Ahsoka: Who was Marrok? And why it matters

For the first three episodes of the Ahsoka series, we saw theories everywhere about who and what the character Marrok was. It is possible that those theories went up into the dust with the debut of Episode 4. All it took was one lightsaber swipe across the chest of Marrok from Ahsoka’s white lightsaber to see him go full Thanos snap. As the popular classic rock song from Kansas says, he was “dust in the wind”.

But does that mean that we are done with the character of Marrok? We don’t think so. There is a longstanding trope in Star Wars where they like to bring people back from the dead or that we thought were dead. See Darth Maul and Emperor Palpatine as the lead examples. But what does Darth Maul and Emperor Palpatine have to do with this?

The death of Marrok was pure misdirection. Star Wars got us looking one way and has us guessing about what’s over there. But it’s possible that this misdirection has us looking in one way to miss what is lying at our feet before us. There are clues that maybe, just maybe, Marrok is a beloved Star Wars Rebels character.

Marrok is Kanan Jarrus

Before you say no, hear me out, because there’s a lot to unpack here. This wouldn’t be the first time, nor would it be the last that the Holy Filoni (hallowed be thy name) slips in some connection to lore or former shows and surprises us with it.

First off, we have to acknowledge Filoni’s love of wolves. His dog is named Wolffie, and the addition of the Loth-Wolves in Rebels is pure Filoni. In Rebels, Kanan’s Force is transferred to a Loth-Wolf named Dume. Keep in mind his name was Caleb Dume before Order 66. Ahsoka continues this trend as Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati’s names have ties to Norse Mythology wolves. The name Marrok ties into Arthurian legend about a werewolf named … Sir Marrok.

Morgan Elsbeth is a Nightsister from the planet Dathomir whose people are known for using the dead as zombie soldiers, infusing their force magicks into beings to make them stronger and providing Force abilities they didn’t have before. When Marrok “died” from the stroke of Ahsoka’s lightsaber, a green mist left his chest. If you remember in The Clone Wars when Savage Opress died, that same green mist left his body. That’s the Force magicks leaving as the green mist. Being a “zombie Nightsister” creation means we may see Marrok again sometime after Episode 5.

And lastly, a small piece of Easter egg business. In episode 4, we catch a tiny glimpse of a Kanan Jarrus photo on the control panel of Hera Syndulla’s ship, the Ghost. It may be trivial, but it also may mean something more.

Marrok is Barriss Offee.

If Marrok is truly dead, we may just refer to them as the artist formerly known as Barriss Offee. It’s a much smaller possibility at this point, but still worth considering.

Barris framed Ahsoka for bombing the Jedi Temple. There is no love lost between Barris and Ahsoka. She was taken into custody by Emperor Palpatine and Republic guards, and nothing of Barriss is ever talked about again.

Although there wasn’t an Inquisitorious YET, we can imagine that having a Jedi who was already disillusioned would have been very tempting to keep her nearby and possibly become an Inquisitor after Order 66.

Also, because there has been no official ending to her story, maybe Lucasfilm and Disney keeping Barriss’ fate unknown all this time might not be a coincidence.

Why it matters

You can read all this and think, “So what, they’re dead!” And yes, that does appear to be true. But knowing the identity of Marrok may help us understand why they came to work for Morgan Elsbeth and their relationship with Baylon Skoll.

Knowing who Marrok is ties up loose ends and allows us to further connect the dots between Star Wars Rebels, The Clone Wars, and where the Mandoverse is going in the near future.

Find out more about this right here on Dork Side of the Force as we cover many other Ahsoka topics in our Star Wars articles. Also, tune in every Tuesday night at 9 p.m. EST for the next episode of Ahsoka on Disney Plus.