Balance is found in the one who faces his guilt.
A mysterious force draws Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano to a distant planet and its inhabitants — a family of exceptionally powerful Force-wielders — in an attempt to determine whether Anakin is truly the Chosen One. The patriarch of this family, known only as the Father, has spent ages maintaining the balance between his Daughter, who is strong with the Light Side of the Force, and his Son, who aligns with the Dark Side. The Father reveals his days are numbered and he seeks Anakin to take his place as the fulcrum of this balance. A series of tests proves that Anakin is capable of controlling both offspring, as the Father does, but he refuses to take the Father's place.
Tropes:
- Above Good and Evil: The Father is a benevolent individual, but he exists to keep balance between the Light and Dark sides of the Force. He wants Anakin to assume the same role.Anakin: You're a Sith Lord!
The Father: You have a very narrow view of the universe. I am neither Sith nor Jedi. I am much more. And so are you. - All There in the Manual: Mortis is never referred to by name by any of the characters. However, it is named by the narrator in the following two episodes.
- Anthropomorphic Personification:
- The Daughter serves the role as this for the Light Side of the Force.
- The Father serves the role as this for the Balance of the Force.
- The Son serves the role as this for the Dark Side of the Force.
- Badass Family: The Force-wielders. Not surprising, given that they're Physical Gods.
- Badass in Distress: Obi-Wan and Ahsoka are captured and threatened to be killed by the Daughter and the Son respectively. Justified, as their captors are Physical Gods.
- Balance Between Good and Evil: The Father's role is to preserve the balance between the two sides of the Force. According to him, either side gaining an advantage would be catastrophic.
- Bald of Evil: The Son is bald and a personification of the Dark Side.
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: The Father uses it on Anakin's lightsaber, even physically pushing the blade back into the hilt.
- Bizarro Episode: Acknowledged In-Universe, by Ahsoka lampshading the weirdness they witness:
- When they witness the Son transforming into his Gargoyle form for the first time she asks "What in the Universe was that?" in a bewildered tone.
- The following morning, as she and Obi-Wan are searching for Anakin, they witness the flora renewing itself with the rise of the sun, and she remarks that "The longer we stay here, the stranger this place gets."
- Call-Back:
- Qui-Gon refers back to his dying wish in The Phantom Menace, that Obi-Wan train Anakin as a Jedi.
- Anakin speaks about the Tusken massacre that he committed back in Attack of the Clones.
- Call-Forward:
- When the Son appears in the guise of Anakin's mother and gets him to confess his secret guilt.Anakin: The only love I feel in my heart is haunted by what would happen, should I let go?
- Ahsoka's vision of a future self warns her of the darkness within Anakin and claims that she will never see her future if she remains his apprentice.
- When the Son appears in the guise of Anakin's mother and gets him to confess his secret guilt.
- Captain Obvious: Upon returning to the clearing to find the ship has vanished, Ahsoka points out that "The ship's gone!" Obi-Wan snarkily retorts "Yes, I see that."
- The Chosen One: The entire episode is about the Father wanting to find out whether Anakin is indeed the Chosen One.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Anakin vs. the Daughter and the Son simultaneously.
- Curtains Match the Window: The Daughter has green eyes and green hair.
- Deadpan Snarker: The Father, interestingly enough, demonstrates this while being completely unfazed with Anakin holding a lightsaber to his face.The Father: Cannot sleep?
- Dead Person Impersonation: The Son tries to manipulate Anakin under the guise of being his mother. Though Anakin does confess some of his personal guilt to him, he correctly suspects that it's a trick from the start, forcing the Son to abandon this plan.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: A human Jedi manages to tame the Daughter and the Son, the god-like embodiments of the Light and Dark Sides of the Force, simultaneously.
- Distress Call: The Force-wielders send one using a Jedi code over 2,000 years old to get Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka out to their location.
- Dramatic Wind: The first thing that happens when Anakin draws on the Force to defeat the Daughter and the Son is a gust of wind erupting from him.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Ahsoka has a vision about her future self warning her about the darkness within Anakin, and about the darkness he's planting in her.
- Eldritch Location: Mortis, as an intersection of the Force, is a very strange planet, with the plants dying every night and renewing themselves every morning, the hovering rocks, and the implication that it's only accessible to Force-users. The shuttle's sensors can't even tell if Mortis is located in the same galaxy they were in before they landed.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Confronted by the Force-wielders' unusual powers and unclear alliegances, Obi-Wan and Anakin accuse the Son and the Father respectively of being Sith Lords.
- Exotic Eye Designs:
- The Son has black sclera and irises and glowing red pupils.
- The Father has black sclera with green irises.
- Fanservice Pack: The future vision of Ahsoka shows her quite "grown-up" as well.
- Foreshadowing:
- Ahsoka's vision of a future version of herself has this warning for her:"Be warned! You will never see your future if you remain his student!"
- Both the Daughter (who asks Anakin himself) and the Son (who asks Obi-Wan) ask if Anakin truly is the Chosen One, indirectly revealing the very reason they were brought to Mortis. The Son's interest also foreshadows his plans in he rest of the arc.
- Ahsoka's vision of a future version of herself has this warning for her:
- Futureshadowing:
- Gold and White Are Divine: The Daughter's outfit is white with gold neck and shoulder parts, and she is the embodiment of the Light Side of the Force.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Son has glowing red eyes.
- Holy Backlight: While Anakin tames the Son and the Daughter, the sky over Mortis darkenes and the symbols decorating the temple all start glowing. Anakin stands in the center of the glow and the Yin-Yang symbol.
- Kneel Before Zod: Anakin forces the Son and the Daughter to kneel before him after summoning the power to subdue them.
- Knight, Knave, and Squire: Two of them, the Force wielders and the usual Obi-Wan-Anakin-Ahsoka team.
- Leitmotif: Qui-Gon's appearance is accompanied by a slow rendition of music that debuted back in The Phantom Menace. Obi-Wan's subsequent discussion of Anakin's abilities and training is accompanied by the Force theme, made famous by the binary sunset in A New Hope.
- Irony: Despite Qui-Gon's belief, which inspired the Jedi Council to think the same, Anakin himself considers the prophecy of the Chosen One to be a myth. His experiences during this episode and the next two likely change his mind.
- Looks Like Jesus: Qui-Gon's Force spirit.
- Morphic Resonance: The Daughter's griffin form and the Son's gargoyle form both have the same colouring as their normal forms.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: The Daughter's outfit is cut in the middle right down to her stomach.
- Non-Answer:
- Asked who she is, the Daughter replies (referring to her brother and father as well) "we are the ones who guard the power; we are the beginning, the middle, and the end", an esoteric and technically true answer, but a very confusing one that provides no real information.
- The Son responds to Obi-Wan accusing him of being a Sith by saying "Yes... and no".
- Obviously Evil: Bald of Evil, Glowing Eyes of Doom, Red and Black and Evil All Over, transforms into a gargoyle. Yeah, Brother/Son is definitely trustworthy.
- Oh, Crap!: Anakin is visibly shocked when the Father casually grabs the blade of his lightsaber.
- Oh, My Gods!: Upon witnessing the Son changing into a gargoyle and flying away, Ahsoka utters the somewhat-clunky "What in the Universe was that?"
- One-Word Title: "Overlords".
- Our Gargoyles Rock: The Son can transform into a Gargoyle.
- Our Gryphons Are Different: The Daughter can transform into a Gryphon.
- Phosphor-Essence: The Daughter is visibly glowing.
- Physical God: The Force wielders. It is implied that Anakin could become one if he stays on Mortis.
- Place of Power: Mortis is an intersection of the Force.
- Posthumous Character: Qui-Gon Jinn appears as a Force spirit to Obi-Wan and the Son appears in the guise of Shmi Skywalker to Anakin. Both Liam Neeson and Pernilla August reprise their roles.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: The Son.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Son has red eyes and is the personification of the Dark Side.
- Refusal of the Call: Anakin turns down the Father's request to stay on Mortis and keep the Daughter and the Son in balance. This comes back to bite Anakin in the following two episodes.
- Sadistic Choice: The Father orders his children to kill Obi-Wan and Ahsoka and tells Anakin to choose which of them to save. However, the entire point of the test is to see if Anakin has what it takes to Take a Third Option.
- Secret Test of Character: The Father tells Anakin that he's ordered his children to kill Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, forcing Anakin to choose which of them he can save. This, however, is only a trick, meant to force Anakin to show that he has the power to control both the Son and the Daughter, thus proving that he is the Chosen One and capable of replacing the Father.
- Shout-Out:
- Mortis' levitating rocks make it look suspiciously similar to Pandora.
- Ahsoka's future self speaking with her in a dream about the darkness in Anakin sounds like Bane's dreams of him being tormented by bats, ie, the Batman. For bonus points, both future selves of Bane and Ahsoka tell them that their futures can be won if they managed to conquer their fears.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Literally, with the Daughter being the Light Side's manifestation and the Son being the Dark Side's.
- Sinister Geometry: A giant octahedron that appears in front of Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka's shuttle and twists apart to reveal a blinding white light into which their shuttle is pulled.
- Technicolor Eyes: The Father has green irises with black sclera.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Ahsoka's vision of her older self implies that Anakin may be inadvertently passing along some of his darker qualities to his apprentice.
- Tranquil Fury:Anakin: [drawing on the amplified power of the Force] You will let them go! ... Down! On! Your! Knees!
- Ungrateful Bitch: After Anakin pushes her out of the way of a rockslide, the Daughter responds by sharply rebuking him for touching her.
- Vader Breath: A single one appropriately appears when Anakin tames the Son, doubling as a Call-Forward to his future as Darth Vader.
- Voice of the Legion: The Force wielders and Anakin while taming the Son and the Daughter.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Daughter and the Son are able to transform into a griffin and bat respectively.
- What Are You: Anakin demands to know what the being impersonating his mother truly is. The Son replies "your fate!".
- World-Healing Wave/World-Wrecking Wave: They come hand in hand, as part of the balance symbolism: when night falls all plants die and are reduced into ghastly glowing forms, and massive thunderstorms begin; when dawn approaches all plant life is renewed.
