By DAVID CHAPEK/Staff Writer
Editors’ Note: This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Rebels and Ahsoka.
“Sabine, don’t forget, I’m counting on you… I can’t wait to come home.”
Four weeks ago, Disney released the premier of their newest Star Wars show, Ahsoka. This week marks the halfway point of the show, which topped Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the most highly anticipated shows in August. This is probably due in part to the titular character herself: the former padawan of Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano eventually became a Rebel hero in the time leading up to A New Hope. Here is a quick review of the background and first half of the show, followed by three big questions that need answering before the show ends.
Ahsoka is a continuation of the animated series Star Wars: Rebels (2014-2018). The main character of that show is con-artist-turned-Jedi Ezra Bridger. Ezra joins a crew of rebels who travel the galaxy waging guerilla war on the Empire about five years prior to A New Hope. The crewmembers who have also made appearances in Ahsoka (so far) are General Hera Syndulla, the pilot, and Sabine Wren, a Mandalorian fighter/artist/pilot. Sabine and Ezra formed a close relationship throughout Rebels, as evidenced by some of Ezra’s last words in an emotional hologram: “Sabine, don’t forget, I’m counting on you.”
The main Rebels antagonist is Grand Admiral Thrawn, who chases the crew around the galaxy attempting to end their insurrection. At 6’5” with blue skin, red, glowing eyes, and seemingly infinite brain power, Thrawn is one of the most intimidating villains the Rebels’ galaxy has ever seen. He offered his allegiance to the Galactic Empire with the goal of eventually using the Empire’s resources to help his own people overcome evils from beyond the known regions of the galaxy. However, he had no real ties with the Empire, since his homeworld was outside its reach. This fact will become very important later on.
In a last-ditch effort to get rid of the Grand Admiral, Ezra confronts him aboard his Star Destroyer. Before any harm comes to either of them, a group of Purrgil (think giant space whales capable of traveling through hyperspace) latch onto the ship and pull them into hyperspace.
Ahsoka follows on the heels of this story, a decade or so later (post-Return of the Jedi), as a group of three antagonists search for Thrawn to bring him back to the galaxy so that he can help resurrect the fallen Empire. The trio consists of Morgan Elsbeth (a Force-witch, previously seen in The Mandalorian), Baylan Skoll (a former Jedi, now a mercenary working for Elsbeth), and Shin Hati (Skoll’s apprentice). Ahsoka Tano, Sabine Wren, and General Hera Syndulla team up to prevent them from finding Thrawn’s location.
At the end of Episode 4, the latest Ahsoka episode, Elsbeth, Skoll, and Hati discover the Grand Admiral’s whereabouts. Skoll captures Sabine, knocks Ahsoka over a cliff – sending her into another dimension – and joins Hati and Elsbeth as they shoot off into hyperspace after Thrawn (and presumably Ezra too). Without knowing where they were headed, General Syndulla has no way to find or follow them.
It would be unfair to critique the show before it draws to a close, so any critical analysis will have to wait until then. That being said, there are still three big questions that need answering before the end.
First off, where did Ahsoka go? After getting knocked off the cliff by Skoll, she is shown as somehow having entered the “World Between Worlds”, a collection of doors and paths between time and space that allow one to travel between them. The only other time it has appeared was in Rebels, when Ezra used it to reach back in time and save Ahsoka from an otherwise-certain death. This time, when Ahsoka appears there, she encounters Anakin Skywalker, her former master. Presumably, then, she will face some kind of choice to alter and/or travel to some moment in either the past or the future, probably relating to her relationship with Anakin.
Next, what will Thrawn and Ezra be up to when they’re found? How will their relationship, assuming they haven’t parted ways already, have evolved over the past decade? As noted above, Thrawn’s main motivation in working with the Empire was his desire to help and protect his people, so it’s logical to assume that he is currently doing that in some way.
Despite a large measure of tension and distrust that would obviously come between them, if Thrawn was helping others, Ezra would naturally join him. This fits with Thrawn’s strong belief in alliances of mutual gain, in addition to Ezra’s Jedi-inspired inclination to help others in need. The most likely scenario, keeping with previous canon characterizations of both characters, is that they are working together to fight some great evil.
Finally, along the same line of reasoning, what will Thrawn do when he’s found? Well, if the current remains of the Empire could no longer suit his purposes, he would have little interest in rejoining it. Assuming the trio of antagonists have thought that far ahead, they must have some kind of plan to convince the Grand Admiral that somehow the remaining Imperial resources could be leveraged to help and protect his people.
And finally, what are his pursuers’ plans? While Elsbeth’s motivation appears to be simply wanting to restore the Empire to its former glory, the reasonings of Skoll and Hati, the apparent Dark Jedi/mercenaries, is unclear. When asked what would happen after finding Thrawn, the former replied, “Power. Such as you’ve never dreamed.” Sure, maybe he thinks a rising Empire would give him immense power, but that seems like an odd way to phrase it. So why not speculate a little more grandly?
In Star Wars Legends, Thrawn attempts to overthrow the New Republic with the help of a Jedi clone named C’baoth who, obsessed with a thirst for power, eventually betrays Thrawn. It’s possible that show-runner Dave Filoni plans to canonize that basic plotline, having Skoll replace C’baoth. That would also fit with some hints from The Mandalorian about an up-and-coming Imperial force-cloning scheme.
Filoni has remained largely silent about Ahsoka’s second half (except for the vague hint he gives about Skoll and Hati in this interview), so in the end, speculation is just speculation. Most of this analysis depends on how true Filoni remains to previous Star Wars lore. That said, though, there is one thing we know for certain, even without the rest of the show: Ezra is still counting on Sabine. And she won’t let him down.
