The Disney+ series "Ahsoka" has kicked off with a double-lightsaber strike of episodes
full of plot developments and nods to "Star Wars" lore.
Here's all the big stuff, and some of the little stuff, too.
The last viewers saw of Ahsoka and Sabine together was in the finale of "Star Wars Rebels."
Ezra stayed aboard Thrawn's ship to ensure he was defeated once and for all as they disappeared.
This allows the rebel forces to destroy the command center and carve out a victory, but
Ezra is still lost in the wind.
The ending sees Sabine and Ahsoka joining forces to look for Ezra, despite how much
of a long shot that is.
While it's a hopeful conclusion, their relationship clearly turned sour between "Rebels" and "Ahsoka."
After consulting with Hera, Ahsoka visits Sabine, thinking her "artist's eye" could
help her figure out how to access the map she secured at the beginning of the episode.
Sabine is intrigued, but doesn't want to spend too much time around Ahsoka.
So she steals the map and goes back to her hideout to work on it.
The only problem is that Morgan Elsbeth instructs Shin Hati, the apprentice of Baylan Skoll,
to travel to Lothal to get the map Ahsoka took.
Sabine's lightsaber skills are rusty, and Shin is far too powerful.
Not only does Shin manage to get the map from her, she deals a nasty blow to Sabine's stomach,
severely wounding her.
Luckily, Sabine survives the attack and recovers in a medical center.
Sabine manages to figure out that the map depicts a pathway between two points, but
she doesn't get a good look at what those two points are before Shin attacks.
More information comes to light when Shin, Baylan, and Morgan Elsbeth visit a site designed
by "an ancient people from a distant galaxy."
They look at an enlarged version of the map that Sabine saw.
A pathway connects one galaxy to another, and the destination is Grand Admiral Thrawn's
whereabouts.
Thrawn's return has long been teased.
He didn't exactly die at the end of "Rebels," and he's been brought up a couple of times
in "The Mandalorian."
Ahsoka seeks information about him in "Chapter 13: The Jedi," and his name comes up again
in "Chapter 23: The Spies," when Moff Gideon meets with the Shadow Council.
"Grand Admiral Thrawn's return will herald in the re-emergence of our military!"
Thrawn's return to the galaxy has been heavily sought, with the word "war" coming up repeatedly
throughout the first two episodes of "Ahsoka."
Remnants of the Empire remain, and this will surely play a role in the eventual revival
of Emperor Palpatine and the rise of the First Order.
But what role will Thrawn play in all of this?
That remains to be seen, as Baylan mentions the path forward is clouded.
It'll take more work for anyone to travel to Thrawn and Ezra's coordinates, and Ahsoka
is hot on their trail.
Despite losing the map, Ahsoka isn't going down without a fight.
While Sabine recovers, Ahsoka and Hera travel to Corellia, where one of the droids came
from.
Fans likely recall Corellia is the home planet of Han Solo.
It's a shipyard for the New Republic after the fall of the Empire, which makes the presence
of such a droid suspect.
All Imperial technology should have been dismantled, but the Rebellion didn't succeed in wiping
out the Empire completely.
Ahsoka and Hera get a good deal of dubious information from Min Weaver who discusses
how Imperial assets were taken in by the Republic and those who worked for the Empire now work
for them.
This clearly doesn't sit well with Ahsoka and Hera, as they question former Imperials'
loyalty.
Their suspicions are confirmed when they're attacked while trying to prevent a transport
carrying an HK-class droid from departing.
The ship gets away, but not before Hera and Chopper manage to get a tracking device on
it.
The sequel trilogy establishes the First Order as a new threat, and the second episode of
Ahsoka provides a trail of crumbs showing how these nefarious forces were able to regain
power so quickly.
Their loyalty doesn't merely extend to whoever's paying them.
Numerous people work behind the scenes to circumvent the New Republic.
"It's not loyalty; it's greed."
The New Republic assuming former Imperials would fall into line will prove to be its
undoing.
The machinations that will allow Morgan Elsbeth to reach Thrawn are already underway, and
when she checks in with Baylan and Shin, she reveals how the installation of the final
hyperdrive is currently in the works.
Once it's complete, the Eye of Scion will allow Morgan and the other antagonists to
reach Thrawn.
This ties into the scenes on Corellia.
While the Republic wanted to use Imperial technology for its own uses, the fact people
still loyal to the Empire continued to work on it meant Morgan could still acquire what
she needed.
Fortunately, Ahsoka and her team aren't giving up that easily.
Huyang informs them how the ship that had a tracker placed on it ended up in the Denab
system.
That ship was carrying a hyperdrive core, which is likely what Morgan needed to finish
her ship.
The bad guys may have what they need to reach their goals, but a reunited Ahsoka and Sabine
are on the way.
Throughout the first two episodes of "Ahsoka," there's animosity between Ahsoka and Sabine,
but Sabine appears to let go of the past to move forward and try to rescue Ezra.
At the end of Episode 2, Sabine cuts off her hair, puts on her Mandalorian armor, and joins
Ahsoka in her quest to the Denab system.
Ahsoka even refers to Sabine as "Padawan," the Jedi term for an apprentice.
Sabine is well-acquainted with Padawans.
Ezra studied under Kanan Jarrus in "Star Wars Rebels.”
She wielded a lightsaber in her fight against Shin, but that hardly means she could be considered
a Force user.
Throughout "Star Wars Rebels," Sabine is around several Force users but never demonstrates
the ability herself, and she's past the age where most become aware of their powers.
There's still evidence from "Star Wars Rebels" and other properties that Sabine could be
force-sensitive, though.
"Ahsoka" is just getting started, after all.
Now that we've covered the major plot points, we can get to some of those sneaky Easter
eggs throughout the episodes.
Right off the bat, there's that black-tinted 3PO unit on the ship transporting Morgan Elsbeth.
This protocol droid gets a frankly disproportionate amount of love from the camera.
Even after it gets destroyed, Huyang casts a pointed look at its wrecked torso.
The droid's distinctive paint job is clearly a nod to Triple-Zero.
The pitch-black torture droid hails from the "Star Wars" comics, combining C-3PO's verbosity
and unassuming appearance with the mind of an unrepentant sadist.
Naturally, the droid tends to hang out with the equally villainous R2-D2 lookalike BT-1.
It's unlikely that this particular black 3PO unit we see in "Master and Apprentice" will
gain a pair of red eyes and become Triple-Zero, but the visual similarity seems to be no accident.
In "The Clone Wars," Ahsoka was known to use her lightsabers to create improvised entrances
in the floor or ceiling.
By the time of "Ahsoka," she's honed this skill into an art form.
An early cool moment in the series premiere features Ahsoka using the Force to spin her
lightsabers around her, cutting a hole in the ground in order to enter a hidden chamber.
The moment serves as a clear callback to "The Clone Wars," but as it turns out, it's just
the beginning.
When enemy droids turn up and challenge her for the map she just obtained, she busts out
the move again by jumping back into the chamber and literally undermining multiple opponents
by spin-cutting the floor from underneath their feet.
The smirk on her face just before she pulls this off reveals what a huge flex this is.
It seems that she's just delighted to find an excuse to use her classic trick from the
animated series.
The mood takes a sudden turn when Home One contacts Ahsoka's ship to deliver the news
that Morgan Elsbeth has escaped.
There's also a moment of huge significance to fans of the "Star Wars" animated series
When Huyang answers Home One's call and mentions Ashoka’s code name.
"Come in, Home One, this is Fulcrum.
Over."
Fulcrum is the designation of an important and influential faction of Rebel agents who
contributed heavily to toppling the Empire.
Their ranks have included heavyweights like Cassian Andor.
As it happens, Ahsoka is the creator of the Fulcrum system and the most prominent agent
to use the moniker, so it's both incredibly cool and extremely fitting that the title
lives on as her callsign.
When Governor Ryder Asadi gives his big speech on Lothal, there's a weirdly cartoonish mural
in the background.
It's seen even more clearly in the second episode, when Sabine looks at it after cutting
her hair.
Its art style clashes with basically everything we've seen in live-action "Star Wars," but
that's the point, isn't it?
This work of art is quite possibly the most obvious nod to the fact that "Ahsoka" owes
everything to the animated shows that came before it.
Known as the Spectres Mural, Sabine Wren painted this mural of the titular squad near the end
of "Star Wars Rebels," and visited it just before embarking on a journey to find Ezra
Bridger with Ahsoka.
The mural's "Rebels"-accurate appearance in "Ahsoka" essentially confirms that the show
isn't hiding its roots.
That's made even more clear when Ahsoka's T-6 Jedi shuttle flies over Sabine's tower,
in a nearly shot-perfect recreation of a moment from the final episode of "Rebels."
In "The Mandalorian," Morgan Elsbeth rules the city of Calodan as its Magistrate, and
she's surprisingly tough.
Armed with little more than an attitude and some serious skills with a Beskar spear, she
puts up a decent fight in the climactic, samurai-style showdown with Ahsoka.
The first episode of "Ahsoka" reveals that she's more than just Thrawn's old lackey -- she
casually mentions that she's also one of the Nightsisters of Dathomir.
"You're a witch."
"A survivor."
This powerful group of dark Force users was an ominous presence in "The Clone Wars," though
they seem to be largely extinct by the time "Ahsoka" takes place.
Still, the offhand revelation that the former Magistrate is a member of this ancient sect
is a nice little addition that serves to further connect the animated "Star Wars" shows and
the live-action ones.
After Sabine is injured, Ahsoka visits Sabine's home to get more information.
Ahsoka hears the drawing of lightsabers and the two women speaking to each other.
This power goes by many names in "Star Wars," but most probably know it as a Force Echo.
It's also been called Sense Echo, psychometry, and retrocognition.
This is a Force ability that allows the user to obtain information about events or people
through a location or object.
In this instance, Ahsoka is able to hear what happened during Sabine and Shin's fight.
The Force Echo has a history in the "Star Wars" Legends timeline, which Disney uncanonized
when it pursued new stories for film and television.
However, aspects of Legends have made their way into new stories, and the Force Echo was
officially re-established in "Star Wars" lore within the "Hunt for Ziro" episode of "The
Clone Wars."
Many will likely know about the Force Echo from the "Jedi: Fallen Order" and "Jedi: Survivor"
video games as well.
After realizing how much she needs Ahsoka, Sabine heads back home and takes out her Mandalorian
armor.
"Star Wars Rebels" establishes this armor is over 500 years old, but Sabine naturally
puts her own spin on it.
Ever the artist, Sabine colored various plates with bright, vibrant colors, making them uniquely
her own.
One pauldron bears the Rebel Alliance Starbird logo.
The other should be a delight for anyone who watched "Rebels."
Throughout the animated series, Sabine painted various animals on her left pauldron.
The final battle with Thrawn features purrgil, essentially space whales that can leap through
hyperspace, taking Thrawn's Star Destroyer away to unknown regions with Ezra onboard.
The final moments of "Rebels" reveal that Sabine has painted a purrgil on that pauldron.
It seems like she hasn't changed it in the years since, potentially demonstrating how
Sabine turned her back on the Mandalorian way for a long time.
To head into a dangerous future, she must don the armor once more.