Ahsoka Episode 7 Review: Loading Bar
Thrawn plays for time, and the viewer suffers
Going to keep this one brief and to the point because I’m so sleep-deprived I initially wrote “Ahshsohka” in the headline box.
This episode was a joyride for fans who are invested in these characters and want to see their idiosyncrasies translate to live action. Following her near-death experience, Ahsoka is joyous and very much Anakin’s apprentice. Thrawn has picked up his tactician’s tablet (his questis!!!) and begun toying with his enemies from a control room. Eman Esfandi has Ezra down so pat it’s kind of scary.
For people who just want a decent 40 minutes of television, however, this one had to be ponderous. The show has not picked up steam heading into its finale, which suggests more set-up to Dave Filoni’s “Mandoverse” movie than resolution.
I’m somewhere between those two camps: enough of a Star Wars obsessive to write this newsletter but not so much in the thrall of Rebels that I can overlook the show being bad. And the opening scene this week was bad.
Hera faces a not-quite-court-martial in a hearing that involves Chancellor Mon Mothma and Admiral Ackbar, but not Senator Leia Organa, who turns out to be the head of the defense appropriations committee. People come and go from this drumhead and Hera does not appear to have a lawyer (though she gets a costume change, finally). The whole thing ends with C-3PO, looking weirdly pallid, saving the day. I get that this is a clever way to get around showing Leia. But given that Carrie Fisher has already been resurrected by special effects once, this cameo felt more like a threat than a treat. The whole thing makes “The Measure of a Man” look like To Kill a Mockingbird.
The rest of the episode feels like killing time before the finale, a hunch that Thrawn confirms very literally when he shows Morgan Elsbeth a loading bar for his Star Destroyer’s hangar that’s at 85%.
Still, there are many wins for the hardcore fans. Hayden Christensen makes another cameo. Ezra and Ahsoka reunite. And, finally, for the Thrawn book lovers: The Grand Admiral’s red eyes nearly bug out of his head when he learns Ahsoka was Anakin’s apprentice. Sure, technically Anakin mentions Ahsoka by name to him once in Thrawn: Alliances. But some part of that trilogy of novels is now indelibly canon.
The Rating
2 TIE Defenders out of 5
Meme of the Week
Thrawn Observations
Something about the lighting and facial expressions from Lars Mikkelsen really made his face look like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s at times.
Everything—the wig, the makeup, the costume—looked better on Thrawn, despite kind of flat lighting.
Thrawn seemed especially canonical this week, if you catch my drift. He was smug without being villainous. He talked tactics.
After all the speculation that the “Night Troopers” were some kind of zombie army, it was nice to see them behave (and die) like normal dudes.
#VantoWatch
We’ve got Thrawn: Alliances crumbs and the prospect of escaping Peridea. But I’ll need more to move to Orange Alert.