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Chapter 19: The Convert

By theLogBook.com
March 15, 2023

As they leave Mandalore in Bo-Katan’s ship, Bo-Katan and the Mandalorian are attacked by a squadron of TIE interceptors. Once the Mandalorian uses his jetpack to bail out of the ship and retrieve his starfighter, he’s able to offer backup, but another waves of fighters arrives, bombs Bo-Katan’s sanctuary, leaving the two Mandalorians without a home base. There’s only one place to which they can run: to rejoin the Mandalorian covert.

On Coruscant, former Imperial geneticist Dr. Pershing has become the very model of a reformed Imperial citizen of the New Republic. After an evening of being in the public spotlight as a promising specimen of the amnesty program, he returns to the amnesty housing building, where rehibilitated former Imperials are retrained for life in the Republic. He’s surprised to see a familiar face from Moff Gideon’s ship – Elia Kane, Gideon’s former communications officer – and over time, she drops hints that Pershing could continue his cloning research in private, even if the Republic forbids him from doing so as his full-time occupation. All he has to do is follow her lead and break some rules, with a very real risk of being caught and forced back into rehabilitation. Kane seems to be very comfortable breaking the New Republic’s rules, but Pershing is still arrested. But will he be punished for defying the rules of the New Republic, or those of the Empire?

written by Noah Kloor & Jon Favreau
directed by Lee Isaac Chung
music by Joseph Shirley

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan Kryze), Omid Abtahi (Dr. Pershing), Katy M. O’Brian (Elia Kane), Emily Swallow (The Armorer), Brendan Wayne (Mandalorian Warrior), Lateef Crowder (Mandalorian Warrior), Valarie Pettiford (Aristocrat 1), Stephen Keearin (Aristocrat 2), Norwood Cheek (Aristocrat 3), Veanne Cox (Aristocrat 4), Dylan Firshein (Taxi Droid), Matthew Bellows (Amnesty Office M40), James Chen (Amnesty Officer G27), Max Fowler (Amnesty Officer M34), Danny Jabobs (Lab Tech), Regina Hermosillo (Parole Droid), John Ott (Technician), Sunkrish Bala (Amnesty Affairs Commissioner), Tait Fletcher (Paz Vizsla), Arden Briar Voyles (Rodian Child performance artist)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Mandalorian, The Season 3

Chapter 20: The Foundling

By theLogBook.com
March 22, 2023

The training of foundlings and adult warriors alike continues in the Mandalorian covert, and this includes Grogu, who bests Paz Vizsla’s son Ragnar in dart training. Ragnar wanders off from the others in embarrassment, only to find a large flying creature bearing down on him. It picks him up and carries him away, followed by Vizsla and other with their jetpacks; they exhaust their fuel trying to chase the creature and rescue the boy. Bo-Katan has a different idea, following the creature in her ship and mapping the way back to its nest. She, Vizsla, the Mandalorian and others mount an attempt to rescue the boy before he becomes the creature’s next meal. Grogu is left in the care of the Armorer, and suddenly remembers how he escaped the Jedi purge: a Jedi named Kelleran Beq saved him and, in a ship from Naboo, got Grogu away from Coruscant.

written by Jon Favreau & Dave Filoni
directed by Carl Weathers
music by Joseph Shirley

Cast: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian), Katee Sackhoff (Bo-Katan Kryze), Emily Swallow (The Armorer), Ahmed Best (Kelleran Beq), Brendan Wayne (Mandalorian Warrior), Lateef Crowder (Mandalorian Warrior), Wesley Kimmel (Ragnar), Jason Chu (Mandalorian Judge), Tait Fletcher (Paz Vizsla), Temuera Morrison (Clone Troopers), Juan Javier Cardenas (Senate Guard Captain)

Notes: Kelleran Beq was introduced in the short-lived Star Wars-themed game show Star Wars: Jedi Challenge, which premiered on YouTube in 2020. In that respect, Beq bearing resposibility for the safety of younglings does match up with what had been seen in that show, though whether this makes the game show canonical is left open. As in Jedi Challenge, the role of Kelleran Beq is played by actor Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar Binks in the prequel trilogy.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Ahsoka Season 1 Star Wars

Master And Apprentice

By theLogBook.com
August 22, 2023

Recently apprehended Imperial sympathizer (and ally of the missing Grand Admiral Thrawn), Morgan Elsbeth, is being transported back to the New Republic for trial. Unexpectedly, a shuttle of former Imperial design drops out of hyperspace. Its occupants identify themselves as Jedi and claim they are here to see the prisoner. The captain of the New Republic transport, skeptical, welcomes the “Jedi” aboard with a full security contingent. While his two visitors prove not to be Jedi, they are still well versed in the ways of the Force; they draw lightsabers, kill the captain, and make quick work of his security detail. They eventually accomplish their goal: freeing Morgan Elsbeth and escaping.

The former Jedi apprentice who captured Elsbeth in the first place, Ahsoka Tano, investigates the ruins of a temple, following up on information Elsbeth gave her under interrogation. She cautiously activates a series of puzzle-like pedestals until she finds what she has been looking for: a star map that will supposedly lead her to the whereabouts of exile Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn. Though most in the New Republic believe Thrawn fell in the final battle to free Lothal, Ahsoka has run across rumors that he still lives and may be trying to rebuild his power base, and ultimately reconstitute the Empire. Ahsoka’s rendezvous with the Republic cruiser reunited her with General Hera Syndulla. When told that the map has been found, Hera’s thoughts turn immeidately to finding their lost comrade, Jedi apprentice Ezra Bridger. She also recommends that Ahsoka find Sabine Wren, another former Rebel, because she’ll need backup if she’s now hunting down Thrawn, Elsbeth, and two Force-wielders trained in the use of the dark side. But Sabine doesn’t want to be found. She has set up shop in Ezra’s abandoned home in a communication tower on Lothal, having begun training in the ways of the Jedi under Ahsoka, but never finished that training. Ahsoka needs Sabine’s more artistic eye to help decode the locked map to Thrawn, and against Ahsoka’s express instructions, Sabine takes the map and returns home with it. This leaves her without protection when Elsbeth’s Force-wielding enforcers track her down.

written by Dave Filoni
directed by Dave Filoni
music by Kevin Kiner
additional music by Sean Kiner, Deana Kiner, and David G. Russell
“Igyah Kah” written by Kevin Kiner, Ludwig Goransson, Deana Kiner and Noah Gorelick / vocals by Sarah Tudzin

Cast: Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka Tano), Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine Wren), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (General Hera Syndulla), Ray Stevenson (Baylan Skoll), Ivanna Sakhno (Shin Hati), Diana Lee Inosanto (Morgan Elsbeth), David Tennant (Huyang), Eman Esfandi (Ezra Bridger), Mark Rolston (Captain Hayle), Shakira Barbera (First Office Jensen Corbyt), Clancy Brown (Governor Ryder Azadi), Matt Law (Captain Porter), Bonnie Wild (Navigator Droid), Kat Kuei Chen (Helm Officer), P.J. Johal (Comms Officer), Helen Sadler (HK Assassin Droid Leader), David W. Collins (Home One Comms Officer), Vinny Thomas (Senator Jai Kell), Michele Weaver (Lieutenant Callahan), Chris Bartlett (Navigator Droid performance artist), Paul Darnell (Marrok performance artist), Barry Lowin (Home One comms officer performance artist), Nicole Botelho (Home One power droid performance artist), Leeanna Vamp (Lothal Protocol Droid performance artist), Terri Douglas (additional voices), Robin Atkin Downes (additional voices), Michael Ralph (additional voices), Sam Witwer (additional voices), Matthew Wood (additional voices), Shelby Young (additional voices)

Notes: Perhaps more than any other live-action Star Wars series to date, Ahsoka is steeped in lore from The Clone Wars and especially Rebels, and effectively serves as the fifth season of the latter series, picking up many of its loose ends, and as with the final season of Rebels, Ahsoka also inherits the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn, originally created by author Timothy Zahn in the early ’90s trilogy of post-original-trilogy novels still held dear by many Star Wars fans of a certain age. Ahsoka’s apprehension of Morgan Elsbeth and her quest to find Grand Admiral Thrawn were first seen in The Mandalorian (The Jedi, 2020), as was Ahsoka’s reluctance to take on an apprentice of her own. Returning actors from the various animated series include David Tennant, who voiced Huyang in the fifth season of The Clone Wars, and Clancy Brown, now playing his Rebels character of Governor Ryder Azadi in live action. Lars Mikkelsen, who voiced Thrawn in Rebels, plays that character in live action here as well, though he does not appear in the first episode. There are also some familiar names credited as “additional voices”.

Irish-born actor Ray Stevenson, who plays Baylan Skoll, died in 2023 prior to the premiere of the series; the episode is dedicated to his memory.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Ahsoka Season 1 Star Wars

Toil And Trouble

By theLogBook.com
August 22, 2023

As Sabine recovers from her near-fatal encounter with Shin Hati, Ahsoka does very little to conceal her disappointment that Sabine allowed the map to fall into Elsbeth’s hands. She returns to Sabine’s home in the communications tower and, as expected, one of the assassin droids that tried to kill Sabine has stayed behind to kill whoever shows up there. Ahsoka destroys it, delivering its intact head to Sabine, who is able to find out that it came from Corellia – now serving as the hub of shipbuilding activity in the New Republic. Ahsoka meets Hera there to conduct an investigation of the shipbuilding operation formerly owned by Morgan Elsbeth, where they see an enormous hyperdrive under construction, far larger than any current ship design used by the Republic. The Imperial sympathizers within the operation quickly break their cover and attempt to kill Hera and Ahsoka, but fail miserably. Ahsoka faces off against a lightsaber-wielding opponent while Hera, in the Phantom, follows the transport moving the hyperdrive engine to an unknown location. Hera’s capable but cantankerous astromech droid, Chopper, manages to plant a homing device on the transport before it escapes; Ahsoka’s assailants also escape, having intended only to distract her. In the Seaton system, Morgan Elsbeth awaits the arrival of the hyperdrive as she prepares to launch a gigantic ship that will help her retrieve Thrawn, who the map has revealed is in another galaxy. On Lothal, fully recovered, Sabine once again dons her Mandalorian armor and her lightsaber, ready to resume her training.

written by Dave Filoni
directed by Steph Green
music by Kevin Kiner
additional music by Sean Kiner, Deana Kiner, and David G. Russell

Cast: Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka Tano), Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine Wren), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (General Hera Syndulla), Ray Stevenson (Baylan Skoll), Ivanna Sakhno (Shin Hati), Diana Lee Inosanto (Morgan Elsbeth), David Tennant (Huyang), Eman Esfandi (Ezra Bridger), Peter Jacobson (Myn Weaver), Shelby Young (C1-D1), Kelly Phelan (Command Crew #1), Chris Bartlett (C1-D1 performance artist), Leeanna Vamp (Corellia Protocol Droid performance artist), Paul Darnell (Marrok performance artist), Daniel Bohman (Protocol Droid performance artist), Justin Sonfield (Protocol Droid performance artist), David W. Collins (additional voices), Terri Douglas (additional voices), Robin Atkin Downes (additional voices), Michael Ralph (additional voices), Sam Witwer (additional voices), Matthew Wood (additional voices)

Notes: Much like Coruscant, Corellia – not seen since Solo – seems to have a problem with Imperial sympathizers operating within the New Republic. This is not the first time Chopper has been seen in live action Star Wars; he also made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in Rogue One (2016).