Warning: This article contains spoilers from Ahsoka, season 1, episode 7, “Dreams and Madness.”
Building off the characters and storylines of stories including The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and The Mandalorian, every Ahsoka episode is filled with Easter eggs. As a series that incorporates elements from live-action, animation, publishing, and video games, Ahsoka‘s Easter eggs make the galaxy far, far away feel more interconnected than ever before.
These are five of our favorite Easter eggs from episode 7:
1. Asajj Ventress
While practicing with her lightsabers, Ahsoka Tano watches the last of the 20 or more training videos that Anakin Skywalker made for her during the Clone Wars. Anakin mentions that she will face more than just droids, including General Grievous, Asajj Ventress, and Count Dooku.
Grievous and Dooku are featured prominently in the prequel trilogy films, but this is the first time Ventress has been mentioned in a live-action Star Wars project. As a Sith assassin who trained under and served Dooku, Ventress was introduced in the 2003 Star Wars: Clone Wars micro series. In canon, she is most heavily featured in The Clone Wars series that began in 2008, where she is a frequent adversary for Ahsoka, Anakin, and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
With so many animated characters making their live-action debuts in The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and now Ahsoka, it may only be a matter of time until Ventress comes into live-action. However, it will be challenging to incorporate her into this era since she died in the novel Dark Disciple, which takes place during the Clone Wars.
2. Droids who don’t like the odds
Before they reach the new galaxy, Professor Huyang points out to Ahsoka that they have low odds of finding Sabine Wren as they have no idea whether the purrgil have taken them to the same galaxy, system, or planet where Sabine ended up.
When Ahsoka says she thinks the odds are good, Huyang replies, “No. No, in fact, they’re terrible. Astronomically terrible.” Ahsoka says that Huyang should’ve told her, finally leading him to realize she’s messing with him, which elicits a groan from the droid.
This is clearly inspired from C-3PO famously telling Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back that “The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field are 3,720 to 1.”
C-3PO and Huyang are logical thinkers who know the exact odds stacked against them, but that’s never stopped heroes like Han and Ahsoka from being confident and pushing their luck to survive or save the day. The Easter egg is made even better by C-3PO making a surprise appearance earlier in the episode.
3. Asteroid field/Imperial minefield chase
The episode extends its connections to the asteroid field chase from The Empire Strikes Back with Ahsoka and Huyang having to navigate an Imperial minefield and being pursued by enemy ships.
While Han, Leia Organa, C-3PO, and R2-D2 briefly found refuge inside the giant space slug known as an exogorth, Ahsoka and Huyang briefly find refuge inside the bones of the deceased purrgil that circle Peridea.
Han and company left their hiding spot after realizing they were inside of a giant creature, while Ahsoka and Huyang are forced to leave after being located by the Great Mothers’ dark magick.
4. The Inquisitorial database
As an individual who needs to intimately understand his enemies in order to defeat them, Grand Admiral Thrawn requires more information about Ahsoka. Morgan Elsbeth provides this information to Thrawn through everything recorded about the Jedi in the Inquisitorial database.
This refers to a database of information maintained by the Inquisitors, an organization of Force-sensitive individuals who served Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader during the Empire’s reign. The Inquisitors’ primary tasks were to hunt down and kill surviving Jedi and to find and kidnap Force-sensitive children.
The Inquisitors were first introduced into Star Wars canon through the Grand Inquisitor as he hunted Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus in Star Wars Rebels Season 1. Even after the Grand Inquisitor’s death, these dark side users continued to be a threat in Rebels, with Ahsoka, Ezra, and Kanan having to face the Fifth Brother, the Seventh Sister, and the Eighth Brother throughout season 2.
Since Rebels, the Inquisitors have been further developed in many stories, including the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, the novel Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade by Delilah Dawson, and the video games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
5. Sabine’s earlier training
When Sabine mentions to Ezra that Ahsoka took her on as an apprentice, he is at first surprised, but then acknowledges that “You trained a little before, back when I was first learning.” This refers to the Star Wars Rebels season 3 episode “Trials of the Darksaber,” in which Sabine trains to master the Darksaber under the tutelage of Kanan.
Kanan trained Ezra to be a Jedi, and Ezra helped some with Sabine’s training in that episode as well. This Easter egg is not only a good callback to Star Wars Rebels but also emphasizes that while Sabine’s Jedi path was initially a surprise for fans and for certain characters, it is certainly not unprecedented given Sabine’s history of training with Jedi.