Warning: this text accommodates full spoilers for Star Wars: Ahsoka – Episode 4! For those who haven’t already, you’ll want to take a look at IGN’s evaluate of “Fallen Jedi.”
Star Wars: Ahsoka is an actual dream come true for Star Wars Rebels followers. The sequence is the primary to star Rosario Dawson because the titular former Jedi, and it additionally serves because the live-action debut for fan-favorites like Nasha Liu Bordizzo’s Sabine Wren and Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Hera Syndulla. For higher or worse, Ahsoka is as a lot Rebels: Season 5 as it’s a standalone Star Wars sequence.
Nowhere is that connection extra obvious than in Episode 4, which encompasses a second of reality for Sabine and the shock look of a real Star Wars icon. Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker is again, and his return is strictly what Star Wars: Ahsoka wanted because it reaches the midway mark. Let’s take a more in-depth take a look at why Anakin’s look is so significant for the sequence and the way it ties again to one of many greatest unfastened ends from Rebels.
Ahsoka and Anakin’s Reunion
Issues aren’t precisely going Ahsoka’s approach by the tip of “Fallen Jedi.” This episode ends with Sabine caving to Baylan Skoll’s malign affect and Ahsoka herself being knocked off a cliff. The ultimate scene exhibits that Ahsoka isn’t fairly useless, however she’s shut sufficient that her consciousness has returned to a spot with particular significance for Rebels followers – the World Between Worlds.
We’ll get to the significance of the World Between Worlds shortly, however the greatest shock right here is that Ahsoka is greeted by none aside from the spirit of her outdated grasp, Anakin. It’s a second followers have been ready for ever since Christensen’s involvement within the sequence was first teased.
Ahsoka is an uncommon character in that she’s among the many hottest Star Wars heroes regardless of by no means having appeared in a live-action film (we’re probably not counting Ashley Eckstein’s vocal cameo in The Rise of Skywalker). Up until now, Ahsoka’s story has primarily unfolded within the animated realm in exhibits like Rebels and The Clone Wars. The Clone Wars exhibits the integral function Ahsoka performed within the large battle between the Republic and the Separatists, however the sequence was all the time compelled to bop between the raindrops of the prequel films. So far as Assault of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith would have us consider, Anakin by no means had a Padawan of his personal.
Seeing Ahsoka make the bounce to live-action has felt like a validation of the character and her integral function within the saga. Besides, one thing was all the time lacking. Her transition from animation to live-action was by no means going to be full with out an acknowledgment of her all-important relationship with Anakin. Seeing her communing with Anakin’s son Luke in The E book of Boba Fett was a begin, nevertheless it wasn’t fairly sufficient. This sequence wanted a scene between Dawson’s Ahsoka and Christensen’s Anakin to finish her whirlwind journey.
Due to “Fallen Jedi,” we lastly have that scene. We’ve now been capable of see Dawson and Christensen give life to that essential Ahsoka/Anakin relationship. We even get to listen to Christensen’s Anakin use Ahsoka’s nickname, Snips. For The Clone Wars followers, that second alone could justify your complete sequence. It invokes seven seasons’ price of triumph, failure and heartbreak in only a handful of phrases.
Better of all, Christensen’s look on the finish of Episode 4 is clearly only a prelude to a bigger reunion sequence between the 2 characters. That is no mere cameo, however a part of one thing larger and really significant for Ahsoka. Drive Ghosts have a tendency to seem solely once they’re wanted most, and Ahsoka clearly wants Anakin proper now. Ahsoka telling Baylan Skoll that she doesn’t wish to dwell on the previous is ironic, as a result of that’s clearly all she does. She’s nonetheless haunted by the end result of the Clone Wars and her failure to save lots of her grasp. Even years after the autumn of the Empire, she received’t enable herself to calm down and put up roots wherever. She’s merely a wandering ronin, locked in a one-woman quest to cease a warfare which will or could not ever come.
Anakin’s presence here’s a approach of forcing Ahsoka to confront her previous and are available to phrases with their shared failures. She will be able to lastly make peace with what occurred to Anakin and study to stay within the current once more. The Ahsoka/Anakin reunion is sure to be one of many emotional throughlines of your complete sequence, very similar to how Vader’s “unmasking” within the Obi-Wan Kenobi sequence anchored that present. It’s no coincidence that each scenes focus on bringing Christensen’s character again into the fold. Ahsoka, like Obi-Wan, is a personality who can solely transfer ahead after placing the autumn of Anakin Skywalker behind her.
The World Between Worlds
As a lot as Anakin’s return is a pivotal and essential improvement for Ahsoka, this scene can be important as a result of it brings again the World Between Worlds. Ahsoka’s brush with loss of life has by some means allowed her to return to this unusual realm that was first launched in Rebels Season 4.
For individuals who want a refresher, the World Between Worlds is a mystical, Drive-infused realm that exists outdoors of time and house and accommodates many doorways to completely different cut-off dates. Ezra Bridger traveled there and succeeded in pulling Ahsoka into the World Between Worlds simply earlier than what would have been her loss of life on Malachor. Collectively, the 2 battled Emperor Palpatine, who was making an attempt to faucet into the ability of the World Between Worlds, after which returned to their respective timelines. Due to this realm, Star Wars has opened the door to time journey.
The World Between Worlds is well the largest unfastened finish from Rebels. It’s launched towards the very finish of the sequence and by no means absolutely defined. Furthermore, there’s rather a lot we don’t learn about Ahsoka’s story in between returning to the temple on Malachor and resurfacing in The Mandalorian. The place did she go? Was she nonetheless out of fee through the top of the Rise up? When precisely did she first meet Luke Skywalker? What’s the actual nature of Ahsoka’s connection to the World Between Worlds?
Clearly, a whole lot of questions nonetheless stay unanswered, and Star Wars: Ahsoka has the chance to place them to relaxation. Episode 5 is not going to solely give us extra of the Ahsoka/Anakin reunion, however hopefully deal with among the burning questions surrounding the World Between Worlds and what it means for Star Wars to embrace the idea of time journey.
The return of the World Between Worlds additionally reveals simply how related among the ideas on this sequence are. If Anakin can manifest on this realm, then it means that Drive Ghosts are by some means intrinsically linked to the World Between Worlds. It’s a realm outdoors of time, so these Jedi highly effective sufficient to retain their consciousness after loss of life can journey there.
The imagery of the World Between Worlds is pointedly just like the star map Morgan Elsbeth is utilizing to chart a course to a different galaxy. The “witchcraft” practiced by the Nightsisters appears essentially related to the World Between Worlds. That’s seemingly why the Nightsisters can accomplish feats even Darth Sidious couldn’t, similar to reanimating the useless (like poor Marrok). The World Between Worlds guarantees so as to add a complete new layer of mythology to the Drive, and Ahsoka is lastly tapping into that potential.
For extra on Star Wars: Ahsoka, learn the way the sequence may very well be organising Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and study what makes Ezra Bridger so essential to the sequence.
Jesse is a mild-mannered workers author for IGN. Enable him to lend a machete to your mental thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
