Ever since Ahsoka Tano step out of the mists of Corvus and into springy - action Star Wars account on The Mandalorian , I ’ve had complicated feelings about the direction of one ofmy favorite Star Wars charactersin contemporary canon . Those spirit have n’t change much in the opening episode of hernew titulary seriesso far — but see them this past calendar week I found one thing give way me a bantam intimation of the Ahsoka I remember : the touch sensation touch by the show ’s end credits .
That ’s not a special gibe at Ahsoka itself — I’m not relieved when an instalment is over , by any means . Its first two episodes areperfectly fine typeset up , and moderately ironically at their best at the second where the focal point is placed on characters like Rebels ’ Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla rather than Ahsoka herself . The serial publication scraunch with a potential energy when exploring Sabine ’s feelings about her past association to Ahsoka and the Rebels crew , or in the fun of watching Hera andher droid Chopperbanter and vaporize cool ship like we ’re just right back into telling Rebels ’ story all over again .
That energy , however , almost vanishes when Ahsoka herself is on screen . She feels like a come away observer in what is ostensibly her own serial , move over a perspective in negotiation and in the lens of the direction itself that make it feel like Ahsoka is far less concerned in Ahsoka Tano than it is fairly much anyone else in her range , as she drifts from scene to scene with little more than a exhibit of Rosario Dawson fold her arm across her chest , ready to intently observe the narration unfolding before her rather than really participate in it .
Image: Lucasfilm
And that ’s just kind of been Ahsoka ’s vibe ever since she come to Star Wars experience activity . In “ The Jedi , ” herdebut in The Mandalorian , she feels like something of an directionless drifter , chasing leads here and there but also clearly put off by the approximation of getting involved when an chance — in that event , the training of the young Grogu as a Jedi — is put in front of her . Likewise when she returns in The Book of Boba Fett , she ’s there to fade into the moment , admit that she ’s part of it as she watches Luke Skywalker — the son of the mastershe pass on behind and ultimately tried to push to the dying after his horrifying transformation into Darth Vader — train Grogu and begin to rebuild the Jedi Order that once abandoned her , and then fade back into the background , intent on staying uninvolved .
This in and of itself is not entirely a ill either . As I advert to , there ’s a lot of potential in exploring this mind of Ahsoka , one of themost significant people metatextuallyto mod Star Wars , almost in a flash rejecting that importance in the story itself . She tried being the hero the extragalactic nebula want her to be in her past lives : a Jedi leaderin the Clone Wars until the Council flow her out to dry , precede to her farewell way with the ordering . A citizen of the Republic , until it tooturned on herthrough Palpatine ’s machinations . An agent of Rebellion , until past traumas take care her disregard off from it in turn after her duel with Vader on Malachor . What does Ahsoka Tano owe this galaxy that ’s caused her so much hurt over her aliveness , to be its hero — to be the one that has to now stop Grand Admiral Thrawn as the ascendant Heir to the Empire ?
The trouble is that none of her bouncy - action appearances so far have really engage with that idea — Ahsoka has been leave behind to be portrayed as remote and degage but not really explored as to why she is like that , at least so far . It ’s frustrating , but also something I ’m not quite willing to levy against Ahsoka as a show just yet . After all , there ’s another six sequence for it to actually treat its titular character with the same sort of dramaturgic interestingness it reserve for Sabine and Hera . But I ’m also not yet willing to levy it against Ahsoka for that peculiar affair I mentioned earlier : the feeling sparked in me by Ahsoka ’s goal credits music .
Image: Lucasfilm
Kevin Kiner has been a part of Ahsoka ’s Star Wars life since the very beginning , having compose euphony for Clone Wars and Rebels — admit the 14 - billet leitmotif that has followed her from that first movie 15 years ago all the way to this close credits sequence — and now Ahsoka , and that understanding of her long journey , feel thematically resonant to the four - moment orchestration that plays over the serial ’ terminate title . And while part of my thwarting with Ahsoka ’s resilient - action electric arc has been leave a plenty of her character up to audience supposition rather than being something that ’s in particular part of the textual matter of her case on screen , all the times I find myself frustrate by Ahsoka ’s seeming disinterest in its lead character Kiner ’s medicine keep open pulling me back to those conjecture , and making them feel a spot more real in ways the balance of the show was n’t quite doing .
The way it builds this unfluctuating beat , the back and forth of humble , staccato string evokes Kiner ’s fashion from Clone Wars , before being plump for by this militaristic marching drumfish beatnik to amplify that feel . There ’s a purpose , a foregone conclusion to the music as it builds and builds these bed , that itself becomes transpose onto Ahsoka when the art object crescendos into her fictional character leitmotiv : a blaring brass section heralding this triumphant , soaring set of strings . It ’s so desperate , so bombastic , it ’s a celebration of what this eccentric has mean in and out of Star Wars ’ tale — Ahsoka Tano , Jedi no more , last caption , a bridge across three generations of the Skywalker Saga ! Is this not what she is , what she is meant to be ? But then it quietens for a beat . Everything that build up draws back . The drums fade away , the horns evanesce away , the string plane section fades away , until we again return to Ahsoka ’s leitmotif : no longer heroic but now mournful , melancholy , isolate to just a single primary string and confidential information instrument in tandem . There ’s a lugubriousness to it , the lugubriousness we ’re mean to generalize of her character now that this springy - action performance has so struggle to joint .
But this piece does . And if in its remain time Ahsoka as a show can compel me to think about its titular Heron with as much intuitive feeling as this euphony does , it ’ll be all I can enquire of it .
Image: Lucasfilm
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