This is MJ, I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
Welcome to my fully operational Star Wars analysis.
This is my brief discussion of Ahsoka Episode 8. I... well anyway, it was written, it's entitled
The Jedi... it sounds like the line from the original. The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord.
And the reason it's called that is because that's what it contains and I guess
Filoni's trying to be literary with these titles. Anyway, which is kind of interesting.
So yeah, that was the name of the episode, Rick Fumiaka? Fukuyama? It feels like it should be
Fukuyama, but I think it's Fumiaki or Fumiaka. Anyway, doesn't matter. I mean it matters,
but you know, I don't have to get everything 100% exactly right. But anyway, he is the director of
the episode. This was a very action-packed episode. I can't remember if he directed episode... episode?
Episode 8 of The Mandalorian? I feel like he definitely did. And you know, I could, you know,
you could say they're similarly climactic. Was it episode 8 or episode 10? I don't remember. Anyway,
you could say that they're similarly climactic and there are parallels. But anyway, that's,
um, that's, you know, who did it and it came out on this last Tuesday, whatever that was,
I guess the 3rd of October. So yeah, it was, it was interesting. We had the night troopers,
you know, we had it fully understood or displayed why they were called the night troopers. Like the
Nightsisters, they were able to be resurrected and have their reanimated corpses continue fighting.
I found it odd that the night troopers were like growling and zombie-like and I'm unclear if the,
like if they were forever trapped down below. And if the second wave of, you know, night trooper
guys that were attacking, uh, as Ezra was getting onto the ship and, uh, you know, Ahsoka was fighting
with Morgan Ellsworth. I don't know if those guys were, you know, reanimated corpses or if they were
just some of Thrawn's other troops who he had left behind. Um, so yeah, it's, it's, you know,
it was a decent ending. It's interesting. It's, you know, it's a victory for the bad guys. It's a,
you know, mostly defeat for the good guys. Um, you know, none of them died. It was, uh, almost
more like, yep, we lost for today and we're going to wrap things up, you know, as Ezra gets to go
home. Um, I know his shtick, him and Kanan both did a lot of, uh, storm trooper impersonation, you
know, knocking a guy out or killing him and then, you know, stealing his clothes, uh, his armor,
and then, you know, commandeering ships or whatever. It felt a little odd to me in live action. I don't
know, like in the show, I never questioned it. I was like, of course that's what they're going to do.
But the, to think that he, you know, swapped into the armor of this night trooper and stole the ship.
I mean, I guess he had to wait till he was, I guess he had to pretend he was a storm trooper
until, or night trooper, until he got back into the galaxy, uh, the main Star Wars galaxy,
so that he could steal the ship and break away. It just seems odd that he would be able to do that.
However, it's probably all part of Grand Admiral Thrawn's plan and it will lead to the ultimate
downfall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire. And, uh, I don't know, it's kind of a silly detail
or silly thing to think about that. You know, Ezra got away, which is like, oh, it's cool.
It's a victory. And then I could see Thrawn saying, yes, this is my plan all along. So, um, yeah,
I didn't overall, like, I don't know, Thrawn's like the most positive, uh, the most, uh, like optimistic,
um, you know, mid-level manager you can ever imagine. Uh, that's what it feels like to me
in this show. Like, oh, okay, I'm just going to roll with it. You know, we're okay. Uh, we're going
to discuss this with HR later, but, um, yeah, for now let's call this a win and let's just keep moving
forward, guys. Don't worry. And, uh, you know, so and so, uh, they're going to have to part ways with
us, but that's okay. You know, Morgan, she did a great job. We appreciate everything Morgan did.
We wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be getting this success without everything that Morgan did. And,
uh, let's all give her, you know, a big round of applause. Who wants some cake? I'm going to have
some donuts brought in, guys, tomorrow to celebrate because we all did good work. Like, I don't know,
I just, it just feels, I don't know, it just, it feels really weird. It feels like he takes losses
and reframes them as victories and like that's his, like that's his greatest strength or his
greatest power. And that just seems kind of odd to me. I liked the lightsaber fight between Ahsoka
and, um, Lil Talzin. Um, and, uh, I thought it was really cool. I didn't like how the blade looked.
Like I, I mean, it looked okay. Um, but I feel like when mother tells him he's using it, it was
more ephemeral, more ghostly, more spectral. And I almost wonder if they like pulled back, you know,
I know they brought the dark saber from, uh, it wasn't Clone Wars. Yeah. From Clone Wars and Rebels
into live action, you know, Moff Gideon had it and such. Um, I watched season three of
Mandalorian yet, so I couldn't speak of it in there, but it looked really cool. Um, and then,
you know, bringing this one to life was interesting. Um, I don't know. I'm, I'm,
it's a very interesting, I don't know. I don't know. It's not super interesting. Like I enjoyed
watching it because I'm familiar with these characters and I want to see, you know, more
adventures in their story moving forward. Um, I'm at the midpoint, so I need to start wrapping up
now. Like, you know, Sabine was able to use the light. I don't know. Like once she was able to
call the lightsaber herself to kill that last night trooper, um, that was in the special black
and red armor. Um, she, I guess doesn't have any problem, uh, using it, um, using the force now,
like it had to break open for her or something, I guess, because then she was able to push it as
we're like, you know, ridiculously far. Um, that felt, I know that felt like an odd moment, like,
and I can understand Ezra's hesitation, like, girl, you just barely learned to pull lightsaber
to yourself. Now you're going to push me like, you know, 80 feet or whatever. Like it was crazy.
Um, and that jump looked like it was like a, I don't know, like almost like a hundred, two and a
foot, three foot jump. Um, and maybe it was just the framing of it, but like, I don't know, they're
not supposed to be able to jump that far, right? Like I would, uh, I would support, you know,
teleportation better or I don't know, like, yeah, I don't know. It was a little bit too far of a
jump for me. Um, you know, I accepted or whatever, but I'm glad she wasn't able to make it because
that really would not have made any sense. Um, so, and I thought the, the framing of that, the way
that was cut to make it a surprise that Sabine was still there with the Soca and to help her out.
That was cool. That was very well done. And, um, it was kind of sweet. Uh, you know, Soca had like
abandoned her previously and Sabine had been a jerk, especially in the first episode, such a jerk,
like, you know, cutting out on people for that ceremony or whatever. And we get to see like,
you know, this, there's a definite arc in her. Um, although I didn't think she needed to be a
jerk back then to make this one work, but anyway, regardless, that's, that's how it happened. It's
what's going down. And I liked that. I liked the fact that they're stuck together to some extent
and that a Soca says they're right where they need to be. She'd been very Zen, very Jedi. And you
know, you, you could argue, well, you don't like Thrawn taking these losses and reframing them as
victories. And that's exactly what a Soca has done. Yeah, but she's a Jedi. She's a deeper spiritual
person who is supposed to, you know, that's what Jedi are supposed to do. That's not what warlords
are supposed to do necessarily. So, um, I mean, they did have a material victory because they are
back in the, you know, they're, they're on Dathomir now or they're orbiting Dathomir
and he's got the great mothers with them and all those, you know, night sister corpses or
whatever those are things, whatever the things are from the catacombs. Um, so, you know, that's, uh,
there's the material victory there, but I, and while I had, you know, yes, there's a victory there.
I mocked it a little bit, but on the other hand, I'm not going to mock that for the heroes,
because the heroes are supposed to be about more than the material victory. They're supposed to be
about the inner journey and the spiritual victory and all that stuff. And that's what they've gotten.
Sabine and Soca are together. They, uh, not like that. Okay. Guys, calm down. They, you know, like
each other, they respect each other. There's the, a good solid, you know, mother daughter relationship,
sisterly relationship, whatever you want to call it because of them being master and Padawan.
And they are figuring out how to do life, to make life, to make a life for themselves on this planet
where Ezra had done the same thing. So like, you know, there is hope, there is life, there is
positivity, and they just have to be open to accepting what happened to them and making it
work and doing their best. Um, meanwhile, from like a meta perspective, uh, you know, Shin is there.
She goes to be like the bandit queen or whatever. Um, and now I'm really getting little vibes from
some of the stuff in the show. Um, she goes back to be like, you know, the queen of the marauders or
whatnot and, uh, or maybe to hunt the Jedi. And that could be what season two is about or not.
And then we get to see this, like, you know, glimpse of the pregnant possibilities of this world
where, uh, we have a statue, Baelin is at a statue of the father from Mortis, the son from
Mortis and the daughter from Mortis, but the daughter's head has been broken off. Now there's
this whole thing that you'll see in videos about, you know, spoilers and Easter eggs and whatever,
about how there's this connection between the daughter and the, um, and Ahsoka because of how
she brought her back to life and whatever. And the Mortis trilogy and Clone Wars, which you should
really go see that. Mortis trilogy. It was like three, three, four episodes, maybe. I think it was
three. Anyway, very cool episodes. Season three of, uh, Clone Wars. Um, so I know that's interesting.
Um, but, uh, yeah, like what does that mean? Um, you know, it's the father, the son and the daughter.
And it always made me think, is there a mother? And we've got mother Telsen and it made me think,
could she have been the mother somehow? You know, how would that have made sense? Made sense. You
know, they would call these the great mothers and like, why is the mother, you know, bereft? Why is
the mother alone? Why is the mother separate and distinct from her family? You know, what happened?
You need a, um, it would almost make more sense if it was like the father, the mother and the child,
you know, either way, you know, a boy or a girl. And yeah, that seems to make a lot more sense,
but there's this like brokenness in the Mortis family. Um, and, uh, there's literally brokenness
in the statue of the daughter of Mortis. So like, what does that mean? Does that mean that the
daughter has, well, this would be creepy. The daughter, like a sentence and tries to become
the mother herself. Um, huh, that's interesting. Anyway, I don't want to get into crazy speculation.
I want to keep this episode, uh, short and tidy. So like, you know, it's Ray Stevens or Ray Stevens,
and I can't remember his name anyway. So the guy who plays Bailin, unfortunately he died. Um, and
he was not supposed to, I mean, whatever for the purpose of the show, you know, Bailin isn't
supposed to die and they're gonna have to figure out what to do with his character because he has
something that he's working towards. And I don't know, you know, the writers strike all that crap.
Who knows what's going to happen with the circus season two, but I think they're gonna have to do
some adjustments. I find it interesting that Shin stayed with him. I almost wonder if that was
something recut after he died and they knew that he wasn't there anymore. Um, that like, maybe he
can die pursuing whatever this destiny is, this dream is, this, you know, great ambition is. And
maybe Shin will just have to take over because they have her actor available. I don't know. It's, uh,
it's interesting. And, uh, I don't know, like I'm interested in what's going to happen in the future,
but like, I mean, it wasn't the greatest story, but it was entertaining and it was enjoyable for
the most part. There were lots of things I liked, but then again, these were characters. I, I,
it's kind of funny cause like, um, like one more minute and then I'm going to cut out of here. Uh,
uh, I, uh, have an ambition to be a professional writer, like, you know, make a livelihood off my
writing. Um, and you know, $20 million a year. And, uh, anyway, I want to write series and I want to
write stories where I have book series, where I have characters having long ongoing adventures
and I want there to be character arcs. So I kind of want the best of both worlds where I can
structure things so that my characters can have these long arcs, you know, multiple books, uh,
worth of arcs and stories. And, you know, maybe they come back, maybe there's a generation,
you know, second generation, maybe there's all these different things. So it's like this big
sprawling universe of stuff. And I want to be able to just keep telling stories with them because
that's the magic of fiction. You can just keep telling stories with characters. And if you like
the characters, you'll come back for the stories. And, uh, you know, whether that's, uh, you know,
James Bond to see him do, you know, heroic stuff and crazy gadgets and, uh, getting all sorts of,
you know, weird adventures over and over again in different contexts. And it's, you know,
exciting because it's fresh and new all the time, or whether it's, uh, you know, like the epic of,
uh, you know, the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit or, uh, I, I don't know. I don't have another,
I, I've never read like the Wheel of Time and the little bit I saw of it on Amazon, I was not
interested. So, um, I can't think of any other long series, but like, yeah, I just want to keep
having adventures with these characters, you know? Um, I watched over a hundred episodes of Clone
Wars because while it's not focused primarily on, you know, Anakin Obi-Wan and, uh, Anakin Obi-Wan,
Ahsoka and, you know, uh, Amidala, like to the exclusion of everybody else, they are, you know,
recurring characters. And we do get to see their stories develop and grow and evolve. And like,
I don't know, I just want to spend more time with characters I like. So, um, that's what I got out
of the show and that's what I enjoy. And I don't want to criticize it, um, because like, you know,
I appreciate the effort, but it wasn't what I was expecting at all. Um, but it does open us up to
like, you could have a whole, you know, world of media just covering Ahsoka and Sabine living on
this abandoned planet and this other galaxy for like years, years worth of writing you could do
on that. And that's kind of interesting, but I just don't know what they're going to do and how
they're going to do that, especially with, uh, you know, having to take Balen off the board or
just recast them, which, you know, there's nothing wrong with recasting something. So anyway, uh,
I liked it overall. Like I said, you know, I have my complaints, but I had my praises for it. It
wasn't like amazing, but it's just like, Oh, okay. So that's it's, it's setting a board. It's clearing
things. It's, it's putting things in position for another story to happen. And I'm okay with that.
Um, I am okay with that. So, uh, with that, I'm going to go ahead and get out of here, but I'm
going to ask first for you to share your thoughts on, uh, the episode, tell me which thought of the
episode and the series as a whole. And, um, until next time folks take care. This is MJ signing out.