This is the episode we’ve been waiting for. No more tricks, no more turns, the episode we’ve been waiting for all season long, the introduction of Ahsoka Tano to the live action universe, is here. And it is… good although maybe not the groundbreaking episode people were hoping for.
Chapter 13 wastes no time getting into it with Ahsoka showing up in the opening moments so let’s not waste time and get to my thoughts.
*The opening scene is cool. I liked Ahsoka working as a guerilla warrior in the dark, striking from behind, systematically picking off the troopers.
*Visually Ahsoka looks great in live action and Rosario Dawson plays her quite well.
*It took 13 episodes before a lightsaber (I’m not counting the Darksaber) shows up in The Mandalorian and while I hope Ahsoka’s involvement is not just more than a fan service moment of the week, I do hope lightsabers don’t become more standard as the show progresses.
*The town is effectively grim looking and the difference between it and the magistrate’s keep is striking. A not so subtle reminder of how the regular populace struggles while the 1% thrives behind their walls.
*The Magistrate is effective, negotiating a deal with Din to kill the Jedi (that he is looking for). Her payment would be a spear of pure Beskar.
*Din and Ahsoka fight. It’s super quick but a lot happens and it’s all super effective. My problem though is that Din sits down The Child before Ahsoka attacks, she is a master of her surroundings and strikes effectively from the shadows. However, not until Din disarms the fights by calling her by name and saying that Bo Katan sent him that she seems to notice The Child. It’s a bit out of character for someone like Ahsoka, who is so thoughtful (in her animated appearances) with all her actions.
*Evidently The Child’s name is Grogu and well… that is not a great name. There was no hope of naming it something that everyone would like but Grogu is going to take some getting used to and currently, I don’t like it.
*Ahsoka claims to have only ever known one other being like The Child, that being Master Yoda. When I initially saw the episode I was mistaken with her wording because she should have been at the Jedi Temple as a youngling when Yaddle was a member of the Jedi High Council. However, she personally worked with Master Yoda so her wording is technically correct.
*Another issue I have here is that Din is supposedly bringing the kid to train as a Jedi with Ahsoka but Ahsoka is not a Jedi. She left the order. It’s a technicality but you’d think that people would be directing Din to Luke as he is openly a Jedi. Which compounds things even further, regardless of if it’s Ahsoka or Luke, this is now tying in to the Skywalker saga a bit more than I’d like. Why do we keep insisting on shrinking the universe?
*The assault on Calodon is excellently done. There is a great feel of a samurai epic here, which culminates in the battle between Ahsoka and the Magistrate.
*There is also maybe the best standoff in the series, that being between Din and the Magistrate’s second in command. It’s filled with great tension and while you know which way it was going to go, I still felt like maybe the guy wouldn’t be a total moron and just put down his gun and walk away.
*Thrawn gets name dropped. This implies to me that Ahsoka is still hunting for Ezra Bridger, who went missing at the end of the Rebels animated series with Grand Admiral Thrawn. Her commitment isn’t to what is happening in The Mandalorian.
*Ultimately this whole buildup to Ahsoka showing up has been a big nothingburger and just leaves more questions than answers. She’s not going to train the kid, who is going to stay with Din, and she has now given him yet another location to seek out.
All in all, it was a good episode and I liked seeing Ahsoka on screen, I actually think the last two episodes revealed more of the overarching plot than this one did, and this was the one we were all waiting for thinking it was going to bring with it answers. It brought an answer but to a question that I’m not sure anyone was asking. Whatever…
Anyway, I’m actually much more interested to see where the show is going in the last three episodes of this season now because I’m honestly not sure. Obviously it will have something to do with Gideon but what exactly is up in the air.
That’s it for me, what were your thoughts on this week’s episode?
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