The Mandalorian Chapter Thirteen Review

*Major spoilers for The Mandalorian Chapter Thirteen ahead! As this is one of the most highly anticipated episodes of this season, I must warn you that I will likely be spoiling the entire episode in the following post!*

This is a really big episode to have to capture in a blog post this week. I feel like I have so much to say and so many opinions that are probably controversial. I will start by saying I don't claim to know more about Star Wars than anybody in the production of Star Wars, much less the legend Dave Filoni himself. I respect the vision of all Star Wars creators and I actually really liked this episode. Filoni's talent as a Star Wars creator soared once again. But with that being said, I did have some things about this episode that I didn't necessarily love. I know I am going to sound like I'm nitpicking in this post and that's because I probably am. I swear I typically don't and won't nitpick because I don't have enough knowledge of anything to be able to do that. In this particular case though, Ahsoka is one of my all-time favorite Star Wars characters so I, of course, had high expectations for her live-action debut. Some things didn't exactly meet my expectations, and perhaps they were too high to begin with so that is a fault of my own. However, no matter what opinions I express in this post, I respect any opinions that both match mine or differ from mine as well as admire the work of everybody that has helped to create this story. So with that disclaimer in mind, I will move forward with my own personal opinions of this episode.

I'll start by saying both the action and setting of Chapter Thirteen were incredible. I don't know if anything in this series has been more satisfying than seeing those white lightsabers in live-action. They looked absolutely amazing and I think that as well as Ahsoka's lightsaber techniques translated really well from animation to live-action. I liked the fact that Ahsoka's specific way of holding her lightsabers was included in some parts. I don't exactly know how you would describe the way Ahsoka holds her lightsabers, she occasionally holds them "backwards" or at least not straight up like many Jedi do. I'm sure most of you understand what I mean by that terrible description because I know it has been a pretty prominent detail about Ahsoka but I've included an example below just in case!

She definitely has a signature lightsaber stance and fighting technique because of the way she holds the lightsabers which has always been something I noticed. I even remember trying to emulate the way she holds her lightsabers with my toy lightsabers as a kid. 😂Therefore, I thought it was pretty cool that this small detail was adopted by her live-action counterpart. Also, I love her white lightsabers because they're pretty unique to her character as well. We don't see a ton of different lightsaber colors in canon Star Wars so I'm usually a pretty big fan of the ones that are different. It's also really cool that they got the lightsaber so accurate in the live-action version right down to the different lengths between the two. Overall, I don't think they could have done better with the lightsabers as well as the lightsaber action scenes in this episode which is a pretty important aspect for me. I love nothing more than great lightsaber scenes so this honestly is the main thing that really sold this episode for me.

Another thing I liked about this episode was the setting. I thought the dark, foggy, and windy setting was perfect and really set the tone for this episode. I don't know that I can really explain why I liked the setting for this particular episode that much it just gave me the perfect eerie and mysterious vibe. I think part of what I liked is that it contributed to the sort of mysterious persona that Ahsoka adopted after the fall of the Jedi Order and the Republic. If you've watched Rebels or read "Ahsoka" by E.K. Johnston, you know that she had to go into hiding to avoid being hunted down. I think I just felt that this setting was dark, dreary, and mysterious which sort of helps to drive home the state in which Ahsoka has been living. It also made the lightsaber action that much cooler because she was able to hide in the fog and shadows, only becoming visible when she used her lightsabers in an attack. Overall, this just really set the mood of the episode for me and these factors have the potential to make it one of my favorite episodes in the series.

One last quick thing I wanted to mention that I loved about this episode is the inclusion of Tython. I'm a big fan of the expanded universe and it almost feels like some legends topics are going to be made canon based on this. I think it would be so awesome to see a canonized version of Tython and its relation to the origins of the Jedi or as they were known in the beginning, the Jedaii (*hint* my username indicates how cool I think this would be). I don't know that much about Star Wars, especially compared to a lot of fans, but I have to admit that I felt a sense of satisfaction recognizing a small detail for the first time ever in my Mandalorian watch history.

Now as I insinuated in the beginning, I didn't think this episode was perfect and that's mostly for small reasons that I only was bothered by because Ahsoka is a favorite of mine. My first complaint is super minuscule, but as I mentioned already I have been a bit nitpicky when it comes to Ahsoka. I know how dumb it sounds, I wish it didn't bother me so much but... those lekku were not great in my opinion. The most obvious issue here is that they were way too short. They are much shorter than Ahsoka's lekku in Rebels and they almost seem shorter than they even were at the end of The Clone Wars. She's supposed to be a full-grown woman by this point so I expected them to be quite a bit longer but I understand the functionality argument here. I can see that longer lekku may have hindered the ability to produce good action shots but I will say I was a bit confused when I first saw live-action Ahsoka. Another problem was that I thought they basically looked like an obvious headpiece that just sat on her head as opposed to actually being a part of her. We saw a live-action Togruta in the prequels through Shaak Ti which was about 18 years ago. I thought that those lekku looked much more natural and that's kind of what I was expecting here. But again, I have read that the larger they are, the more difficult it would be to perform stunts in them. It was a tiny little detail that I struggled to get past despite how unimportant it is, and I don't care all that much I just thought that could have been done better. The other main thing that I already knew was going to bother me before I even watched this episode is the voice. This is mostly because as an animated character, Ashley Eckstein's voice acting is what really brought Ahsoka to life. Even just the inflection in Eckstein's voice is very specific and helps build Ahsoka's character into the kind-hearted, yet strong character that she is. It's hard to hear a new voice in that place. I completely agree that the live-action Ahsoka should be played by a woman of color so I am in no way trying to argue that fact or downplay the importance. It's just that I, like many others, love Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka so it was sort of jarring to hear a completely new way of talking from Ahsoka. This is something that will likely just take time to get used to though, I watched the episode three times already and it's sounded more natural to me with each watch. I will admit, Ashley Eckstein's version of Ahsoka will probably always be the "true" Ahsoka to me because that is the one I came to adore, but that is why I say most of my complaints are on me and definitely not the creators!

Overall, I did feel like the episode was well executed and I was thoroughly entertained throughout. There are so many great aspects and the action scenes were basically perfect Star Wars content. The entire feel of the episode is awesome and my production complaints are pretty minor. If this was just a random Jedi and not Ahsoka, I probably would quickly come to love her because the character is really awesome in this episode. The only problem is that she has the expectations of Ahsoka riding on her so it just didn't feel like Ahsoka to me.

So what are your thoughts? Did this episode live up to your expectations? What were your favorite aspects of the episode? Did you have any problems with the lekku or am I just a crazy Ahsoka fan? What other Jedi are you hoping may appear later in the season?

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