Thrawn Declares War in First Look at Ahsoka Season 2

A look at the first trailer for Star Wars: Ahsoka Season 2

In 2027, Star Wars will celebrate its 50th birthday, and I have no doubt that both Disney and fans alike are already gearing up to celebrate throughout the year. At first, I thought that the opening act to this year of Star Wars was going to be the theatrical re-release of the original version of the original film. However, it seems that that this no longer the case. On January 20th, 2027, the second season of Ahsoka will premiere on Disney+, and we just got our first look at it at D23. While I know how mixed reactions were to the first season, after looking at the trailer, I think that this new one will end up being an improvement.

Guess Who’s Back?

Since it’s been a while, here’s a quick refresher on where our main characters were when we last saw them. After traveling to another galaxy via Purgill, Ahsoka and Sabine tried to stop the exiled Grand Admiral Thrawn from returning to their galaxy. Unfortunately, they failed, leaving them, the droid Huyang, former Jedi Baylan Skoll, and Skoll’s apprentice Shin, stranded in Peridea. The only upside is that Ezra Bridger managed to escape exile with Thrawn and reunited with Hera, his adoptive mother figure.

Did I mention that Thrawn’s back?

Thrawn is back!

I’ve talked about Thrawn several times on The Game of Nerds. I call him the ‘Hannibal of Star Wars‘ for a reason. In both versions of canon, he came dangerously close to destroying the heroes of the stories he was in. The only reason he even lost was because Ezra and his allies came up with a plan so crazy, not even Thrawn could predict it. Yet as we see in the trailer, he’s not wasting any time getting down to business, sending an open message telling everyone that he’s back. And his first order of business: declaring war on the Rebel Alliance.

Note how he says ‘Rebel Alliance’ and not ‘New Republic.’ Most of the galaxy acknowledges the legitimacy of the New Republic after beating the Empire. Yet in either version of canon, Thrawn continues to refer to it as the Rebellion or Rebel Alliance. That’s not just him being arrogant; it’s him showing how he still considers the Empire the rightful rulers of the galaxy and the New Republic criminals. It’s clearly meant to be a psychological attack on the New Republic, most of whom wanted to believe Thrawn was dead. They were wrong. He’s back, he’s got a fleet, an army, and worse, new allies.

At the end of the first season, we saw Thrawn bring his ship into orbit above Dathomir, home of the Nightsisters. For years, we were under the impression that most of the Nightsisters were wiped out during the Clone Wars. However, during the first season of Ahsoka, we learned that a.) the Nightsisters were natives of the galaxy of Peridea, and b.) a coven of them still lived there. Thrawn has brought them with him, and judging by the havoc they wreak, they are as dangerous as ever as they join the fighting. They’re not the only allies, though.

The Empire will Rally to Thrawn

If you recall, in Season Three of The Mandalorian, we learned about the existence of the Shadow Council. To the public, they’re just a bunch of warlords trying to hold onto what’s left of the Empire. In secret, though, they’re a cabal working to restore the Empire. Moff Gideon was a member of the Council before he met his end, but the ostensible leader is supposed to be Thrawn. He’s been represented by his proxy, Captain Pellaeon, but now that he’s back, he’s going to take direct control.

I don’t think it can be overstated just how bad this is. Even after Endor, the Empire still had the Rebellion outnumbered and outgunned. They could’ve crushed them. The only reason that didn’t happen is because without Darth Sidious, the Empire began to turn on itself like rapid lothwolves, making them easy pickings for the New Republic. With Thrawn back, though, the Shadow Council can unite its resources. Hence why we see several scenes where the Empire is openly slugging it out with the Republic.

Speaking of which…

Why did they have to neuter the New Republic?

Thanks to how Disney has handled Star Wars in the time leading up to the Sequels, we know just how incompetent the New Republic ends up becoming. It’s incredibly frustrating to see how Disney neutered the majority of the faction that’s supposed to be the good guys. And like I said before, and as we saw in the first season of Ahsoka, most of them weren’t willing to believe Thrawn could be back. Hera was sounding the alarm, and got in trouble for it. Now her warnings are vindicated and she’s probably the only person in any position to fight Thrawn head-on.

Hera won’t be alone leading the charge, though. Thanks to Ezra’s return from exile, most of the members of the Ghost crew have reunited. During the trailer, we get a moment where Ezra gets to see Zeb again after almost ten years, and it looks to be a very heartfelt reunion. More importantly, though, the trailer shows that Ezra is going to be playing an active role in the fight against Thrawn, piloting a starfighter into battle, and fighting on what looks to be Dathomir against Thrawn’s Night Troopers.

Now, Ezra has been away from the Galaxy for ten years, and is only now getting caught up on what happened in that time. So, I’m looking forward to seeing how Ezra will fit into this new galaxy. What will his relationship be like with the higher-ups at the New Republic? Will they treat him like the hero he is or see him as a problem like they do with Hera? And what his status as a Jedi? Will that eventually lead him to Luke, who’s trying to rebuild the Jedi? Most importantly, though, I want to see how he’ll interact with Jacen. I’m betting that their relationship will be something like a big brother or uncle, but remember, Jacen is Force-sensitive like his father was. Ezra might end up deciding to teach Jacen to be a Jedi his Kanan taught him, his way of repaying his master and father figure.

And now, we get to the woman herself, Ahsoka Tano.

The story of Ahsoka isn’t over

In order to ensure that Ezra made it back home, Ahsoka and Sabine sacrificed their chance of doing so. As a result, they are stranded in another galaxy with no feasible way of getting home. While they’ve made peace with that, I doubt that they’ve given up on actually trying to find a way home, since they know that what’s happening can’t be good. Most notably, Ahsoka herself says that she’s having visions of war. That means that she’s either remembering her time in the Clone Wars or the Rebellion, she’s seeing what’s happening back home. But before she can go home, she’s still got some issues to work out.

In the first season, Anakin reached out through the Force to help his padawan reconcile with her past, especially in regards to their own relationship. Since then, Anakin has continued to watch over Ahsoka as a Force Ghost. Based on how much he’s in the trailer, it can be safe to say that Anakin will remain a continued presence by her side, offering her advice and trying to help her. Which is awesome, since this means that we will get to see more of Hayden Christensen! While his performance as Anakin in the Prequels was critcized back in the day, the fandom has adopted a more positive view of his role. And since he started reprising the role back in Kenobi, people are saying that he’s gotten better at it.

But even if Ahsoka can find a way home, I don’t think she’s meant to yet. Not with Baylan Skoll still up to something.

Baylan Skoll is in Good Hands with the Hound

Three months before the premiere of Ahsoka, Ray Stevenson, the actor who plays the mysterious Baylan Skoll, tragically passed away at the age of 58. This made his role as Baylan one of his final appearances, and was one that fans especially seemed to love. With his passing, though, came the real possibilty that his storyline would be left unfinished. Recasting a character can often be a touchy subject, as most Star Wars fans know. Fortuntately, it looks like we’re in good hands with Rory McCann as Baylan. I loved his role as the Hound on Game of Thrones and I wish the show hadn’t done Cleganebowl so dirty.

As Ashoka learns from Anakin, Baylan seems to be searching for some kind of power that could help him end wars is somewhere on Peridea. Given how we last saw him looking at statues of the mysterious Ones, a lot of long-time fans, myself included, feared the worst case scenario: he could be looking for Abeloth. If you read my bio on her, then you know that she makes Darth Sidious look like a playground bully. Whether it’s Abeloth or not, though, whatever Baylan’s looking for will be a driving force behind Ahsoka’s (and hopefully Sabine’s) story this season. Plus, there’s the fact that we see Ahsoka teaming up with Baylan’s estranged apprentice, Shin. That will be interesting to look at.

May the Force be With You, Ahsoka Tano

Overall, I think that this new season of Ahsoka has the potential to be a major improvement over the first. I know that Disney scuttled plans for everything in the ‘Mandoverse’ era being tied together in one big movie, but I hope that this makes up for it. At the very least, I want to know where Ahsoka will go from here. I’ve been with her for almost 20 years, and I want to see her story through to the end, when and wherever that may be.

May the Force be with you, always!