Ahsoka: Time to Fly

August 30, 2023 12:21 AM - Season 1, Episode 3

Hera tangles with New Republic politics while Ahsoka and Sabine voyage to a distant planet.
posted by EndsOfInvention (14 comments total)

I liked this one! Plenty of action, advanced the plot.

I'm pretty sure when I watched the original Star Wars movie the impression I got was that using the Force was just a skill that pretty much anyone could try to learn. It seems to have just been treated like Qi in martial arts movies. It only later became a hereditary thing.

So I like the idea that a Jedi can train an ordinary person to have some Force ability, even if they have to retcon it in with all the later stuff.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 5:32 AM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

The first 3 episodes have been really light on plot. I wonder whether the series is going to turn into one of those that should have been a movie. There’s still no explanation as to WHY Sabine wants to train with Ahsoka; the whole thing is so pointless. Unless it’s an excuse to have David Tennant as a sidekick (which is a perfectly valid reason). And we spent hardly any time with the baddies, who are so far the best part of the show. Did you notice that we’ve never seen Shin blink? She is deranged and I’m here for it.
posted by orrnyereg at 5:59 AM on August 30, 2023

So I like the idea that a Jedi can train an ordinary person to have some Force ability, even if they have to retcon it in with all the later stuff.

Yeah, this episode helped alleviate some of the misgivings I had about giving Sabine a Force training arc that wasn't alluded to at all in Rebels. It makes sense that Ahsoka is trying to build something from the ground up, after experiencing first-hand the top-down bullshit that helped hasten the Jedi Order's demise.

I'm a bit less fond of the apparent character amnesia that happens early on in the training sequence, where Ahsoka tosses the blindfold-mask to Sabine; It's of course an obvious echo to Obi-Wan training Luke in ANH, but more crucial to these characters it's also a callback to their mutual friend Kanan Jarrus, who was blinded in battle and spent the last two seasons of Rebels getting into all kinds of adventures without the use of his eyes. Among other things, he literally trained Sabine in lightsaber fighting, so she should have a pretty good idea of how a blind person might use the Force to compensate for apparent disability.

Granted, Ahsoka kind of sat out the last two seasons but this should all be a formative experience for Sabine, and it feels weird that Filoni didn't fold in at least a mention of Kanan. Especially in an episode where we meet his son! I get on a writing level that it would be two characters talking about yet another character that the non-Rebels viewers might not recognize, but it felt like a missed opportunity.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:47 AM on August 30, 2023 [7 favorites]

Maybe the lack of Jedi is so desperate that they're trying to recruit normies now? Otherwise it seems pretty odd as to why you'd pursue the LEAST person ever (poor Sabine when Huyang said that).
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:17 AM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

Dave Filoni is totally setting Sabine up to be a legitimate Force user, and if this was always planned, it's hard to say but he made a direct connection from Kanan training Sabine to Ahsoka training Sabine in this episode.

From Trial of the Darksaber (Rebels, Season 3), when Kanan is training Sabine to use the Darksaber and discussing some of the difficulty in doing so:

Hera: Or maybe because she doesn't have the Force, you don't believe she can do this?

Kanan No. The Force resides in all living things. But you have to be open to it. Sabine is blocked. Her mind is conflicted.

Then in this episode, we have this exchange between Sabine and Ahsoka:

Sabine: I can't use the Force. I don't feel it...not like you do.

Ahsoka: The Force resides in all living things. Even you.

Sabine: If that's true, why doesn't everyone use it?

Ahsoka: Talent is a factor, but training and focus is what truly defines someone's success.

This, along with Sabine's failed attempt to move the cup, is Filoni setting us up down the road for a pivotal moment where she will use the Force like a Jedi. Now how much of this was planned since Season 3 of Rebels or how much of it was Filoni taking advantage of the show's previous lines is up for debate. Recent discussions on the Force in canon since 2014 (when Disney took over and the previous canon was essentially wiped clean) has discussed the idea that a lot of people are Force sensitive in some manner or another, but they lack the training to draw that ability out. Likewise, I think somewhere, it was noted that if the Jedi didn't find you when you're three, that very likely without developing your Force powers, your abilities based atrophied and you kind of go on to live a Force free life.

Also of note, lightsaber training for a long time prior to the High Republic (about 150ish years before Luke Skywalker), was viewed more as a meditative practice. A way for a Jedi to focus themselves and their connection with the Force. We see this in Luke's introduction to lightsaber training on the Falcon, which is when Luke learned more about the Force and for the first time thought he actually felt something. Now, when Sabine has been training with a lightsaber, every time the statement that she cannot use the Force has come up, it's responded to with this line about the Force being in all living beings.

Huyang definitely is under the impression that it is impractical to try and train Sabine, but that's because of his programming. It reflects the view of the Jedi Order that no longer exists, but Ahsoka is no Jedi, either.
posted by Atreides at 11:12 AM on August 30, 2023 [8 favorites]

The interesting thing about Huyang is that it's unclear when his opinions are from. He claims to be 25,000 years old; did the Jedi of that time believe it was pointless to train people who were low in force sensitivity?

I would think Huyang would have access to all sorts of Force philosophies, and therefore wouldn't be nearly so dogmatic because of everything he's lived through.
posted by suelac at 8:23 PM on August 30, 2023 [4 favorites]

…it was a different time.
posted by hototogisu at 10:25 PM on August 30, 2023 [2 favorites]

"Marc, listen. We were a young religious order, just settling on Ahch-To, getting used to the Lanai, eating a lot of fish, the birth of the Galactic Republic... it was a different time." #BleakToDark
posted by Molesome at 12:53 AM on August 31, 2023 [1 favorite]

I barely got through the first episode of Ahsoka, but decided to give the second a chance, which I liked a lot more, and by this one I feel invested. I really liked how much time characters had to just interact. It felt like a throwback to the original Star Wars movie that Ahsoka, Sabine and Huyang spent enough time in hyperspace to be able to have that training session and drink caf. I liked that it echoed the scenes onboard the Millennium Falcon after they leave for Alderaan, not only because of the blindfold helmet, but also in that it was unhurried. I’ve always felt Star Wars is at its best when it gets just the right mix of longueurs and action.

Also, it was great to see Genevieve O’Reilly again as Mon Mothma, but she’s certainly not getting the scenes to show off her acting chops like in Andor.
posted by Kattullus at 12:46 PM on August 31, 2023 [6 favorites]

Yeah, having Mon Mothma show up here feels like a bit of whiplash, frankly. The tone and language and acting style is so different. I hope they keep her at a distance.
posted by suelac at 6:04 PM on August 31, 2023 [2 favorites]

The scene with the Senate Committee really felt off to me. It felt like there was a missed opportunity to explain for viewers who are newer why Thrawn is such a big deal, and maybe put some more heft behind Hera's emotional response, which felt off for someone with her degree of seniority and the emotional competence she showed with Ahsoka and Sabine. O'Reilly and Winstead did do some nice work establishing that their characters have history and mutual regard for each other, but the tone just didn't seem to gel, otherwise.
posted by EvaDestruction at 9:10 PM on August 31, 2023 [4 favorites]

Also, it was great to see Genevieve O’Reilly again as Mon Mothma, but she’s certainly not getting the scenes to show off her acting chops like in Andor.

Yeah, having Mon Mothma show up here feels like a bit of whiplash, frankly. The tone and language and acting style is so different. I hope they keep her at a distance.

I guess I kind of see that as an interesting feature of the extended Star Wars universe rather than a bug? The neat thing about O'Reilly/Mothma showing up in Andor and giving the performance she did was the realization that this perennial walk-on character, relegated for decades to spouting exposition or simply being a recognizable face in meeting scenes, was a regular human being all along with her own opinions and personal agendas. The idea that *any* character in this universe could become a compelling POV character (OK maybe not the Gonk droid, but then again...) was one of the things that made Andor hit the way that it did.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:33 AM on September 1, 2023 [6 favorites]

I liked that it echoed the scenes onboard the Millennium Falcon after they leave for Alderaan, not only because of the blindfold helmet, but also in that it was unhurried. I’ve always felt Star Wars is at its best when it gets just the right mix of longueurs and action.

Incidentally, during the fighter attack on our heroes' shuttle, there were at least one or two moments where the frame and angle of the attacks mirrored the TIE fighters on the Falcon after they escaped from the Death Star. But I 100% agree, in general, about the unhurried moments concerning the training, and so on. It was a nice balance.

The scene with the Senate Committee really felt off to me. It felt like there was a missed opportunity to explain for viewers who are newer why Thrawn is such a big deal, and maybe put some more heft behind Hera's emotional response, which felt off for someone with her degree of seniority and the emotional competence she showed with Ahsoka and Sabine.

This definitely would have been a perfect time to provide the viewer more insight into who Thrawn was and why it's a big deal someone is trying to find him and bring him back. I can only imagine that there's going to be another call to arms where this will happen, but establishing his threat here would have made a lot more sense. It doesn't make any sense doing so inside the core characters (Ahsoka, Sabine, Hera) because they know that he is a threat - granted, Ahsoka has to be running off what others told her since she was off in limbo land - and presumably, already filled in Huyang.

The main take away from the scene is the New Republic's refusal to accept anything other than the official record - Thrawn dead, and to highlight Ezra's importance to Hera and that she has been trying to find him for a while - despite, again, the New Republic's official statement that "Commander Ezra Bridger" died in the Battle of Lothal. I assume non-Rebels viewers would take this as one more piece of information, "Hey, there's something to this Ezra guy."

So short side of it all - we will get some event down the road where there'll be a confirmation that Thrawn is alive, Hera will then break it out to the committee again and presumably, this time they will respond positively. And well, it's all but taken for granted, but Ezra Bridger will appear, dead or alive (but they're not going to kill him off offscreen).
posted by Atreides at 7:02 AM on September 1, 2023 [2 favorites]

> The idea that *any* character in this universe could become a compelling POV character (OK maybe not the Gonk droid, but then again...)

Disney, I once again ask you to please consider a Holidays re-release of a Gonk power droid figure redecoed in Hess holiday truck colors.
posted by Fiberoptic Zebroid and The Hypnagogic Jerks at 12:22 AM on September 3, 2023 [1 favorite]