Summary
The following contains spoilers forAhsokaepisode 6The latest episode ofAhsokaon Disney Plus continued the series trend of raising the stakes seemingly every week. This time, it introduced an intimidating army of new foes with the Night Troopers. But their whole deal may not be as new to theStar Warsworldas some might think.
Ahsokaepisode 6 finally saw the long-awaited live-action debut of both Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) after they were last seen over 5 years ago during the finale ofStar Wars Rebels. Those weren’t the only huge developments seen in the episode, however. No, this isn’t aboutAhsoka’s potential answer to Baby Yoda. It’s about that legion of grody-looking stormtroopers seen serving under Thrawn when the Grand Admiral made his fittingly extra entrance. They could very well be a continuation of an idea seen in a belovedStar Warsgame.
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As pointed out byPolygon,Ahsokatakes several opportunities to hint that there’s something very “off” about the Night Troopers. For one, their cult-like devotion to Thrawn seems to border on instinctual, kind of like a horde of single-minded zombies. In fact, that seems to be the entire idea, especially given the presence of the Nightsisters, who are now revealed to have come from the planet of Peridea in its faraway galaxy. Fans of the gameStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderwill immediately recognize the idea of fighting undead enemies reanimated by Nightsister magic.
InFallen Order, thevideo game Jedi Cal Kestisspent a decent chunk of the game on Dathomir fighting against waves of long-dead Nightsisters brought back into a shambling half-life by Merrin, one of the last of her kind. Instantly notable about these particular enemies was their complete focus on defeating one enemy: Cal. The same thing happened inThe Clone Warsanimated series, when the Nightsisters brought back their dead to help defend against the Separatists in the Battle of Dathomir, despite ultimately being defeated. Granted, making an undead army promise loyalty to Thrawn is more complex than “go attack that dude.” But the Nightsisters on Peridea have admittedly had a while to hone their skills, and it’s not like they have phones to pass the time.
Ahsoka’s new outlook for Jediclearly wasn’t its only new bombshell this week. To further push the undead soldier idea, one notable scene saw Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) speak with Thrawn about transporting some cargo for him after she’d traversed galaxies to find him. When the cargo started loading in, viewers were shocked to see that it clearly looked like a bunch of coffins. Does that mean Thrawn and the Nightsisters intend to unleash an undead army upon the galaxy?
It would certainly add tothe scariness of Grand Admiral Thrawn. But long-time fans might think it goes against the version of the character they’ve known since the Expanded Universe days, who was only loyal to the Empire for his own goals. What exactly is Thrawn’s endgame here?Ahsokahas 2 more episodes to reveal that to the fans. Or maybe this one will be saved for that upcomingStar Warsmovie fromAhsokacreator Dave Filoni. Only time will tell.
