Ahsoka thoughts

Okay, so the first couple episodes of Ahsoka dropped and I thought they were actually surprisingly good. I wasn't expecting much after the lackluster third season of The Mandalorian. Perfect? No. But good.

Firstly, the visuals were spectacular. Almost cinematic quality, I feel.  Some of the recent Star Wars productions-especially Kenobi-have been lacking visually but I was pleasantly surprised. 

Seeing Hera, Sabine, and Chopper again was also great, no complaints there. Clancy Brown returns as Ryder Azadi, this time in live-action and now back as Lothal's governor, while Jai Kell returns but now as Lothal's senator.  The late Ray Stevenson's Baylan Skoll seems compelling, as does his apprentice Shin Hati. Dawson's acting is as wooden as ever, but otherwise the character of Ahsoka feels like she's done right.

Ahsoka and Sabine

One thing that confuses me is the, uh, interesting choice to make Sabine have been Ahsoka's (explicitly-noted-in-the-show-to-not-be-force-sensitive?) Padawan between the Rebels finale and the Mandoverse era.  It's not an inherently bad decision per se, and not one I'm ready to dismiss out of the gate. It just came out of fucking nowhere, and doesn't seem exactly in-character for Sabine.

Morgan Elsbeth and her faction not being a proper Imperial Remnant with stormtroopers and TIEs and the like, but rather a band of masked soldiers and assassin droids calls to mind the Amaxines of the novel Bloodline, who were a paramilitary faction acting as the vanguard of what became the First Order. They're completely different organizations but the similarities are cool to me. Overall, I like how they have a different vibe then, say, Gideon's faction or any of the myriad Imperial splinter groups in Legends, which are just regular Imperial Military forces loyal to one leader or another. We already saw these guys in The Mandalorian but them showing up again confirms they weren't just mercenaries hired to enforce her rule on Corvus but rather a proper militia loyal to her. 

The shipyards on Corellia being staffed by Imperial loyalists in league with Elsbeth's faction reminds me of how the empire of Imperial Warlord Zsinj, in the Legends novel Wraith Squadron, is secretly supplied by a network of factories, whose primary shareholders are shell companies secretly run by Zsinj and his henchmen, are publicly regular corporations unaffiliated with Zsinj, and unaware that they are part of a vast network of companies all supplying and financing his empire.

The reveal that Elsbeth was one of the Nightsisters of Dathomir is really intriguing. Even more intriguing is the idea that the ancient Nightsisters had access to maps beyond the galaxy to other galaxies. The Nightsisters have a long and storied history but they were never said to be among the many, many, many, many, many races who shared the galaxy with the Celestials, the ancient galactic precursors, in the old lore of the ancient eras in the Legends timeline. However, Jedi: Fallen Order revealed Dathomir to have been one of the key locations of the Zeffo species, who did migrate into the unknown according to the game's lore. Legends Dathomir was also the ancient home of the Kwa, one of the ancient hyperspace-capable species in the mysterious ages before the dawn of the Republic. I could easily see the Nightsisters having accessed technology from one or both of these species in making the map.

Purrgil

Speaking of the map, I expect it's not a map to Thrawn's exact location specifically, but rather a record of Purrgil migratory routes through hyperspace used to chart a course out of the galaxy, which seems to be backed up by the appearance of Purrgil in the starchart-themed end credits. Supplementary lore for The Rise of Skywalker stated that the Sith wayfinders, the holocron-like navigational maps used to navigate through the Unknown Regions, were created by studying the neurological functions of the hyperspace-capable Purrgil. 

A Star Map

Speaking of the map and of wayfinders, the plot revolving around a map to a hidden location to find a notable galactic figure is certainly not a new one-both The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker involve maps to the hidden First Jedi Temple and Exegol the Hidden World of the Sith, respectively, where Luke Skywalker and the Emperor can be found, respectively. The idea of course is even older then the sequel trilogy-the core driver of Knights of the Old Republic's plot was searching for the Rakatan Star Maps.

 

One odd thing about the show is the way the characters speak of Grand Admiral Thrawn, with almost mystical devotion. Baylan talks about how finding him will lead to new beginnings and power, and Morgan Elsbeth claims to have had dream communications with him. Thrawn is infamous for his military genius, but Elsbeth's faction speaks of him with almost cultlike reverence-he's some sort of Imperial messiah destined to stave off the collapse of the Empire's tattered remnants. To be fair, this is exactly what he did in Legends, but the loyalty he inspired there and among his subordinates in Canon (like Vanto and Faro) was not the fanatical devotion of cultists but the kind of loyalty like Napoleon convincing French troops in Laffery to defect back to his command in 1815. The way Captain Pelleaon talks about Thrawn's return "[heralding in] the reemergence of [the Imperial] military" in The Mandalorian is much more in line with the sort of loyalty Thrawn inspires I feel.

 Finally, I really like what looks to be the giant hyperspace ring Morgan and her minions will use to travel beyond the galaxy to retrieve Thrawn. It seems to be called the Eye of Sion, which interests me-is it a reference to Darth Sion from Knights of the Old Republic 2? Or is it rooted in the meaning of the word Sion as a Biblical concept of a holy location? I'm interested to see where this will go.

(Oh-by the way, I loved seeing E-Wings and Home One. Nice little Easter Eggs)