Ahsoka Overcame A Major Limitation Of Live-Action Star Wars Space Fights
This article contains spoilers for "Star Wars: Ahsoka" episode 3 — "Time to Fly"
Last week, the first two episodes of "Ahsoka" did a relatively good job of setting the stage for what could potentially be one of the most epic confrontations in all of "Star Wars." Hopefully, it was a good introduction for fans who didn't necessarily have the time or the interest to watch four seasons of the animated series "Star Wars Rebels" just to get acquainted with characters new to live-action like Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).
It's a lot of backstory that essentially pits Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) against a small group of Dark Side users who have the key to unlocking the whereabouts of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who is largely considered to be the greatest villain in all of "Star Wars" next to Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. There's also a chance that Ahsoka's old friend Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) could be located and rescued as well.
With episode 3, "Time to Fly," there's a lot less information and a lot more action (read /Film's review). It's a quick, relatively self-contained adventure that highlights the more thrilling aspects of "Star Wars." If you're a fan who loves the aerial thrills that the saga is known for, you're in luck. In the race to locate Thrawn and Ezra first, Ahsoka and Sabine wind up in a pulse-pounding dogfight against the Dark Side wielder Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno).
In another first for live-action moments in the "Star Wars" universe, Ahsoka Tano exits her ship to take a quick spacewalk with her lightsaber in tow to deliver some punishing blows to the enemy right in the middle of a cluster of laser blasts from an array of attacking ships.
Dead in space
In the best action scene so far in the series, Ahsoka's signature T-6 Jedi shuttle goes up against what looks like a group of P-51 fighters led by Shin Hati in hot pursuit. The entire fight is an obvious homage to the first battle that Han and Luke have together against a small fleet of TIE fighters in "A New Hope." This time around, Sabine is in the gunner seat providing cover so Ahsoka can go gallivanting outside of her own ship to wreak havoc.
With all the makings of a new toy costume, Ahsoka ventures out of the shuttle sporting a blue and white EVA suit to try and fend off Shin and her attackers long enough to restore power after the ship suffers a temporary blow. With dual lightsabers in hand, she flips and rips off the wing of one ship in zero gravity. Visually, the moment looks similar to Rey's one-strike attack against Kylo's TIE whisper ship in "The Rise of Skywalker."
Everything rhymes remember? Of course, this isn't the first time a Jedi has used their weapon in zero gravity, just the first time ever in live-action. And that is always worth mentioning. Most notably, season 2 of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" featured a scene where bounty hunter Cad Bane shut down a gravity generator sending Ahsoka and Anakin Skywalker floating into space. In "Time to Fly," Ahsoka's zero-g moment wasn't exactly thrilling, but it does give a slightly deeper meaning to the title of this week's episode.
New episodes of "Ahsoka" premiere on Tuesday nights on Disney+ at 6:00 pm Pacific, 9:00 pm Eastern.