Ahsoka is now here, with the first two episodes met with rave reviews and legions of extremely happy Star Wars Rebels fans. After season 2 of The Mandalorian, we already knew Rosario Dawson would nail it as an older, wiser version of the title hero, but it was also great seeing Sabine Wren make the leap to live-action, as well as new dark Jedi mercenaries Baylan and Shin.
However, it’s been noticed that the series marks a Star Wars live-action first that almost everyone missed. Towards the end of the first episode, Sabine and Shin have a scrappy lightsaber duel, with Sabine’s lack of practise resulting in a 20,000F blade being shoved through her torso. You might think this would be something of a setback, though she bounced back in the very next episode (Qui-Gon’s force ghost no doubt throwing his hands up in annoyance).
So what is this duel doing that no other Star Wars scene has done before? Well, Ahsoka is the very first time that two female Star Wars characters have locked lightsabers:
We went back to double-check this as really the case. Arguably, there’s the moment in The Rise of Skywalker where Rey locks sabers with her dark side reflection, but this is a dream sequence and not a duel. Other than that, up until now female characters with lightsabers have fought male opponents in the movies and TV shows.
Of course, this only applies to live-action. For example, in The Clone Wars Ahsoka fought Asajj Ventress, and there have been many female-only fights across Star Wars video games.
We suspect Sabine and Shin are due a rematch over the next six episodes. Here’s hoping becoming Ahsoka’s padawan gives Sabine time to polish her lightsaber skills, or the next time she has a white-hot plasma blade shoved through her body she might not recover so quickly.
Ahsoka airs Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
Published: Aug 25, 2023 03:38 am