“The Future of the Force”

Finally, Star Wars Rebels makes some progress on a continuing story and lets us see Ahsoka in action for the first time since her return.

Darth Vader’s plan to bring in Force Sensitive children for reasons that are yet unclear. He could simply be rounding them up to make sure that they can’t become Jedi or he could be looking for his own apprentice to help him overthrow The Emperor. That was essentially the plot to the video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and I think it would fit with how ruthless Darth Vader could be. It’s also possible that Palpatine wants to groom another apprentice and get rid of Vader. The possibilities are numerous and intriguing to contemplate. Of course it could be a recruitment drive for the Inquisitors to suggest the most boring option.

Speaking of the Inquisitors, Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister return in force -pun definitely intended- as they relentlessly hunt down the children. The pace of the episode was quick and always felt urgent as Ezra, Zeb and Chopper tried to keep ahead of them while constantly looking over their shoulders. The Inquisitors were always just behind them and it’s clear that they can’t hope to match them in a fight. Even Zeb is made a mockery of when he tries to fight Fifth Brother.

The episode was a bit inconsistent tonally much like the last appearance of the Inquisitors. One minute it was tense and urgent before giving way to silly humour around the children. It mostly worked but was a little jarring some of the time. The characters went through a pretty standard arc of being annoyed by the babies but eventually warming up to them.

I felt that the reveal that they children were force sensitive made the characters seem a bit stupid. Why else would Inquisitors be after random children? Kanan is a self confessed “bad Jedi” but it should have at least dawned on him as a possibility. Having the child sense Ezra’s fear be the biggest clue was a cool way for the information to be presented and mirrors Ezra’s first meeting with Kanan where Ezra was the one to sense the force while Kanan remained oblivious.

Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister are about as bland as they were in their last appearance. They fulfilled the needs of the story but not much more. I do like how threatening they seem and how brutal they are when they attack others. At the very least they always feel like a persistent threat to Ezra and the rest of the characters. None of them are anywhere near ready to take them on yet as evidenced by how easily they are cast aside. One thing that didn’t sit right with me is that both Inquisitors had ample opportunities to kill their opponents but opted to toss them across the room and call it a day. They can’t fall back on the idea of toying with them like last time as the intent definitely seemed to get them out of the way.

The major draw of this episode was how much of a badass Ahsoka is. Showing the Inquisitors being so threatening to the rest of the characters makes how skilled Ahsoka is very clear. She effortlessly takes on both of them and wins very easily. The only thing that causes her to retreat is the fact that she was about to be outnumbered but if it weren’t for that then both Inquisitors would absolutely have been killed by her.

Even her entrance was incredible and reminded me of Darth Maul’s entrance in The Phantom Menace -the only cool bit of that film- which established him as someone who means business. The same applies to Ahsoka here which is proven by the way she conducts herself in the fight.

I find it interesting that Vader wants her captured instead of killed. I wonder what he has in store for her and I certainly hope that we find out. I’d love to see how she fares in a fight with him so hopefully the next few episodes will deliver.