Ahsoka shows us a new dark side user
Star Wars fans are no strangers to dark side force users. It doesn’t matter if you have been a fan of movies, books, video games, comic books, or TV Shows. All forms of Star Wars have dark side force users. Granted some are more famous than others.
When you think of dark side users, characters such as Darth Sidious, Count Dooku, Darth Maul, Darth Vader, or Darth Revan may come to mind, But the upcoming Ahsoka series will challenge the concept of dark side force users. It will alter the idea of what dark side users should, could, or must be. How so? Let’s talk about it.
We start by seeing orange sabers in the trailer being wielded by Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati. We are used to seeing red sabers for the dark side users and assume them all to be Sith or perhaps an Inquisitor as we saw in both Star Wars Rebels and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The colors of lightsabers used to have great significance in Star Wars lore, with each color meaning something special for whatever character wielded it. Now in the Star Wars universe, the colors of the saber don’t matter as much as they used to. Baylan and Shin each wield an orange saber as dark side force users. Keep in mind that in the popular game series Jedi Survivor and Jedi Fallen Order, the story protagonist, Cal Kestis, also wields an Orange saber.
In Ahsoka, Baylan is a former Jedi who survived Order 66. He drifted away from the light side of the force sometime after surviving Order 66 and drifted over to the dark side. How and why still need to be seen, and that’s yet another reason to watch the show.
However, Baylan and Shin are not Sith Lords. They are not Inquisitors. Their official character descriptions identify them as mercenaries for hire. We will see them as hired guns for Morgan Elsbeth, who we met in Season 2 of The Mandalorian when we met Ahsoka for the first time on screen.
Why is it important that we know that they are mercenaries in this show? Typical force users, whether Jedi or Sith stay loyal to one master. It appears from what we see in their character descriptions and leaked details about these characters that they are loyal to whoever pays them, and it would stand to reason that Morgan Elsbeth will not have been their first employer.
Where this becomes somewhat confusing is that Baylan doesn’t seem to only have money as a motivation. Baylan tells Shin that when they find Thrawn they will receive “power such as you’ve never dreamed”. Baylan and Shin are very far away from the Jedi way of selflessness. They are also not in line with the training of the Sith either. Allowing themselves to serve only themselves and not following the rule of Two. The two of them are clearly looking for the guidance and direction of Thrawn. The only way that Baylan and Shin stay close to the training and lifestyle of the Sith is through their use of power and violence in achieving what they want.
As the show develops, and we see the characters develop throughout the story, we will have the opportunity to see how these styles of dark side force users can have an effect on the rest of the Mando-verse. Can these mercenary-style force users be what leads us to the Knights of Ren? Could there be a connection there? It would be great to see a connection here with the Knights of Ren, Snoke, and the sequel trilogy movies. Somewhere, somehow we need to find a connection for these characters who were just dropped into the sequels with no backstory and no explanations. It may not be here, but it would be nice, and based and what we are seeing, this could be a plausible launch point for that story to connect.
Ahsoka airs on Disney Plus with a two-episode launch on August 23, 2023. Make your plans and have your popcorn ready!