Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Ahsoka Episode 4.
The Big Picture
- Fake-out deaths have become a trend in the Star Wars franchise, with characters appearing to die only to be revealed to be alive later on.
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is particularly guilty of this trope with Palpatine, diminishing the impact of a character’s death and making the series feel less brave. Now, Ahsoka is committing the same sin.
- Star Wars needs to raise the stakes and start taking risks with character deaths in order to restore a sense of danger and make the action scenes more impactful.
Back in 1977, when the credits rolled on Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, fans were shocked by the surprise death of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness). It served as a massive emotional beat for Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker and pushed the story into its final act. Then again, in Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi, we said goodbye to Yoda (Frank Oz) and once the franchise returned to our screens back in 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) met his tragic demise, affecting Ewan McGregor’s Kenobi just as Guinness’ had affected Luke in the original film.
Disney’s Sequel Trilogy also delivered on some massive character deaths, saying goodbye to its main trio (although it could be argued that two of those weren’t by Disney’s choice), but equally, a new trend began to form within them… The franchise began to trick the audience into cheap pumps of emotion with the consistent use of fake-out deaths. This is where we see or assume that a character has died, only for it to be revealed that, jokes on us, they actually didn’t, because of some convenient explanation… It’s a trend that began in Star Wars: The Last Jedi with the return of the “Chrome Dome” herself, Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie), and is still present, arguably even more so, in Disney+’s latest series, Ahsoka.
‘The Rise of Skywalker’ Was the Worst Culprit for Fake-Out Deaths
The biggest culprit of fake-out deaths has to be Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Directed by J.J Abrams, the divisive final installment to the “Skywalker Saga” saw the return of Ian McDiarmid’s Emperor Palpatine — a reveal that had a cliché explanation, but the convenience of it all is perhaps best summarized by Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), simply stating, “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” In other words, he’s back, let’s not question why… The unjustified return of the iconic character diminishes his death at the end of Return of the Jedi, and in doing so takes away from the significance of Vader’s (James Earl Jones) sacrifice in the final act. But Disney’s fear of committing to character deaths doesn’t stop here with The Rise of Skywalker.
As the troubled movie continued, fans’ jaws dropped as Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) have a Force tug of war – with a First Order ship containing an imprisoned Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) caught in the crossfire. As tension rises, a surge of Force Lightning fires from Rey’s fingertips causing the ship to explode! “Chewie!” Rey yelled, and so did we. Everyone’s favorite Wookie, a war hero, had met his demise in the least satisfying and unforgivable way possible… except he didn’t. Before audiences had even had time to wipe away their tears, Chewie was revealed to be alive and well, because just as there was a clone of Palpatine, there was a second First Order ship, this one containing the giant teddy bear himself. Chewie’s fake-out death felt like a cheap attempt to draw emotions out of the audience for the franchise’s final installment. The film then went on to beautifully send off Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), before pulling yet another fake-out death, this time with Rey, but Kylo’s sacrifice to bring her back just about makes up for that.
The Fake-Out Death Trend Continues in ‘Ahsoka’
Ever since The Rise of Skywalker’s fake-out death marathon, Star Wars has continued to overuse the trend. The Mandalorian saw the return of the long-thought-dead character, Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison), and even in Disney+’s latest series, Ahsoka, we’ve had a number of fake-out deaths. The worst came at the end of the series premiere, “Master and Apprentice,” where Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) was stabbed by a lightsaber moments before the episode dramatically cut to black. The show’s second installment, “Toil and Trouble,” instantly revealed that Wren had survived her wound – a wound that had previously been fatal to Qui-Gon Jinn. The New Republic’s health care system has clearly improved since the days of the Jedi. However, it’s not so much the fact she survived that was the problem, it’s that her near-death experience hardly had any ramifications on her character, resulting in the cliffhanger feeling cheap, the Lightsabers feeling less dangerous, and instilling a feeling that Star Wars isn’t as brave as it used to be. Killing off Sabine in the premiere would have set the tone for a high-stakes series, with genuinely deadly villains.
As Ahsoka has continued, we’ve seen the trend continue. During the latest episode, “Fallen Jedi,” Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) fell from a cliff during a battle with Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson). Though it was unlikely that the titular character would have been killed off mid-season in such an anti-climactic way, it’s yet another instance of a Star Wars fake-out death, with the character soon waking up in ‘The World Between Worlds.’ We’re yet to see how this plot will play out, but the surprise appearance of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker may just allow showrunner Dave Filoni to get away with this fake-out. Time will tell, but her possible death would certainly have been more impactful had Sabine’s fake-out death not happened only a few episodes earlier.
Star Wars Needs to Raise the Stakes
With so much Star Wars out there, the threat of the Empire, the First Order, and any other military tyrant is beginning to diminish. The surprise and emotional death of a character can be a good way to raise the stakes of a series. Andor held a consistent feeling of dread, never afraid to kill off a character that it’d spent time building up, resulting in a more intimidating Empire than ever before. Ahsoka needs to raise the stakes, as while its antagonists are interesting, Sabine’s survival results in them feeling less threatening. Imagine how dangerous they’d feel had Filoni committed to her death – the stakes would never have been higher.
Ahsoka continues to be a fun but harmless watch, however, Star Wars’ fear of killing legacy characters over the last few years holds it back from being the high-stakes mission that Filoni wants it to be. It’s time for Star Wars to be bold again and bring the danger back to its action scenes. Perhaps the second half of Ahsoka Season 1 will prove us wrong.
