as a non Clone Wars/Rebels viewer, I will still gladly eat up any Jedi action they throw my way. I enjoyed it because it met the high bar this show has consistently set for itself...but it wasn't my favorite for one simple reason: no tension.
even if you know nothing about the Jedi, within the first 5 minutes they establish that Ahsoka cannot be harmed by mere soldiers with blasters. then when she talks to the Magistrate and says she’ll be back tomorrow, Kyle Reese boasts that they’ll be ready next time. I was like, hmm I wonder what they’ve got up their sleeve, a rancor? a bunch of droidekas? a rancor with droidekas in its mouth so that when it roars it shoots droidekas at you? or maybe the Magistrate has a secret dark side bodyguard, or knows a bit of Force-fu herself.
nope, apparently the plan was just to throw more useless soldiers at Ahskoa, but this time have them split up down narrow city corridors to completely negate their numeric advantage. boy they’re sure lucky a random Mandalorian in full beskar just happened to land right there that day, cause at least it meant that first strategy could be plan B.
when Mando and Ahsoka meet, again no tension because you know that as soon as he gets a chance to blurt out “Bo-Katan!”, the skirmish is over. so now you have a laser sword warrior with precognition, superhuman speed/agility/reflexes and telekinesis, teamed up with an elite bounty hunter that is literally bulletproof going against a collection of grunts with poor aim, and two useless HK droids. plus they left Grogu back at the ship so they cannot even be threatened by him being in danger.
and yes I know that they were going for the samurai + high noon showdowns at the end, but both those encounters only lasted as long as they did because they allowed it. If they just wanted to win and leave asap, Ahsoka would pull the beskar spear out of the Magistrate’s hands, then choke her and/or dunk her into the pond; Mando would causally walk up to Kyle Reese as his blaster shots uselessly deflect off his indestructible armor, the toughest decision being which of the 15 lethal weapons on his suit is next in the rotation.
anyhow, the important thing for this episode was further expanding the Mandalorian’s involvement with galactic affairs and serving as connective tissue with other Star Wars works. it succeeds, but hopefully they’ll continue to find inventive ways of challenging these guys, because at their superhero levels, playing the game on easy mode isn’t going to entertain for long.
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