Siege of Mandalore Breakdown Ep 1 - Old Friends Not Forgotten

This week on The Village Jedi, we are traveling back SIX YEARS to revisit a relic in our history, and that is the four episode finale of The Clone Wars!

For the next 4 weeks, we will be breaking down each episode in the Siege of Mandalore Arc, and how this story still stands the test of time!

Don't forget to check out the bonus episode this week too!

Send us an email! tvjpod@gmail.com

SaberMasters Link

Transcript

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I have a message from the Village Jedi. Max Rebo hit it. Hello, hello, hello, and happy Friday to everyone who celebrates. Welcome back to another Star Wars Point of View brought to you by the local Village Jedi. My name is Marina, and if you're new here, as I said, welcome. And if you're not, welcome back. As I said, Happy Friday. We are here to talk about something we all know and love, and that is the Siege of Mandalore. Now, if you have checked and you're a fan and you're following the show, first of all, thank you. Second of all, you probably have noticed that there is a second bonus episode that went up today about the Clone Wars specifically, where we take a 30 question quiz. We can take it together. The link is in the show notes of that episode. It was a lot of fun. It was just a way for me to give you guys a little bit of bonus content to mostly just apologize because every episode this month is going to be an audio only exclusive. I'm going to be out of town, so I'm trying to batch these episodes. And I thought, what's a part of Star Wars I could talk about for four weeks straight? It's the Siege of Mandalore. Um, but before we get into that, as always, a little bit about uh a little bit of the behind the scenes on how you can get involved with the discussion. Go ahead and follow me on Instagram or TikTok if you want at The Village Jedi, or you can send me an email to be read and discussed on air at tvjpod at gmail.com. Sometimes I forget to check those. And if you're like me, you have a million and one emails. So if you sent in an email and maybe I missed it or I went to the junk, feel free to send me a DM and I will look for it. Check it out and read it on air just for you, because I love you. I love all the fans. I love all the fans. Welcome to the village, and I am the Village Jedi I'm Rina. Um, another thing that we're gonna do before we get into the yap is take a brief ad break. Hello there. If you're looking to build your collection, the Village Jedi is now collaborating with Sabermasters to offer you $20 off your first combat ready laser sword. You heard that correctly, Combat Ready. The team at Sabre Masters makes it their personal mission to create lightsabers built to last using lightweight polycarbonate blades with customizable settings and simple navigation. Sabre Masters has really crafted the ultimate experience. Sabermasters is always offering a great deal for force users everywhere, but with my code TVJ20, you can save an extra $20 at checkout. Simply type in the code at the checkout screen, TVJ20, and you're done. Link will be in the show notes. So, as I mentioned, with all that out of the way, we have a lot to yap about the Siege of Mandalore episodes. There are four episodes, which means each week we're going to deep dive into these. We need to go backwards. One of the most important pieces of Star Wars lore is these four episodes, this four-episode finale of the beautiful and timeless masterpiece that is the Clone Wars animated series. A friend actually recently had asked me what triggers you the most as a Star Wars fan, and it's honestly my answer was people who choose to ignore Star Wars animated stories because it's quote-unquote Disney slop. My friend, this show has it all. The 2008 TV series The Clone Wars aired on Cartoon Network. It was created by George Lucas himself, produced by his company, Lucasfilm Animation, and as we read on the internet, the series originated from Lucas' desire to explore the untold stories of the Clone Wars era, including characters and planets briefly mentioned in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. It continues on to say that development began as early as 2004. Lucas hired supervising director Dave Filoni, the man The Myth, the Legend, who had worked closely with him and the creative team drew inspiration from a variety of sources, including the original Star Wars trilogy and Ralph McCorrey's concept art, while also drawing elements of anime, manga, and the Clone Wars 2003 to 2005 micro series. Lastly, the series was preceded by an animated theatrical film of the same name in August 2008. It originally intended to serve as the show's first episodes and officially premiered on October 3rd, 2008 on Cartoon Network. The show ran for five seasons before its initial cancellation in 2013, after Disney had purchased the franchise. So then, you know, we had five seasons. It was fantastic. It was a time to be alive as a Star Wars fan. And then we actually ended up getting a sixth season when the show made a partnership with Netflix. They renewed it for a sixth season for Netflix. And then, of course, we greenlit with that seventh season after Disney Plus came out. Actually, at this time, The Mandalorian had also come out, and so that meant that there was a new demand of fans from the creators to please just release this Siege of Mandalore story. It increased dramatically. The people were riding in the streets. EK Johnston had just wrote her Ahsoka novel, and so we got a little bit of Order 66, Siege of Mandalore, Be as the Neos, and The Mandalorian was opening up a new way for us to explore these Mandover stories. We needed to see what Dave's vision was going to be for these stories. Rebels had finished, and that was incredible. So it just was a time to be alive as a Star Wars fan to know that there was going to be a brand new season of this show. And if you are as big a fan of the show as I am, you remember exactly, exactly where you were when you saw this for the first time. And that's kind of the perspective that I want to come at with these episodes. The show ended up spanning 133 episodes as the series delves into the moral complexities of war, blurring the lines between good and evil, and echoing Revenge of the Sith's opening crawl. This portrayal helped establish the series as a significant part of the Star Wars lore, expanding the mythology in ways that the films could or did not. It also bridges the gap between the prequels and the wider Star Wars universe, offering insight into the stakes leading up to the revenge of the Sith. So that's just a little bit from the internet film, you know. I wanted to deep dive into these episodes because as I said, it's going to be our discussion point for the rest of the month. If there's anything that you want to add about these episodes, um I had a forum link open for about a week, so I'm going to be reading those at the end of each of these episodes. And I just want to say I appreciate to anyone who writes into those. I put the prompt and a link on Instagram. It makes for a lively discussion at the end of the episodes when I add those pieces to the episodes and to the show. It really makes me feel like we are all part of a Star Wars village together. So, this is my show. It's my first time really breaking this down as if it were supposedly the first time I ever watched it. I just want to take you guys through my full experience. I'm going to relive this hype. You can relive it with me. We're going to do this together six years later. Because if you ask me, the world needs a little more magic when it comes to this. When it comes to Star Wars animation, we got pure bliss from Maul Shadow Lord. And it gave me the same giddy, childlike naivety of what true Star Wars storytelling peak could look like as these four episodes did. I didn't have anyone to talk about this. COVID was raging. I was getting married on Zoom in a month. I had my stimulus checked, so I ended up buying an Xbox so I could play Minecraft with my friends. But Star Wars was always on the TV. I was waiting week to week with the rest of y'all, okay? So the fact that people have the blessed gift to just sit down and binge these four episodes is not a privilege to be taken for granted, okay? We were in the trenches at one point. We were in the Mandalorian Dome watching these episodes week to week, wondering how Dave Falone was going to wrap this up so elegantly, and he exceeded every possible expectation that we could have. But enough glazing, enough pre-show yammer yap. Let's go ahead and get into the episode breakdown. If you want to pause this episode and then go re-watch the first um episode, Old Friends Not Forgotten. That's the first one that we're gonna watch. And feel free to do a re-watch with me. I mean, how fun is that? Maybe you're gonna listen to this episode and then you're gonna watch the episode and you're like, oh, she maybe caught on to something that I had missed, doubtful. Or maybe it's just more fun because now you have a super friendly village Jedi who's out there watching it. Along with you. Happy Friday. Okay, so episode breakdown notes. This is the first time I've watched when I sat down to compile these notes. This was the first time that I had watched these episodes since Mall Shadow Lord came out, which is actually an exciting feeling for me. There's no opening credits. It really does watch and feel like a theatrical film. There are green letters that say a Lucas Film Limited production, and then it just cuts straight to the Clone Wars typical crawl, but instead of those classic yellow letters for the logo, we've got red letters. And it says part one, old friends not forgotten. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. None of us did. I hadn't seen any spoilers or trailers. Mind you, if you go back and listen to my Who is the Village Jedi or my Empire Radio Imperial interview episode, you know about where I was in my Star Wars journey at this time. I had really been into it only for about five years. So it's not like I was out here just running the place. I still had a lot to learn and things I did not know about. I didn't know where to go to like keep up with things. I wasn't on TikTok at the time. I wasn't on the Star Wars side of Instagram. I wasn't watching edits, I wasn't watching interviews, nothing. So I went in totally blind, but absolutely brimming with anticipation. So old friends not forgotten. That is the name of part one. What do I think this is a reference to? Old friends not forgotten. Let's think about this. Ahsoka comes back. Bokatan comes back. Maul comes back. There is a lot of old connections resurfacing. No matter how hard Obi-Wan tries, he's never gonna be able to forget Maul. Anakin will never be able to forget Ahsoka. Ahsoka and Bokatan will never be able to forget Obi-Wan and Anakin. So it's all coming together. These connections, these deep level plot lines that we get to explore, and such an ominous title, Old Friends Not Forgotten. At face value, you think like, oh, obviously Ahsoka and Anakin, they're getting reunited, and then we see her talking to Obi-Wan, you know, blah blah blah. No, it goes deeper than this. Because when you really think about it, this is the grand Pizzazi charisma. Maul is still trying to get back at Sidious, and you could consider Maul an old friend of Sidious. Maul does not want to be forgotten by no one, least of all Sidious. He's coming for him, he's gunning for him, he is in the crosshairs. It's just so good. So we get to this episode. We had just finished the Martez Sisters Arc. We left off with Bo Katan recruiting Ahsoka. Like I said, if you guys haven't noticed yet, obviously we're not on YouTube, so you can't be seeing it, but hopefully you can hear it in my voice. I'm talking a million miles a minute. I got a lot of things to say, I got a lot on my mind, I got a lot on my tongue, blah blah. I love these four episodes. You guys are probably like, Rena, take a choke pill, relax. It's just a Siege of Mandalore. I've watched it a million times. I can recite the entire mall monologue in the throne room. It duh. You should. You should be able to. Second of all, this is my show. The whole reason I started this podcast was so I would be able to share my excitement of the aspects of Star Wars I love. You want to talk about something I love? It's the Siege of Mandalore. It is these four episodes, okay? This solidified my loyalty to the franchise. Ride or die forever after this arc. So Admiral Ular, and he narrates current events, and someone on Reddit had actually commented something I'd never heard of, but I absolutely love it now. They said that the intros are specifically done and designed in the style of news series about World War II that were played between movies at theaters at the time. Sort of like the opening intros are essentially republic propaganda, which is ironic because the character narrating later sides with the Empire. Love that. Cinema. This show didn't know what it was until it became an unstoppable beast. Very much like Rebels. Very echo Dave Falone style, where he kind of starts off a little rocky, like he's got some things going for him. He's not really sure how the fans are gonna respond. But then once he's got a good idea of what the fans want and that we're we're hooked and we're engaged, and he knows what he wants this show to become, it's flawless. And so this was the icing on the cake. We hear the final Admiral Ularin spiel to open up these four episodes, and it is just the end of an era. This is the only time we hear it in all four of the episodes, to my recollection, and it's it's amazing, it's nostalgic, it is where we want to be as fans when we rewatch this over and over and over again on movie nights on Fridays. Happy Friday. So the opening dialogue really sets us up for exactly where we are in the stream of time. Okay, we notice an animated grievous, there's an Order 66 montage with the generals, we've got Isla Sakura, we've got Plo Koon, Deppa Balaba with Kanan. Part of that meeting sort of ends with the dispatch generals. And it's crazy that these events of the last episode line up perfectly with the first episode of The Bad Batch, where we see that same pair, Deppa and Kanan, on their Order 66 mission given during that hologram meeting. So the Jedi Council is assigning these different Jedi, here's where I want you to go, here's what you're gonna do. We said that with Ayla, we see that with Plo. Then we see it with Deppa in Bad Batch. So this meeting is where she got her Order 66 mission. Crazy work, crazy work. This is just the intro. So we're literally like 10 seconds into this episode, and already as a fan, your heart is going to miles a million miles a minute. It's dropping. You're like, yo, the stakes are high. You recognize these screen caps from live action moments in Revenge of the Sith. There are so many Easter aches. You just feel this dread in your stomach, and you are locked in. So we cut to Obi-Wan's Legion, the 212, they're fighting on a bridge, and Kenobi himself, he jumps ahead to protect Clone Trooper Cody, and right away you can just note that this is where the animation budget for this season went. It is so much smoother than the past eight episodes of this 12-episode season. His hair is sort of gracefully blowing in the wind. We see some gray patches on his sideburns, and there's just this like juicy glow of the blue blade. It looks stunning. The smoke effects, the music, beautiful. Um, Cody's like, we can't locate the tactical droid, so the battle is losing, and then this is when Anakin shows up. And y'all, re-watching this, knowing what we know now about seeing him in Ahsoka Season 2, he looks great. The fact that we get this version of Anakin in in Clone Wars animation, we get Revenge of the Sith Anakin in Clone Wars animation, and you really do need to let that sink in because we also get Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith Anakin in Ahsoka Season 2, y'all. Or Ahsoka season one. Hoping we'll see him in Ahsoka Season 2. He looks great. The character design, it's just too it's just too good. Again, it's bridging this season is meant to bridge the gap between Revenge of the Sith and these stories. So Anakin, he's like, you know, if you want, I can hide here with you and we can let the people in this city suffer longer, or I can help you out by doing things my way. And his way essentially is to announce a surrender, which funny enough, a false surrender is a type of perfidy, I think that's what's called. Perfidy, educate me in the comments, in the context of war. It's a war crime under protocol one of the Geneva Convention, but Anakin's like, yeah, we're actually not at the Geneva Convention, I can do whatever I want. So false surrender. We can of the 501st are sort of engaged in this major ab workout hanging on to the underside of this bridge. And once the trap is set, the clone soldiers fly up to take the victory. They fly now, they've always flown. And sort of seeing these Mandalorian clone soldiers with jet packs on, it just makes so much sense. It looks so cool, especially in the light of what these episodes explore so well, which is Mandalorians. We are pivoting as a fandom to the Mandoverse. In real time, when these episodes came out, the Mandoverse was being written as we were engaged. So we hear the main Star Wars title theme music during this scene, which is just so good. Once again, we know exactly where we are. We know exactly what kind of show and what kind of episodes these are about to be. We are about to be fed. Alright, so the 212th and the 501st, they fight together to win the day. The generals are then summoned back to the mothership to take an important transmission holo call from a user known as Fulcrum. And between Obi-Wan and Anakin, they assume it could be like a distress call from Saguerera since the Jedi had actually helped him establish his personal rebellion on his homeworld of Onderon. But Yularin's like, it's not, get up here, you're gonna want to see this for yourself. So the two get back to the ship, and this is where we see the holo projection of our Tokruta queen herself, Ahsoka, and with her Lady Bo Katan. And this is our first glance at this girl's glow-up. Like she's no longer in the street bike gear, um, girly outfit. She has locked in. She's wearing the Mandalorian-inspired dress. She's got the cool like forearm bands, the nice headdress, she's got the boots, she is looking absolutely stunning. Stunning. My second favorite Ahsoka look, TBH. So absolutely lovely. At this point, it's been a little less than a year since she left. Her new outfit again, stunning. And Anakin right away asks, like, is she alright? And um Anakin and uh Ahsoka's like, you know, we don't really have time for this. She relays urgent information about the renegade Sith Lord Maul, and if we move quickly, we we believe we may be able to capture him. So then it cuts Ahsoka and the night owls are about to fly in. Um Anakin tells Kenobi that he believes the force led her to leave the order so that she would be in the perfect position to capture Maul. And as a viewer, re-watching this with analytical podcast, you know, host eyes, it told me one thing. Anakin has been looking for a distinct why ever since she left. She made the decision that he personally wouldn't have, like, he doesn't agree with it, and it haunts him that he's never been able to be at peace with her decision or understand it. So the fact that that is like the first thing we hear out of his mouth that's like, oh, duh, this is why she left the order. And Kenobi's basically like, I mean, I guess, like you can tell he's like, bro, that's what you're thinking right now? Like, what do you mean? So it just was kind of an interesting revelation to me as a viewer that I hadn't really ever noticed that before. That that's that's what I'm just gonna go ahead, go ahead and Assume. Assume. So Ahsoka arrives, R2D2 is super happy. This iteration of the force theme plays. Bo Katan is with her, looking stunning as always, voiced by Katie Sakov, our queen. Anakin wants to catch up, but Ahsoka, she's just ready to get straight to the point. She's all business. The situation that they are in is clearly urgent and requires time-sensitive action on their part. Anakin sort of throws like this little pity party. Nothing in animation is on accident. You can see his face sort of contort as he's frustrated that like we can't just like take a beat and catch up. Like it's been a while since I've seen you. I'm concerned about you. Are we seriously just gonna like brush that off and jump straight to the emergency? Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, senorita, pump the brakes. And you can see that in his face. So I wrote down like we're really beginning to see Revenge of the Sith, Anakin, who's willing to throw the mission to the side if it means the unresolved feelings are in play. He has a hard time not making present emotions a priority. Like Anakin Skywalker is the king of not learning how to compartmentalize. The man does not do well under pressure. That should never be on his resume. So Bo Katan, she says that she's been tracking Maul for several months with the intent of capturing him and liberating her people from his influence. Um, they become a much different society since the murder of her sister, and Bo Katan really does believe that an outsider shouldn't be pulling the strings on the Mandalorian throne. Logically, she wants what's best for her people, duh, but she knows that the ultimate goal will come at a cost. One that she can't afford on her own or with her night owls. So this is kind of the plan here that she she wants best, what's best for her people, and thus was able to use Ahsoka to gain an audience with the Jedi Generals, petitioning their help in her cause. She's like, you get mall and I get Mandalore. Like it's that simple. We don't need to be throwing any sort of red tape around. Cut the red tape, burn it, let's just get down to business. We're running out of time, mama. Obi-Wan and Anakin are, you know, they're kind of looking at each other. And Obi-Wan's like, if Republic forces aid you in your assault, we will be breaking treaties a hundred years old. We will effectively be drawn into yet another war. And Bo Katan just goes, What's one more? Bruh. A war between Mandalorians and the Republic army? Wrote, I wrote down, it wouldn't just be soldier versus soldier, bro. It would be brother versus brother because the clones are Mandalorian by blood. Like this is wrong on so many levels to have clone soldiers fighting Mandalorian soldiers. So on one hand, you've got Kenobi, and he's like, we can't do that because it breaks the law. And Bo Katan's like, I don't really give a rip. But when you look at from a morality standpoint, like if Rex was in on this conversation, guaranteed him and his men would not want to be fighting the Mandalorians because they know who they are, they know where they came from, and they know where their loyalties stand. They are men of honor, just like the Mandalorians. Duh. No one is surprised, no one is shocked, the crowd goes crazy. So Kenobi sort of wants to consult the council as he is Mr. Boy Scout. He can't agree with anything to anything on his own. He needs to have kind of the crowd of gurus behind him to say yes. But Bo Katan pulls out the big guns. Like, mama is not playing fair. She is not here to take names. She says, He murdered my sister. I thought she meant something to you. Bruh. Wrap it up. She just ended your whole career, my guy. You cannot come back from that, I fear. You cannot. So ultimately, Kenobi, he has his final say. Bo Katan angrily comments that this whole thing was a waste of time. She storms out. And so Anakin and Ahsoka go together to go visit the 501st. So on their way, the clone soldiers are sort of respectfully greeting her and acknowledging her presence and her rank. But she feels like she is not worthy for this kind of attention from them. But Anakin goes ahead and reassures her, he's like, loyalty means everything to the clones. And girl does it. Good soldiers follow orders. Oh, it just sends a shiver down your spine. How Ahsoka feels about the clone soldiers she fought alongside is completely heartbreaking, as revealed through this arc, and then later through her dissected trauma in Ahsoka season one. They are a core part of her journey within this order. She has all her whole upbringing since she was a Padawan. She even mentions it in the last episode, is fighting in this war alongside these clones. There's this theme of strong mutual trust, and it's reinforced, which makes the payoff of an animated Order 66 that much more gut-wrenching and memorable to watch. So the doors slide open, they reveal these beautiful painted helmets matching her face markings. I had to take a breath here. I paused, I typed, I relay. I wanted to take a second and comment that her typical headdress that we had seen in past seasons up until up until season seven, they're the teeth of the a col, which as you know, you can just you can just listen quietly. Crisscross applesauce. The teeth of an akol, a-a-k-U-L. It's a powerful beast on her homeworld, and it those those like that headdress, those teeth, it can only be gained by single-handedly defeating or bringing to submission one of these powerful beasts. The Akol is a saber tiger-like beast that we actually see in Tales of the Jedi. So something about this tells me I just had to remember, she's not wearing it in this outfit, but she's wearing it in every other outfit. Ahsoka has always been brave and loyal. And the clones gravitate toward that kind of person. She has always been worthy of their respect and loyalty. It's at this point during these episodes that she finally comes to terms with what that really means on a grander scale. What that means not only for people like the Jedi who are willing to treat them with fairness, but also what it means for people like Palpatine who are willing to take that loyalty and just completely prey upon it, take advantage of it, and do the absolute worst thing you could imagine. So the painted helmets, they're really cool on the first watch. They are hauntingly traumatic on every other rewatch of this arc. Like, literally, imagine, we'll get to it. Imagine trying to fight someone who is trying to kill you. There's hundreds of them, and they all have a painting of basically your face. Terrible. I know that girl saw those helmets before she went to sleep. She closed her eyes and saw those helmets for weeks after these episodes. Guaranteed. Okay. Um, we later see Rex, he's holding a box, which obviously we see later, um, reveals that her dual saber hilts are inside. One is shorter, and we as an audience are reminded again of her unique combat style because we haven't seen her up until this point fighting with lightsabers in this season. Anakin sort of tinkered with the crystals. I'm not a big fan of them being blue, but it is what it is. What are you gonna do? So immediately after this kind, kind moment, we hear the sound of an alarm. It is go time. We are being thrust into the action. Clones disperse, Kenobi reports that the Chancellor is in danger. We gotta go. And as a Revenge of the Sith fan, mama, you are on the edge of your seat. That movie is happening at this very second. At this very second, these episodes are not only complementing one another and bridging the gap, they are now happening in a dual reality. So, right away, we're effectively told that this final story of Ahsoka and Rex is just as vital to this era of history as the last story of Anakin and Kenobi. Let's sit with that. This movie, Revenge of the Sith, is happening at the exact same time. This final story of Ahsoka and Rex is just as vital to this era of history, the prequel history, as the last story of Anakin and Kenobi. That is the caliber that we are looking at. You can either watch Revenge of the Sith or you can watch Siege of Mandalore. That is how I feel as a fan. Siege of Mandalore is on the same caliber as Revenge of the Sith. One of them is animated and one of them is live action. They are the kings of their genres. Moving on. Kenobi mentioned Shock T, which is a callback to a Revenge of the Sith deleted scene with Shock T who's captured on the ship that they end up rescuing the Chancellor from. Love that little tidbit. Ahsoka's mad though. She is mighty mad. That basically these two are choosing the Chancellor over Bo Katan and her people. These people are suffering. They are being oppressed and basically terrorized by Maul and his followers, and you guys are just running to the to the chancellor. Are you serious? Like she sees right through the Dead Eyes puppetry and corruption. Her and Kenobi have this little debate, and Anakin ends up coming up with a compromise that Rex will be promoted to commander. So half the 501st will go with them, and the other half will go with her. The two accept this. Kenobi ends up kind of playfully reminding her, like, best to capture him. He doesn't seem to stay dead. So we go into this mission, and that's kind of his only ask is like, if you're gonna do this, bring him back alive. Like he'll at least be worth something to this. We'll give you the troops, bring him back in one piece. So right away, you can tell as a fan, okay, so this assignment is strictly offensive. Like we are not trying to defend, like we are, we need to go with a more delicate approach and bring him back to be useful to the good guys. It's been a while since we've seen Ahsoka fight with lightsabers, but I'd kind of imagine it's like riding a bike, like it comes back, it comes back quickly. So like she's gonna be fine regardless of what happens, but still as a fan, you're like, yo, are we gonna see them duel? Like, is that is that what's gonna happen? Yes, ma'am. We then see what is potentially a moment that will be taken for granted until the rest of their days, and that is the final exchange between Anakin and Anasoka. Anakin calls him by his name, and all she says is Anakin. Good luck. He smiles, then runs off to begin Revenge of the Sith. Oh, so then we're cutting to the second act. Already, you guys, we're only like 10 minutes into this episode. The episode, by the way, let me scroll up here. It is the longest episode of the four. It runs for 31 minutes. And it's absolutely, it's absolutely incredible. So now we cut to Mandalore. There's this large armada of Republic ships, they're flying over Mandalore. This is our main cast. They confront Prime Minister Almac on a hollow call, and and Bo Katan calls him out as Maul's puppet. And Almec says, Siding with the Republic will make you an enemy in the eyes of the people. And she just responds, she's like, I'm fine with that. And then she hangs up. Which this amuses Ahsoka. She's like, You're nothing like your sister. Girl, be so for real. We then cut to the Maldoloreans, which are the soldiers who are loyal to Maul, the Mandalorian soldiers who follow him, Maldoloreans. Bo Katan ends up hollow calling Ursa Wren, who is one of her night owls. She confirms that Maul has not left the city. And a little tidbit tag point here, Ursa Wren is Sabine Wren's mom from Star Wars Rebels, the animated show. Go watch it. The ships are attacked, and the race to the surface is on. The 501st ends up reusing their jetpacks, and Ahsoka uses the falling debris field. Looking at Red, she's like Racey to the surface. They missed each other. They're excited to just have this awesome mission together, fall back into old patterns. We see her in action. Like she's just taking out the Moldalorians, she's fallen with the debris, she's saving pilots, like she's just doing her thing. I bet it just feels so good to just be back where she feels her strongest. We hear battle above Corusant music playing. Now you may be thinking, why are we hearing battle above Corusant when this is a battle above Mandalore? Girl, the battle above Coruscant is happening in the opening scene of Revenge of the Sith. This music is playing because it is happening at the exact same time as this is where the fun begins. That is the music that is playing. Again, we are reminded as fans where we are at in the stream of time. Subtle cues. Very interesting. So the battle ensues as the Five of First Squad sort of makes their way toward the throne room and eventually Malls hide out in what's called the under city. Here there are two types of soldiers that both have strikingly visible signs of who they are loyal to. The Moldalorians have their Zabrak-inspired paint jobs with their horned helmets, and Ahsoka's soldiers have markings and paintings distinguishing them as the 501st and loyal to her. So you've got Maul on one side, Ahsoka on the other, and the soldiers who are following them reflecting those team stripes. And oh whoa, I just put this together. I just put this together. Am I dumb? The 501st color scheme is blue and white. Ahsoka's tendrils are blue and white. Her Leku. Dave, am I dumb? You guys. That was intentional, and I never even put it together. Moment of silence for my brain because it just blew up. That's crazy. So, anyways, these characters, Maul and Ahsoka, they just share so many parallels, which is something that we'll of course go over the course of these debrief episodes. We cut to Bo Katan and the Night Owls, they take off toward the throne room. So the group sort of separates here. Rex supports Ursa on the decks against the Moldaloreans, and Ahsoka splits off with a small squad toward the tracking point where Captain Vaughn has seen Gar Saxon run down the sewage tunnels and conduit pipes. He he works for Maul, he's the bad guy. So Captain Vaughn is like, he went that way, girl. We as an audience can obviously sense there's some sort of trap here because Maul is not messy. There is a reason for everything. We cut back to the throne room with Bokatan and Amex. She easily overpowers him. And then he reveals that Ahsoka is headed toward a trap. He tells her that, yeah, he wanted you to bring the Jedi here, but you brought the wrong one. And Bokatan, she's trying to reach out to like Ahsoka, but we know from past dialogue that Gar Saxon was ordered to scramble, scramble any sort of calm feed. So as an audience, we sort of assume that Maul wants Kenobi when Omek says this line, and he does, but it's not for the reasons that we think and that we will learn in the next episode. Um the whole plan is just starting to kind of fall apart as 501st soldiers are picked off one at a time in this eerie sewage tunnel scene. Vaughn is shot, he holds Ahsoka's hand as he apologizes. And again, we just see this painful glimpse into the unprocessed trauma of a girl who was forced to become a soldier. There have been so many battles, so many soldiers, so many losses that this girl has had to not not only see and feel within the force, but personally lose. Like the attachments that she would form with these clones is just devastating. And that's what makes these four episodes hit home so hard is that that is the core of the episode is the emotional gravity and the deep connection to each other. So the Monda the Monday the Maldalorian soldiers surround her as she stands protectively over her fallen friend. The camera sort of spins, and then from behind we see this slow dark silhouette of Maul. And all he says chillingly is, I was hoping for Kenobi. Why are you here? She's all by herself. The episode ends. And it's phenomenal, and we all clap and re-watch and get to the next go to the next episode. I got six submissions. So we're gonna just gonna do two for this episode. I pitched it on Instagram basically just asking anyone who had seen it to tap the link and write in, what do you enjoy about watching the Siege of Mandalore? And then optional, would you change anything? So we're gonna read two from each. Um, let's see. So the first one says, What did you enjoy about watching the Siege of Mandalore? Motion captured duel. Also, the impact and the voice lines of Sam Whitworth and Ashley was just amazing. Yes. I think this is pretty much the best in the best. Like the duels that we see during this arc is incredible. The battle scenes alone, the high stakes, the high tension, Sam Whitworth's voice acting as we'll get into the next episode, his monologues, his dialogue with Ahsoka, Ashley Eckstein, so incredibly moving, powerful, memorable. It will stick with you as a fan till the end of time. Okay. Would you change anything optional? We'll read one from there. Absolutely not. I mean, I can change a few things, but that would be my emotions talking. So true. Um, if the emotions had their say, had their way, first thing I would change is Jesse doesn't die. Like that arc trooper is really, really cool. Second thing I probably wouldn't change would change emotion-wise, is the people of Mandalore cannot catch a break. You know what I mean? Like they have really just been going through it. Like they need some stability in their lives. I would not want to live on Mandalore. Like, sometimes I have that question. People, you know, I'll be talking about Star Wars. My friends will be like, oh, what planet would you want to live on? Never have I ever said Mandalore. There is way too much going on over there for me. I need a humble farmer's life. I play Stardew Valley for crying out loud. Okay, well, that was episode one of the Siege of Mandalore, Old Friends Not Forgotten. Thank you so much for spending some time with me. I cannot wait to break down the next four episodes or the next three episodes of this with you guys for the rest of the month. If there's anything that you want to say or add to the discussion, like I said, please follow me on Instagram at the Village Jedi on Instagram or TikTok or send me an email at tvjpod at gmail.com. But unfortunately, this is where the fun ends. My only hope is you enjoyed, and I will yap at you guys again next Friday. Bye! This has been The Village Jedi. Thank you so much for listening. To support this show, please leave a rating or review wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Go check out the YouTube channel or send me an email to be read and discussed on air. You can also tell a fellow nerd to build the community. I mean this in the nerdiest way possible. May the force be with you.