Star Wars Rebels S2E9 The Future of the Force Review/Recap (Spoilers!): Ahsoka > Inquisitors

The Future of the Force was an interesting and exciting episode of Star Wars Rebels. New storylines opened up and we were treated to a great fight between Ahsoka and the Inquisitors. The amount of content this episode packed into a half hour was impressive. There was not much, if any, wasted time in the episode with every scene or occurrence having an overall impact.

The best part of the episode was the ending. Ahsoka showed up at the right time to deal with both Inquisitors, and she handled them with ease. The wink she gave Ezra before taking them on was perfect. It shows she still is the cocky Padawan who was trained by Anakin in the Clone Wars. She still enjoys a good fight, and it looks like she stayed in practice. The scene played out in the perfect way, though I wonder what would have happened if the Stormtroopers wouldn’t have shown up. Would Ahsoka take the two Inquisitors captive? I’m not sure how that would have played out. The more logical story decision was made for backup to arrive and Ahsoka to escape with everyone else.

What makes for a new interesting storyline are the force sensitive children. It’s not something which has been addressed in any of the new Star Wars cannon. What is happening to all the force sensitive people during this time period? Are they all being hunted down by Inquisitors? Does the Emperor have a way of locating them? Why wasn’t Luke located if this was the case? I enjoy when new story elements open up more story possibilities. The introduction of the Empire hunting down force sensitive individuals opens up numerous other storylines for the show to explore, along with other mediums. The end of the episode was interesting with Kanan making the statement that it is the teams job to protect the force sensitive children, since the Jedi are gone.

This could become Ahsoka primary mission in the show. She will start searching for force sensitive children and establishing a place to protect them. This would allow her to still pop in and out of episodes. I still think all signs point to Ahsoka having a confrontation with Darth Vader at some point during this season. We know how that will likely end. It could become a short story arc for the crew to go hunting for children as well, but it can’t be the main focus of the show. I’m not sure how they will proceed, but we know the Inquisitors will be planning a visit with information picked up by the probe droid.

The probe droid usage was a good callback to the previous time we met the 7^th sister. We saw her use them before, and her deploying one in front of the apartment was good storytelling. How likely would it be for Ezra to drop that little nugget of information at exactly the right time? It is a stretch, but it works for the show. The luck for the crew of the Spector may be running out. Dark times have been looming, and this may be the start of the challenges that lay ahead. This leads to my only real issue with episode tonight. It never felt like the team was in any true danger.

Going through the episode and with each encounter with the Inquisitors I never felt like there was any danger for Ezra, Zeb and Kanan. I knew they were going to get out of the episode and everything would be fine. They would save the children and Ahsoka would help. For a Disney animated show this makes perfect sense. However we have been teased with bad things are on the way for our crew, but they haven’t shown up yet. I haven’t felt any looming danger for the crew since the first episode with the 7^th sister. This is probably going to change, but everyone in the show is too comfortable working against Imperial forces. They are not all stumbling buffoons. It’s time to feel the menacing hand of the Emperor.

The episode was fun and entertaining, but in the end I was left wanting just a bit more out of it. I wanted the Inquisitors to be more of a threat to Ezra and Kanan. It was great to see Ahsoka in action and for a new story element to be introduced. It will be interesting to see where they take the force children and how they will protect them. It was an overall solid effort, but not quite as good as lasts week’s installment.

What did you think of tonight’s episode? Favorite part? I know they are limited with the show being aimed at a younger audience, but do you think a darker tone in the story is needed in the show like I do? Comment and let me know.