Ahsoka – Part 8: The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord Review

Before I dive into the review, I wanted to offer some kudos to Dave Filoni for that episode title. “The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord” absolutely made me chuckle. And, as I thought more about it, there were plenty of parallels to be found between this episode of Ahsoka and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We had the epic final battle between our Aslan stand-in Ahsoka (she who died and rose again, more powerful and focused than before) and our Jadis, Morgan Ellsbeth. We also had our four Force-sensitive characters roaming Peridea in Shin, Baylan, Ezra, and Sabine, representing the Pevensie children (I couldn’t quite decide who matched with which child, but there are some arguments to be made for several mix and match versions). And, of course, the journey to this galaxy was much like how the children in the novels traveled from their world into the more mystically aligned world of Narnia. I know many have brought up the links between Ahsoka and The Lord of the Rings, but there was a reason J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis were friends and discussed their works with one another – there are a lot of similarities in their stories. But lots of parallels and a fun play on the title of the book series’ most famous installment? Kudos for all of that.

Now, for the episode itself. As I suspected with the penultimate episode last week, this finale didn’t offer much in the way of closure on the various story threads introduced throughout this eight-episode run. Yes, we were granted that really awesome fight between Morgan and Ahsoka – mirroring their initial fight back in The Mandalorian season two – but for most of the characters, their stories were dovetailed to a solid stopping point on the path to a much larger and more complex story to come. As for that story, I’ve assumed that it would be told in the upcoming Filoni-verse Star Wars film that was announced earlier this year, but after that finale, I have to change that assumption. There’s just way too much story still to wade through – and too much key character development to get to – for this story to be wrapped up in a single film, much less a single film that already needs to make room for the various other characters from The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Would I be shocked if Disney announced it would be changed into a trilogy film series? Nope. But I really hope we get another Ahsoka season to bridge the story between the series and the film, as television allows for greater time spent building this world, this storyline, and these characters before film allows the story to ratchet into high gear. When it comes to a story like this, a film is great for providing us the epic and climactic battles that will ensue. Television, on the other hand, is much better suited to giving us the chance to spend time with these characters as they work to discover how to navigate their new realities and prepare for a coming war that the New Republic is ill-equipped to fight.

Because, even though we only received a small piece of this particular story, Ahsoka was pretty great at fleshing out the characters within its story. Yes, it had a massive assist in that nearly every character had appeared previously in some form of Star Wars, which means even those coming in cold would have resources should they want to learn more about the characters (and I continue to recommend ScreenCrush and their videos for deep dives into the mythology of this world). But even the story’s brand new characters – Shin and Baylan – worked well within the confines of the story. I was intrigued by both and am very intrigued to see just where their stories are headed when we check back in with Peridea in the future.* My guess is that Baylan is going to try to discover a way to enter the World Between Worlds (the realm Ahsoka went to after she “died”). Although, he and Ahsoka have unfinished business following their two previous fights, which all but assures us that they will meet again. Likewise, Shin and Sabine also need to meet again – and with Shin joining the warriors, that appears to be a foregone conclusion at this point – although I continue to believe their next battle ends with Shin joining forces with Sabine and Ahsoka. Perhaps the four end up in the World Between Worlds and must stop Baylan from amassing too much power? And they return to their galaxy out of their current timeline (since the World Between Worlds allows for travel through both time and space) but ready to stop Thrawn’s rise? Still, I find the potential collaborations and interactions between these four characters to be very intriguing and something I would be willing to watch an entire series about on its own.

*With the tragic passing of Ray Stevenson, Baylan’s survival through the finale all but guarantees that Filoni will need to recast the character moving forward. It’s clear Baylan has a key role to play in the conclusion of this particular story, and doing something like having him die off screen or having an AI version of him perform in future appearances would be a major disservice to both the character and the memory of Stevenson.

And then there’s Thrawn’s plan. We still know precious little about what he is planning on doing, other than that he’s now back in the prime galaxy (at Dathomir, no less), and has a host of coffin-like cargo. He wants to bring the Empire back, of that there is little doubt. But just how he will go about that – how much of an Imperial remnant remains, how organized they are, just who is ready and willing to listen to him and accept his command – is still unknown. We’ve seen that there still are powerful Imperial leaders out there who are looking for Thrawn, but how willing they will be to listen to him and help in his goal is yet to be seen. The one item I do want to call out is the power the Great Mothers have to raise the dead. Bringing people back from the dead is a narrative trick that needs to be employed carefully, lest the stakes of any and all story points become moot. If the villains can bring back their foot soldiers from the dead and ensure they keep rising, it makes any fight with the heroes relatively pointless and boring. If they can return a key villain and keep them alive indefinitely, it also dashes the stakes of the story. Sure, I assume that if you kill the Great Mothers, you kill the zombies they command. But again, if the heroes are fighting a zombie hoard that cannot be killed in hopes of fighting their way to kill the puppet masters, well, that fight starts to lag pretty quickly.

So, we need to learn the rules of this power. Can the zombies only exist while the witches are chanting? That doesn’t quite work, since the Inquisitor zombie from earlier in the season existed without chanting to keep him alive. Perhaps they can raise a single specter indefinitely, but they need to continually focus to keep multiple targets alive and moving? No matter what the rules turn out to be, we need them laid out before we get into another situation like this one. And, considering how many coffins were on that Destroyer, well, it’s certainly looking like some dead bodies are going to be joining the fray in the future. Just who those bodies belong to is an open question (it has to be other witches, no?), but the rules still need to be laid out for us.

But, as a season finale, this episode felt like the most complete of the live action Filoni-verse shows to date. There were unanswered questions and hanging threads, but none of the reveals felt cheap and nothing feels so pressing that we cannot wait patiently for the eventual conclusions. The only worry is that we won’t get the chance to see more of this story play out before these rich, complex characters get thrown into the mix with the rest of the characters of this universe for a single film that brings them all together to fight Thrawn. Now, I’ve enjoyed aspects of The Mandalorian (the less said about The Book of Boba Fett the better), but none of those characters have had the vivacity of those introduced to use in live action in Ahsoka. This story has felt much more focused and contained than anything else we’ve seen in the Star Wars television universe outside of Andor (which remains the gold standard in storytelling for Disney+ and separate from the Filoni-verse). It’s just been a much better constructed narrative arc than what’s come before it. And if the transition from television to film is handled correctly, we could get a heck of visually stunning tale. But that’s a heck of a caveat. I’ll happily wait and see just how this all shakes out. But I hope we get one more chance to tie up some loose ends with these characters on the small screen before that major wrap-up film comes around.