Ahsoka Episode 7 Brings In A Helpful Hologram From Star Wars Rebels
This article contains spoilers for "Ahosoka" episode 7, "Dreams and Madness."
After making a big return earlier in "Ahsoka," it was a nice surprise to see Hayden Christensen once again get a cameo in the "Star Wars" series. After his appearance in the fifth episode, many thought his time on the show would be done. If he wasn't coming back as a Force ghost, where would he fit on the show? But Dave Filoni found exactly the right place for him.
As Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) travels at lightspeed toward the planet Peridea, she takes time to practice her lightsaber technique. Looking over her shoulder is a hologram of her former master, running her through drills and telling her that if she wants to stay alive against their enemies, she'll need to practice. One of those enemies, Asajj Ventress, even scored her first live-action mention in this episode of "Ahsoka."
It's a touching moment where Ahsoka explains to Huyang (David Tenant) that her master actually recorded 20 such lessons for her ,and we get a look at the last one of them as he paces around the room trying to prepare his padawan for survival, even when he is gone.
After Ahsoka's brush with Anakin's dark side inside of herself two episodes ago, she absolved herself of the guilt she carried and the concern that she had the evil of Anakin inside of her. Overcoming that, she's able to open up again about the good parts of her former mentor and admit to Huyang that Ankain was a good Jedi Master to her.
But this isn't the first time Anakin Skywalker has been seen in hologram form to teach lightsaber training skills. We've seen it before.
Flashback to Star Wars Rebels
In "Star Wars Rebels," the Jedi Holocron that Ezra gets ahold of includes some of these recordings of Anakin Skywalker. In the season two episode, "Shroud of Darkness," Ahsoka Tano opens up one of these holograms and Ezra reveals that he's been using it as part of his lightsaber training. It enables the two of them to have a conversation about Ahsoka's former master, and she tells Ezra how great Anakin was. "You should have seen him in person," Ahsoka marvels.
The stories Ezra heard from his master, Kanan Jarrus, made Anakin Skywalker out to be "the greatest warrior the Jedi had in the Clone Wars." But Ahsoka also reminds Ezra that he was kind, and that was something people forget. "He cared deeply about his friends," she tells him. "And looked out for them until the end."
Ezra asks her if she knows what happened to him, but at that point in the timeline, Ahsoka wasn't sure what happened to him and had only vague suspicions. She wouldn't know for sure until her encounter with Darth Vader on Malachor, which sent her into exile until after the end of the Rebellion.
The good in him
Ahsoka lost that ability to see the kindness in her master after that, at least for a time. As we saw in Ahsoka's brush death, she had become fearful of the darkness inside her that she felt had come from his influence. But now, in "Ahsoka," she can shed that fear and remember Anakin's kindness once more.
It's touching to see Ahsoka able to fall back on her master's teachings and bring the spirit of good that Anakin Skywalker once stood for back to the forefront of her mind. Something tells me that, before this moment, she wouldn't have been able to do it after discovering his turn into Darth Vader. She's attained a new level of understanding and no longer has to be fearful or ashamed of who brought her up. She can take the good and discard the bad, just as she should.
The finale of "Ahsoka" premieres next Tuesday night on Disney+ at 9pm ET/6pm PT.