Far Far Away (Ahsoka - S01E06) - Live Action Series

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"Fall of the Jedi, rise of the Empire... it repeats again and again and again..." SPOILERS.

Space Whales are space trucking across the universe

"Far Far Away" is the best Ahsoka episode yet. Which means ever since the very tedious opening of the season with three very mediocre episodes that had multiple issues the series has finally found its footing and keeps improving. While last week was a veritable nostalgia party with extensive Clone Wars flashbacks this week's "Far Far Away" is maybe the first episode of any Star Wars series that tries and even manages to recapture the magic of the original movie here and there... and it also helps immensely that in this episode Ahsoka has almost zero screentime, other than in the first two or three minutes, for the rest of the episode she's inside a space whale and not seen or heard from. This gives the series time to focus more on the actually interesting characters of Baylan, Sabine and Shin.

Elsbeth, Baylan and Sabine finally arrive at the fabled planet of Paridea, home of the nightsisters and Thrawn's exile

And Baylan proves to be by far the most interesting character in the series once again. Over the course of the episode he has various chats with his apprentice Shin and we learn much more about his mindset and we even get a few hints what his plans might be. Since Baylan does of course have his own agenda, one that is not really in aligmnent with Thrawn.

No one is ever dead in Star Wars... meet the Nightsisters!

The episode doesn't waste much time this week. We learn pretty early into the episode that the Nightsisters, which were all but eradicated in the Star Wars galaxy, are still alive in that other galaxy, where their actual home planet is. And Morgan Elsbeth meets several of her sisters and we learn that they are in league with Thrawn and have this grand plan of taking back control over the Star Wars galaxy.

The MVPs of this series finally get some more screentime

And as mentioned previously we also learn more about Baylan, who, as we learn, has not confided any of his plans to Shin yet, who is as clueless as the audience regarding his ulterior motives. But Baylan makes several interesting obversations about the Jedi order, a deeply flawed organization, child snatchers, an organization that trained child soldiers and sent them into war, and while Baylan does not comment on these disturbing things he does note that while he could not make sense of the destruction of the temple during Order 66 at the time... he has since learned that it is all an inevitable vicuous cycle of violence... the Jedi rise, the Sith fall, the Jedi fall, the Sith or some Empire rise... forever and ever, and indeed all of Star Wars is basically about the neverending war between Jedi and Sith and how both sides manage to have the upper hand for a while, before everything is destroyed again. And Baylan wants to change this. How exactly, and what power it is he seeks on Peridea which is meant to help him accomplish this is unknown, I suppose the season finale will address this in two weeks from now

The Empire loves dramatic entrances

And a bit later we also learn that Baylan still loves the idea of the Jedi order... but not the truth. So the episode once more makes it abundantly clear that Baylan is not allout evil, he may not even be a villain in the traditional sense, he just has very different goals and given what we know of the Jedi and the neverending cycle of violence this is the first time Star Wars actually addresses this properly and now it has a character that seeks to break the cycle. He will fail of course, which is tragic, because only 10-15 years later the same cycle repeats all over again when the First Order invades the galaxy only for Rey to get rid of them again, so she can build a new Jedi order that can then get destroyed eventually by Sith further down the road. You want Baylan to succeed, it is tragic that we know he won't.

Papa Smurf sure looks different now

The episode doesn't keep you waiting too long before Thrawn makes his entrance. And while I like the performance of Lars Mikkelsen I feel he was miscast for the role based on looks alone. I feel they should have cast someone with more distinctive, angular facial features. But the performance is perfectly fine as the soft spoken, smart villain. They also waste no time in preparing the journey home. The episode adds some more worldbuilding and a few nice details when we see the state of the Imperials after all this time. The Stormtroopers mended their armours using a traditional Japanese technique called Kintsugi, where you mend and repair things and do not hide the repairs, but make them a part of the history of the object, so the Japanese would paint or cover the repaired parts with gold and we see this here too. And I suppose Hasbro jumped for joy when they saw all these new Stormtroopers they can kitbash now! But these tiny details make everything more believable and the worldbuilding is always much appreciated. 

Sabine is on her way to Ezra

Sabine is still with the villains of course and Baylan keeps his word, to the letter... Sabine is not harmed, in fact, Thrawn honours the promise as well, and the Imperials not only give her the last known location of Ezra Bridger, they even give her her own space wolf horse creature (hence called "wolse") and even give her all of her weapons, lightsaber included. Of course Thrawn wants to keep the promise only so much... because while he will allow Sabine to find Ezra and to reunite... he sends Baylan and Shin after them to kill everyone. But Thrawn does not entirely trust them, because Baylan once was a Jedi and is thus, according to Thrawn, flawed. And chances are pretty good Baylan will actually not try to kill Sabine, since his own agenda is very different and he does not consider her an enemy, he even says she can prove to be useful in the future.

Sabine meets Space Jiminy Cricket! And he has a Republic pendant!

Sabine meanwhile rides across the landscape, looking for Ezra and we get a few hilarious scenes between her and her surprisingly docile and tame ride. Sabine gets attacked by random raiders she makes short work of, we need some action of course... and then her wolse sniffs out a strange rock, that turns out to be a midget locust/cricket creature wearing a rock shell like a turtle. And while Sabine can't understand the creature the creature in turn recognizes the symbol on Sabine's shoulder pad, the insignia of the Republic and he reveals a wooden pendant he wears around his neck that has the very same symbol.

Now there are six of them!

So it becomes obvious the Jiminy Crickets know Ezra and Sabine quickly makes friends with the creatures and follows them back to their camp. In these scenes the episode manages to recapture some of the original magic, you know the scenes, R2 roaming Tatooine, we meet the strange and mysterious Jawas, when everything was still new and wonderous. It turns out traveling to a new galaxy could be a real boon! Because for the first time ever really we get an all new playground, all new rules, all new setting instead of revisiting the same old planets over and over and over again. It is also interesting that the homeplanet of the Nightsisters is not some super dark, super evil place, it is a planet with several critters and aliens living on it and not everything or everyone wants to eat or kill Sabine. It feels like a real location, unlike Exegol.

The Jiminy Cricket village

It doesn't take long for Sabine to eventually arrive at the camp of the space Jiminy Crickets and yes, the episode finally reunites us with what used to be the main Rebels character: Ezra Bridger! He's older now... and with a lot more beard!

Ezra in the flesh and he's very happy to see Sabine

Ezra is of course more than happy to see Sabine after all this time. But he does not know yet that Sabine herself has no way of returning to the home galaxy. But for now the two old friends are reunited and Ahsoka is no longer the only Jedi on the team. Thrawn and Elsbeth meanwhile are busy transferring all the necessary items from the old Star Destroyer to the hyperspace ring, their return to the Star Wars galaxy is imminent and Thrawn is then informed that Ahsoka is on her way via space whale, and he tells the nightsisters that he will be in need of their magic... but that is something for next week's episode.

So all in all this was a really enjoyable episode! It reflected on the Jedi order and its flaws and it even, only much better, quotes themes we had in The Last Jedi... where Kylo urges Rey to leave it all behind, Jedi, Sith and to forge something new and where we hear Luke say the Jedi should die, something many people misunderstood - of course nothing ever came of it. And sadly, nothing will come of it here either, but at least it is now perfectly understandable why even a Jedi may feel it is time to leave the Jedi and Sith of old behind and to create something new, something that will not inevitably result in a neverending cycle of destruction. As I said previously, it is tragic to know Baylan will fail because if Star Wars needs something, then something fresh and new, a new start, not the same old Jedi order reborn. Which is why it was so disheartening to see it in the sequels and The Book of Boba Fett that Luke has learned literally nothing and merely wants to recreate the order as before. And lo and behold... his order too gets destroyed in the same old cycle of death and destruction further down the road. It is time the franchise stops this rehashed plot device for good. And so Baylan's dialogue can also be considered something of a meta comment on the Star Wars franchise.

It is good to know that Dave Filoni is painfully aware of this rinse and repeat plot device in all of Star Wars, even in legends and video games, but the sad truth is... he can do little to change it. But I see a way out: Baylan and Shin want to do their own thing in the new galaxy. In fact, the new galaxy would be a perfect way out of the creative doldrums and memberberry shows and movies we get. It offers the chance to create truly new things, without any of the baggage from before. Now the ultimate question is if Filoni will really choose that route or if Baylan is just yet another antagonist (more or less) who will fail, like all antagonists in Star Wars do, without fail. It would be refreshing though if Baylan's and Shin's fate is different this time.

And while it pains me to say it it is blatantly obvious that the best moments of Ahsoka never involve the titular character herself. At least not in adult form, since last week her Clone Wars version was pretty great. No, Ahsoka herself is the weakest link and least interesting character by far, everyone else has more nuance. Even Sabine who puts getting Ezra back over Ahsoka's strict orders, because to her emotions and happiness still matter. A weakness for some, something you can exploit, like Baylan did, but it makes her human, whereas Ahsoka has the charm of a bot.

So "Far Far Away" is definitely worth your time! It is too bad that it took us this long to get to a point where Ahsoka becomes interesting. But the last three episodes were steady improvements over the first three lackluster episodes... but I fear the first three episodes have turned quite a few people away from the show. If you are one of them... maybe consider rejoining now, while "Far Far Away" is not the best streaming has to offer, it is among the best Star Wars streaming series have to offer, only surpassed by Andor. Sure, The Mandalorian had some pretty good episodes too, but they relied on Luke Skywalker, nostalgia or action. "Far Far Away" is more philosophical and gives you some food for thought, which is much appreciated. And, as mentioned in the beginning, it even manages to recapture some of the original Star Wars magic. Even the title of the episode alludes to this. And in my opinion Dave Filoni accomplished his goal in this episode.