And liveblog of episode 6 of Ahsoka. Late this week due to lack of spoons. This show gives me so many feelings I have to have the energy to deal with it haha.

Huyang told stories to the younglings at the Jedi temple!!! My heart always twists when I hear a bittersweet remembrance of the ‘before’ times. Ahsoka was a little soft there and the “they are still in my archive memory would you like to hear one” made me feel like Huyang wanted to tell the story, as much as maybe Ahsoka wished she could go back in time and hear it again. Hearing it now wouldn’t be the same, and that’s a pain that cuts deep. She will never be that youngling again, innocent of war, and surrounded by family. Huyang might one day help another batch of younglings with their first lightsabers, or tell them historical stories, as droids can live for hundreds of years. But with what we know of the future – of Luke’s failed academy – I am unsure as to what place Huyang has in this century of the Republic. Maybe Rey will find him and give him a place?

Huyang’s instant “impossible” hearing Sabine had gone willingly with the bad guys warmed my heart. He is hard on Sabine, he knows she isn’t a real Jedi (because she’s NOT!!!) but he still believes in her and knows her heart is true. They settled on ‘troubling’ but it’s not because Sabine is in any way a traitor, more I headcanon what that choice would do TO Sabine, and I guess with the threat of Thrawn/war to the rest of the galaxy (and what the guilt would then do to Sabine). Ahsoka still thinks Sabine should have just ended it and not taken the risk and… I don’t know. That’s not the Ahsoka I remember. I still feel like Rebels Ahsoka was willing to risk for friends. The bad outcome is not certain, nor is it certain that Morgan, Baylan etc. and this group of bad guys, is Thrawn’s only way back. The Ghost crew risk for each other if they can still fight back and win, yes it’s having it both ways, but why fight if they are just going to take the ‘easy’ path and sacrifice what they are fighting for if they don’t necessarily have to?

I wonder how much of all of this ^^ is on Ahsoka’s mind. It could be a “once bitten, twice shy” type deal. With everything she has suffered becoming very risk-averse would make sense. I feel in asking for one of Huyang’s stories after all, it’s like the pain it causes from the memory, is less than the pain of contemplating her current life. A familiar pain to runaway from contemplating the present mess. I laughed at Huyang starting the story with “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” because very on the nose, but it was deftly slipped in so I don’t mind it.

Sabine’s banter with Baylan felt very in character. The “I try to avoid that” in regards to reflection. I could see it in the animated style.

Peridea being a graveyard makes sense as the Nightsister magic is very linked to death. I am unsure if this is new canon that Dathomir was essentially a colony rather than the original homeworld, but I don’t mind it because after a thousand years what difference does it make? Dathomir is infused with Nightsister magic, and it’s the only home countless generations have known. Even if there are other nightsisters down on Peridea (as opposed to maybe a handful of survivors across the galaxy like Morgan and Merrin), that won’t change that Merrin felt she was alone as she was – she had no way to traverse the void to Peridea even if she had known about it.

One thing I don’t quite understand. I mean it was suitably creepy all those bones surrounding the planet but that’s in space right? How did they decay to bones in a vacuum? Shouldn’t they look the same as the day they died? That golden dropship looks really dorky. It’s basically a box with retractable wings, it’s so funny.

Oh ok. “Your visions guided me across the stars” – they can send telepathic messages between galaxies??? I mean I know Merrin is pretty powerful, she cloaked the Mantis but there’s a big difference between hiding a single ship, and THAT. Honestly that feels a bit insane-levels of power. Like if they are that powerful then why are they not ruling the universe type power? And they have been waiting for her? Why didn’t they just hop a space whale like the ancestors?

Fall of the Jedi, Rise of the Empire, it repeats over and over – well yeah that is true. I mean we know that from the Old Republic game. So Shin is eager for power, and thinks that’s why they sought Thrawn, but Baylan says “that kind of power is fleeting” and he wants an end to the cycle. This is another trauma response. He said he was a bit older than Shin so I’m thinking he was a Knight rather than a Padawan. I don’t know if we know how he survived the Empire years? I’m getting shades of Dooku here. I don’t think Dooku started off intending to go full Sith, he did take a Sith name and in the Clone Wars TV show he does some pretty evil stuff, but he was years into the choice by then. I think part of the power of the dark side is how ‘slippery slope’ it is and that’s why it’s a battle Jedi never win, but constantly have to be on guard against. Baylan has lost his way, and he is trying to control what can’t be controlled – everyone else – because he doesn’t want to feel the pain of losing everything again. He wants to Fix It! To make it never happen again. But death is part of life, that’s a Jedi teaching, to let go, and he’s letting his fear and pain cloud his judgement. He thinks he’s making a logical choice to end the cycle, he doesn’t see that the darkness has it’s claws in him.

Shin is… a bit like Ventress maybe? In that she’s misguided, had some contradictory training from Baylan, and I think still has a choice to make. Baylan doesn’t care about Thrawn, his alliance with Morgan was purely to get him the Peridea it sounds like, to something he remembered from one of Huyang’s tales perhaps? Something that he thinks will give him the control he desires. I don’t think Morgan cares that it was an alliance of convenience as she just needed him to get her this far, as muscle essentially, but Thrawn will bring that. The one thing I don’t quite get is why Morgan cares about Thrawn?

Ok so the Chimera has seen better days but man the scale of the Star Destroyer never gets old to witness. Very impressive how they sort of ‘docked’ the tower, that’s a skilled pilot. Those Stormtroopers are definitely not regulation but that makes sense. They have been without Imperial resources for years and Thrawn wouldn’t care about such things.

I’m getting chills as the voice is the same – it’s the same guy!! But the face isn’t right as obviously it’s not the sharp cheekbones animation. Some of that can be explained by the fact that this is several years later – Thrawn has got older – but otherwise it’s a bit like…. do they even try? I’m still salty about how ridiculous the Inquisitor looked in Kenobi.

Ahhhhhh I’m screaming at the Thrawn and Sabine reunion!!! The artist and the art appreciation dude. “You’ve gambled the fate of your galaxy” “You wouldn’t understand” – I am getting echoes of “rebellions are built on faith” because it’s faith in each other that is how the Rebellion survived, how they won. Sabine has faith in Ezra, because he is a Jedi, because he is Spectre Six, because he never failed her before.

It’s typical of Thrawn to play with words and think he’s got all the angles covered. Sabine has the opportunity to find him, and if she does they will both die. Ahhhhh I loved the Mando fighting! I LOVED how her armour saved her, and she used that guy as a human shield, and popped the grappler thing, and then there was nothing wrong with pulling the lightsaber after that. Din Djarin did the same thing with the darksaber when he had it, a tool is a tool.

Awwww I loved Sabine yelling at her wolf mount thing and then refusing to get on it and it just following her. So stubborn. I love how she talks to things like they understand “you better not bail on me this time” – I could see it in animated again, really captures Sabine’s voice here. And then Sabine pays attention and listens because Kanan taught her that, just as he taught Ezra, or maybe it was Hera who finally got through to Sabine about it, about connecting. I definitely feel like it came from one or both of them somehow. Although Sabine always did have a huge heart. I love her so much.

For all Baylan says that he trained Shin to be “something more” he still gave her a padawan braid. How much of his rejection of the Order is because if he pretends it was always weak, he doesn’t have to face the reality that it fell anyway? If he makes himself believe that the Order was weak, and broken, then the fact that it’s gone becomes ‘better’. Sort of hating the thing that he lost, so it doesn’t hurt so much that it is lost.

I am trying to work out how they can be turtles and have shells and yet still wear clothes. How is the shell connected? Not quite sure how Sabine thinks speaking ‘standard’ at them will be understood (or how the wolf mount understands either). Maybe body language/tone is getting the message across?

Ahhhhhhh Ezra!!! And his first line is “I knew I could count on you” oh my heart, the callback I am dying. “Typical, always a plan, never a good one” “hey it worked didn’t it” – so accurate on the voices!! I can see that in the animation. Spot on characterisation. I like that they took a minute before the hug. It was a huge moment and ahhhhhh “I can’t wait to go home” another callback oh my heart.

So somebody posted a screencap of Sabine in relation to her cooperation with the bad guys, for when Ezra says “how did you find me” and it had the quote “it was a series of bad decisions ok” and I am laughing because Sabine brushing off the “let’s not talk about it now” still leaves that open to be canon because clearly she knows Ezra won’t be thrilled. I think he’ll accept it fairly quickly though because if their roles had been reversed he’d have done the same thing.

I read a tumblr post saying that they had tossed all of Thrawn’s book development out the window but I’m not sure I see that. In the Thrawn Book Two novel where there were flashbacks to when Thrawn met Anakin during the Clone Wars that was after Ahsoka had left the Jedi order. I remember because Anakin thought to himself that he wished Ahsoka was still around to accompany Padme but she wasn’t. Thrawn didn’t really encounter Ahsoka either because she ‘died’ on Malachor in the season 2 finale and six months later at the start of season 3 Thrawn arrives to deal with the Rebels. So there was no reason for him to research Ahsoka then either. If we get to next week and Thrawn is told that Anakin was Ahsoka’s master and he doesn’t go “interesting, Vader” then we can side-eye the canon, but until then open mind.

I’m not going to lie I had fancast live action Ezra as John Harlan Kim (Ezekiel in the Librarians among other roles) and I’m not feeling this guy yet. But the ten seconds of screentime he got in this episode, isn’t enough to really judge. Ezra’s dad had a beard like that so it’s not inconsistent and his dialogue is on point so time will tell.

Very interesting episode! I remain sceptical how they can tie all this up in two episodes without it being rushed (they always rush it /sigh) but so far so good. Shame about no Hera this episode but I guess that balances the shame that there was no Sabine last episode. Hopefully we’ll get Hera next episode. As much as I want the New Republic leadership to already be going “sorry, you were right”, it would be a little amusing if they got smacked in the face with it if Thrawn jumps out of hyperspace at them. I just really want them to get the message that they should always listen to Hera, she knows whats best.