‘Ahsoka’ Finale Is A Non-Stop Train Of Contradictions And Stupidity
John F. Trent
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The final episode of Dave Filoni’s Star Wars: Ahsoka series on Disney+ continues to highlight just how terrible the writing is as nearly every scene contradicts other portions of the series.
(L-R): Captain Enoch (Wes Chatham) and Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved
The episode begins with Thrawn being informed that his troops have located Ahsoka’s position despite Thrawn already knowing where Ahsoka was given there was a massive battle and he chose to concede the field.
It also sees Thrawn make the predictably stupid decision to have the Eye of Scion descend to the planet’s surface instead of bringing the Chimaera to it. This is utterly stupid given it potentially allows Ahsoka, Ezra, and Sabine a chance to board the Star Destroyer. If he took the ship out into space it foils any real hope of Ahsoka and her team stopping him.
Nevertheless, upon discovering this information Thrawn dispatches two TIE fighters to attack. This points out how stupid Thrawn was in the previous episode where he refused to have his gunships or star fighters attack Ahsoka’s position on the ground. Thrawn really is dumb.
(L-R): Lakesis (Jane Edwina Seymour), Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), Klothow (Claudia Black) and Aktropaw (Jeryl Prescott Gallien) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved
Next, Morgan Elsbeth gets a power boost. The Great Mothers perform some kind of dark ritual and summon a sword of Talzin out of thin air. It’s all a little ridiculous. And, yes, I understand they performed the same magic on Savage Opress in The Clone Wars. It was ridiculous then too.
Furthermore, the show does not even try to explain what kind of power boost it grants Elsbeth and as we discover later on in the episode, it doesn’t really seem to provide her with any enhanced abilities. She just gets a glowing green sword, something pulled out of a RPG.
Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth in Ahsoka (2023), Lucasfilm
After this, the show cuts to Ezra Bridger attempting to create a lightsaber for himself. It’s rather bizarre given in the previous episode he informed Sabine to keep his old lightsaber and he didn’t need one.
Now, he’s rummaging through a work bench building his lightsaber. As he goes about trying to construct his lightsaber, the robot Huyang serves to recall Kanan Jarrus and provide some memberberries for diehard Star Wars Rebels fans.
There’s also some exposition about what happened between Sabine and Ahsoka and how Ahsoka feared Sabine would fall to the dark side or become dangerous given she believed she was pursuing the training out of a sense of revenge.
David Tennant as Huyang and Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger in Ahsoka (2023), Lucasfilm
Sabine and Ahsoka eventually confront each other, but the writing is atrocious. It’s extremely ambiguous. There’s no explicit forgiveness WWhen Sabine says she’s sorry. Ahsoka just tells her, “I know.” Ahsoka does not even provide Sabine with any real advice or correction rather she just informs her that she understands her decision and will always be there for her no matter what.
Next, Ahsoka asks Sabine if she kept up with her training. The question is absurd given she just informed Sabine she knew she was taken prisoner by Baylan Skoll and the show made it abundantly clear she was not training.
Nevertheless, Sabine responds that she indeed has been training and has gained more mastery of the lightsaber. There’s some memberberries in the dialogue with Sabine initially responding, “I try.” She then catches herself saying, “I do. I do.” No, she did not. Maybe she did in some deleted scenes or something, but not in what the show has presented us.
(L-R): Huyang (David Tennant) and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved
After Ahsoka tells Sabine to trust in the Force and train her body and her mind, the two TIE fighters show up and actually damage Ahsoka’s ship. It’s quite bizarre given the ship’s shields should have been up to deflect some of the damage. It’s also crazy that the ship even takes damage given previous attacks on it have never harmed it.
As noted above, this tactic also makes Thrawn look like a complete idiot for not deploying it in the last episode. He’s even dumber this episode because he should just deploy his entire squadron and kill them off. Nevertheless, while the ship is damaged, Ahsoka and Ezra have to use the Force to keep it from crushing one of the Noti people that they are still traveling with for some reason.
Sabine takes control of the ship and decides to use a variation of the Holdo maneuver to destroy the two TIE fighters. She rams both TIE fighters with the wings of the Jedi ship and destroys them both. It’s laughably stupid.
Sabine Wren destroys two TIE fighters in Ahsoka (2023), Lucasfilm
After Thrawn is informed the two TIE fighters have been destroyed, he then issues orders to prepare for a ground assault assuming the Jedi ship is down. Again, it makes no sense. Just deploy the Star Destroyer or the rest of your TIE fighters and kill them.
The ground assault does indeed take place as Ahsoka, Ezra, and Sabine mount up on two howlers and head off toward the Witch fortress. As they approach, Thrawn has the Chimaera rain down hellfire upon them, but of course it’s all pointless. There is no damage to Ahsoka, Sabine, and Ezra at all. They are easily able to enter the fortress using their Force abilities. Oh and Sabine can now use the Force rather easily, which completely undercuts the previous idea that it takes long and intense training to do so if one does not have the necessary talent.
Furthermore, neither of the howlers panic as the impacts of the battery blast all around them. One would think they might given the one howler panicked immediately after Sabine was ambushed previously. Just another contradiction that you should ignore.
Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger and Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren use the Force in Ahsoka (2023), Lucasfilm
After they enter the fortress, numerous Night Troopers head them off, but they are basically red shirts and are easy fodder for Ahsoka, Ezra, and Sabine. The Night Sisters do make things a little more difficult as they perform a ritual that turns the troopers into zombies that keep coming. This forces Ezra, Sabine, and Ahsoka to flee up the fortress to the docking point.
Meanwhile the ship has now been connected to the Eye of Scion. Elsbeth informs Thrawn, but instead of moving the ship outside of the planet’s atmosphere, he instructs Elsbeth to commit suicide in order to delay the Jedi who somehow still have a chance of boarding the ship. This proves utterly stupid given later in the episode Thrawn turns the Chimaera’s batteries on the fortress. He should have done that in the first place.
Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, and Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger in Ahsoka (2023), Lucasfilm
Regardless, Elsbeth confronts Ahsoka, Sabine, and Bridger. Instead of trying to stop Sabine and Bridger from reaching the Star Destroyer, she chooses to engage Ahsoka in one-on-one combat completely ignoring the orders she’s given. It’s stupid.
As Elsbeth engages Ahsoka, Sabine and Ezra climb the fortress and are engaged by two super Dark Night Troopers for lack of a better term. They appear to have Beskar armor as it deflects a lightsaber stroke.
The troopers appear to get the best of both Sabine and Bridger. One is about to kill Sabine until she uses the Force to pull her lightsaber towards her. That’s right Sabine is fully Force capable now. Just throw everything about training and hard work out the window. Oh that’s right, they told us Sabine had been training, yet didn’t show it. So, I guess you should believe the exposition rather than what was actually shown. Atrocious writing all around.
Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren struggles against a zombie Night Trooper in Ahsoka (2023), Lucasfilm
Even more ridiculous is that Sabine kills the Night Trooper by igniting her lightsaber on the trooper’s helmet. However, this shouldn’t have worked given the armor had deflected the lightsaber previously.
Ezra is also getting beat up by the other trooper, mainly because he doesn’t just use the Force and push him off the edge. He eventually kills his trooper by slicing its head clean off. At least that kill made more sense as there is a gap in the armor. However, given the Night Sister magic those two troopers should have continued to fight as was previously depicted.
Zombie Night Troopers press the advantage on Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano as Diana Lee Inosanto’s Morgan Elsbeth looks on in Ahsoka (2023), Lucasfilm
The show then cuts to the zombie Night Troopers storming Ahsoka. Elsbeth decides to disengage and just watches as the Night Troopers drive Ahsoka towards the ship, something she is supposed to prevent from happening.
As the Chimaera is heading into space, Sabine convinces Ezra to make a jump and she will use the Force to push him the rest of the way. It works because Sabine is no longer the least Force sensitive Jedi at all anymore apparently.
As this is happening, Ahsoka is surrounded by the Night Troopers who decide to stop attacking so Elsbeth can fight Ahsoka one-on-one now. There’s no dialogue explanation for this. It just happens and it makes no sense.
Zombie Night Troopers all of a sudden stop attacking Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano as Diana Lee Inosanto’s Morgan Elsbeth attacks her in Ahsoka (2023), Lucasfilm
Sabine who the audience is supposed to believe also made the jump onto the Chimaera actually didn’t. She’s just been hiding out on the platform as the zombie Night Troopers surrounded Ahsoka and then just stopped attacking.
She eventually decided to show up after Elsbeth destroyed one of Ahsoka’s lightsabers. A fight ensues with Elsbeth instructing the zombies to kill Sabine and she reengages with Ahsoka. For some reason the zombies are no longer coming back to life as they previously did. I guess they need to stay dead now.
Ahsoka eventually kills Elsbeth. With Elsbeth dead Thrawn orders a bombardment on the fortress. Ahsoka and Sabine run off the tower and jump onto their ship, which has been repaired. A brief chase occurs with Ahsoka trying to track down the Star Destroyer. It fails with Thrawn informing her thus.
(L-R): Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Huyang (David Tennant) and Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved
The series concludes with Ahsoka and Sabine returning to the Noti or the hermit crab people. Shin Hati briefly shows up and appears to take control of one of the nomad tribes by raising her lightsaber above her head.
Baylan Skoll gets a brief cameo as he stands atop a statue of the Father and sees a beam of light in the distance. Thrawn’s forces arrive at Dathomir. Ezra Bridger has seemingly commandeered a transport and arrives at Home One. For whatever reason he’s still wearing a Night Trooper armor, but eventually removes his helmet and greets Hera and Chopper.
Finally, the Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker looks over Ahsoka and Sabine and the Noti tribe. He doesn’t communicate with them at all though. He’s just shown watching them. It’s quite bizarre.
Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll stands atop a statue of the Father in Ahsoka (2023), Lucasfilm
Overall, this episode was terrible. Sure, there’s a lot of action scenes that might please some fans, but none of it really makes a whole lot of sense, and a lot of it is quite insulting to your intelligence. What the show does is really make Thrawn out to be a complete and utter buffoon who really is not a threat to the New Republic, or he shouldn’t be by what we’ve seen.
On top of that it does not address any of Baylan Skoll’s story or even really hint at what his aims are let alone what the Great Mothers have planned.
Hayden Christensen as Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker in Ahsoka (2023), Lucasfilm
What did you make of the Ahsoka season finale?
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