Ahsoka’s heroes and villains will have a profound impact on the New Republic era, but where were they duringStar Wars’original trilogy? As part of the so-called Mandoverse on Disney+,Ahsokaseason 1 is set in approximately 11ABY, 11 years after the Battle of Yavin when the first Death Star was destroyed in the originalStar Warsmovie (later retitledA New Hope). ButAhsokaisn’t just a Mandoverse show – it also functions as a direct sequel toStar Wars Rebels, which was set between 5BBY and 1BBY, a few years before the Rebel Alliance managed to destroy the first Death Star.
As such, many ofAhsoka’s most important characters were first introduced inStar Wars Rebels, making the jump from animation to live-action. Those who fought alongside the Rebellion as part of the Ghost Crew, including Sabine Wren, Hera Syndulla, and Ezra Bridger, would go on to have an important role to play in the Galactic Civil War. Others, like the villain Grand Admiral Thrawn, one of the Empire’s most fearsome and cunning tacticians, were thankfully taken off the board before they could aid the Empire in their fight against the Rebellion’s forces when it truly mattered.
ThoughAhsokadoesn’t outright confirm where most of its characters were during the originalStar Warstrilogy, there’s plenty to infer fromStar Wars Rebels’epilogue,Ahsoka’s dialogue,Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, and more. WhereAhsoka’s characterswere during such a pivotal time may be able to tell us more about where they’re going whenAhsokareturns for season 2.
The Star Wars Timeline Explained, Completely & Succinctly
The Star Wars timeline is only going to get more expansive as the franchise continues, making it more necessary than ever to explore every era.
8Ahsoka Tano
Ahsoka disappeared just before Star Wars' original trilogy
Given Ahsoka Tano’s prominent presence in theStar Warsfranchise since her introduction inStar Wars: The Clone Wars, it’s a shame she didn’t have a role in the original trilogy’s storyline. The real-world reason for this was, of course, that she simply hadn’t been created yet – even her Master, Anakin Skywalker, wasn’t a fully formed character at that point. Yet, despite her absence, Ahsoka did have a role to play in the Rebel Alliance.
As revealed byStar Wars Rebels, Ahsoka joined the Rebellion under the code name Fulcrum after surviving Order 66, acting as an informant for the Rebellion and communicating with various Rebel cells. When she met fellow survivor Kanan Jarrus and his Padawan, Ezra Bridger, she decided to take a more hands-on approach, joining them and the rest of the Ghost Crew on several missions. This led to her eventual mysterious disappearance, which accounts for her absence during most of the Galactic Civil War.
InStar Wars Rebelsseason 2, Ahsoka, Ezra, and Kanan travel to the planet Malachor, hoping to find answers about the mysterious Sith religion. There, they eventually encounter Darth Vader, and Ahsoka, sensing something familiar about the mysterious villain, stays behind to fight him so that Ezra and Kanan can get away safely. Ahsoka recognizes that Vader is her former Master, and the two become locked in a duel while the Sith Temple crumbles around them. Though Vader escaped, there was no word on what happened to Ahsoka, and Ezra, Kanan, and the rest of the Rebellion essentially thought she was “missing in action.”
Later, inStar Wars Rebelsseason 4, Ezra accesses a mysterious place called the World Between Worlds, a dimension that connects all space and time through the Force. Ezra “saves” Ahsoka’s life, and though she re-enters the timeline right after her duel with Darth Vader, little else has been revealed about her movements after that moment.
ConsideringStar Wars Rebelsseason 2 takes place in 4BBY, that’s a lot of time unaccounted for, thoughAhsokadid reveal that, in line with theStar Wars Rebelsepilogue– which takes place just after 4ABY andReturn of the Jedi–Ahsoka eventually located the Mandalorian Sabine Wren, took her on as a Padawan, and set out on a mission to find Ezra Bridger, who had by then gone missing himself.
7Sabine Wren
Sabine Wren remained loyal to Star Wars Rebels' Ghost Crew
In theStar Wars Rebelsseries finale, Sabine helped Ezra, the rest of the Ghost Crew and their allies defeat Grand Admiral Thrawn, liberating Ezra’s homeworld of Lothal from the clutches of the Empire. The finale takes place in 1ABY, shortly before the destruction of the Death Star.
Though Sabine was an integral member of the Rebellion due to her work with the Ghost Crew, she wasn’t keen on becoming a ranking member of the wider Rebel Alliance, and as such stayed on Lothal after their final battle, keeping her promise to Ezra by keeping watch over the planet.
At some point, she was joined by Ahsoka to find Ezra – as was teased byRebels’ epilogue - and became a Jedi Padawan.Ahsokaimplied that this happened just after the Purge of Mandalore, which the recently released gameStar Wars Outlawsconfirmed took place in 3ABY. It’s unclear how much time Ahsoka and Sabine spent together before they went their separate ways.Ahsokaretconned some aspects ofRebels’epilogue, so it’s tough to assign a date to every moment between theRebelsfinale andAhsoka.
6Hera Syndulla
Hera was an integral part of the Rebel Alliance
Hera Syndulla’s trajectory during the time of the original trilogy is a little easier to trace. TheStar Wars Rebelsepilogue makes it clear that, following the Ghost Crew’s success in Lothal,Hera was eventually made a General of the Rebel Alliance and joined the fight against the Empire in the Battle of Endor.The Battle of Endor inReturn of the Jeditook place in 4ABY. Presumably, between 1BBY and 4ABY, Hera continued to fight for the Rebellion while the rest of the Ghost Crew went their separate ways.
Additionally, theRebelsepilogue reveals that Hera Syndulla also had a baby shortly after the liberation of Lothal. She had been in a romantic relationship with the Jedi Kanan Jarrus before he sacrificed himself to save her, Ezra, and Sabine Wren from a fuel tank explosion inStar Wars Rebelsseason 4. Her son, Jacen Syndulla, was also present inAhsoka, and will presumably (and hopefully) have a bigger role in the coming season.
5Ezra Bridger
Ezra sacrificed everything to defeat Grand Admiral Thrawn
Ezra Bridger is no ordinary Jedi. Born when the Empire first rose to power, Ezra was discovered by Kanan and the Ghost Crew on Lothal in 5BBY and taken in by them so that he could train as Kanan’s Padawan. Without the structure of the Jedi Order, both Kanan and Ezra navigated their roles as Jedi in a new way, exploring their gifts and relationships with their friends as freely as the oppression of the Empire would allow. One of Ezra’s gifts was his incredible ability to connect with other creatures, otherwise known as the “taming beasts” ability, which he used to great effect during the final battle for Lothal in theRebelsseries finale.
Having made contact with the purrgil,Star Wars’hyperspace-traversing whales (who made their live-action debut inAhsoka, too), Ezra instructed them to capture Grand Admiral Thrawn and his Star Destroyer and take them into exile. Ezra was still on board – he had to be to prevent Thrawn’s escape – and sacrificed his future with his friends and family for the good of Lothal and the wider galaxy.
As revealed byAhsoka,Thrawn and Ezra ended up on Peridea, a Force-rich planet located in a secondary galaxy.At some point, Ezra managed to evade Thrawn’s wrath and became friends with the Noti, a peaceful nomadic society of turtle-like creatures who took him in and treated him as one of their own. That’s how Ezra managed to survive all those years until Ahsoka and Sabine finally managed to locate him inAhsoka.
4Huyang
When did Ahsoka reunite with Huyang?
Huyang is one ofStar Wars’ oldest characters, having been around since the early days of the Jedi Order. During the Clone Wars, Huyang taught Jedi younglings how to construct their lightsabers, working as a historian and researcher for the Order. As such, Huyang would have been an incredibly valuable resource after the fall of the Jedi, not just to the Empire but to any surviving members of the Order, too. It’s no wonder Ahsoka sought Huyang out at some point in the aftermath of Order 66; the only question is how he survived the Jedi’s genocide.
Previously,Screen Ranttheorized that Huyangmay have been part of the Exploration Corps, a branch of the Jedi Order that focused on exploration and archaeological research in the Outer Rim and beyond. This group operated far beyond the reach of the Jedi Temple, and as such may not have even been aware of what was happening on Coruscant and in the wider galaxy inStar Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, explaining why the Empire was never able to track Huyang down.
3Grand Admiral Thrawn
Thrawn was exiled by Ezra Bridger
Thrawn’s story, of course, is very similar to Ezra Bridger’s, though Bridger’s victory over Thrawn on Lothal exposed the General’s one major weakness – he never truly understood what drove the Jedi to protect those who could not protect themselves. He never saw Ezra’s sacrifice coming and was caught unawares by it, resulting in his exile on Peridea.
Though Ezra extricated himself from Thrawn’s grasp once their journey was over, Thrawn clearly began plotting his return.At some point between 1BBY and 11ABY, he made contact with the Great Mothers, three powerful witches with ties to the Nightsisters of Dathomir. Together, they hatched a plan to escape, involving Thrawn’s loyal servant Morgan Elsbeth, who eventually managed to build a ship that could make the journey to another galaxy. What Thrawn and the Great Mothers plan to do now that they’ve returned toStar Wars’ primary galaxy is anyone’s guess, but it can’t be anything good.
2Morgan Elsbeth
Elsbeth was Thrawn’s loyal servant, even after he disappeared
ThoughStar Wars: Tales of the Empirerevealed more about Lady Morgan Elsbeth’s backstory, it’s still unclear what exactly she was doing during the originalStar Warstrilogy. She met Thrawn shortly before his promotion to Grand Admiral, which happened just beforeStar Wars Rebelsseason 3 in 2BBY. Thanks toThe MandalorianandTales of the Empire’s third episode, it’s known that Morgan settled on Corvus at some point before 9ABY, meaning it’s possible she moved there during the original trilogy.
It’s impossible to know when Thrawn and the Great Mothers made contact with Morgan, but it may have happened soon after Thrawn arrived on Peridea.Finding the map to Peridea and building a ship capable of jumping between galaxies would have taken ample time, perhaps even years, enough to keep her busy during the original trilogy. After all, when Ahsoka confronted Morgan inThe Mandalorianseason 2, she already knew that the Nightsister was looking for Thrawn.
1Baylan Skoll & Shin Hati
Baylan and Shin operated as mercenaries for years
As the only two entirely new main characters introduced inAhsoka,Baylan Skoll’s and Shin Hati’spasts are a mystery.Though the series revealed that Skoll was a former Jedi and thus an Order 66 survivor, it didn’t elaborate on his movements after the fall of the Jedi. Presumably, given Skoll made his distaste for war and the cyclical nature of history known to Ahsoka, he became a mercenary soon after the fall of the Empire. He was probably working as such during the time of the original trilogy.
Shin seems to be roughly the same age as Ezra or Sabine. As such, Baylan probably discovered her as a Force-sensitive after the dissolution of the Jedi Order. She accompanied him as his apprentice for years, possibly during and after the time ofStar Wars’ original trilogy, though it’s impossible to know for sure. Hopefully, withAhsokaseason 2 on the way, we’ll learn more about all of these characters and how they survived the Empire’s reign soon enough.
Ahsoka
Cast
Ahsoka follows the journey of former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy. Released in 2023, this series takes place within the Star Wars universe and features Ahsoka navigating through a complex political and cosmic landscape.
