Ahsoka is finally here, with the first two episodes delivering some hot lightsaber action while setting up the eventual return of Grand Admiral Thrawn. So far it’s been smooth sailing for the show, though perhaps viewers who haven’t caught up with Star Wars Rebels may need to do some research to figure out who these characters are and what their motivations are.
The first episode wrapped up with a lightsaber fight between Natashia Liu Bordizzo’s Sabine Wren and Ivanna Sakhno’s Shin Hati. Neither seemed to be an expert duellist, though Shin Hati had put in the training that Sabine hasn’t, impaling her with the blade and leaving her in the dust.
Nice to know you, Sabine! Oh, wait, episode two is here and it turns out recovering from having a 20,000°F plasma blade shoved through your body is super easy, barely an inconvenience. Some medical droids slap a bit of Bacta on the gaping hole and she’s up and ready to go a few moments later.
It’s a shame nobody gave Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn the memo in The Phantom Menace. He suffered an almost identical lightsaber wound and almost immediately died. Fans seem rather amused by the incongruence, theorizing that Bacta was invented “literally like 15 minutes” after Qui-Gon’s death or that he simply hadn’t kept up payments on his Jedi health insurance.
There have been rumblings amongst the Star Wars community that lightsabers have lost their shine of late (and Zack Snyder may be about to show us how it should be done in Rebel Moon). Here’s hoping this is a one-off, as one of the reasons lightsaber duels are so exciting is that we know exactly how dangerous they are.
Ahsoka airs Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
