Countdown to ‘Ahsoka’: Revisiting Season 1 of ‘Star Wars Rebels’
Welcome back to our Countdown to Ahsoka series of daily articles, in which we recap all things related to Ahsoka Tano in preparation for her upcoming Disney Plus series. So far, we’ve covered everything we do and don’t know about the new live-action show, discussed Ahsoka’s evolving character design throughout her appearances, speculated on when she started using two lightsabers, and reviewed her important episodes from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
This time, we’re looking at the first season of Star Wars Rebels, which seems a strange decision at first considering that Ahsoka is barely in it. This season is useful when preparing for Ahsoka in other respects though, as it introduces the crew of the Ghost, most of whom will make up the supporting cast in the upcoming series.
In Star Wars Rebels Season 1, the crew on the Ghost are small-time Rebels, a tiny cell working on their own to cause the Empire as many problems as they can. We meet all of them in the first episode:
- Hera Syndulla, excellent pilot, owner of the Ghost and team captain
- Kanan Jarrus, former Jedi Padawan in hiding
- Sabine Wren, Mandalorian with a penchant for art and a dark secret who quit the Imperial Academy to fight the Empire
- Garazeb Orrelios, a Lasat strongman whose people were decimated by the Empire
- Chopper, Hera’s astromech droid who’s even ruder and violent than R2-D2
- Ezra Bridger, a Force-sensitive teenage orphan recruited in the pilot episode
While it looks like Hera and Sabine — and presumably Chopper — will be series regulars in Ahsoka and Ezra should be discovered by the end of the season, Zeb has been worryingly absent from the series’ marketing so far. He got a surprise cameo in season 3 of The Mandalorian but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the CGI proves too costly to give him a significant role in an eight-episode season.
Most of the story in Star Wars Rebels is told from the perspective of Ezra, who serves as our entry point into the story of the Ghost‘s crew. He is the closest we get to a protagonist in this ensemble cast. After bungling the crew’s operation, Kanan and Hera decide to offer him a place on their ship after the former spots signs of Force sensitivity in the boy.
It has to be said that the writing in this season, especially in the pilot, comes across as corny with some eye-roll-inducing dialogue (the early inclusion of C-3PO and R2-D2 in one episode smacks of a predictable attempt to drive interest in a new Star Wars series). Ezra is every bit the immature and annoying teenage boy when we meet him, written as a cocky kid only interested in serving himself who lacks patience and discipline. That last point is worked on as part of his character arc and acknowledged repeatedly during his Jedi training, but there’s not much to redeem his crush on Sabine, who seems as irritated by his attempts to charm her as we are. Thankfully, that subplot is abandoned once Ezra grows up after a couple of seasons and the two become friends.
That said, as the stakes get higher and the tone darkens towards the end of the season, the quality of the dialogue improves in tandem. It provides a great springboard for the excellent second season.
If Ezra takes a while to get used to (the character has some genuinely funny moments and a good heart so it’s not all bad), then thankfully the rest of the Ghost crew come across as much more likeable. Hera and Kanan are the responsible adults of this dysfunctional family. Hera is wise beyond her years and knows exactly what her crew needs no matter the situation. Kanan is understandably impatient with Ezra at first, but grows into a competent teacher and will defend his family no matter what.
Sabine is cool, stylish and ultra-competent, while Zeb feels like the elder brother of the group; he and Ezra forge a brotherly bond, with the two regularly teasing each other in arguments which often devolve into scrapes. These scrapes usually involve Chopper, the equivalent of the family pet who does its own share of wind ups. It may take Ezra a few episodes to fit in, but by the end of the season they become a tight-knit family who would do anything for each other.
Ahsoka doesn’t actually get mentioned until halfway through the season, and not even by her real name. In the season’s seventh episode, Out of Darkness, Sabine begins to question Hera on where she’s getting her intel. Hera refuses to confirm anything except that her informant’s codename is “Fulcrum” and the episode spirals out from there, with Sabine forcing her way into a mission just so she can meet the elusive contact. This episode does display hints about who Fulcrum really is, with some symbols resembling Ahsoka’s facial tattoos on some crates, but that’s it.
Fulcrum’s name comes up a few more times in the second half of the season — the Grand Inquisitor actually tortures Kanan for the informant’s identity — but she isn’t revealed to be Ahsoka until the season finale. Surprisingly, in the first part of the two-part finale, she actually encourages Hera to abandon the search for Kanan after he is arrested by the Imperials and tortured by Grand Moff Tarkin. In hindsight, it’s shocking that Ahsoka would turn her back on one of the few known Jedi left in the galaxy — this decision has more in common with Saw Gerrera and Luthen Rael than it does an honorable Jedi.
It paints a picture of an Ahsoka that has perhaps been worn down over the last decade. After being kicked out of the Jedi Order, surviving the traumatic Order 66 and years spent in hiding and then fighting against the oppressive Empire, she has been hardened by the reality of the galaxy, to the point where even the life of a fellow former Jedi doesn’t outweigh the ultimate goal of taking down the Empire.
Thankfully, when she learns that Hera and her crew have risked everything to rescue Kanan, she arrives in the knick of time with Rebel reinforcements to extract them from Tarkin and his fleet, so perhaps she still values people over the cause. We only see her onscreen for a few seconds, but enough to see her updated design — her montrals have grown, which makes sense as she’s a decade older than when we left her — and we learn that she is in league with Bail Organa and manages multiple Rebel cells, confirming that the Ghost is part of something bigger.
It’s a huge reveal. Not only was it confirmation that the rebels had taken their first steps into a larger world, but this was Ahsoka’s first appearance since Season 5 of The Clone Wars — Season 7 wouldn’t be announced for another few years — finally answering fan questions about what on earth had happened to her since she left the Jedi Order. To make it even juicier, the season’s final scene announces that Darth Vader has turned his attention toward the Ghost, teasing a reunion between Ahsoka Tano and her former master in the coming season.
Check back with us tomorrow as our Countdown to Ahsoka series continues!
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
