Highlights
- The Star Wars franchise is known for providing complex and varied villains, and video games have the potential to bring these battles to life for players.
- Ahsoka's introduction to unique enemies via the regenerating zombie stormtroopers could provide an exciting new adversary for a future Star Wars video game.
- The Ahsoka series and previous Star Wars content featuring Dathomirian magic and undead stormtroopers suggests that these elements could be incorporated into a future game, possibly in the upcoming Star Wars: Outlaws or another title down the road.
If there's one thing that stands out about Star Wars, it's that the franchise has always provided complex villainous forces. From the traceable and evident fall of Anakin Skywalker and the disguised power-seeking Emperor Palpatine to the implacable, tortured Maul and the abandoned Asajj Ventress, there is a plethora of antagonists that wish to bring down the Jedi. These figures make for exciting battles to watch on screen, but the glory of video games brings the fight to the player. Given Ahsoka's introduction to some very unique enemies, there could be a new kind of foe that would make for a great Star Wars video game adversary; the kind that simply won't give up.
Ahsoka has been adamant in providing several kinds of opponents for Ahsoka and Sabine to face, ranging from mysterious Dark Jedi Baylan Skoll to a resurgence of Dathomirian magic from the hands of the Nightsisters. All of these enemies have distinct goals and different tactics, battling with lightsabers or staffs or merely commanding legions. But no one quite expected to see the beloved heroes going face to face with regenerating zombie stormtroopers.
Ahsoka Proves Why Star Wars Should Go Beyond The Jedi And Sith Conflict
Ahsoka sets up a future for Star Wars by going beyond the typical Force-sensitive Jedi and Sith, to serve underrepresented cultures in the galaxy.
Ahsoka's Undead Stormtroopers Are a Mass of Unyielding Foes
There are many Star Wars video games that utilize villains to both expand upon the lore and act as a compelling force of opposition. The infamous Boba Fett starred in an impressive boss battle in Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, while Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order featured several Inquisitors and made for great lightsaber gameplay. And, naturally, there are endless opportunities to battle mindless droid armies or unnamed stormtrooper squadrons, but the inclusion of Ahsoka's demonic stormtroopers within a future game holds the possibility to fight an enemy not yet encountered in any Star Wars video game.
As seen in Ahsoka, it takes skill and a specific target to permanently put an end to these regenerating souls. As per the typical rules for the undead, a powerful blow to the head seems to do the job of keeping the zombies down, most visible when Sabine breaks free from a possessed trooper by igniting her lightsaber into his helmet. It would be very hard to kill them due to their regenerative properties, similar to the Hunter in Dead Space. Additionally, several melee opponents attacking a single player at once would provide for gameplay not typically seen in Star Wars games. The rules aren't entirely outlined for this new opponent, either, and the limitations of the Nightsisters' Dathomirian magic could further be elaborated upon in a future Star Wars video game.
The Ahsoka series isn't the first place Dathomirian magic or zombie stormtroopers have made an appearance in Star Wars. In the third season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the Nightsisters brought their fallen sisters back to life in one last fight against General Grievous. The General managed to put an end to the attack by killing the Nightsister directly regenerating her sisters, which resulted in the undead Nightsisters returning to their soulless state. On the other hand, zombie stormtroopers were first depicted in Joe Schreiber’s 2009 novel Death Troopers when Darth Vader decides to manipulate a Sith virus to reanimate undead troopers, which chase after Han and Chewbacca in a prison barge. The novel is now non-canonical, but because of the Nightsisters' magic, undead stormtroopers are no longer entirely out of the question.
A Star Wars video game titled Star Wars: Outlaws is currently the only Star Wars game in production with a release date set for 2024. Taking place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, this is a perfect window to utilize an alternate form of stormtroopers. Though it is assumed Star Wars: Outlaws is primarily focused on crime syndicates as the main form of antagonists, the game is open-world. It wouldn't be entirely foolish to predict the upcoming game includes Dathomirian witches and resurrected stormtroopers in some side quest on a far planet, though overall it is unlikely they will make a grand appearance in Star Wars: Outlaws. Still, with their unique qualities, undead stormtroopers could show up in a different Star Wars game down the road.