In many respects, Ahsoka might well be regarded as the live-action sequel to Star Wars Rebels (Ahsoka plays out almost like Season 5 of Rebels). In this way, Ahsoka will no doubt be viewed as a love letter to fans of The Clone Wars and Rebels. However, for those who are not intimately familiar with characters and plot-lines established over a dozen or so animated seasons, Ahsoka will prove to be frustrating and difficult to understand.
Ahsoka begins with the unique return of the Star Wars scroll –albeit one with a dark red script a la the end of The Clone Wars. It is the era of the New Republic (several years after Return of the Jedi) and in spite of the newfound peace that has spread across the galaxy, “sinister agents” are now working to undermine political stability. Meanwhile, rumors are spreading of the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) has captured one of Thrawn’s allies, Morgan Elspeth (as featured in the Season 2 Mandalorian episode entitled “The Jedi”), and learned of a secret map which leads to Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn in another galaxy. This is the central macguffin of the show.
A sector G-38 ship under Captain Hayle is intercepted by an old Jedi clearance code and two robed figures appear, claiming to be Jedi. The two figures whip out lightsabers and announce they are actually “no Jedi” and that their names are Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson, who tragically passed away before the show was released, he died just four days before age 59 in 2023) and Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), sent to rescue Lady Morgan Elspeth. Meanwhile, Ahsoka and her droid Huyang (who appeared in The Clone Wars) have discovered a mysterious ancient temple on the planet Arcana built by the Nightsisters of Dathomir thousands of years ago where they find the orb-like “star map” that points the way to the last imperial grand admiral, Thrawn, who was once presumed dead after the Battle of Lothal (as featured at the end of Rebels). What is this map? Where did it come from? Answers are never given. But after locating the map Ahsoka is quickly surrounded by five droids. She easily defeats them before they initiate their self-destruct sequences. Ahsoka and Huyang narrowly escape and Ahsoka takes the star map to Sabine Wren –who was apparently the former padawan of Ahsoka? When did that happen? Anyway, we also see Hera Syndulla again (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, wife of Ewan McGregor) and Ryder Azadi who is the governor of Lothal now. However, unlike in the animated shows, characters like Sabine, Hera, and Ahsoka seem jaded, cold, distant, and stoic in this show.
At any rate, Sabine is quickly tracked by Shin and the star map is stolen from her (why in the world would Ahsoka simply allow Sabine to hang onto the star map in the first place?), while Sabine is also stabbed by Shin’s orange lightsaber right through her chest. Yet… somehow Sabine easily survives this injury? Even when others like Qui-Gon Jinn died from the same injury? When did it become possible to survive being stabbed by a lightsaber right through the chest? Ahsoka just happens upon an additional droid that is lingering after the attack on Sabine and she uses this to head to Correlia where it was made and again she just happens upon a band of Imperial loyalists who get away. Apparently, Sabine recuperates immediately in time to join Ahsoka in chasing after Shin and the star map which leads to Morgan Elspeth’s hyperspace ring, called The Eye of Scion, on a craggy, ocean planet called Seatos. This leads to a vast battle that only ends with Ahsoka being launched off a cliff into the ocean below, and Sabine, once again, fails her friends by handing the star map over Baylan and Shin in the hopes of rescuing Ezra (this stands as perhaps one of the least ethical decisions ever undertaken in a Star Wars program).
Somehow… Ahsoka winds up in the “World Between Worlds” as featured in Rebels, and here she has a vision with Anakin (Hayden Christensen) who claims to present some strange test for Ahsoka –the nostalgia-bait comes with Ahsoka and Anakin in a flashback during the Clone Wars. We also meet Jacen Syndulla in this show, the son of Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla (Jacen also being the name of the child of Leia and Han Solo in the Star Wars Legends book series). For some reason, His mother, Hera, decides to allow him to enter a battle zone? She disobeys the New Republic ruling council and hunts for Ahsoka on Seatos. Ahsoka and Anakin then briefly battle one another, before Ahsoka returns to the real world after being rescued from the water where she was floating in suspension, only now Ahsoka dons a white robe (not unlike Gandalf the White), and she summons the purrgil whales who travel through hyperspace –did Ahsoka et al ever really need the star map in the first place if the purrgil can simply lead them to the exact location of Thrawn? How is this possible? At any rate, Grand Admiral Thrawn appears (Lars Mikkelsen) in somewhat underwhelming fashion. And the crew arrives at Peridea, the ancient homeworld of the Nightsisters, the Dathomiri (Morgan Elspeth is a descendant of the Nightsisters). Sabine finds Ezra living among a band of crab-like creatures called Noti, while there is allso a band of zombie stormtroopers serving Thrawn. However, the show ends as Thrawn returns from this galaxy with Ezra while the other heroes –Ahsoka and Sabine– are left stranded on the planet.
In general, Ahsoka is a pretty charmless, dry, stilted show –though it does have a handful of high points. Ahsoka is a strangely ambiguous show that raises a variety of questions but yields very few answers, and which leaves its characters out to dry. Personally, I really wanted to appreciate this show more than I actually did –the first live-action appearance of Grand Admiral Thrawn was a seriously missed opportunity. And where was Zeb in this show? At least there are a few highlights and callbacks to The Clone Wars and Rebels, and Ahsoka is surely better than other disastrous Disney-Lucasfilm shows like The Book of Boba Fett and Kenobi –in my view, at least Kevin Kiner’s brilliant musical score shines in Ahsoka.