Editor’s Note: Below are spoilers for episodes 1 and 2 of Ahsoka.
- The orb obtained by Ahsoka Tano at the Arcana holds the key to finding the exiled Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn in Ahsoka.
- Sabine Wren and Morgan Elsbeth can open the orb, revealing a map showing their location.
- Ahsoka and her companions must follow the tracks and connect the dots to catch up with Elsbeth, who has the upper hand on the journey to find Thrawn and Ezra.
Another star Wars, another card for someone important. In the first two episodes Ahsokaorb received by Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) on the planet Arcana holds the key to finding the place of Ezra Bridger’s exile (Eman Esfandi) and Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). The object is difficult to understand, but Sabina Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) can open it at two different times, giving some idea of how it works, as well as how bumpy the trip to the edge of the galaxy will be.
However, it is inevitable to note how star Wars loves the “card for someone” MacGuffin. Ahsoka perhaps the most anticipated series in the franchise since The Mandalorianand uses the same plot device to set the narrative in motion as The Force Awakens made with a map to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). This is bad? Well, not necessarily, as long as everything is properly designed. The movie did well and was cathartic when Rei (Daisy Ridley) finds Luke in the last scene. Now, based on the first episodes, Ahsoka knows what to do with Ezra and Thrawn’s card.
How does the card work in Ahsoka?
Trailers to Ahsoka show many shots of the main character fighting droids in the white ruins of the city. In the series premiere, the site is revealed to have been a fortress built by the Nightsisters of Dathomir on the planet Arcana. Ahsoka receives the orb in a room full of runes and opens it by gently applying force to three key pillars. The Nightsisters were an order of Force-sensitive females, so it makes sense that the device they created would require the Force, right? They just didn’t take into account the Sabine Wren factor.
Later in the episode, on Lothal, a Mandalorian proto-hacker is working on the orb and has finally cracked it. She uses the drawing of the chamber of the Nightsisters where the orb was in the Arcana, and determined the pattern of the runes by aligning the lines on the orb to match them. A projection then comes to life, pointing to a point distant from where she is, but apparently still visible in the sky, when she goes outside to look for it through binoculars. Unfortunately, Shin Hachi (Ivanna Sakhno) arrives with his droids and steals the orb from Sabina, leaving her injured after the duel.
In the second episode, we see another way to open the orb. On the planet Siathos Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and Shin, his Padawan, gives Morgan Elsbeth an orb, and she begins to open it on a specially designed platform, which Balan calls a “reflex point”. It is then that Elsbeth reveals that she used to be a Nightsister and uses her “magic” (as the Nightsisters call their powers of the Force) to access the information in the sphere. The reflex point becomes a kind of planetarium, projecting a known galaxy in the center and drawing a straight line to another distant celestial object. In this place on the edge of the universe, Thrawn and Ezra can most likely be found.
How can the characters get to where the map points?
Although they both opened the map close to each other in time, Morgan Elsbeth has a significant advantage over Ahsoka and Sabina due to her droids destroying Sabina’s records on Lothal. So, when Elsbeth is already at the reflex point of Siathos, Ahsoka and Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) are forced to follow the tracks and connect the dots to catch on. However, it is only fitting that Sabina and Elsbeth will open the card differently, as they are chasing different people and pursuing different goals.
It is important to note that this map is not really a map, but rather a compass, as it indicates the direction in which to go. And it’s a long way. The straight line drawn by the compass between the known galaxy and Thrawn’s location is a long one. We know how Thrawn and Ezra got there - at the end rebelsThe Jedi called in the murrgils, a type of hyperspace-traveling space whale we also saw in The Mandalorianto take them from Lothal and wherever the murrgils go. But that was a long time ago, what now?
Morgan Elsbeth is working on her own ship to take her there, the Eye of Sidon. This is a huge ring-shaped structure, equipped with engines, which must make a hyperspace journey to the destination marked on the map. As for Ahsoka, Sabina, and Hera, we’ll have to wait and see. But if Ezra, the Jedi, was once able to summon a purrgil to help, it wouldn’t be surprising if Ahsoka could do the same. Who knows? She may even need guidance from her old master…
What dangers lie ahead on the way to Thrawn and Ezra?
Not only is the line between the known galaxy and the marked location very long, but there is nothing between the two locations. This does not necessarily mean that there is nothing there, just that the map shows what is important to know: where it was discovered and where it leads. However, many threats can lurk along the way. When Morgan Elsbeth opens the map of Siathos, Balan Skoll looks at the line she drew and calls it “the path to Peridea”. It’s an old tale, a bedtime story that was told to the younglings in the Jedi Temple, but about which we know little. But if there is any folklore around it at all, we can bet it’s not just a long straight line.
Since we’re talking about Thrawn, he himself hails from a region outside the known galaxy, the Chiss Advances. This is a state similar to the Republic or the Empire, with many planetary systems inhabited by blue-skinned and red-eyed Chiss. However, there is a reason Ascension is not part of the known galaxy. It is located in what is now known as the “Uncharted Regions”, but they call it “Chaos”. This is a corner of the Universe of deep instability, in which it is almost impossible to navigate. The Chiss mastered Chaos using a class of Force-sensitive pilots they aptly refer to as “skywalkers”, who are capable of flying a ship in hyperspace but not in a straight line. In the book Thrawn: Alliances, We even see Darth VaderJames Earl Jones) himself “walks the sky”, a rather useful moment, even if we are talking about a bloodthirsty Sith Lord.
Perhaps our ragtag group of heroes need to learn how to walk the sky, as Ahsoka herself has the Force and learned from another powerful Force user who used to walk the sky. Or maybe the answer to this question is the murrgils, as they were many years ago. Or maybe they’ll even call for help from a cunning old space pirate. One thing’s for sure: it’s going to be a hell of a trip.
Source: Collider
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