Ahsoka confronts her past in the World Between Worlds.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Modesty: The flashbacks to Teth and Ryloth have Ahsoka wearing a much less revealing outfit than the tube top and skirt she initially wore during the same battles in The Clone Wars, resembling the outfit she wore at the beginning of the Tales of the Jedi episode "Practice Makes Perfect" instead (which makes sense, as Ariana Greenblatt was only fifteen years old during filming, playing a fourteen-year old).
- Afterlife Antechamber: It’s implied Ahsoka was placed in a state of Limbo, as the World Between Worlds is also said to be the conduit between life and death.
- Alas, Poor Yorick: At the start of the episode, Hera finds Huyang holding Sabine's helmet, mournfully reflecting that Sabine and Ahsoka didn't listen when he told them to stay together; Sabine isn't dead, but Huyang is in no position to know that.
- Ambiguous Situation: Was Ahsoka ever in the World Between Worlds? Her being thrown into flashbacks by falling instead of going through a portal and Chopper detecting something before her encounter with Anakin was over seem to imply that it was all a Force induced vision in her mind. With Anakin acting as her Spirit Advisor. On the other hand, the fact that Hera and her squadron had already scanned the sea searching for Ahsoka and found nothing, only to start getting anywhere when Jacen reached out with his own Force senses (hearing the clashing of lightsabers in the process) to give an idea of where to look and it certainly indicates that Ahsoka was out of reach of conventional detection until her test with Anakin was over.
- Aside Glance: Huyang's reaction to Ahsoka's admission that she has no idea where they're going at the end of the episode.
- Audience Surrogate: Carson acts as a way for Huyang to catch up any viewers on who Jacen’s father was and why he is Force-sensitive.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: During Ahsoka's visions of the Clone Wars, she sees Anakin leading Republic Clones into battle flickering into Darth Vader in the same pose. The visual similarity of the chestplate of Anakin's Clone Wars armor to that of Vader's armor is thus easily juxtaposed. This visually summarizes not only her traumas with Anakin and her being a Child Soldier, but was the central thesis of Star Wars: The Clone Wars to the very end.
- Blind Jump: Ahsoka is taking a leap of faith in trusting that the Purgill will take them to Sabine and Ezra, but at the very least, they're being taken somewhere.
- Blunt "No": Huyang is willing to entertain Jacen with a tour of Ahsoka's ship, but he responds to the child's requests for the droid to train him as a Jedi and to teach him how to build a lightsaber with a simple "No".
- Brutal Honesty: In Ahsoka's flashback to Ryloth, Anakin doesn't mince words about how the times require Ahsoka to be a soldier, rather than the peacekeeper Jedi were previously trained to be. When she asks what will happen if she doesn't fight, he directly tells her that she'll die.
- Call-Back: A strange mix with Call-Forward; these moments occur in Ahsoka's flashbacks, but Anakin and Ahsoka are both simply reliving their past experiences from their present-day perspectives.
- During the Ryloth flashback, Ahsoka and Anakin discuss the difference between the Jedi's traditional role as peacekeepers, and their current role as soldiers; Ahsoka voiced a similar musing to Rex the day the war ended.
- When a young Ahsoka asks Anakin what will happen if she chooses not to fight, he replies "then you'll die"; Anakin would repeat those words, in a much darker context, when he faced Ahsoka as Darth Vader.
- In the beginning of the Ryloth sequence, Ahsoka complains about being trained by Anakin in the middle of the battlefield. Just two episodes back, Sabine was complaining about being lectured by Ahsoka as Shin's squad of fighters fired at them.
- We see Ahsoka's old outfits from The Clone Wars cartoon, specifically her season 1 and season 7 attires.
- Anakin makes a joke that teaching isn’t always that much fun, to Ahsoka’s horror and disappointment. In the first episode, Hera tried to make a friendly jab telling Ahsoka that her master probably found her a pain to teach at some point, earning a subdued, negative reaction from the latter. Now we know that even aside from Anakin’s turn as Vader trying to kill her, he did make a joke about training her she found insensitive to both her and the clones.
- The Cameo: Captain Rex (voiced by Temuera Morrison rather than Dee Bradley Baker) cameos during Ahsoka's visions of the past, including the Siege of Mandalore.
- Captain Obvious: In her first flashback/memory, an astonished Ahsoka remarks "this is the Clone Wars!" to Anakin's amusement. Justified, as Ahsoka is being made to suddenly relive events decades in her past and is trying to find her bearings amidst a very unusual experience.
- Cerebus Retcon: Ahsoka’s relived experiences on Teth and Ryloth are depicted with more gravitas than the lighter tone of The Clone Wars’s early seasons. Greater emphasis is placed on the chaos of war, the many dead and wounded afterward, and that Ahsoka was trained as a Child Soldier instead of the peacekeepers that Jedi aspire to be.
- The Chains of Commanding: Even years after the Clone Wars' conclusion, Ahsoka still laments the deaths of the clones under her command.
- Chekhov's Gun: The purgill from two episodes back come into play as the key for Ahsoka and Huyang to travel to the other galaxy to get to Sabine.
- A Child Shall Lead Them:
- Jacen starts to exhibit his father's powers with the Force, sensing Ahsoka's training in the World Between Worlds. His mother and Carson both accept this and follow his lead in recovering Ahsoka.
- Ahsoka's training in the World Between Worlds also reestablish for viewers just how young she was when she was commanding the Clone Troopers. It's deconstructed in this case because while Ahsoka may have been an effective leader, she was most certainly affected by losing so many troopers and blamed herself for their biggest losses.
- Child Soldier: Subtly emphasized by how Ahsoka is played by the same actress (Ariana Greenblatt) in both stages of the flashbacks to the Clone Wars, the only difference being her outfit, lightsabers, and maturation - but even that doesn't take away from how the casting choice establishes how young Ahsoka was during the war, which only traumatized her further.
- Continuity Nod:
- Anakin notes that Ahsoka looks old, referencing a similar joke from Rex in the Star Wars Rebels episode "Relics of the Old Republic."
- Ahsoka says to Anakin that she won't fight him, which the latter noted that is something he's heard before, referring to his final duel against Luke in Return of the Jedi. The line also references his previous confrontation with Ahsoka in the Rebels episode Twilight of the Apprentice, Part II, where Ahsoka told him she wouldn't leave him, like she did before.
- In the flashback scenes, Anakin's uniform is the same as it was in the first two-and-a-half seasons of The Clone Wars.
- Kanan Jarrus receives his first name drop in the series when Huyang explains to Carson he was Jacen's father.
- Carson mentions that Leia is trying to cover for Hera and her troops in the Senate.
- On Ryloth, Ahsoka's younger self reflects on the cost of war and the many lives lost under her command, showing that the events of "Storm Over Ryloth" continue to haunt her so many years later. The music also calls back to the series finale of The Clone Wars to show an event, in particular, she feels guilty about.
- Ahsoka's visions then flash forward to the Siege of Mandalore. Anakin remarks that he's not familiar with this battle, and Ahsoka confirms that this was after they parted ways.
- Anakin takes on a yellow-eyed appearance akin to how he looked following his corruption and fall to the dark side.
- Anakin says there's hope for Ahsoka yet, calling back to his famous line about how she might make it as his Padawan.
- When Ahsoka senses Sabine through the broken map, the Force Echo chime from Jedi: Fallen Order can be heard.
- Jacen retells how the Purgill took Ezra and Thrawn away and saved the day in the series finale of Rebels.
- The credits name Rex as "Captain/Commander Rex", noting how he was promoted between the Battle of Ryloth and the Siege of Mandalore.
- Dark Is Not Evil: In his duel with Ahsoka at the end of her journey, Anakin shifts into his Darth Vader persona, drawing a red lightsaber and bearing the same pale, yellow-eyed visage he had in his most evil moments in Revenge of the Sith, as well as appearing as the armored Vader in brief flashes. However, Anakin is only adopting Vader's demeanor to push Ahsoka into choosing to live, putting his own dark history to a good use.
- A Day in the Limelight: Jacen gets to shine in this episode, displaying his Force abilities. He figures out that there's something in the water, alerting his mother to it and convincing her there's something going on. He then manages to lead Hera to Ahsoka with Chopper's help.
- Dead Hat Shot: While she isn't dead, there is plenty of focus put on Sabine's helmet to everyone's growing concern of being unable to find her.
- Double-Meaning Title: Considering the centrality of Anakin's Force Ghost in this episode, it is easy to read the title as referring to him and his grim countenance as Darth Vader. On a more thematic note, the episode is essentially a discussion of Loss of Identity and wavering convictions (Ahsoka's and the New Republic's, for the most part)—which was at the heart of the samurai films of long-acknowledged influence to the franchise Akira Kurosawa. The title itself also happens to be the literal translation of the Kurosawa film that was co-financed by George Lucas himself, Kagemusha.
- A further layer goes into this when one remembers that the Japanese word above, kagemusha (影武者), is the word for a warlord's decoy / impostor. Everything Ahsoka is processing in her training with Anakin (primarily her self-doubt and lack of conviction) is broadly what we would now recognize as "impostor syndrome
".
- A further layer goes into this when one remembers that the Japanese word above, kagemusha (影武者), is the word for a warlord's decoy / impostor. Everything Ahsoka is processing in her training with Anakin (primarily her self-doubt and lack of conviction) is broadly what we would now recognize as "impostor syndrome
- Dramatic Irony: Hera asks Huyang what Ahsoka's master (Anakin) was like, presumably not realizing that she and the rest of the Ghost crew encountered him during the Rebellion era. Huyang, who is seemingly aware of the full story, diplomatically refers to him as "intense".
- Dude, Not Funny!: During her flashback to Ryloth, Ahsoka is very unamused by Anakin's joke that teaching isn't all it's cracked up to be; she chews him out for being willing to joke at all when they're surrounded by their injured troops.
- Environmental Symbolism: The ocean when Ahsoka fell in was turbulent and unstable, continuously battering itself against the coast, reflecting the loss of direction and rough thought processes her life had led her to. The ocean that Ahsoka is found in is much more tranquil to show how she had finally found some peace with herself.
- Eye Colour Change: When Anakin's Vader persona takes over, his eyes turn into the supernatural shade of red-rimmed yellow associated with the Dark Side. After Ahsoka defeats him, Anakin's original persona returns, symbolized by his eyes turning back to their original blue. Furthermore, Ahsoka's own eyes briefly flash yellow when she glares at Anakin while holding him at blade's length near the end of their duel.
- Failed a Spot Check: None of the crews of the New Republic fleet noticed the Purrgil heading right for them until the pod was practically on top of them.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Ahsoka is certainly glad to see her old master again, especially since he is no longer the Sith Lord who once sought her death, but after Anakin brings up his own better qualities, she reminds him of his dark, dangerous legacy. Once their final duel has concluded, however, Ahsoka seems to have made peace with her master's complicated legacy, just as she has come to accept her own.
- Friend to All Living Things: Ahsoka and Hera trust their fate to the Purrgil to get the former to the other galaxy and find Ezra, Sabine and Thrawn.
- Good Wears White: After her return from her completed training with the image of Anakin, after she is pulled from the water, Ahsoka seems serene and is smiling radiantly. Ahsoka then dons an all-white outfit we haven't seen before for her encounter with the giant Purgill.
- Hypocritical Humor: Anakin remarks that Ahsoka looks "old"; at this point in the timeline, Ahsoka is around the same age that Anakin was when he died, and she certainly looks much better than he did at the time.
- In-Universe Catharsis: In the World Between Worlds, Ahsoka comes face-to-face with her deceased former master, Anakin Skywalker, who offers Ahsoka a choice between life and death, helping her confront her past and her belief that her legacy is defined by the violence and death she's experienced. The experience also allows Ahsoka to fight a rematch with Anakin's Sith persona of Darth Vader, concluding with Ahsoka defeating him and choosing life, making peace with Anakin himself, her guilt over leaving him, and the trauma she's been carrying since the Clone Wars. Ahsoka returns to the normal world feeling more confident and at peace with herself, determined to reunite with Sabine and rescue her and Ezra.
- Indy Ploy: Ahsoka freely admits that she has no idea if the purgill will actually take them to Sabine, but it's better than going nowhere.
- The Journey Through Death: After Baylan knocked her over the cliff, Ahsoka seems to awaken in the World Between Worlds. There she meets and is tested by the image of her former Master, Anakin Skywalker. He says he's going to finish her training, the test being to live or die. Ahsoka eventually passes the test and awakens back in the real world.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Ahsoka noting how Anakin looks the same is likely a cheeky reference to the digital de-aging used to make Hayden Christensen match his appearance in Revenge of the Sith.
- Male Might, Female Finesse: In their duel, Ahsoka is more agile than Vader, which allows her to dodge several of his strikes and eventually get the upper hand. However, due to being in his pre-Mustafar incarnation, Vader is quicker than before, no longer being encumbered by his armor and prosthetics, while still able to use his more brutal style of lightsaber combat, just as during his duel with Obi-Wan in Revenge of The Sith.
- Master-Apprentice Chain: Discussed; Anakin speaks of all of his knowledge and experience living on in Ahsoka, just as Obi-Wan's teachings were passed down to him, and Qui-Gon's to Obi-Wan, describing this passing of knowledge as a legacy that they are all a part of.
- Mythology Gag:
- Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber gaining a red blade, held by him in full Vader mode, gives us what it would have looked like if he never lost it and was allowed to bleed it himself—unlike what Palpatine forced him to do to another lightsaber canonically in Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, or how Dagan Gera did it in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
- For that matter, Anakin's willingness to appear both as himself and as Vader within the Force has been seen before in Legends, during an apparition to his wayward descendant Cade Skywalker in Star Wars: Legacy. Likewise, he appeared to be trying to teach Cade a valuable lesson by evoking his harsher persona as Vader, but has less success then he does here.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Going to help Ahsoka but having no evidence to show for the Imperial Remnant or Thrawn's return convinces the Senate committee to consider firing Hera from her rank as general.
- Not Now, Kiddo: Jacen tries to alert Hera that he senses something about the water. Hera initially brushes Jacen off due to discussing matters with Carson, but as the things he mentions start becoming more and more supernatural, she increasingly begins to listen to him.
- Oh, Crap!: Carson is disturbed to hear the Senate is debating removing Hera from command, but he's still with her.
- Out of Focus: Having shared screen time with Ahsoka prior to this episode, Sabine is completely absent, only being mentioned in regards to finding her. This is in part because she's now Morgan and Baylan's prisoner, and the episode is heavily focused on Ahsoka coming to terms with her past. Baylan, Shin, and Morgan are also absent from this episode, though Ahsoka's Force echo of the map includes Sabine and Baylan's conversation from the previous episode, which is enough to get Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Ray Stevenson a credit.
- Posthumous Character:
- Anakin himself has been dead for five years, but his spirit meets Ahsoka in the World Between Worlds to teach his old Padawan learner one last lesson.
- Obi-Wan, though he doesn't appear, is mentioned twice by Anakin, who uses his former master (and Obi-Wan's own mentor, Qui-Gon Jinn) as an example of his and Ahsoka's lineage.
- Protection in Mouth: Needing a way to follow Sabine but lacking a ship powerful enough to do so, Ahsoka locates a purgill large enough to comfortably fit her ship in its mouth, then convinces it to give them a lift, knowing the purgill do have the power to cross galaxies. It obliges.
- Psychometry: Ahsoka is able to discern what happened after being pushed off the cliff by reading Sabine's psychic imprint on the destroyed map sphere.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- Captain Girard, while tasked with bringing Hera in for disobeying orders, hears out Carson completely despite threatening to remove his rank if he did not stand down. Not only does she believe him, but listens to Hera when warned to evade the Purrgil pod, making her the most tolerable New Republic Officer as of now.
- Leia is using whatever pull she has as a senator to help cover for Hera offscreen, since she has been wary of the potential return of the Empire from the get-go.
- Reformed, but Not Tamed: Anakin shows shades of this from beyond the grave. While he redeemed himself and returned to the Light Side as a Force Ghost, his spirit is still willing to deliberately evoke the ruthlessness of his time as Vader in his lesson to Ahsoka.
- Refuge in Audacity: Carson is forced to tell the fleet Ahsoka's plan to buy them some time, admitting they'll think it's crazy but having no other choice.
- Sheathe Your Sword: Ahsoka disarms Vader and holds his lightsaber to his throat, but then shuts it off and chucks it off the platform, telling him she chooses to live. He simply smiles and reverts back to the uncorrupted Anakin, demonstrating that she has passed the test.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Ahsoka’s visions of the Clone Wars show how much she still regrets all the clones and friends who lost their lives in the conflict, particularly under her command.
- Shout-Out:
- Befitting the title of the episode, Ahsoka's flashbacks to the Clone Wars are an explosion of color tinged with a pinkish filter, similar to the nightmarish vision of the titular Kagemusha being haunted by the ghost of the warlord he's impersonating, Takeda Shingen.
- Ahsoka's initial confidence after hitting Anakin was undercut by Anakin slashing the ground between them, throwing Ahsoka down into her first flashback to the Clone Wars. A similar maneuver was used by Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jinn) as Henri Ducard/Ra's al Ghul as he was training Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins—cracking the frozen water they were fighting on just as Bruce has seemingly cornered him.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: After being rescued and getting an idea of how to follow Sabine and the Imperial Remnant, Ahsoka puts on a white robe and changes the clothes underneath to white. As she had spent so much time lost in one way or another, Ahsoka has finally been purified in demeanor and ideology. It's also reminiscent of the robe she wore in the epilogue scene in Rebels, before it was retconned in this show.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: Anakin vows to teach Ahsoka her final lesson via combat and it only escalates from there.
- Something Only They Would Say: The switch between Anakin and Vader's personas is defined almost immediately in his tone, vocabulary, and body language changes.Anakin Skywalker: Back to the beginning. I gave you a choice. Live...
Darth Vader: ...or die.
Ahsoka: No.
Darth Vader: Incorrect. - So Proud of You:
- After Jacen has alerted Hera about something in the water and she connects with him to hear the sound of lightsabers, she starts to organize the search party, but makes sure to let Jacen know he did a good job.
- After Ahsoka passes his test, Anakin expresses his pride in his former apprentice, saying there might be hope for her yet.
- Space Whale: The Purgill are depicted even more whale-like here, as the one Ahsoka convinces to give them a lift has bony plates in its mouth like a baleen whale.
- Spirit Advisor: Anakin serves as this to Ahsoka now that he's long dead but has Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence.
- Stop Motion Lighting: A quite effective one during the Clone Wars sequence. After Anakin and his clone squadron disappear into the mist, a distant explosion briefly illuminates Anakin's silhouette. Then another explosion happens and Vader's silhouette appears where Anakin's had been, complete with red lightsaber. Then a third explosion happens and reveals Anakin again.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes:
- As Vader, Anakin's eyes turn yellow, and his skin takes on an unnatural pallor.
- Very briefly at the end of the duel with Anakin, Ahsoka's eyes turn yellow signifying her coming close to crossing over to the dark side, but she quickly pulls away.
- Superpowerful Genetics: The episode confirms that Jacen is Force-sensitive like his father before him.
- Sword Plant: Anakin slashes at the walkway beneath Ahsoka's feet, shattering it and causing her to fall into a flashback, an early mission in the Clone Wars.
- Symbolic Hero Rebirth: After losing her duel against Baylan and being thrown off a cliff, Ahsoka should be dead — except she ends up in the World Between Worlds with Anakin, who teaches her how to be a Jedi and not just a soldier. Being essentially reborn as a Jedi, she's then fished out of the water and clad in a white garment, making this a Symbolic Baptism (a common form of spiritual rebirth) as well.
- Take a Third Option: Ironic, considering it's coming from Anakin, but he rejects Ahsoka's rejection of his Armor-Piercing Question.Anakin: Live or die?
Ahsoka: No.
Vader: Incorrect. - Tempting Fate: After getting the better of Anakin in their initial duel, Ahsoka smugly remarks that Anakin doesn't have much left to teach her. He responds by shattering the floor beneath her, sending Ahsoka into her first flashback vision, one of their earliest missions on the battle of Ryloth.
- Time-Shifted Actor: During the flashback visions, young Ahsoka is played by Ariana Greenblatt instead of Rosario Dawson.
- Understatement: Huyang describes Ahsoka's master (Anakin) to Hera as "Intense". That's certainly one way to put it...
- Vader Breath: Heard throughout several points as Anakin's appearance flashes to Vader's.
- War Is Hell: Ahsoka and Anakin make it plain just how awful the Clone Wars were for them.
- Warrior Therapist: Anakin is this to Ahsoka, confronting her with her paralyzing grief and guilt which is preventing her from fully connecting with those she loves, and with the Force itself. By casting her back into violent battles in the Clone Wars, and striking at her as Vader, he forces her to find her power and balance and reconnect to the Force. Now fully trained, she can't quit the fight, the consequences for her and for the galaxy at large would be catastrophic. But she doesn't have to be defined by war and violence, she is more than that. When she returns from her apparent trip through the World Between Worlds, out of the water, she is serene and smiling. Ahsoka robes herself in white rather than dark grey and trusts the Purgill, and implicitly, the Force, to take her and Huyang where they need to go.
- The Watson: Carson provides a way for viewers who didn't watch Rebels to learn about Jacen's heritage when Huyang has to explain that Jacen is Force-sensitive due to Kanan Jarrus being his father.
- Wham Shot: After being sent tumbling by Anakin, Ahsoka picks herself up on sandy ground. She is shrouded in mist, making her hard to see clearly. Then a Clone trooper runs by... Then another, and another. And even more. Then Anakin rushes right by her, calling for her to keep up. Ahsoka runs forward, where we can clearly see her, and she's suddenly decades younger.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ahsoka chastises Anakin for turning out to be more dangerous than anybody believed.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Ahsoka laments that her legacy seems to be nothing but war and violence, Anakin tries to reassure her that she is more than that, just as he is (a sign that, in death, he has at least partly forgiven himself for what he did as Vader). Ahsoka responds with a reminder that Anakin was far more dangerous than she or anyone realized, and it's only after a duel with Anakin-as-Vader that Ahsoka accepts her master's wisdom and chooses to live, internalizing that she is defined by more than just the Clone Wars, just as he was.
