I really like that when Ezra holds her saber with force, you can see the blade being warped. A cool detail.

What sucks is that Baylan's arc is obviously going to end on a huge cliffhanger and recasting him will be a bitch

Filoni's love of Avatar The last Airbender is really showing through in this series. First Ahsoka wears the symbol of the white lotus, and now Ezra is an airbender. Can't wait for Thrawn to get caught off guard by a boomerang. :)

I actually really liked Ezra's fighting style. Force-supercharged Kung Fu is an under-explored aspect of Star Wars melee combat.

One thing to note: The Night troopers didn’t dissolve into a Green mist,So they really may just be Regular troopers with Patched up armor.

Well, Baylan didn't just magically appear before Ahsoka. When Ahsoka's ship got close to Sabine & Shin's location, there was a shot that showed Baylan has noticed her return, and contemplated what he should do about it. He knew if Ahsoka joined the fight, Shin would be defeated at the very first hour of her independent journey. As a last favour for his apprentice, he decided to stop Ahsoka from engaging with Shin. Huyang dropped Ahsoka near the battlefield, Baylan was already near there & was overseeing the battle, and when he noticed Ahsoka's ship, he pursued it. Quite simple, really.

2:50 To be fair, Carrie Fisher couldn't make it, and we know Leia would have been there. Having C3P0 as her stand in was appropriate and not all that cheesy at all.

I liked Ezras monk style force fighting haha. People complained he didn't want his saber but he's been without it for years, and maybe there's some other reason he doesn't want it. He looked almost scared of his lightsaber for a second.

I didn't mind the Threepio cameo, It felt very much like something Leia would do. Especially sending Threepio.. I take it as a bit of an insult to people like Xiono, that they aren't important enough for her to actually show up in person. It would go along with how many in the New Republic government grew to dislike Leia and call her a warmonger.

This honestly felt like watching another episode of Rebels or Clone Wars but in Live Action. We can tell they are amping it up for the finale but it was a solid episode imo.

It really feels like they just had to find something to do so that Thrawn could win in the finale in a big way. More of a setup for the finale than its own episode.

We NEEDED this episode to see thrawns planning skills. Lots of viewers haven’t seen rebels, so lots of this series is establishing the characters and world we already know in live action

I still hope that there will be some TIE defenders in the series or at least in the near future

From a story point and to get around Ray Stevenson's passing i hope that whatever Baylen finds consumes him or alters him in such a way to help recasting.

I've always liked the idea of a talented Jedi who can fight a lightsaber duel and doesn't even need a lightsaber. Some say Ezra seems out of shape with the force, but I'd say he's been training for just something like this. Shin didn't just ran away. She heeded her master's final lesson. If you're in a hurry to win, you'll lose. She wisely chose to leave. If she makes it to the star destroyer and leaves her enemies behind in another galaxy, she's actually won.

I actually really enjoyed the episode. Lots of good stuff and moved the ball down the field plot wise. The absolutely nailed Thrawn as he is in the books. It may not have had some major plot twists but it wasn't as bad as the filler episodes in Mando, Kenobi and boba Fett.

This episode was really good, Mon being terrified of thrawns return is an amazing detail that shows how scary he is.

I like how lost Gian Ackbar looked throughout the whole trial. He looks like he just took his adderal 5 minutes before it started and it’s still kicking in so he’s not completely there mentally. Trust me, I know from experience.

I think one of my favorite parts in this episode, other than 3P0 and the Ventress mention, was Thrawn's almost apparent "fear" over discovering who Ahsoka's master was. Naturally he would know that Anakin is Darth Vader and thus the fear. "Vader's apprentice? here? ...oh no." It doesn't bode well for his plans and he now knows this. Don't forget Thrawn is one of, if not, the greatest tacticians in the galaxy so now the wrench of Vaders Apprentice showing up isn't great for his plan.

I personally thought it was another great episode that truly captured what Star Wars magic felt like to me with the banter. I feel like this episode showed so much from how smart of a tactician Thrawn is to how much of a danger he can be. It showed how Ezra has changed and adapted with the force, it shows that Ashoka is back mentally with the double lightsabers, Sabine is incrementally getting better with her lightsaber fighting style, that Shin can take her master’s advice and not be over confident there, Hera has friends in high places. It shows so much. It helps I also watch it with my wife where I have to explain everything lore related which the show actually does if you’re paying attention. Heck she was asking about how all these whales decomposed and I just figured they’d not even touch on that and boom little space organisms eating away. This was an amazing episode by all accounts for me.

What I love about Mon Mothma is that she is the connective tissue between the pulpy fantasy side of Star Wars and the grounded, overly serious side of Star Wars. Same can be said about Saw Gerrera. Characters that form such links between vastly different tones remind you that yes, this is the same universe.

She used the Force to find Sabine. Baylan was there.

I always love those dropship scenes.

Ezra is written and acted so well

We got politics, we got Magicks beyond mortal cant, and we got my beautiful blue boy. Literally all I need

This episode was SUCH a banger it hits

I don't think there needs to be an explanation of why balen was right there, he basically is right next to the place where sabine and ezra are and could just see the ship being chased and went where the drop point would be the most conveniet

I’m glad Ezra is reunited with the crew. But man I hope Hera, Leia and Mon Mothma can prepare the New Republic because the storm that’s coming is gonna be intense.

I think its unfair to judge each episode on their own without knowing the ending or the payoff

Can't really call C-3PO a deux ex machina when Leia was said to be watching Hera's back when the New Republic was coming for her back on that planet with the star map.

Seeing Admiral Ackbar again brought me so many happy feels, but for additional context to everyone: it’s bittersweet because the original voice actor for him passed away just before TLJ came out. It was such a unique voice, I doubt they could replicate it. There seems to be a reason why they don’t even deep fake it, so you end up just seeing him appear without saying anything, sadly (I recall in TLJ the stand in voice actor made him sound nothing like the original)

The visual effect of Shin's saber being warped by the force was so damn cool. I don't recall if we have ever seen someone use the force to stop a lightsaber, iirc I think Kylo Ren stops someone's saber with the force, but we didn't see this dope effect. Star Wars is doing cool stuff with the lightsabers recently. Here we get the force warping, I can't remember where exactly, but we also got to see how rain interacts with a lightsaber. Shit is cool. Anyone remember where that was? The rain n lightsaber thing?

It feels like after the powerful thrawn reveal, they wanted to give us a little downtime to process thrawn more, while still giving some cool stuff. so that we can all get as hyped as possible in the finale

This was the first episode that wasn't better than the last one to me. I still enjoyed every second though

If you're asking how Ahsoka basically landed on Baylon, it's - she located Sabine using the Force, and he was still near enough to her (and Shin) to be spotted from the air.

The cinematography of the dogfight at the beginning was incredible, it’s up there with The Eye dogfight from Andor

I thought they did a good job hinting at Thrawn's tactical genius with the timing. But if the good guys can get to Thrawn and stop him in time, after his whole "lets pull them back because we have enough time", then it ruins everything and makes him a naive idiot.

this episode had all types of fights; dogfights (kinda), lightsaber duels, fistfights, blaster fights, evasive maneuvers, force fights, and heck even verbal fights at the start lol

This is the first time I’ve been this early and I just wanted to say, I always enjoy your breakdowns and it’s so nice to see someone also appreciates Star Wars Fleet continuity! Haha

Ezra not taking the lightsaber was a big WTF for me. I get that he's been without it for many years, but I would think he'd be happy to have it back. And could have made quick work of those Stormtroopers all by himself.

My biggest issue with the last two episodes has been the whole thing about not having any proof of the imperial remnant activity. There was a huge point made about Huyang taking so much time to do a scan of the hyperspace ring for it to not have been given to Hera before having to testify in court.

I think the slightly lackluster directing of the episode makes it easy to say it wasn’t as good as some of the others, but the progression of the story and characters had some really great stuff! Thrawn is great as you mentioned, but also seeing a slightly deeper hint of Baylan’s motivations and trying to figure out where he’s headed in fascinating. It truly feels like Ahsoka is back in her element, and Ezra felt very…Ezra, to me. It’s fair to criticize the directing and pacing; I wish it was a bit tighter. But the content itself does make this a great episode! 9/10 for the story / content; 7.5/10 considering the directing. I still liked it more than the first two episodes, probably similar to the third. And it was overall way better than Kenobi just because the story and development was still really good despite the weaker directing, where Kenobi also fell short with the story. I can accept wonky editing / directing from time to time in Star Wars so long as the story / lore continues to be good (after all, there’s a reason some people don’t like the Prequels, but they still tell an amazing story).

i loved this episode. sadly i watched live with sw theory and his chat were hating as usual. they need a 20 minute one cut lightsaber fight to be satisfied

You are exactly right about Tai Chi. In Chinese martial arts, there are hard styles and soft styles. Hard styles use standard punches and kicks, the way we would think of, hit fast and hit hard, block, deflect, etc.. Soft styles like Tai Chi use internal energy more, like the force Chi.

C-3PO appearance was in no way a deus ex machina, as it was alluded to previously that senator organa was providing cover for them...

Turns out the stormtroopers weren’t dead like marrok. I like the idea troopers that came to worship thrawn during those 10 years, rather than mindless zombies

Ezra eager to get back in the fight, and get home to his friends is what we should have gotten with Luke in the Sequels. I hope Rian Johnson took note of this episode. Yes, I'm still bitter about TLJ, cause it really wasn't that hard to write something like this.

the reason ahsoka ran into baylan immediately is because she knew where sabine was via the force and he was watching sabine, shin etc fight in the valley below him so when she dropped down she went straight for him because ezra and sabine could handle shin

Really curious with what the hell happens next week, I hope it's satisfying and doesn't have us waiting years and years for season 2 or Filoni's movie for some closure....I'm especially nervous with where Baylan's story is headed since Ray has passed away.

My only gripes are the multiple action scenes that do more to fill time than advance the story. And the classic trope of main characters not talking to each other and communicating important information.

Hey Justin, good takes. I honestly like Ezra's Airbender style. I think it helps to show that this isn't a character that has sat moping around for Sabine to come get him for ten years. This is Ezra showing offscreen growth in his relationship with the Force, probably through necessity of evading Thrawn and whatever everyone on the planet is freaked out about escaping. Maybe it's a shallow mindset with me, but that whole "Ahsoka's not in peril" thing with the fighters being restrained and Ahsoka evading them and escaping the withering hail of turbolasers from the Scion was something I chalked to Thrawn's strategy of guiding Ahsoka and his enemies down a path of his own choosing and buying his forces time to escape. When it comes to Thrawn, any time the good guys seem to squeak a victory, after having read the books and seen Rebels, I chalk it down to Thrawn getting the measure of his opponent. He may have learned about Ahsoka's apprenticeship with Anakin, but she's still an unknown quantity to him, for the most part. So his understanding of her is limited to his knowledge of Anakin's tactics and he has to account for her own spin on things. I have way less difficulty with that mindset compared to Obi-Wan Kenobi where you know all the main named characters in that show survive, so the sense of real character peril is vastly curtailed.

I actually liked that they used 3P0 here. This is a situation that Leia WOULD have been heavily involved in. So your choices are: 1) CGI us up 1 Leia... Even if done right people will complain about posthumously using Carrie. Even though we all know that it's something she probably would have wanted. 2) Take the easy route by sending her "aide" to deliver the message. It'll keep the Carrie purists happy. It'll keep the Leia fans happy, and all you'll get is some minor fanservice complaints. Look this was a great series, better than a lot of what we have gotten lately. But there are no stakes here for 99% of the main cast... We KNOW Ahsoka, Sabine, Ezra, Hera, Thrawn are going to survive. I am almost certain Shin will as well. That only leaves Baylan. He is the only true variable in this series. With only 1 episode left, are we going to find out what his goal was? Because I feel like this was supposed to be part of a larger arc. He wasn't set up to be disposable. There was a plan for him. So how are they going to wrap his story? Are we going to leave it hanging? Will they recast or deepfake him for the future? Maybe continue it in an animated series? Or is his story SUPPOSED to end next week? Thrawn comments that he was surprised Baylan wasn't on the battlefield. But was that line always there? Or was that added post production to lay out an exit strategy? That is going to be the real climax of this series. For everything Ray Stevenson put into this role, I'd hate to see it all get written off and he be given an unceremonious death just to deal with the character. Everything everyone said about him on set leads me to believe that if Baylan Skoll's story was meant to continue, Stevenson would WANT his story to be told, one way or another. Hell, I'll take a book! A trilogy even if it is the only way to tell his story. Too often in Hollywood when something like this happens, writers and directors don't even want to bother trying to continue on. They'll take the easy way out with a quick, and often cheezy death. If there is more to Baylan's story, for the love of God SOMEBODY tell it. If you don't want to recast/fake Stevenson out of respect, I get that. Tell the story some other way, don't just throw it out. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe Baylan was. Always going to die next week... But I don't think so.

Im loving how well their capturing Thrawn's personality, and the call backs to the books too.

Yeah I definitely had the realization about halfway into this episode that we do NOT have enough time to bring this to a conclusion within one season. Which is fine… but man… will I miss Ray Stevenson. He’s given the best performance in all of Disney Star Wars, rivaled only just maybe by Stellan Skarsgard as Luthen. As disappointing as it is to know his character will almost certainly not have a satisfying conclusion, what a final role to leave behind. Phenomenal. May he rest in peace.

I really liked Ezra's fighting style as talked about at 4:50 . It reminded me of a Legends Prestige Class from the d20 RPG; Force Warrior. They specialize in unarmed combat, utilizing the force to increase their own strength and as an offensive and defensive weapon.

It is a bit dissapointing to know this is mostly just a Thrawn prologue, rather than something that will feel more complete in an of itself, but that is infiinitely better than if they'd just gone 'somehow Thrawn returned'

This episode did what I wanted, I wanted to see Ezra and what he's become. Him and Sabine fighting together shows they still got it and that's really all I wanted going into the finale. Ezra's turning down the lightsaber was a welcome surprise. I love the idea of him trusting in the force that much.

I thought Thrawn would wait until they are together on the planets surface and just cold blooded orbital bombard the location of Ashoka, Sabine, Shin, Balan with his Star Destroyer.

This was one of my fave episodes ngl

I really liked the episode - honestly pretty puzzled by the mixed reception. I’m hearing people say their piece and more just confused by the reasoning more than anything. I thought the fighters disappeared when they were chasing Ahsoka because they she led them into the whale bone debris? Also she saw Baylan because he was still there and she knew where Sabine was because she connected with her through the force.

Ive enjoyed all the Star Wars shows. Some more then others. However, they need to have either 1 director, 1 direction, or at least a couple that flow very well together. The director swings from 1 episode to the next can be VERY jarring.

Seeing Ezra force punch and kick Thoes troopers made me think of mace windu cartoon punching a entire droid army to bolts and nuts 😂😂😂

One thing I'll give this episode though is that it fixes the issues I was having with Thrawn from episode 6 where he seemed to be more destructive than logical with sending Baylen/Shin after Sabine. I was hoping that they'd fix that as we got to see more time with Thrawn and they delivered perfectly

My frustration was "It's complicated". Soooo many things could've been avoided if Ezra just knew yet story and surprise attacks needed to happen.

I respect your opinion, personally I think this continues as strong as the rest of the episodes, paying off Ezra and Thrawn abilities. Seeing thrawn strategizing was the highlight

I thought this was the best & the most realized episode out of the bunch. It was packed with details and developed almost all of the storylines the right amount, so that they'd all reach a proper climax for this season.

I was pretty dissapointed in this fight scene. If Thrawn was so adamant on saving rescources, then why did he waste two squads of stormtroopers when he could have A: Orbital bombarded that small cluster with the hyperspace ring. B: Rocket the crap out of the small cluster with his GUNSHIPS. C: Have a squad of stormtroopers distract the Jedi while the other squad placed bombs in all of the pods, we know the Jedi have a weakness to protecting civilians so why not use that against him, he literally had the whole tribe fall back to protect one pod. D: IF that doesn't work, Thrawn could always remote kamikazie that drone into a pod and explode it, come prepared. The stormtroopers wern't fighting like proffessionals, you would have expected them to have spent the last 10 years training, instead they're in close quarter combat against someone with a lightsabor, grouping up (You see Sabine take out 3 with one rocket where as if they were spread out only 1 would have been hit.) Being dissordly and lacking field training, one of them literally holds down the trigger when Ezra grabs his arm and blasts his comrades, when they retreat there's no organization resulting in more deaths. Don't get me started on how many times the stormtroopers lowered their weapons and looked away from the enemy, for example when the Drone said to retreat the troopers in the front just DROPPED Their guns to their arms and looked at the sky. I was also really looking forward to Ezra getting down and bad with his lightsabor. I feel like they just wanted some stormtrooper combat at the expense of Thanksgiving belly Thrawns tactics. Side note, their MILITARY grade minefield couldn't even take out ONE ship. That's just sad.

Definitely a transitional episode. It's very like Thrawn to focus on incremental victories that feed into his larger plans. We know that transporting those caskets is a part of his deal with the Great Mothers, so getting them loaded is a priority before he can leave. So buying time is very much in character for him. He's not a crazy Dark Sider so he really doesn't need to waste resources killing minor enemies like Ezra, Sabine and Ahsoka. Keeping them from halting his departure is more than enough. The scene with the Republic harassing Hera could have benefitted from some clarification. Hera only took the Ghost and five X-wings to Seatos. Leia (offscreen) could have stuck it to Senator Xiono by claiming that she authorized a small reconnaissance mission rather than a fleet deployment. That would have made him look even more fussy because, does the Senate really have time to scrutinize every small mission undertaken by the military? The argument that they are nitpicking could undermine Xiono's credibility.

A force user who uses the force (-fu) and blasters, instead of a lightsaber, is badass on my book

I liked that they showed Sabine actually using some of her Mandalorian tools at her disposal. Let's get the girl a helmet and LET'S GO! The back-and-forth dialog between Sabine and Ezra talking about his "former" lightsaber was endearing.

It's so cool that the heroes have very few challenges and always seem to be on top. Really helps you think the villains have a chance.

You're questioning how Baylan just happened upon Ahsoka, yet not questioning how Thrawn got all those space mines, given the lack of resources? You miss the forest for the trees.

Did you recognize that Thrawn's troopers don't have green smoke while dying?

I loved the Empire tribute shot- the one you sample at 4:22

No matter how many times I've seen it, I just love your outro...

This episode for me another indicative that these 6-8 episode format that Disney and other streaming companies are pushing on their writers often doesn't work, even when the shows are great. This episode made it very clear that Ahsoka could be a 10 episode show. It would have more time to place every character, develop their arc and it wouldn't feel rushed or awkward like this felt (still, not a bad ep). But we all know now why they do it: pay less to everyone involved. And Andor is a clear example of that. A 12 episode show that managed to fully develop three different story arcs and concluded in a satisfying way.

I had the same sentiment about the episode. However I was relieved how they handled thrawn. When his troops began to loose the fight, and when he realizes that Baylon is not fighting Sabine and Ezra AND that Ahsoka joined them. He withdraws his troops before further damage is done.

I’m gonna be honest, I could see Morgan Elsbeth betraying Thrawn in the future. She constantly questions his tactics throughout this episode and the end of last episode. I could see her losing faith in Thrawn’s leadership and thinking she can do better. She could become a canon version of the thrawns bodyguard rukh, his legends version, and end up assassinating Thrawn in a later season of Ahsoka or Filoni’s movie

there is alike a whole Echarts ladder video waiting to be made on the new holograms look at that Enok guy sliding into thrawn DM's

I really wish this episode had at least introduced us to what was the mysterious power that Baylan was seeking. Feels to me like a lot of time was spent on things that got dragged on a bit too long: - the courtroom scene with hera vs xiono and their back and forth - the part where ahsoka and huyang had to hide in the debris field from the fighters and thrawn had to spend time locating them Also not sure if im liking that fact that Baylan just parted ways with Shin so easily and just told her to go be a part of Thrawn's empire when the previous episode had him literally saying that the sort of power offered by Thrawn is 'fleeting'. Maybe if Baylan asked Shin to deal with Ezra/Sabine and rendezvous with him later, it might have been more believable but now it looks like he just suddenly abandoned her.

I love the mobile trailer park chase and fight :). I love chopper as usual. he was about to throw hands.

I thought it was great. Ahsoka was actually my favorite part of it, I love her using the force to find Sabine, her new found confidence when fighting Babylon, and the fact that without her both Ezra and Sabine would have had a much more difficult time fighting Shin and the troopers. I loved all the space battles, we saw in episode 3 that ahsokas ship has pretty good shields so I didn’t really expect there to be some life threatening conflict but I also did feel the tension of the scene between what was gonna happen to the purgil and if they were going to make it to the planet in time to find Sabine and Ezra before they get captured. Everything just worked really well for me and the only thing I find to be unfortunate is that I’m assuming whatever Babylon has going on was something that would’ve been explored in a second season, and with Rays passing it’s going to be really difficult to find an actor with the same gravitas. Luckily I don’t think there is actually as much to wrap up at this point, our hero’s just have to get onto the ring before it leaves and we have to somewhat tie up what Babylon has going on, so I’m pretty optimistic for the finale. This was one of the better episodes in my opinion, with 3 and 6 being my least favorite but even then I’d give those episodes like a 7.5 outta 10. I think this has been a fantastic series overall and I’m so glad and relieved to have a Star Wars show like this where I’m not concerned about if they are gonna mess up and I can just enjoy the stories and character arcs being told.

The finale needs to be at least an hour imo. Otherwise there will be a lot of cutting to 3-4 places

Was E7 the first time we saw space mine warfare in SW? I can't remember if there were minelaying in games like GC Rogue Squadron series or in TCW but if so, it's adds great layer into current canon. My other favorite space opera "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" uses space mine warfare as one of the key strategy so I absolutely loved it to see in Peridea.

We needed TWELVE episodes! At LEAST! What are we doing here??

People need to keep in mind that Ezra has been on his own in a unknown galaxy for almost 10 years.. with the same training he received from Kanan & Maul.. he’s like a 17 year old trapped in a 27 year olds body.

🎵 craaaab people, craaaab people, taste like crabs look like people, craaaab people, craaaab people 🎵

Good to see Thrawn’s biggest fan is still Thrawn

I've enjoyed Ahsoka so far but i gotta say I was expecting a lot more to happen. I hope season two comes soon.

Is it just me or Baylan's saber got more red with time?

When Ahsoka rolled up and we got that hero shot of all 3.. 🔥🔥🔥

I just want to know where the mines came from. I thought the star destroyer was low on resources.

Something you should have mentioned in the video is that in that Senate meeting scene it was confirmed that Mandalorian S3 has already happened. Both Teva and Xiono mention it.

Ezra has become a dnd monk

the "clunkiness" that youve mentioned.. was my main issue with this particular episode, and some clunky dialogue throughout the series. the direction and cinematic direction, really threw me off too. thanks as always. love your videos. loved seeing THREE-P-O! loved Ezra's style of fighting and the warping of the saber from his use of the Force. Overall not bad, not great.

WTF THAT INTRO OMGGGGG WHAT!!!??? IT WAS SO PERFECT AND GOOD

I like the airbender comparison, especially because there's a little bit of a comparison between Ezra and Aang in terms of the levity they bring to a situation.

Ezra was really on point in this, it's ...hey, there's actually Ezra. :) I do feel like a lot of our new sci-fi shows may be movie-quality in so many respects, but they end up suffering somehow from the short seasons/limited runtime, there's places where I wouldn't have minded a few minutes more dialogue, like especially a bit less fast-forwarding over the Sabine/Ezra sharing news part. Like stuff I would have wanted to know, like, 'Hey, whole new galaxy, do you know what it's like out there or is this place just isolated from whatever, did you hear anything, what's up with this planet anyway, ' I think there's a number of places like that where maybe characters should act a bit more interested in getting on the same page. :)

I really liked this episode.

I quite liked Ahsoka vs Baylan round 2. Ahsoka seemed to try to do very close fighting so that Baylan couldn't get a good swing at her for a power strike. But i really liked her running away, having learnt the lesson from Anakin that every fight doesn't have to be win or die.