AHSOKA's Climactic Lightsaber Duel Marks A Groundbreaking Moment For STAR WARS - SPOILERS

AHSOKA's Climactic Lightsaber Duel Marks A Groundbreaking Moment For STAR WARS - SPOILERS

The series premiere of Ahsoka concludes with a lightsaber battle between Shin Hati and Sabine Wren, and the sequence marks a groundbreaking moment for live-action Star Wars.

By MarkCassidy - Aug 25, 2023 11:08 PM EST
Filed Under: Star Wars
Source: Via SFF Gazette

The first two episodes of Ahsoka are now streaming on Disney+, and the series premiere marked a first for a live-action Star Wars series or movie.

If you haven't watched "Master and Apprentice" yet, spoilers follow.

In the closing moments of the episode, Baylan Skoll's apprentice Shin Hati makes her way to Lothal to retrieve the star-map currently in the possession of Sabine Wren. A tense lightsaber duel ensues, with Hati getting the best of her inexperienced opponent and running her through the side.

The Star Wars Rebels fan-favorite survives (of course), and ultimately winds up re-teaming with Ahsoka as her Padawan.

While we've seen numerous lightsaber battles over the years, this is actually the first time two female characters have crossed blades (Ahsoka did face Morgan Elsbeth in season 2 of The Mandalorian, but only one of them wielded a lightsaber) outside the animated corner of the Galaxy Far, Far Away - and something tells us it won't be the last.

Sabine will no doubt seek a rematch, and we're sure Ahsoka will also encounter Hati at some point before the end of the season.

Have you watched the first two episodes of Ahsoka? If so, be sure to share your thoughts in the comments down below.

Set after the fall of the Empire, Ahsoka follows the former Jedi knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.

The series stars Rosario Dawson in the title role, with Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth, Ivanna Sakhno as Shin Hati, Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll, David Tennant as Huyang, Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn, with Eman Esfandi appearing as Ezra Bridger.

Kevin Kiner was announced as the series' composer.

Ahoska is written by executive producer Dave Filoni, alongside executive producers Favreau, Kennedy, Wilson, and Beck. Gilchrist is co-executive producer. The series’ directors include Filoni, Steph Green, Peter Ramsey, Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Vasant Patel and Rick Famuyiwa.

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HistoryofMatt
HistoryofMatt - 8/25/2023, 11:06 PM
Who gives a crap?

Once again, Dave Filoni, or maybe it's Kathleen Kennedy, completely undercuts the power of the lightsaber by having one of their characters survive being run through. It's so frakking stupid and awful and terrible storytelling.
JackBurton1
JackBurton1 - 8/26/2023, 12:17 AM
@HistoryofMatt - I'll never understand why they did that again.It has to be a Disney thing with females living through being impaled by a lightsaber...heck Kenobi had a female that lived not once but TWICE after Vader impaled her with one.

Of course Kylo Ren was impaled but Mary Sue was right there to save him.
Fogs
Fogs - 8/26/2023, 4:24 AM
@jst5 @HistoryofMatt - simple. To teach us Qui-Gon was a wuss.
TheEddy
TheEddy - 8/26/2023, 8:16 AM
@HistoryofMatt - you guys do remember Maul survived being chopped in half and dropped down a massively deep hole. Anakin had every limb chopped off and mostly burned and lived. Legends SW stories are filled with brutal injuries being but a flesh wound. The lightsaber would instantly carterize a wound, so it would be more reasonable to survive a stab to the liver (Sabine was stabbed to the right side of center, so liver or intestines). Both areas that can withstand short term damage. If there's frustration it should be with why Hati didn't make a lateral move with the blade or chop. Maybe Baylan's line about so few jedi remaining is a hint. Maybe she was trained to strike her in an attempt not to kill her.
Timerider
Timerider - 8/26/2023, 8:20 AM
@HistoryofMatt - how do we know that Ahsoka didn’t use her force powers to save her life without killing herself, something Kenobi didn’t learn yet, but Anakin did, and Anakin taught Ahsoka.
Vigor
Vigor - 8/25/2023, 11:10 PM
This is some good late night bait

HAILHYDRA
HAILHYDRA - 8/25/2023, 11:13 PM
The duel was great but I hate that the new default ending for lightsaber duels is for one person to get stabbed and the other just leaves and then the injured party somehow makes a full recovery. That’s why I didn’t mind the ending to the Boba Fett and Cad Bane fight.
ComicGuy131
ComicGuy131 - 8/25/2023, 11:27 PM
FusionWarrior
FusionWarrior - 8/25/2023, 11:46 PM
TRUE!
EmeritusII
EmeritusII - 8/25/2023, 11:50 PM
JFerguson
JFerguson - 8/25/2023, 11:55 PM
What about that one time Rey fought Mara jade then made love afterwards?

Or was that just something I imagined?
MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 8/26/2023, 1:55 AM
Ground still looks intact to me...

L0RDbuckethead
L0RDbuckethead - 8/26/2023, 5:33 PM
@MosquitoFarmer - haha this made me chuckle.
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 8/26/2023, 3:33 AM
In this day and age ? Absolutely stunning and brave ! Much groundbreak !
Clintthahamster
Clintthahamster - 8/26/2023, 9:11 AM
@OrgasmicPotatoe - Literally the first time it's happened, so, yeah?
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 8/26/2023, 4:21 AM
The first two episodes of this show were so [frick]ing good. Hit that sweet spot for me.

Just two notes and they both involve Sabine Wren:

1. The "Get Lost" line felt unnecessarily censored and immediately made it feel like a Children's TV show.

2. Fake-out death. So cheap. Right in the first episode too. Tells us there's no stakes right away. Damages the show and even the franchise as a whole.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 8/26/2023, 6:07 AM
@ObserverIO - It wasn’t a fake out though. She’s Mando, bro. The pinnacle of a warrior within the Star Wars universe. There was never a chance impaling her in her side was going to be fatal.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 8/26/2023, 6:30 AM
@PlusUltra - Sure, Mandos're hardcore, but a lightsaber burst out of her stomach like a chestburster from Alien.
Technically that's not necessarily a killing blow. Intellectually, that makes sense. But dramatically it was presented as a killing blow. They weren't meaning to wound her. That was the killing blow. And then they left.
It was meant to make us go "Oh shit, she's dead!" It was presented as a dramatically shocking moment. Not "Oh shit they missed!""Oh shit I didn't realise that they wanted to keep her alive!"
TheEddy
TheEddy - 8/26/2023, 8:26 AM
@ObserverIO - I disagree. No marketing shied away from Sabine being shown in moments after that. The format of two episodes dropping right away helps take away the "what happened to Sabine" cliffhanger. And I think maybe Baylan's line in episode two about being a shame to kill Ahsoka might be a hint that Hati wasn't attempting to kill Sabine. The way she stands above her after the blow shows she might have wanted to because of whatever dark is in her. But she was running cover so the map could be taken. They could have just blown Sabine's place up or had the droids continue to help if Sabine's death was desired from the start
TheEddy
TheEddy - 8/26/2023, 8:41 AM
@TheEddy - also, can't hate the get lost line too much. It does feel odd in a vacuum. But these characters were born from a kids show and she did speak like that in the show. Would make sense that some of her old dialect would stick around. As much as I'd love a brutal and adult ancient Star Wars lore story on the big screen (Nihilus, Malgus, the Eternal Fleet,the Sith war, any of the crazy lovecraftian unknown regions lore) Star Wars has to check so many audience boxes. If you focus at all on the dialogue in a vacuum it becomes an annoyance. At least it wasn't yippeeee!
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 8/26/2023, 12:30 PM
@TheEddy - Well there is that, lol. We've come a long way since then.
batman001
batman001 - 8/26/2023, 5:06 AM
Did you seriously just say that this was first time that we've seen two women fight with a lightsaber in Star Wars and yet not even a paragraph later say that this happened in the animated corner of Star Wars you just straight up contradicted yourself in your own article.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 8/26/2023, 6:04 AM
@batman001 - did you seriously not read the article?
Clintthahamster
Clintthahamster - 8/26/2023, 9:13 AM
@batman001 - Literally the first sentence: "marked a first for a live-action Star Wars series or movie."
batman001
batman001 - 8/26/2023, 12:23 PM
@MarkCassidy - I'll fully admit that I didn't see the first sentence of it that was my ban but it still seems like an odd thing to point out tho.
FireandBlood
FireandBlood - 8/26/2023, 6:04 AM
Maul got chopped in half, Anakin completely dismembered, so Sabine getting impaled in the side of her abdomen is light work. She’s Mandalorian, they’re built for this.
TheEddy
TheEddy - 8/26/2023, 8:27 AM
@PlusUltra - thank you!
campblood
campblood - 8/26/2023, 6:54 AM
Why did the evil girl’s lightsaber look orange?
TheEddy
TheEddy - 8/26/2023, 8:27 AM
@campblood - because it's orange
TheEddy
TheEddy - 8/26/2023, 8:33 AM
@TheEddy - it hasn't been explained yet. The two theories I've heard and like the most are that since these characters aren't purely evil the bleeding of the crystal wouldn't go all the way to red. Another theory is since Palpatine worked hard on harvesting all the kyber to make sure other jedi wouldn't build future blades that these crystals so maybe they are synthetic, or lesser, crystals. I think maybe it could also be the balance/dark side version of the sentinel's yellow blade. They were renowned for there true balance of the force, but were aligned with the jedi. Maybe these orange represent dark users with a balance but side with the perceived bad guys
campblood
campblood - 8/26/2023, 8:36 PM
@TheEddy - looked it up, yeah it’s red-orange which is a weird choice
Stinkor1
Stinkor1 - 8/26/2023, 9:58 AM
I’m always down for watching some girl on girl action
NGFB
NGFB - 8/26/2023, 11:33 AM
Thank you for pointing out another great moment in woke history.
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