own show, she passed with flying colors. Just get it over with LucasFilm. Give Ahsoka Tano her own show or movie or whatever.
Outside of that, we have three more episodes left in the season. So we’ll have to see where we go. Topping this one is going to be impossible, so we’ll all have to reset our expectations for the final three episodes of the season.
This is the way.
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