Ahsoka may have answered the mystery about Yoda’s species

Yoda. Image courtesy StarWars.com
Yoda. Image courtesy StarWars.com /
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Dave Filoni continues to expand the Star Wars lore with Ahsoka, and fans believe the latest episode may have answered a big question.

In Episode 6 of Ahsoka, titled “Far, Far Away,” Sabine Wren finally reunites with Ezra Bridger after nearly a decade in the wastelands of Peridea. Along with being a graveyard where the purrgils come to die, the planet was once the homeworld of the Dathomiri and the center of their Witch Kingdom. Now, it floats in the abyss surrounded by the bones of purrgils outside and a barren wilderness within.

Before “honoring” Baylan Skoll’s promise to Sabine and sending her off in search of Ezra, Grand Admiral Thrawn warns her that the wastelands may have killed Ezra in all these years. However, he became friends with a tribe of adorable, turtle-like nomadic alien creatures called the Noti and survived just fine.

The Noti have not appeared before in any other Star Wars movie or TV show. The episode also introduced another new species – the Howler that Sabine rode and eventually befriended.

These Episode 6 reveals sparked a theory on a Reddit discussion thread, where a fan suggested that the reason we see so few of Yoda’s species is because they come from a nearby galaxy like this one.

More than 3,000 people upvoted the comment, agreeing with the theory at the time of writing. One fan wrote, “It would be a great way to connect Grogu to the story.” A comment under this speculated that this is why Grogu could recognize a Purrgil in the hyperspace in The Mandalorian.

Another theorized, “Or Yoda species are Night Brothers from Peridia. They have crab people, why not frog/lizard/ humanoid people?” As for why Yoda ended up in the galaxy where the events of Star Wars take place, a fan said, “Maybe they periodically send a few of their species to the main galaxy to help guide it.”

So far, we have only seen three of the species: Grogu, Yaddle, and Yoda himself. The name is never mentioned in any Star Wars property and is marked as ‘species unknown’ by the official databank. It is a complete mystery to the fandom, and ironically, it is how George Lucas intended the story to be.

George Lucas never planned a Star Wars background for Yoda

In an interview with Hayden Christensen in 2005 as part of Revenge of the Sith promotion, Lucas admitted that he created Yoda after deciding to kill off Obi-Wan Kenobi.

He had initially planned to keep Obi-Wan as the mentor figure until the end, and Yoda did not exist. However, he felt like that would be an injustice to Alec Guiness’ portrayal of the character.

So, he wrote his death and instead created Yoda to train Luke Skywalker. But he never planned a backstory for Yoda and wanted to keep it a mystery.

"We needed a physical body there to do things. And so I needed something, and I created Yoda, who was two feet tall, large, with green ears. But to be really honest with you, I never really figured out where he came from, what his species is called. He doesn’t even have a name. Maybe it’s somewhere, but I don’t know what it is. So he’s a mystery character. He’s a magical character. He has no background. He comes and goes. He’s the subversive, secret, mysterious stranger that enters the film and then exits at the end."

Many commenters on the Reddit thread believed that the theory would not materialize because Dave Filoni would respect Lucas’ wish and keep Yoda’s species a secret. For the time being, this is just another theory, but perhaps it’s the first piece of unlocking one of the biggest puzzles in Star Wars.

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