IR TV Review: STAR WARS - AHSOKA - EPISODE 5 (“Shadow Warrior”) [Lucasfilm/Disney+]

The aspect of pay off for die hard fans of Star Wars and particularly the Anakin story gets a particularly interesting two sided perspective with the latest episode of "Ahsoka" entitled "Shadow Warrior". Saying anything about that side of the narrative involves spoilers but what can be said is that it does give the depth that has been missing from Dawson's Ahsoka because there is a reason...but it is also incumbent in many ways of seeing "The Clone Wars". That said, the iconography and what is spoken to both figuratively and allegorically for the first half is quite huge, though how it fits in the general lexicon or mythos is up for debate. There are many different possibilities, all of which are sound but none that can be proven.

Dave Filoni is very aware of this but in also directing this episode understands that that part of the story and the details of how it is presented needs to be pinpoint for the rest of what the series might want to present to work. But just on its own, it is great to see some of what is shown on camera. What is interesting is that instead of grand vistas, what is shown is hazy (and that is on purpose to make it seem like a dream -- and The Clone Wars were stark in the battles and anything but dreamlike). But the lesson that needed to be learned is clear and yet the motivation still elusive. There is also a Jedi connecting point with another character that is handled just right, though no one except one character at the end picks up on it.

After the baseline of the episode it is hard to top though the transformation in certain ways pushes the ideal of what is coming (although one wants more of the other story considering the mythos). There was an episode in "The Clone Wars" which in many ways because of the ability to shift perception would make sense in what might have transpired. But then again the idea of "The World Between Worlds" is something but this strays from that as well. Filoni has given more questions than answers here but from the school of Lucas he understands how it works but it is also (and I will say this since I met Hayden Christensen literally right before he started shooting "Attack Of The Clones" [this was at TIFF in 2001] and then post release for the DVD of "Revenge Of The Sith" in 2005) great to see the notes of Anakin that we maybe never got to quite see then but reflected now in the eyes of an actor who knows their power and that of the character. A

By Tim Wassberg