BEWARE SPOILERS: Just like with the previous Disney Plus series, we at Fantha Tracks will be offering our own episode guide for your entertainment! Here we will post every reference, Easter egg, everything named and unnamed per episode and some fun trivia in-between that we have spotted.
Official summary: Ahsoka confronts her past, while Hera and her allies undertake a rescue mission.
Trivia
Ahsoka tells Anakin “I won’t fight you” to which he replies with that he has heard that before. And he did, during the duel with his son Luke in Return of the Jedi.
The scanner that Hera holds is an EnhanceScan general-purpose scanner, which the Rebels on Hoth used in The Empire Strikes Back.
It is nice to hear that Leia is covering for them, but also that she is using the title senator. After the Galactic Concordance, Leia returned to her role as senator, as seen in many of the follow up novels, most notable Bloodlines.
We mentioned before that Jacen is Force sensitive due to him being the son of Kanan. Him being the one that notices the sound of lightsabers among the waves, is another clue to his Force sensitivity, that Huyang later confirms.
When Hera starts to hear the lightsabers among the waves as well, the Force theme is playing.
As stated, this battle is one of the earliest missions together of Anakin and Ahsoka, which can also be seen in some visual clues. The biggest of these being the Phase 1 Clone troopers with head fin, that were first seen in Attack of the Clones. In the background is an AT-TE, also seen in Attack of the Clones, but also featured prominently in The Clone Wars movie.
Anakin is wearing his Jedi Commander armor from The Clone Wars and his hair is starting to grow longer from his Attack of the Clones Padawan cut. The novel Brotherhood made a point to mention the growing hairstyle of Anakin.
And that’s Ariana Greenblatt as Young Ahsoka Tano. It is not her first time either that she was covered in paint for her character, as she was also painted green to be the young Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War. Here she is wearing the outfit to match the early seasons of The Clone Wars including the original green lightsaber
While this is an unknown battle at this point, and due to the fog of war it is difficult to make out any planet features, we do see two Twi’leks talking to Anakin. So it would make sense that this is an unknown new battle as part of the Battle Of Ryloth, a longer campaign during the first year of the Clone Wars. This battle was partially seen in no less than five episodes of The Clone Wars.
Next flashback, we are further into the war. In fact, those are Maul’s Mandalorians she is taking down during the Siege of Mandalore, from The Clone Wars season 7. Surrounding Ahsoka are her 501st troopers that she was given by Anakin in the same episodes.
And that is live-action Rex, again voiced by Temuera Morrison, with the performance artist inside the costume being Ryan Ryusaki, who worked on The Book of Boba Fett as well.
Anakin does not know this battle, and Ahsoka says they had parted ways by then. This is true from a certain point of view. By this time Ahsoka had left the Jedi Order, but as said they had met shortly before the Siege began so that Anakin could give some of his 501st troopers to Ahsoka. The Siege of Mandalore took place during Revenge of the Sith, with most of the intense fighting happening before Order 66, and with Anakin on Coruscant about to fall to the Dark Side.
Anakin says “Back to the beginning” the moment he sees that Ahsoka has not learned her lesson. Now this is not an exact reference, but it does brings to mind the Tales of the Jedi episode in which Ahsoka had to repeatedly do a training exercise in which the clone troopers fired at her with stun blasts to perfect her ability to sense the intent of an enemy through the Force.
Jensu and Lander, the pilots who survived last week’s episode, are the ones to pull Ahsoka from the water.
Just like in Part 2, Ahsoka uses the Force to sense a Force Echo, this time that of Sabine holding the star map and her conversation with Baylan.
And, as seen as she steps outside to speak to the purrgil, Ahsoka is now fully wearing white. Dave Filoni is a huge J.R.R. Tolkien fan, which is why Ahsoka followed the narrative footsteps of Gandalf the Grey into becoming the White in this episode. Anakin served as the Balrog, bringing the character close to death so that Ahsoka could be reborn into a better version of herself. The Balrog cloaks himself in shadow and flame, which is why the shadow warrior in the title refers to Anakin, who is seen multiple times to step out of the shadows.
Carson is asking for identification, and while he never gets an answer, we do in the subtitles: this is Captain Girard, played by Eisa Davis. The Ishi Tib officer next to her is unnamed, but performed by Derek Diaz.
Jacen “[they took them] far, far away”. Chosen on purpose to mimic the ‘A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Far Away’-line no doubt.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Houser, Jody (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 33 Pages - 09/13/2023 (Publication Date) - Marvel (Publisher)