This article contains spoilers for Ahsoka episode four
Ahsoka episode four is here, and as they say, we finally got to the fireworks factory! Crammed into this installment were a whole bunch of cool action sequences, the plot moved forward in a substantial way, and it looks like next week’s adventure will show us what lies beyond the limits of the galaxy as we know it.
The episode also didn’t skimp on lightsaber action. We got Ahsoka vs. droids, Ahsoka vs. Marrok, Sabine vs. Shin, and Ahsoka vs. Baylan. These days, the novelty of a lightsaber duel has worn off due to overexposure, but the combat in Ahsoka still manages to be refreshing.
Why? Well, as opposed to the acrobatic and superhuman swordplay of the prequels, Ahsoka is clearly emulating the more grounded and slower-paced lightsaber duels seen in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Those took their cues from classic samurai movies, where one wrong move would result in death.
We got an extremely Kurosawa-esque finale for Marrok (albeit with smoke instead of blood), with Baylan and Ahsoka’s battle made more interesting by her trying out various Kendo stances on his powerful and direct strength-based style.
It’s worth mentioning that Star Wars has been heading this way for a while. The sequel trilogy dialed things back a little from the flippy, twirly prequel fights, though that could be explained away by Kylo Ren and Rey having little practical experience against lightsaber-wielding opponents. A similar case could be made for Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s duels being between two men long past their prime.
But age doesn’t seem to have slowed Ahsoka Tano down one bit, so we’re confident that the Star Wars fight choreographers have realized that George Lucas hit the nail on the head with how lightsaber combat looked in the original trilogy and have decided to slow down, crank up the tension, and remind us just how deadly these weapons are.