The final episode of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, entitled “Resolve,” is once again focused on Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein), but it is also the first installment to take place after the events of the Clone Wars.
“Resolve” opens on the planet Naboo, where Senator Padmé Amidala’s funeral (as seen at the very end of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith) is being held.
During the procession, Bail Organa (Phil LaMarr, reprising his role from the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels) spots a hooded Togruta figure in the crowd. He follows Ahsoka to a more secluded area of Theed, where he tells her she “shouldn’t have come here. Why risk it?” “She was my friend,” answers Ahsoka. As a clone trooper patrol approaches, Bail and the former Jedi Padawan duck through an alcove and onto a protruding balcony, where he gives her a means of contacting him if she needs anything. “No. I’m tired of fighting,” says Ahsoka, refusing the device. But when clones appear behind them, the former Jedi stealthily leaps up onto the balcony’s roof. Bail talks his way out of the situation with one of the troopers (Dee Bradley Baker, naturally) by using coded language meant for Ahsoka to overhear and then it is revealed that she took the device from his hand as she leapt away. She makes her way back to her ship parked outside of the city and flies away with Captain Rex. After the opening titles, we fade back in on the unnamed planet that Qui-Gon and Master Dooku visited in the second episode of Tales of the Jedi, which is now looking like it’s in much better shape. Ahsoka is helping farmers and their worker droids cut wheat and load bales of hay onto speeders. After two of the younger laborers get into an argument, a large stack of the hay bales collapses, and Ahsoka instinctually reaches out with the Force to rescue the girl who would have otherwise been crushed by the accident.
In the aftermath of the incident, Dreya (Dana Davis from She-Ra and the Princess of Power) realizes what Ahsoka did to save her, and invites the former Jedi– who is now going by the name “Ashla”– to sit and eat with her family, who are in the midst of having an argument about the Empire. Dreya then starts making comments that hint at Ahsoka’s Force abilities, one of which tips off Dreya’s unscrupulous brother Simu (Bryton James of Family Matters fame) to the Togruta’s true identity when he overhears. When Ahsoka and Dreya return from delivering the hay to a marketplace the next evening, they find the village aflame. Holding Dreya’s family hostage is a Sith Inquisitor (esteemed actor Clancy Brown, who has also voiced characters on The Clone Wars and Rebels– not to mention playing the Devaronian criminal Burg in The Mandalorian) who we haven’t met before. It seems Simu had reported Ahsoka’s presence to the Empire and demands a reward from the Inquisitor. But Ahsoka enters the flaming village and confronts this new villain, pulling Simu away just before he gets struck down by the Inquisitor’s red lightsaber. The Sith immediately identifies Ahsoka and lashes out at her, but the former Jedi dodges his attacks and takes his saber from him, using it to decapitate him. The inquisitor’s head falls to the ground and seemingly deflates as his body collapses next to it. As the fires burn, Simu apologizes to Ahsoka, and she tells the family that they’re going to have to leave the planet. She uses the device Bail Organa gave her to summon help, and the Alderaanian senator quickly shows up to give the family sanctuary. Bail asks Ahsoka if she’s ready to get back into the fights, and she nods in assent, leading into her role as “Fulcrum” in Rebels.
Since this is the finale of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, I thought I would use this review as an opportunity to give my overall thoughts on the series as a whole. A lot of people already see Dave Filoni as the heir apparent to George Lucas, and I believe that this collection of shorts will only further solidify that notion. He’s proven that he’s more than capable of fleshing out the mythology of Star Wars while delivering entertaining and emotionally moving stories on an episodic basis. Plus, the creative talents that he’s chosen to surround himself with (including Jon Favreau on The Mandalorian and animation directors like Saul Ruiz here) are pitch-perfect collaborators who readily provide the technical and filmmaking know-how required to translate Filoni’s inventive ideas from script to screen. Beyond that, I just love this idea of zooming in on specific Star Wars characters– in this case, Ahsoka Tano and Count Dooku– and filling out some of the notable gaps in their narratives, hopefully without overwriting anything that’s already been established in-canon, which I know the Lucasfilm Story Group and Filoni are both trying to be careful about here. I could absolutely see this pattern continuing with some of the other Jedi, or even the non-Force-sensitive personas that populate A Galaxy Far, Far Away. It doesn’t always have to be Filoni, either– why not have some of the accomplished Star Wars comic-book writers come in and do something like this for animation. It works so well in these bite-sized chunks that I feel the possibilities could be endless. But Tales of the Jedi, as it stands, has something to say about the similarities and differences between Ahsoka and Dooku, two Jedi who left the Order for different reasons. It’s probably something to think about as Star Wars barrels ahead with projects like The High Republic and the Ahsoka live-action series coming next year.
All six episodes of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi are now available to stream, exclusively via Disney+.