Disney Plus’s series Star Wars Ahsoka, Season 2 Episode 3, called “Time to Fly,” explores the story of Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and Huyang (David Tenant) learning of the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelson). They are on a mission to locate Thrawn’s location to not only eliminate Thrawn as a threat but to find their friend Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi), who likely survived alongside the Grand Admiral during the aftermath of the Battle of Lothal during the Age of the Rebellion. However, the Dark Jedi mercenary Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), Baylan’s apprentice Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), Nighsister Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), and Inquisitor Marrok (Paul Darnell) seek to bring Thrawn back as Heir to the Empire. Therefore, the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant are on a race to find Thrawn, and the fate of the Known Galaxy lies on who reaches the Grand Admiral first.
The episode begins with Huyang training Sabine in different simple lightsaber forms on the T-6 ship with Ahsoka watching. Ahsoka suggests to Huyang to allow Sabine to learn Zatochi, a training technique of relying on senses beyond sight and the Force for combat. Huyang denies the request because he believes Sabine is not ready to practice Zatochi. Instead, Ahsoka trains Sabine in the art of Zatochi. Sabine wears a helmet that blinds her sight, and Ahsoka teaches her apprentice to fight by relying on all senses, except vision, in a duel. Sabine struggled in her blind wood sword duel with her master and relied on anger and frustration to best her master, which Ahsoka scolded her for saying, “Anger and frustration are quick to give power. But they also unbalance you. Let’s go again.”
In an unknown region in space, Hera talks with Chancellor Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) and her senate committee via hologram. Hera warns the chancellor and the senators of the possibility of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s return. The idea of Thrawn’s return scares Chancellor Mothma, while the rest of the senators aren’t concerned, believing the Grand Admiral to be dead. Senator Hamato Xiono (Nelson Lee) argues his belief that Hera is wasting resources for an excuse to save her “deceased” friend Ezra Bridger, resources that can help the people of the fledgling New Republic. Xiono’s argument angers Hera until Mothma intervenes and says she will privately talk with the senate committee about Hera’s findings. After the meeting, Hera meets with her son, Jacen Syndulla, and Chopper. Jacen curiously asks if “Aunt Sabine” will become a Jedi after hearing the news from Chopper. The boy optimistically wants to be a Jedi, with Hera understanding her son’s wish.
After Sabine’s training, the young Mandalorian shares with Ahsoka her frustration with her lack of progress in training and her inability to use the Force. Ahsoka assures Sabine that the Force resides in all living beings, including Sabine, but talent is a factor in allowing one to use the mystical power. Ahsoka adds that training and focus are what defines someone’s success. She also warns Sabine not everyone can handle the type of discipline it takes to master the ways of the Force. Later, Ahsoka heads to the T6 ship’s cockpit to meet with Huyang regarding Sabine’s progress and whether Hera contacted the droid. The conversation becomes a calm argument about the Jedi’s system of choosing a new Jedi. Huyang argued that the system worked for a millennium, and Ahsoka rebutted, saying it failed during the Jedi Order’s fall at the hands of the Sith and their Galactic Empire. The argument ends with Huyang commenting on Ahsoka’s unorthodox decision to train Sabine and reasoning it to be because Ahsoka came from a long line of untraditional Jedi: Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Dooku. Obi-wan and Yoda are the exceptions because they were strict adherents to the Jedi Order and its rules. Sabine attempts to use the Force on a cup but fails and sarcastically tells the cup, “You win this round.”
In the Denab System, Ahsoka and her group drop out of hyperspace far from Seastos. Soon, hostile fighters, led by Shin Hati and Marrok, ambush Ahsoka’s T6 ship. Ahsoka and Sabine fly the T6 Ship to the Eye of Sion in an attempt for Huyang to scan and examine the large vessel with many hyperdrive cores, causing Morgan to order the Eye of Sion’s canons to fire at the T6 ship. The Eye of Sion temporarily damages the T6 ship but fails to destroy it. Shin sarcastically mocks Morgan for almost destroying the T6 ship and works with Marrok to destroy it. To give Sabine time to fix the T6 ship, Ahsoka wears her space suit and fights the fighters in space. Sabine successfully repairs the T6 ship and drives it into Seastos, where they encounter countless Purgills in the sky’s clouds. The conflict ends with Ahsoka hiding the T6 ship in the forest, forcing Shin and Marrok to pull out and contact Baylan so that they have to confront Ahsoka and her group on the ground. At the star map reflex point on Seastos, Baylan orders his HK Assassin Droids and Morgan’s mercenaries to hunt down Ahsoka in Seastos’ forest.
Huyang shares his scan and analysis of the Eye of Sion. The craft is still under construction with six hyperdrive cores, with only the seventh needed. In other words, the Eye of Sion is a hyperspace ring. Huyang adds he had never seen a hyperdrive ring built on the scale of the Eye of Sion. With the size of the Eye of Sion and its hyperdrive cores, it is capable of a hyperspace jump of astonishing speed and distance to another galaxy if one knows the coordinates to the destination. Also, there is information in the Jedi archives that speaks of intergalactic hyperspace lanes between galaxies that used to follow the migration path of star whales called Purgill.
Huyang Trains Sabine
In Ahsoka Season 1, Director Steph Green and Writer Dave Filoni did a terrific job re-explaining the Force and introducing more information about the Eye of Sion. From Ahsoka’s explanation of the Force to Sabine, anyone can use the Force unless they put a lot of effort into being able to use it. It is a gradual training process for Force-sensitive. However, non-Force-sensitives have an even higher challenge to use the mystical power. The way Dave Filoni wrote Ahsoka’s explanation of the Force is a callback to when George Lucas compared the training to use the Force to one learning Karate. It takes time, talent, and training to master the Force, similar to how one trains to master Karate.
In the past, The Force is a mystical energy practiced by ancient entities like the Bendu and the Mortis Gods: The Father, the Daughter, and the Son. The Daughter represents the Light Side, The Son represents the Dark Side, and The Father balances the children. In Legends, The Father brought The Mother to help. However, the Mother was not a Mortis God, and her mortality and old age scared her of not being there to help balance The Daughter and The Son. In response, The Mother drank from The Son’s Font of Power and bathed in The Daughter’s Pool of Knowledge. She regained her youth but twisted into Star Wars’ evil Dark-Side H.P. Lovecraft creature, Abeloth. The Mortis Gods imprisoned Abeloth before she could spread carnage across the Galaxy. Whether or not Abeloth is canon is unknown. The Mortis Gods would meet their end after completing Anakin’s Chosen One trial in the realm of Mortis during The Clone Wars. Bendu, the “one in the middle” of the Force, appears in Rebels to train Kanan Jarrus in learning to navigate while being blind with the Force. The Bendu disappeared when Thrawn attempted to kill the powerful blind Force entity.
Soon, mortals would practice wielding the Force. These mortals were the first Jedi. The Jedi Order was born on 25,025 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). Five years later, the Prime Jedi and the founding members of the Jedi Order created the droid Huyang to help future younglings and padawans build their lightsabers and learn lightsaber combat. Ahch-To was the same island where Luke exiled himself in The Last Jedi, where the Jedi constructed the first Jedi Temple alongside the planet’s native inhabitants, the Lanai. The Lanai had songs that recalled fire and ruin on the island. The Lanai recorded that some of the first Jedi were kind, and some were mad, likely due to the Jedi’s early struggle to understand the Force: The Light Side and the Dark Side. The Jedi relocated to Tython, a planet strong in the Force with two moons. The Light-Side moon was called Ashla, and the Dark Side moon was called Bogan. The Jedi would sometimes travel to the two moons to balance the Light Side and the Dark Side within them.
In the Old Republic Era, the Jedi would dedicate themselves to the Light Side of the Force and the Old Republic in Coruscant. Cutting themselves from the Dark Side had consequences as rogue Jedi, intrigued with and corrupted by the Dark Side, betrayed the order and created the Sith Order and the Sith Empire. The Sith wanted to use the Dark Side to expand their power and influence across the galaxy. The war between the Old Republic and the Sith Empire lasted many years until the Sith destroyed themselves, and only two Sith remained: The Sith Master Darth Bane and his Sith Apprentice Darth Zannah. Darth Bane created the Rule of Two and instructed Zannah that there could only be two Sith. The Sith Master would embody power while the Sith Apprentice craves it. The Sith continued the Rule of Two and its tradition until the Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker, killed Darth Sidious during the Battle of Endor on the Second Death Star. The events between Revenge of the Sith and the Return of the Jedi left the Sith temporarily extinct until Sidious’ final death in The Rise of Skywalker and Luke Skywalker being the last Jedi after the Battle of Endor. Ahsoka is not a Jedi but remembers the Jedi’s teachings. Grogu decided to be a Mandalorian, not a Jedi, after affirming his strong bond with his father figure, Dinn Djarin. The fate of other Jedi, such as Ezra Bridger and Cal Kestis, during the New Republic era is a mystery.
Regarding Hyperspace travel, it is interesting how Huyang understands how hyperspace rings work, and remembering the knowledge of Purgills from Jedi records could indicate the droid has some memory of the Rakata and their hyperspace technology during the reign of the Infinite Empire. Although the Infinite Empire and its war with the ancient fledgling Je’daii Order is not confirmed to be canon, it is likely the case after Andor’s confirmation of the Rakata’s existence in galactic history. If the Rakata and their Infinite Empire are indeed canon, the Rakata and other ancient species likely examined creatures, like the Purgill, to develop the first Hyperspace technology to travel across one galaxy and to other universes.
The episode also introduces Senator Hamato Xiono of Hosnian Prime, the father of Star Wars Resistance protagonist Kazuda Xiono. Kazuda helped the Resistance defend the Colossus ship from being taken over by the First Order. Despite supporting his son’s upbringing, Kazuda does admit his father is selfish, and his upbringing in the New Republic’s academy and becoming a New Republic pilot might not be for Kazuda’s benefit but for his father’s benefit. On the other hand, Senator Xiono believed Kazuda relied on him for everything without putting in the hard work to achieve his goals. Xiono was proven wrong when Kazuda’s bravery and hard work assisted the Resistance in fighting the First Order and defending the innocent inhabitants of the Colossus in the long run. The problem with Senator Xiono is his arrogance and ignorance of the Resistance’s warnings of the First Order’s threat caused Hosnian Prime’s destruction at the hands of Starkiller Base. Xiono’s actions would make himself indirectly yet unwittingly complicit in his home’s destruction. If Senator Xiono had taken the Resistance’s warnings of the First Order threat seriously, he could have saved his home. He and his family survived Hosnian Prime’s destruction because they were off-world during the event. Despite all his faults, Senator Xiono cares for his family. Nevertheless, Hamato Xiono’s love for his family does not excuse his failure to protect his home and people from being slaughtered by the First Order.
Rating: 9/10