Ahsoka: Is Thrawn really calling to Morgan Elsbeth?

At one point during the two-episode premiere for Ahsoka in the second episode “Toil and Trouble,” all the villains gather together at a Nightsister ritual site. Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati look on as Morgan Elsbeth opens the map that supposedly leads to Grand Admiral Thrawn. It projects a pathway between two galaxies. As Morgan closes her eyes and focuses on the Force, she says Thrawn calls to her across time and space.

And I paused the episode and went, “Wait, what?”

Backing up the scene a few seconds, sure enough, she says that Grand Admiral Thrawn is calling to her across time and space.

Which I call absolute poodoo on.

Famously across both Legends and the current canon, Thrawn’s most significant Achilles’ heel is his inability to calculate the Force. He knows it’s a thing that can be used, but he can never fully wrap his head around it. This is true from his beginnings in 1991’s Heir to the Empire. This is true in the current Thrawn trilogies. He doesn’t fully comprehend the Force-sensitive Chiss called Sky-walkers. He doesn’t get Anakin Skywalker. Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger in Star Wars Rebels are formidable opponents because they wield the one mystical ability the Grand Admiral can’t process in his brain.

So when Morgan Elsbeth, a Force-wielding literal witch from Dathomir, says that Thrawn calls to her across time and space, and she can hear him through the Force?

Enter the “Sure, Jan” meme here.

It then begs the question of who Morgan hears in the Force. Perhaps one possibility is it’s Ezra Bridger, who was last known to be Thrawn. That could be the Thrawn loophole with the Grand Admiral speaking through Ezra. YouTube channels like ScreenCrush have theorized various Legends possibilities like the Kwa and the Yuuzhan Vong. It could be something entirely new that Dave Filoni is crafting himself.

Regardless, I do not believe for a second that Grand Admiral Thrawn is calling to Morgan Elsbeth through the Force. I’m eager for more episodes of Ahsoka to find out what’s happening. And if I’m wrong and suddenly Thrawn has grown out of every one of his canon and Legends appearances to have the ability to process the Force and do magical space wizard stuff, I’ll happily eat my Ahsoka hat.

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