The Reel Rejects - AHSOKA EPISODE 5 Breakdown, Review, & Ending Explained | Star Wars Rebels

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

PHENOMENAL EPISODE! Ahsoka Episode 5 Full Reaction Watch Along: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Ahsoka 1x5 Reaction, Recap, Breakdown, Easter Eggs, Theories, Ending Explained, & Spoiler Review featuring Hayden Christensen Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) as they journey through the world between worlds, encounter memories from Star Wars The Clone Wars, Ahsoka Vs Anakin Fight Scene, hints at Mortis, a Captain Rex cameo, a young Ahsoka Tano, Ahsoka dawns the white outfit, Jaycen (Son Of Kannan Jarrus) Force Reveal, Lightsaber fights, Star Wars Rebels Easter Eggs, with a beautiful sequence involving the Purgil as well as a best performance thus far from Mary Elizabeth Winstead Hera Syndulla! We not have been in love with Episode 4 to the extent others were but WOW, this one was absolutely mind-blowing especially for fans of Star Wars Rebels. Can't wait for Episode 6! The series stars Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen, Anakin Skywalker Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen), David Tennant (Huyang | Doctor Who), Temuero Morrison (Captain Rex | Boba Fett), Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi), Ray Stevenson Baylan Skoll, Shin Hati, Morgan Elsbeth, Clancy Brown, & MORE as we venture into more unexplored regions of the force and we lay down our predictions. Can't wait for Episode 5 considering this is shaping up to be stronger than The Mandalorian Season 3, The Book Of Boba Feet, & Obi-Wan Kenobi. Let's see how it stacks up against The Clone Wars! #Ahsoka #StarWars #DarthVader #Disney #DisneyPlus #StarWarsRebels #Rebels #TheCloneWars #CloneWars #StarWarsTheCloneWars #TheMandalorian #SabineWren #hera #EzraBridger #anakinskywalker Get Yourself An AhSoda Shirt! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The sizzle of adobe chicken on the grill. The chopping of onions and cilantro. We call our playlist, real. Order now. Chipotle, for real. Listeners of the Reject Nation, welcome. Thank you for clicking on to this podcast edition of our review and breakdown for Asoka, Episode 5, Shadow.

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Here we do. Wow. Ah, yes. Just end it. Well, it's a good place to end. Well done. That was great. Beautifully done.

It was the best episode. Easily. Sorry, my heart is beating so fast right now. No, yeah, I've got the white knuckles. First topic, let's kick it off. Michael, what's the first thing you want to talk about, buddy? I got several topics here. I'll just check off whatever you start ratting off.

The performance and the chemistry and the magic of Asoka and Anakin and live action. Yep. Like, Red started there. Elevated everything. It was, I feel like for Rosario Dawson, this was just the breakout episode where it was an opportunity to like take an extraordinary actor in the form of Rosario Dawson, give her an extraordinary acting partner what I thought was a very beautiful, a very succinct script. there is a magic between that relationship that I think even fans that haven't watched Clone Wars or Rebels will now have an understanding of why we love those characters together so much.

I think beyond that, this reconciliation of this figure that in so many ways shaped everything that she is and shaped the world that she inherited and that she's had to survive in to confront that and to understand that as a Padawan who walked away from the Jedi Order, she never completed her training

and to recognize that in order to complete that training, she needs to make peace with her master and with herself, because undoubtedly she feels responsible for Vader's fall. or I should say Anakin's fall and Vader's rise and there is just this this feeling

of for so long Star Wars has been struggling to figure out what is it now and this was the first time that the focus and the clarity of what Dave Filoni and a whole group of amazing creatives at Star Wars

have been working towards these past few years. And I think it's become clear to me where it's going. And I'm so excited. And I also just, you said it earlier, and it's really easy episode to episode to like get grumpy that it's not there yet, that it's not there yet. But I think the weight in this case really did make the reward feel all the more special. And weirdly enough, there was that moment when,

Asoka came back, the Gandalf-like transformation, which is just brilliant. When she's looking at Sabine's helmet, I felt more chemistry between those characters now that she's had this opportunity to go back and I think remember what that dynamic is supposed to be. And to understand that, yeah, her master wasn't exactly a great teacher himself. but that that flawed nature of the Anakin-Osoka relationship is also what can make the Assoca and Sabine relationship so special and I think that fear of her falling like he fell has been holding her back so I'm just I know I'm like vomiting words right now

I'm just like emotionally moved at how much they were able to capture in such a short time and the actor that played young Assoca I thought captured the spirit of Ashley Eckstein and the gravitas of Rosario Dawson in perfect fashion, which for like a young actor in prosthetics in like a crazy war sequence for five minutes is no small feat.

It was magic. All right, yeah. Okay. What do you want to talk about? I know it's conversation. Oh, yeah. Sorry. All those words.

I echo them as well. I mean, this did have a really, really beautiful, I mean, being that more outside viewer, this really had a resilience of energy on screen that was really gripping and compelling. And I loved the way, you know, they bring back a lot of characters, and obviously we've seen Anakin Return

for Obi-Wan and things like that. And, you know, sometimes it feels more like it's designed to be exciting, but it's not necessarily designed to be meaningful. Whereas here, it felt like both. It felt really kind of natural that we would see Anakin in all these different forms from across his timeline,

but we're also seeing him through her perspective. And I love that reversal towards the end of their exchange where they have the fight with him in Sith form. His eyes are all red. He's got the scarring and stuff like that. And then after that, you know, emotional breakthrough happens, he sort of resets. And it's like an interesting way to look at Anakin as a character

because it's easy to look at people and characters like this especially as like a straight line into your descent you know into evil whereas you know this is kind of a i thought it was a really great lesson to be learned from teacher to student that it is like yeah it's not just about like how i turned out it's about the totality of what i have given you and even my end is a bit of teaching for you you know and is a telltale sign that you could perhaps avoid in the future instead of giving in kowtowing to you and even my end is a bit of teaching for you know and is a telltale sign that you could perhaps avoid in the future instead of giving in cowtowing to the fear of that and losing yourself to the dark side. So yeah, yeah. Like that felt like a very it felt like it earned its gravitas. I was like effortlessly gripped by that. And then yeah, traversing

these different specific battle moments and stuff like that. Like these are the moments that then make me go like yeah, I would love to die further into these things. Whereas previous episodes have had references where I'm like, yeah, you know, it's fine. Yeah. So, yeah.

Yeah, I think that what hating christiansen brought here was really i think i was in awe of it because i didn't exactly know what they were going to be doing with him and i think they managed to do something that was multi-layered and also open to interpretation i don't think you can it is a conversation i would like to actually have because there's this whole you can't just i don't know sometimes they have a line here there that's like here was canaan he was a jedi all right cool There's this whole thing about Mortis and father, son, and daughter that I don't know how you can just, like, throw out a line to explain that to general audiences, because that's a whole new can of force worms that you just can't really just throw out there and expect people that just latch on you right away, right? And I think, though, if you are aware of that, that you can't interpret, okay, maybe Anakin is this.

Oh, I mean, you know, this is her a cop between life and death right now. This is like a purgatorious world. This is a world between worlds can be a representation. A pergiltory. A purgletory. It can be a representation of that because, you know, like she wakes up in the water and she's choosing to live. So it could just be something similar to that.

And this is a manifestation of going through her subconscious and facing things and these certain traumatic memories and trying to learn from those lessons as well and revisit. Because a lot of it is her revisiting stuff, right, with Anakin. So what I was in awe of was how it managed to be so multi-layered with, okay, you can interpret Anakin on a moment. multiple layers he could be the father from mortis if you're familiar with that he could be force ghost anakin working his way through the because because of what clone wars described on that mortis arc he he wouldn't be your typical force ghost plain and simple he just wouldn't be

that guy yeah that typical one that shows up and then the most the best part about it to me though is hating christensen we've never got to see him do live action mentor of the relationship with Asoka. And that is the heart of Clone Wars. That is the heart of why we loved Asoka was that friendship that developed between them. And it was, what was blowing my mind, I guess, was who played him in Clone Wars? Do you remember? I don't remember who played him in Clone Wars.

Oh, God, I'm so embarrassed. It was not hating Christians. Yeah, it was not hating Christians. This is going to stress me. And while there were aspects that were supposed to remind you of Hayden Christensen, that actor really did his own thing and the writing really did its own thing as well that helped fill in a certain type of gap. But we never got to see Hayden Christensen be that version that made many of us love Anakin

that much more was his interpretation on that, was that interpretation on the show. And we got to see that relationship brought to life in these dynamics and sort of this like ethereal ponderous sort of way. way, but we still got to see those interactions. So when he's saying shit like Snips, when he's actually saying it's not just like Easter egg lines. It feels like I'm watching

the animated relationship. It's like this weird full circle trajectory where first the live action, Hayden Christensen cast, okay, we're going to draw him in the likeness of him. He's going to do some of his own inspiration, but really do his own thing. And I felt

like Hayden Christensen watched the animated show. Oh, of course. And then adopted a lot of that because his acting was not I mean like when you see him in Obi-1 he did a good job but I didn't really feel like we got too much new other than more exploration of him being mad you know him being rageful and hurt this was like oh man they're doing

the animated relationship and I thought that was that was the part that I because even if you haven't seen the animated version for live action you have not seen this side of Anakin before yeah And so I think... And it's the soft side that makes his dissent all the more...

That's what makes a heartbreak. Yeah. Yeah. There was something that I don't want to get lost in all... There was, like, so much in this episode. There was a spirituality with the force that I haven't felt in a long, long time. And part of the magic is kind of in what Anakin was saying about the thread of magic. master and apprentice.

And this idea of Anakin's time as a Jedi will forever be marked by the fact that he was a Jedi who had to become a general, who fought in a war, who fell. And you have each of these, I mean, like I know

the other episode, I was like, name them all. But you have Anakin to Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan, who offers so much. And from Obi-Wan, you have Quigon, who offers so much. And from Quigon, you have Count Duku. who offers so much. And then eventually you get to Ray

who gets it all. But it is, the force is this thread. It's not the individual of any of the Jedi. It's what they pass down to each other. Their failures, their successes, their hopes, their dreams, their fears, their nightmares, all of those things collectively create this

like beautiful, beautiful thread. And I think Asoka kind of coming to terms with who, the times that you live in, while they define your actions don't necessarily define you, it gives you an opportunity to forge yourself into something. And she's kind of been stuck in this kind of permanent state of war. She was raised into this. And I think for Asoka to like finally reconcile. and spiritually come to terms with it. I mean, it's, like, very much. And I know, like, we all instantly were, like, Gandalf, Gandalf,

but, like, a very similar, this, like, Gandalf after he fell, you know, with the Balrog. Like, the amount of time, like, it didn't seem like a lot. Like, it was really quick, but it also felt, like, forever. And he came back, and there was this, like, an ease and understanding and at peace with, you know, in his case, the Astari. But in Asoka's case, I think she's really reconnected with the force in the most authentic of ways. And I know everyone was grumpy when Asoka didn't show up like she did in rebels with the whole Gandalf the white get-up in the finale. Well, I think this really clarified for us.

I think this, because on episode two, another, like for us, I think when we first saw it, we thought they were just paying homage to the ending of Rebels in episode two. But this, but everyone else was saying that, no, this is recontextualizing.

They're redoing it. And this only further drove it at home. Yeah. I think it was, I think Dave Filonian his infinite brilliance realized that this would be an arc for Asoka that she needed to go on

throughout the course of a show. Yeah. And to begin her there would do an injustice to her. I mean it was it was apparent that that was one of the seeds they were planting and I think where the dichotomy that I was as a viewer I was running into was when it came to information displacement focus and the emotion underneath all that like I always I understood everything that happened in episode four and I overall liked episode four I just was having a difficult time connecting emotionally with it the way how apparently the rest of the world did but I was I was just having a I was having a difficult time connecting with that. And I feel like, okay, there's something specifically about the way Faloni himself directs where, I mean, it makes sense to me.

It's his show. He spends so much time with these characters. I mean, nobody intimately understands Asoka and Sabine better than Dave Flonny. Well, even when he's the one not directing, he still gets all the credit. and he gets all the criticism too because they're all written by him the director is essentially honor whoever the other director is the other ones

most of the time something that they're just honoring try to bring Dave Faloni's vision to life and then you feel the full vision and scope of this because there's perhaps maybe in terms of the storytelling of Asoka's arc here there's a part of me that's like I know

it would have been cool to have like just a little bit more just a conversation with it between and Ah, Soka and Anakin. Just one more of like cherry on top conversation. Maybe. That's kind of a maybe department for me. However, I think what he excelled at here was doing stuff visually, tonally, and knowing how to communicate all that of what's going on, admittedly on a gorgeous surface,

but underneath the surface of what's going on, that you can actually understand, oh, I get the trajectory that Assoca is going on. Because it seemed like that was the art that she was having ultimately go down. This problem, this resistance with Sabine having to train her and then her expressing some, you know, Anakin didn't finish training me. And, yeah, there is a bit of information. I can't help but wonder about the people, though, that are not familiar with Clonores.

I can't help them wonder that. I feel like they did such a good job at giving that part. of the audience a glance at an understanding of the dynamic. That being said... But Follone... What I'm getting at is I understand why she would blame herself for Anakin's dissent.

And if you didn't watch Clone Wars, would you get why she would blame herself? Not yet, but I don't think we're done yet with that. I do think something that just kind of like hit me like a brick while you were talking. Dave Filoni's selection of Mandelor was brilliant. Yeah, the Siege of Mandelor.

Because in the Siege of Mandelor, are you ready for some poetry? In the Siege of Mandelor, he wasn't there. Yeah. When she needed him and when he needed her most. Yeah. And when Sabine's family desperately needed her on Mandelor, Assoca wasn't there for Sabine. And Sabine apparently wasn't there for Soca.

That's true. So, you know, I think the real question is, will we continue through the progression of, you know, the series, see Asoka and Anakin continue that training? Like, I caught the sense tonality-wise that there's still lessons to be learned. I think to your point about, like, the conversation as the cherry on top, if they had just had a conversation instead of doing that powerful visual storytelling, It would have felt great, sure.

But it wouldn't have been as earned as now if Anakin were to commune with her, if she were to commune with Anakin or however it, you know. I meant like to do everything they did and also throw it. Well, that's what I'm saying is I think we're going to get, I hope so anyway. I think we're going to get a version of that. And in the same way of when Yoda tells Obi-Wan, you know,

you're going to commune with your old master and learn how to part of me kind of feels like Anakin's going to teach Asoka, not just that, but also something that goes beyond just like being a force ghost. Yeah. And I wanted quickly, because what I thought was really cool, because I spent so much time on Anakin and everything, what I really love to was I did have a thought go, okay, is this going to dip now that we're done with Anakin's part of it. story and it didn't uh it remained great and i want to talk about hera what i think is really cool

of what they've done with hera for you guys who are not familiar yeah they explained who canaan was but that was like the love story of of rebels between canaan and hera and you know on canaan canaan's death is one of the like is one of the was heartbreaking parts of of watching rebels it is a is a monumental moment and it gets etched into your memory forever once you experience it basically and harrow was privy for that moment and shortly before that saying like i love you and everything after while she was pregnant yeah pregnant and pregnant and pregnant at all right and um he dies in such a tragic way without her getting to say goodbye and what i think is they're doing so well here with the depiction of jimmy

Jason who wants to be a Jedi is clearly shaping up to be like, I want to go more down my father's path, right? Like, you know, all these things is that you, they're doing such a great job at that. Even though she didn't get to have that goodbye, Canaan gets to live on through Jason. And keeping that connection and that relationship evolving and what they're developing with Jason, which a lot of time I feel like I would not actually, there's like this depiction of Jason. I'm like, I feel like in some kind, there's some alternate execution of this that I would not enjoy. But I really, I really enjoyed it. Like, I thought it was, again, it all comes down to execution and tone for me. And then, of course, that deeper context of understanding what Jason is representing.

And, and Hera as well, like the, I really loved, I got, because like, there were people who were saying that they thought, he or mary elizabeth winstead's performance episode four was like the best she's done and i'm sorry i don't i don't know i don't agree with that at all wasn't enough for her i too for that to me like there were people were saying that and i i don't agree with that i loved her performance here though in this episode she really really found it and not just found it but captured like the nuance of like i always thought harrow was such an interesting character like she is in so many many ways a lot bigger of a deal than like rebels let her be like in my like like because we're always so focused on the Jedi side of things we forget like she's like the daughter of this

like crazy like rebel leader um you know fought during the clone wars she literally helps build the rebellion in its infancy she's so complex and she constantly juggles this like She has to put it all out there and be so vulnerable. And I feel like we really got to see that. And I can only imagine, and I felt it in this episode, both the pride and the fear that comes with your child taking after his father, who's a Jedi. Now, I'll tell you what I'm excited for.

I want to flash forward and see Freddie Prince Jr. play because he did such an amazing job. Yeah, sure. It'd be so cool. But it's curious, like, where is that? going to go like are we going to see that character's future i hope he's not at the jedi temple when kailo has his meltdown like i hope he is that'd be hilarious i hope that's the end of it's the ending post credits yeah yeah yeah i want you to meet someone this is too kailo i do i do think what

should be noted for like expanded universe fans um there is Jason's solo and that whole story arc, like obviously Dave Filoni has a love for the Expanded Universe and stuff that got cut out, you know, when Disney bought the property. I'm curious if they're going to try to pursue some of those story arcs, which would make sense because Throne's involved. We'll see. We'll see.

The Pergo. The Pergo. We've got to talk about that. I mean, we all saw that comment. but it was beautiful but the way we got there felt it didn't land in a perfunctory or wrote way it didn't just seem like they had to do it that way like they've been setting that up how disappointing would it be if we didn't do it all that's set up with the pericle this whole fucking time and we never decide yeah what do we travel via through them you know can you imagine if we never did that but they earned it that way I mean I love the whole um I love the whole idea that she had to get more in tune with herself,

but in chance getting more in tune with the force, which is what allows her to connect with the pergill to be able to travel, like literally be like, hey, can you fly me? You know? Because they were just a hybrid. They were just like floating around. And she needed to communicate with them, like,

I need you to take me. And the fact that she was able to do it that way instead of hopping, like, like, what's it called like when you they did it like they've done it in Rupple where you like land on to oh yeah yeah yeah instead of just like hot day no well it's catching a train

it was part of this like continued theme of the episode where we're diving into a different side of the force we're really like the force echoes when she was remembering what like the conversation was being like you've seen in like fall in order

yeah that's exactly like we've seen it in other places but we've never seen it live action. You've never seen it canonically. And I think it's getting to the spirituality of this character which is something that I always loved about Ezra's character and something that they

explored with him. That's another thing, too. It was the most Assoca-focused episode. And I think that's why I loved it the most, too. Well, it needed... This was just so focused. I stand by, like, the flashback sequences to the Clone Wars.

I think really were like the perfect demonstration of why it would have been really nice to see at least like a moment of Asoka and Sabine while their relationship was good. Like, I know it's heavily implied and that's like the one thing that I am

and I know that we'll see what it will be by the end of this and I'm sure it will be amazing. I just wish. I don't think it's, I don't feel like it's, I love this episode. I'm not going to sit here and be like it's absolved. the other things that I am concerned about, though. Like, I'm still not that connected to the Sabine and Asoka relationship.

Yeah. As much as I would like to be. I understand the context. We can obviously break it down and be like, yeah, this, this poetry rent, whatever. Like, we can do all that. It's more about what is the show doing to communicate the relationship on screen and how much of a feeling am I generating from this? You know, so that, and that is such a main thrust of this show.

So, yeah, but I know you wanted to say something. Well, no, I mean, this doesn't, yeah, absolve some of the gripes from previous episodes, but this did feel like the most fully realized and, like, it managed to draw out a proper balance between the deliberate pace they've been going for, but also with having it feel like a good amount of things are developing, and even though things happen gradually, they seem to happen with that sort of magical sense of design around the periphery, where you can have a growth of character within Asoka that, feels like it makes sense with everything that came

before, but it also feels quite rewarding when it's like, oh yeah, like partway through when she comes back out and she's in the white, she's got a whole other enchantment to her personality. There's just like a growth of that and even the thing with the Pergill has this like spiritual feeling quality and everything

in the world between worlds has a spiritual quality to it even with Jason, listening to the waves, the sensory qualities, the elemental, like this did a good job for me of putting you wherever it was putting you in a very lucid way much more than the previous ones have done where I've been kind of looking at an arm's distance

at some interesting stuff and waiting for it to really like hook into my spirit, so to speak. And this managed to do that in understated ways, you know, most heavily stated with Asoka and Anakin and all that, but in understated ways with kind of everybody and this was the first time it felt like, even though, you know, people were on different missions and storylines and stuff like, this does now feel like an ensemble here in this moment.

and yeah like the journey feels like there is both excitement adventure hope and peril on the horizon and it just feels like you can extrapolate so much more out of it than just kind of sitting and going okay cool a couple things happened but i don't feel you know as moved connected or otherwise like this managed to like feel like sequentially naturally the next episode and yet also feel like it has all the things that have been missing up until now um and lastly great thysabur fights. Yeah, good choreography. Lights and fights were great.

They harkened back to... They harkened back to the prequels and the way they did that. And I really... I like these lightsaber fights the way they were shot more than... Again, like, I liked the last episode.

I just wasn't in love with it like everyone else. And people were really in love with those lightsaber fights. And I thought they were good, but I feel like this was... I thought this was better. I'll just say that. I'm not that I heard it's about a verse I thought episode five versus four

but I thought this was really sharply executed I think part of it's the emotion that goes into that's exactly that's exactly you know two of them

yeah no the two of them just have such like there is history and with every strike of the blade you can feel it you know whereas with like bailout it was beautiful

I mean he's doing this like European medieval style and Assoca's doing this you know samurai-esque that's cool mood and all yeah yeah it's cool but this was better.

I'm sure this was evocative, not just moody. Well, I think ideally we'll get the best of both worlds. That's hope so. Either way, I'm so excited. Hey, what did y'all think? I feel like the internet's a buzz right now. Thanks for keeping us on track. No, what?

No, I'm serious. I want to know that I've really appreciate, and I know last week, we got some heat. Oh, I'm going to shit. I don't know, I'll give shit. No, I love it. People brought up some really great points. Next week,

and I'll be honest about it. If it sucks, I'll be honest about it. Magic. It was magic. And you know what? I thought this was great. This is magical. And this is what happens with patience.

And when you give creatives the power to do what they do best. Yeah, you were ending this. So leave the force behind you. We got to go. I got to edit. Use the force to leave a like and subscribe. All right.

Bye.