Rebels’ Author Thinks Making Sabine a Jedi Was a Mistake

Ahsoka‘s give attention to the connection between the titular ex-Jedi and her reluctant padawan Sabine was one of the crucial stunning, and but paradoxically irritating points of the collection. On the one hand, it helped broaden Star Wars‘ vision of the Drive, and who may wield it, pushing again on narrow-sighted Jedi doctrines of the prequel period to provide us a Drive-wielding character with extra parallels to Luke’s journey with the Drive throughout the unique trilogy. On the opposite, for as a lot as a few of these Jedi doctrines had been pushed again on in making Sabine Drive delicate, on the finish of the day, Ahsoka turned grasp and apprentice into just about the identical type of Jedi we already had, with the identical type of instructing strategies and understandings—instructing strategies we’ve spent the prequel period engaging with the failings of, and being instructed within the sequel period that they must be let go of to permit a brand new era of Jedi, free from the Order’s dogma, to really flourish.

However one author who helped form Sabine’s journey in Rebels disagrees that it ought to’ve ever occurred within the first place.

“It was completely not the plan… we actually felt that not solely did it step on Ezra’s story… it was a weak retread, we already did this,” mirrored Henry Gilroy, a senior author and government producer on Star Wars Rebels, in a recent episode of Pod of Riot, the Rebels forged’s personal rewatch podcast series. In keeping with Gilroy, the potential of Sabine discovering her Drive sensitivity was an concept floated throughout Rebels, however in the end dismissed by the writing crew. “The thought of Sabine coaching as a Jedi when she is already this unbelievable warrior of her personal sort, we felt like, ‘That is overkill.’”

Sabine undergoes a parallel to Ezra’s personal Jedi tutelage in Rebels when she has to wrestle with the mantle of the Darksaber, the traditional Mandalorian lightsaber that grew to become a legendary image of the suitable to rule Mandalore—making an attempt to reconcile her personal trauma referring to the work she did within the course of, work that in the end allowed the Empire to oppress her folks as a scholar at its army academies. However though she trains to wield the weapon, she in the end passes it on to others to steer the Mandalorians… so think about Gilroy’s shock then when Ahsoka comes alongside and Sabine’s swinging a lightsaber round once more.

“I had nothing to do with the Ahsoka collection, so I used to be shocked,” Gilroy continued. “What I like concerning the story with the Darksaber is that you simply don’t need to be a Jedi to have Jedi beliefs… I believe that’s what’s actually the extra necessary factor, moderately than Drive pushing Ezra 100 ft when she’s by no means used the Drive earlier than.”

Though Gilroy does elevate some attention-grabbing factors, his commentary additionally serves as a problem Star Wars has by and enormous struggled to grapple with in recent times, particularly as storytelling inside the galaxy far, far-off slowly strikes additional into the post-originals, post-sequels period: the separation of what it means to be a Jedi from a philosophical and ethical standpoint, and what it means to be a Jedi in taking up the mantle as a follower of the Jedi Order as an establishment.

The afterglow of the prequels and their very own nascent commentary on the Order’s twilight has seen much Star Wars ink spilled on the profound failures and flaws that allowed it to be subsumed by Palpatine’s machinations: a legacy of institutional rot and dogmatic busybodying that blinded the sunshine of the Jedi’s most profound beliefs as a power for good. However on the identical time, we’ve got seen Star Wars‘ heroes—even some like Ahsoka Tano herself, a sufferer of the Order’s most profound flaws—and the broader franchise itself wrestle with making an attempt to revive the Jedi and both seeing them making the identical errors or not being keen sufficient but to make the excellence between Jedi beliefs and Jedi Order doctrine and make that separation.

Perhaps with time, that can change. Ahsoka season two will see Ahsoka and Sabine carefully bonded as soon as extra, and the potential for that dialogue between them to come up. Sooner or later we’re nonetheless meant to get a film about Rey making an attempt to revive a brand new Jedi Order, and see how she blends the teachings she realized from Luke’s failures with the traditional texts she helped protect after his loss of life. No matter imaginative and prescient of being a Jedi Star Wars finally takes on going ahead, a separation between it and what as soon as was arguably implies that we’ll want extra characters following in Sabine’s footsteps, and serving to to broaden the franchise’s understanding of the Force within the course of.

Need extra io9 information? Try when to count on the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and all the things you could learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.