Life and Death
Episode 1 of Tales of the Jedi whisks us away to the wonderful animated world inhabited by the Togruta race, in the past, as Ahsoka is welcomed in to the village. She’s only a babe at this point, but Nak-Il is not sure that she’s ready for the great outdoors. Pav-Ti waves away her partner’s concerns, and immediately grabs her gun and heads out into the woods to begin hunting. It’s been more than a year and the village elder Gantika, blesses the ma and babe before they head out into the vast expanse beyond. After killing their prey, Ahsoka is told to face death and watch the kill. Pav-Ti blesses the animal before striking firmly in the neck, preparing the meat to bring back. However, they’re not alone. Out in the wild, a saber-toothed tiger approaches and attacks. With all hope lost, the villagers arrive and manage to save Pav-Ti…but not Ahsoka. The babe is taken by this tiger who, instead of reacting in fear, reaches out and touches its nose. This manages to stop the creature in its tracks. The pair lock eyes and seem to come to some sort of agreement, and the imagery is absolutely beautiful here. Anyway, the tiger heads back to the village, with Ahsoka riding atop its back. When they return, the tiger turns and slips away, while Gantika realizes that Ahoska is a Jedi, which explains her being able to ride the tiger.
The Episode Review
Seeing Ahsoka’s origin as a baby is a lovely way of introducing us to this anthology series, and Tales of the Jedi certainly gets off to a great start. The animation is slick, the lighting well rendered and the story simple but effective. It’s a nice way of building up the lore behind Star Wars and to backdrop that across a simple, but effective storyline. If this is a sign of things to come, we should be in store for quite the treat!
