Ahsoka Part Five Shadow Warrior
Disney+

Spoilers for Ahsoka Part Five: Shadow Warrior

Casual Star Wars fans have now spent some time in a live-action version of the World Between Worlds. A few lucky extreme fans got a chance to see it on the big screen at AMC Theaters in ten cities around the US. Everyone witnessed a new way for the World Between Worlds to behave. Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) reluctantly found herself in another duel with her master, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). Something new is that her age changed as her surroundings did. Christmas came early as Ahsoka went on a tour with the Ghost of Christensen Past into the Clone Wars.

It was a coming of age for Ahsoka. Director Dave Filoni made sure we saw the difference between the Ahsoka who went in and the Ahsoka who came out. Note the white robes she’s donning at the end. Her demeanor has changed as well. She’s got a new lease on life, and she’s ready to say yes to everything.

Seatos has been abandoned by Morgan Elsbeth and her semi-Sith. They’re off to see the Wizard of Rentor (Thrawn) with a captive Sabine Wren onboard. Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has arrived with her human hybrid son, Jacen (Evan Whitten), and droid, Chopper. Somehow, she’s honed in on the cliffside henge instead of Ahsoka’s grounded ship, where she finds Huyang (voiced by David Tennant) holding Sabine’s Mandalorian helmet. He’s lamenting her disappearance as if he’s Hamlet. Poor Sabine, I knew her well. “I told them to stay together. But they never listen.” Droids have feelings, too, you know. Meanwhile, Jacen, son of Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus, has a sense he’s trying to focus on. “There’s something about the water.” He hears lightsabers in the waves.

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Ahsoka continues her reunion with Anakin, but he’s got something to show her. It begins with a threat. Live or die. She echos Luke Skywalker in the duel with his father on Death Star II, “I won’t fight you,” she declares. Ahsoka is forced to defend herself as Anakin swings his blue lightsaber.

Captain Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) urges Hera to answer to command as they’ve taken this mission without orders. Hera takes her son at his word that they need to search the waters, and she orders the remaining X-Wing pilots to sweep the area again and again.

Ahsoka holds her own against her former master, kicking him in the head to prove she’s holding back death blows. But the Ghost of Christensen Past literally removes the floor beneath her. Ahsoka plummets into a distant past where Anakin is younger and still calls his new Padawan “Snips.” Here we find a young Ahsoka, portrayed wonderfully by Ariana Greenblatt, most recently from Barbie (2023) and 65 (2023). Clone Troopers run by as she gets her bearings. It’s one of her first missions with Master Anakin.

We see Ahsoka’s trepidation for becoming a warrior. She voices her pain and inability to reconcile the death happening around her. Her guilt is unbearable, but Anakin is trying to show her that there’s dirty work in keeping peace. She briefly fantasizes about her own Padawan “one day,” and we can assume she’s thinking of Sabine. Some of what she learns in Ahsoka “Part Five” will be translated later. She watches Anakin rejoin the fray, and you can see the turmoil in young Ahsoka’s emotions. She doesn’t want this for herself. Ultimately, Anakin will show her that you must fight in order to decide not to fight. It’s a hard lesson for her, but Anakin is teaching it from experience. As Anakin walks away, he flickers into the silhouette of Darth Vader as his lightsaber changes from blue to red and back again.

While Hera’s team continues their search, Ahsoka finds herself at the Siege of Mandalore. She’s dropping horn-headed Mandalorians sworn to Maul when he wielded the Darksaber. After a quick compliment on her handiwork by a passing Rex (Temuera Morrison), Anakin reappears to finish the duel. This time, he sports his Sith eyes and reminds her that she is part of a legacy. She is everything he is. She knows all he knows. She can only strike defensively as a child, so Anakin kicks her back into the bridge of the World Between Worlds to finish her lesson. He accuses her of lacking conviction, so she finally shows it to him. He shows her brute force, disarming her. She shows him guile and agility, shifting behind him to hold Anakin’s red lightsaber to his throat.

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Ahsoka makes the determination that she’s done all she needs and gives herself to the rising water in the strange place. She soon finds herself being pulled from the ocean on Seatos with a new lease on life and a new attitude full of conviction. She is more at one with the Force than she’s ever been.

Reunited with Hera and Jacen, Ahsoka listens to the echos of the destroyed star map for clues to where Sabine might be. She now knows Sabine left in hopes of finding Ezra. And what better way to get there? Looking up, Ahsoka notices a pod of Purrgil near orbit and taps into her newfound conviction to ask for a ride. The following majestic moments are a reminder that Star Wars is a fantasy set in a galaxy far, far away. Rosario Dawson seems to enjoy the thrill as if she can actually see the tentacled space whales in real life. Kevin Kiner’s soundtrack assures these moments feel as extraordinary as they look.

Ahsoka is somehow even more focused than before. She has embraced her strengths and abilities with a new confidence. She assures Huyang that not knowing where they’ll end up is better than going nowhere. She hopes to find Sabine and Ezra. It’s more important to her than Thrawn at the moment, but she’ll handle that as it comes. The Force will be with her. We know it before Hera says it. Just before the whales hyper-jump with Ahsoka inside the giant Jonah-Uber. “May the Force be with you.”

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