Ahsoka sets up thrilling rivalry between Sabine Wren and Shin Hati
By Ian Walter
Ahsoka has set up a great Star Wars rivalry between apprentices Sabine Wren and Shin Hati.
From epic rivalries between master and apprentice (and apprentice becoming the master) such as Obi-Wan Kenobi versus Darth Vader, who then later goes up against Luke Skywalker, all the way to the battle between apprentices Kylo Ren and Rey Skywalker, there is no shortage of great rivalries in Star Wars.
Here is why the rivalry between Sabine Wren and Shin Hati belongs in that conversation!
The first two episodes of Ahsoka starring Rosario Dawson have dropped on Disney Plus, and they both do a great deal of world-building to establish the series’s central conflict and overall plot. The opening scene showcases a pair of Dark Side Force users attacking a New Republic ship to rescue Morgan Elsbeth, played by Diana Lee Inosanto, who was captured by Ahsoka in Chapter 13 of The Mandalorian. A master in Baylon Skoll (played by the late great Ray Stevenson) and his apprentice Shin Hati (played by Ivanna Sakhno) cut down officers using their orange lightsabers to carry out their mission. Ahsoka Tano retrieves a star map from a temple belonging to the Nightsisters and is encouraged by General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) to reunite with her former apprentice Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) to help her unlock the key.
In many ways, the apprentice’s story is only as good as that of its master (or teacher), and Sabine’s feud with Shin is fuelled by the overall fight between their masters, Ahsoka and Baylon. Morgan is revealed to be a Nightsister and orders Shin Hati to track down Sabine on Lothal, Ezra Bridger’s home planet of Star Wars Rebels fame. In a sequence reminiscent of another Sith apprentice Darth Maul tracking down Jedi on Tatooine in The Phantom Menace, Baylon seems to have a certain respect for the great Jedi Ahsoka and admits it would be a shame to have to kill her. Both apprentices have influences from a third party. Morgan Elsbeth wants to retrieve the map to somehow transport to the unknown regions where Thrawn is hiding in exile, and Hera wants to help Ahsoka and Sabine track down Ezra Bridger while also preventing another galactic war.
The fight that takes place between Shin Hati and Sabine is intriguing because neither has reached their full potential with the use of Force abilities and though both have impressive skills with the lightsaber, Shin gets the best of Sabine Wren, leaving us to wonder what will become of her. The newest Jedi to be trained since likely Leia Organa will have a lot of training to do to be able to overcome their nemesis once and for all. Ahsoka initially walked away from training Sabine, similar to how she walked away from finishing her training with Anakin, but she will have to overcome that training block in order to effectively set Sabine Wren up for success in her battle against Shin Hati.
While no one knows if this great rivalry will stand the test of time and continue to build on what came before, it is certainly off to a fascinating start. As for the addition of a third Dark Side Force user named Marrok (who may or may not actually be Ezra Bridger), time will tell what the power dynamic among the villains of this story will be. Sabine Wren will have to learn from her failure in her rivalry against Shin Hati and rise to the challenge with the help of her newly reacquainted Master Ahsoka.