The Mandalorian S2E5 - Chapter 13: The Jedi

I'd like to post an optimistic message here to those who feel Ahsoka's live action didn't live up to the CW and Rebel's Ahsoka.

I really loved the episode for all the reasons mentioned by others but thought Ahsoka felt off. I was positively surprised at first but then by the end of the episode I was a bit annoyed she "didn't feel Ahsoka" and that left a bad taste ... But I had a good few hours before having a second rewatch and got the time to think.

So hear me out:
I know She is supposed to be around her 40s but thinking about it she actually feels 50-60 to me. Star Wars to me is not pure science (duh) and the timing doesn't need to perfect. So I have the feeling Dave Filoni wanted to portrait an older, tougher, more self-confident person. A jedi who survived the empire and thus must have had quite some bad moments. She can't be as perky and hopefull as in CW and rebels. After watching it a 2nd time I really like her acting. It’s no perfect but the way she moves, she talks and looks (her lekku seems wrinkled, and older women tend to have shorter hair... ) definitely gives me the feeling of watching an older woman who is old enough to be a young grandmother (this is not a bad thing haha). When she talks to Grogu (got to force myself to call him that way ^^) she definitely speaks like a grandmother that has a strong personality, both tough ("send me the rock grogu!") and empathetic ("you have a lot fear in you"). Also during the fight with the magistrate to me they are the same age! They have skills and are strong ladies but definitely not flexible when moving!

Anyway, to me during the second run with this in mind I felt ok seeing an older version of Ahsoka.

I think the goal is to portray her this way:
- Teen to young adult in Clone Wars.
- Adult, in her 30s, confident but still insecure on some aspects, less emotional than in CW for rebels
- Mature, wise, confident, and not showing emotions, as older people tend to be.

I hope this can help you feel ok with this older version of her as she is one of the best character in Star Wars imo and wouldn't want any fan to feel bad about it ...

ps: I also think that Dave Filoni write wonderfully, directs awesome shots but still doesn't manage to get the best out of actors. This will only improve time!
ps2: She gave me a cougar vibe when talking "first times" so close to mando... What was that about ?!

 

Don't understand this reply? Does it being years before TFA somehow make Ezra and Luke different ages? I was saying nothing more than Ezra and Luke were born in the same year. This is all I was saying, thus they are the same age.

 

With Yoda and Rey, the difference would be that Ashoka says Grogu was literally trained by the Jedi in their prime at the main HQ temple on Coruscant. Other people, from what I've heard, are complaining because there was no backstory that was satisfying for why Rey can do what she does with little to no training.

 

Man, I feel late to the party. Four pages of discussion already!? I don’t think I’ve seen a Cantina thread this popular in a long time!

Anyway, as a lot of you know, I’m a big Clone Wars and Rebels fan, and by extension, a huge fan of Ahsoka Tano. This felt like a live action episode of one of those series and Ahsoka translated nearly perfectly to live-action. Rosario Dawson played her perfectly.

I see some people complaining how Ahsoka doesn’t act like herself here, and it really reminds me of the backlash to Luke’s character in TLJ. My response to that is there is nothing to base this character’s attitude off of at this point in their life, by which I mean that we’ve never seen a middle aged Ahsoka, similarly to how we had never seen an old Luke Skywalker before. Heck, we’ve barely seen her following her confrontation with Darth Vader. Facing the fact that her former mentor and older brother figure turned into a monster of evil had to mess her up mentally, let alone the fact he nearly killed her. This is why she refuses to train Grogu; she is afraid of him become the next Anakin Skywalker.

I also liked how serene Ahsoka acted. She really reminded me of an older Obi-Wan or Yoda, because she paraphrased the former and straight up mentioned the other. It feels like a natural evolution of how we saw her last in Rebels. She still had her wry sense of humor; the way she smiled at a couple of Mando’s comments or the way she smirked at that cowardly guard felt like good ol Snips to me!

All of the action sequences were phenomenal. Ahsoka’s fighting style felt straight out of either TCW or Rebels, though I did find it odd how she didn’t hold her lightsabers in the reverse grip like she usually does. The way she would disappear into the mist was brilliant and I loved how she picked the guards off one by one. Her lightsabers looked amazing as well; it was awesome seeing white lightsabers in live action for the very first time.

It’s also interesting to note that she still seems to be on the hunt for Ezra Bridger. When she was asking where the Magistrate’s master was, I assumed she was referring to Moff Gideon but evidently she was not. Namedropping Grand Admiral Thrawn made my jaw drop. Also, I loved how subtly Dave Filoni showed Morai; I noticed it immediately and told @Lock_S_Foils and @Embo and His Pet Anooba about it on the Discord.



The only other thing I have to say about Ahsoka is my one critique; her montrals and lekku should have been a little longer. Maybe they would have gotten in the way during action scenes, I’m not sure.



Anyhow, away from my obsessing over Ahsoka, let’s talk about some other things. For one, Baby Yoda finally has a name! Grogu! I never would have guessed that; I figured he’d be named Minch as a callback to Yoda’s original name, Minch Yoda. And he was a youngling at the Jedi Temple until the Clone Wars ended? That makes perfect sense! I hope to find out how he ended up on Arvala-7 and why his memory goes “dark” as Ahsoka says. Perhaps Gideon had his hands on Grogu at some point in the past?

I loved that Din was able to train Grogu in a way that even Ahsoka Tano couldn’t; by having Grogu force lift the Razor Crest control knob he loves so much. That was brilliant writing and I loved Din’s proud father vibes in this scene.

That draw scene between Mando and Michael Biehn’s character gave me major Solo vibes! I thought that they would part on okay terms and maybe we could see Biehn again in the future, but nope.

I’m interested to learn more about the Magistrate. Her cruel, royal demeanor and her cape reminded me a lot of Count Dooku, though I doubt there’s any connection there.

There were two points where I worried Moff Gideon would show up. When Mando mentioned leaving The Child on the Crest, I half expected Grogu to be gone when he came back. And when that didn’t happen, I expected Gideon to approach them at the very end of the episode when it turned out to be Ahsoka. Since Gideon didn’t find them here, I’ve got a feeling that something bad’s going to happen on Tython.

All in all, I thought this was a splendid episode and it really broke new ground: translating a major fan-favorite character from the animated shows into live action would have been thought to be impossible in the past. The Mandalorian continues to break new ground and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

 

I'm not 100% convinced it's Morai, but I mean it could just be a woodland creature to give it atmosphere. That said, of all the animals to choose... I can't deny it's also not her.

 

It appears just as Mando says, “These are the coordinates” that he was given to find Ashoka. So I think that points to Morai.

 

I liked quite a lot season 2 episode 5. Ahsoka's character is done quite well in my opinion. And I would like to see Grand Admiral Thrawn. And finally we know something more about baby yoda, including his name and some of his past.

 

I cried like a baby and recorded the whole thing. XD

Kevin Kiner's composition IN COMBINATION with Live Action Ahsoka got me.

 

The only other creatures we saw on the planet are the giant things in the distance. Dave Filoni directed the episode and he wouldn’t have just put an owl there for no reason, especially since Ahsoka’s associated with one.

 

Without wanting a "yes it's her not it's not" exchange I think unfortunately it isn't if you look closely at the tail, morai's is quite long and the owl's seen on the branch isn't. I hope I'm wrong and it's just the live action version. But I agree she is around, between the hint with the coordinate (why show an owl at that moment) and also that you hear morai's scream at 15:02 (same sound as the end of clone wars) it would be odd to just slap a random owl...

 

Hearing Yoda's theme when Ahsoka mentioned Yoda...

 

I wonder if the beskar spear has some utility, I hope so. Is it a simple spear or it should have some special features? Apart from the metal with which the spear was forged.

 

When Dave and company got all the cameos they wanted for S2.

 

@Choose Light yep me too....I was jarred out of a great episode by the name....

Imagine this ad on tv:

“We are in the Holiday spirit at Target....come on down and check out the latest Star Wars items including this cute plush talking “grogu”....”???????!!!!!!!

Arghhhhhhhhh!!!!

 

The lack of even a mention of Luke is getting really jarring. Even worse that Ahsoka is going around after ROTJ openly doing the things that he should be doing. And we still don't know why she sat out the OT.

Tython huh? Wonder if any of the Old Republic stuff from Legends will show up.

We never did hear what the magistrate's answer to "Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?" was. Probably "He's on Exegol, turning your buddy Ezra into Snoke!" I have no doubt Thrawn will show up later this season. The very mention of him throws Moff Gideon into second tier status though.

Wonder who will play Thrawn. Are they going to put Lars Mikkelsen in that blue makeup, or someone else?

I was upset like a lot of others that Ashley Eckstein didn't get live action Ahsoka, but I admit Rosario Dawson did a good job.

 

The more I watch her, the more I enjoy Rosario Dawson's portrayal of Ahsoka, even if the Lekku could have been just a few inches longer, but I really like her appearance regardless.

 

Ahsoka's head tails are likely that [shorter] length due to the difficulty of live action filming. Imagine trying to jump around with some Shaak Ti length head tails.

 

Prediction time -

This season ends on a cliffhanger with "grogu" [ewww I hate that name] being kidnapped by Gideon

 

I quite like "Grogu", I think it suits our little green friend.