Star Wars: Ahsoka has once again given the nod to its roots as the latest installment features more links to the animated series, with the episode’s big reveal harkening back to a story arc and characters from that collection of shows.
While Star Wars: Ahsoka is technically a spin-off of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, where the titular character first made her live-action debut, it has had a much deeper and more meaningful connection to the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels series, a connection that showrunner Dave Filoni confirmed in advance of the series debut on Disney+. Fans were also quick to point out the many plot threads, easter eggs, and returning characters that linked Star Wars: Ahsoka to its animated predecessors right from its premiere.
In the latest addition to the growing list of inclusions to the show that reinforces the idea that Star Wars: Ahsoka isn't actually welcoming to new fans after all, the fourth episode of Star Wars: Ahsoka gave fans the death of the former Inquisitor Marrok, who became an instant hit due to his silent yet deadly air of mystique, cool looking armor and intimidating double-sided lightsaber. Additionally, after being bested by the more experienced Ahsoka Tano, Marrok releases a thick green mist from within his enigmatic armor that immediately tells fans of The Clone Wars that the fallen warrior is one of the NIghtbrothers of Dathomir. The fight ended relatively quickly, but the information given by the resultant death scene is yet another callback to the animated series.
The prominence of the Inquisitors, a group of Sith acolytes that served the Emperor and Darth Vader in the capacity of Jedi hunters, was built up and made canon by Star Wars: Rebels, which saw the main cast and Ahsoka herself tangle with them on more than one occasion. Marrok being a previously unknown former Inquisitor was a prominent part of the character’s promotion surrounding the character in the leadup to the series’ debut. Furthermore, the lore surrounding Dathomir, the Nightbrothers, and the oppressive matriarchal society that they occupied was established and satisfyingly explored in the animated masterpiece Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
While Marrok was certainly seen by fans as a more long-term addition to the Star Wars cast, in no small part due to his impressive design, the character was always destined to be killed off to align with the canon disappearance of the Inquisitorius within the life cycle of the Empire. With that in mind, using his death as a callback to Dathomir, the fictional Star Wars planet that the sinister Maul hails from, as well as linking him to the NIghtsister ritual that gave Maul’s brother Savage Oppress his fierce strength, not only gives older fans some exciting points to discuss but also elevates Ahsoka’s victory over the warrior enhanced by dark side magick.
More so than anything else, Star Wars: Ahsoka seems to have become a vehicle for bringing parts of the lore that the showrunners admire or want to cast a light on, such as the addition of Purrgils to the series or when it doubled down on one controversial lore point from the Sequel Trilogy. While this approach has certainly worked in the opening parts of the show, it might very well prove to be the undoing for it, as newer fans decline the required reading (or watching) and instead tune out of the series despite a real interest in getting into it.
Star Wars: Ahsoka is available for streaming on Disney+.