AreStar Wars‘ Extragalactic Ambitions What They Seem inAhsoka?

This weekAhsokakicked off a unexampled chapter of Star Wars ’ latestquest for a mapto find people — the race between heroes and baddie alike to find out just what happened to Ezra Bridger andGrand Admiral Thrawn . But in throwing out a very specific location , the show has kicked off a bevy of speculation about the reliable threat Ahsoka could herald … but perchance it ’s not the foeman fans think they sleep with .

Why Is Ahsoka Going Outside the Star Wars Galaxy?

Ahsoka ’s three-fold - episode premiereestablishes that it is apparently no longer a mystery as to where Grand Admiral Thrawn was carted off by Ezra Bridger and his space hulk supporter during the Battle of Lothal at the orgasm of Star Wars Rebels . The Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth , plain one of Thrawn ’s closest confidants in the Empire , reveals that Thrawn has been whip out of the Star Wars galaxy , and into another — a piazza name Peridea , a mythical extragalactic system .

Tell any Star Wars fan with a pass familiarity with the old canyon and an undisclosed amount of brain damage the parole “ extragalactic ” and they ’re going to instantly articulate spue one thing at you : the Yuuzhan Vong . Introduced in the late ‘ 90s in the New Jedi Order novel series , the Vong change the case of the Star Wars Expanded Universe forever . Although the EU novels had told story across the galax , the menace ofthe Yuuzhan Vong — a species of fanatic BDSM orcs who could n’t be sensed in the Force , and hated non - bioorganic applied science so much they invaded the Star Wars galaxy from their own contiguous one on a holy warfare — impacted every corner of post - issue of the Jedi fiction in the EU for year and years .

Who Are the Yuuzhan Vong?

The Vong encroachment ravage theImperial Remnantand the New Republic likewise , forcing them to process together as political and military entities in a fashion they previously had n’t , and even finally translate the Republic into the Galactic Alliance after the death of the devastating war . Whole human beings found themselves terraformed by the Vong ’s path through the galaxy , major characters from the movies and the novels alike perished in attempts to halt the tide . unknowingly one of these moments — the destruction of Chewbacca in Vector Prime , where he is literally crushed by a lunation during an early part of the Vong invasion — would go on , ten later , tospur the decisionto completely reformat Star Wars persistence after Disney ’s acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012 . The Vong ’s impact on Star Wars in this era was huge , but also deeply controversial ( BDSM orcs dropped a lunar month ! On Chewbacca ! ) , something that has led the threat of their return to continuity to become something of a jest among fans .

That is , until it very potentially begin looking like it might come about . It was revealed after Clone Wars ’ initial cancellation thatone likely storylinebeing explored for the serial would ’ve catch the Republic encounter a lone Yuuzhan Vong scout ship , bring the species into present-day continuity along the means . And then when the rebooted canon started using everyone from Supreme Leader Snoke and Emperor Palpatine , toGrand Admiral Thrawn , to tee up the musical theme of some mysterious entity take shape in the unnamed Regions of the Star Wars galaxy , devotee were agile to turn to the idea — and the apprehensiveness — of the Vong ’s restitution . But then it did n’t pan out , seemingly . The scourge in the Unknown Regions culminate with The Rise of Skywalker ’s reveal thatSomehow , Palpatine Returned , with nary a crisp orc in mass . That is , until now Ahsoka hurl out that one key word : extragalactic . But what if all the supposition is wrong , as it has been before ? What if it ’s not the Vong that are out there on the nerve pathway to Peridea , but another ancient Star Wars wickedness from the EU ’s past ?

What if it ’s the return of the Rakata , and their Infinite Empire ?

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

Who Are the Rakata?

create for the fabled BioWare video biz seriesKnights of the Old Republicin 2003 , the Rakata were an ancient forerunner society who were , in anterior persistence , one of the first if not the first astronomic civilizations to master hyperspace travel , ten of thousand of years before the event of the game , itself sic thousands of years before the Star Wars motion picture . The Rakata used their technical artistry — and their grasp of the Force , which will become relevant soon — to quickly exposit their dominion over the galaxy , contrive the Infinite Empire as a despotic regime that subjugated almost the entire bonk galax for 10,000 class . A series of national and external factor eventually laid the Rakata low , set the stage for the first Galactic Republic to form after the Empire ’s drop , and for finally the remnants of the Rakatans to tardily disappear into ancient chronicle — and their billet in Star Wars persistence for the most part , cropping up here and there in places like The Old Republic MMORPG .

That is , until the 4th sequence of last year ’s Andor , when an offhand line from Stellan Skarsgård ’s rebel factor Luthen Rael described a kyber lechatelierite necklace he yield to Cassian Andor as collateral on a line of work as being from the time of the “ uprising against Rakatan invader . ” For the first time , the Rakatans had been named on - silver screen in current Star Wars continuity , but it was n’t the first time hints and nod had been given to the species in contemporary canon — the world “ Rakata Prime ” was mentioned in a map include in the Force Awakens ocular dictionary guidebook , a open nod even if in the EU the Rakata occur from a worldly concern called Lehon , which would later get a nod in a loosely canonically valid Millennium Falcon model kit cartridge clip in 2015 .

Have the Rakata Appeared Anywhere Else in Star Wars Canon?

On screen aside from in Andor , Dryden Vos ’ collectionin Solo : A Star Wars Story have a little chest line in the film ’s accompanying optic templet as a Wraith Box , a piece of Rakatan technology that appears inThe Old Republic . And then perhaps most crucially to Ahsoka , in the climax of Star Wars Rebels ’ second season , she , Ezra , and his master Kanan explore the ruining of theancient planet Malachor — itself from the ground events of Knights of the Old Republic ’s sequel , The Sith Lords — which features blink - and - you’ll - miss - it carving of the Infinite Empire ’s primary symbol : a hexangular bipyramid shape reminiscent of the Star Forge , the powerful Rakatan superweapon that toy a major role in the first Knights of the Old Republic .

Suffice to say , although short , the Rakata have been quietly present in the background of current Star Wars canyon in the fashion that the Yuuzhan Vong have not been at all . And beyond in reality being mentioned and cite in recent and Ahsoka - relevant material , there ’s just enough there in those honest-to-goodness EU stories to indicate that perhaps , even though the Rakata were n’t an explicitly extragalactic force like the Vong ( they do from the Unknown Regions , at least ) , there ’s a chance that what Ahsoka is arrange the stage for is n’t the encroachment of the Yuuzhan Vong , but the rise of the Infinite Empire once more . What grounds do we have ? As always with any in particular unhinged Star Wars theory , the answer is as scant as the Rakatan ’s presence in current canon so far is already .

What Evidence Is There for the Rakatan Appearing in Ahsoka?

Visually , there ’s the fact that the Pathway to Peridea sought by Ahsoka and Morgan Elsbeth in Ahsoka ’s premiere sway the same holographic attic style and appearance of Rakatan Star Maps , the military unit - powered maps needed by the player to locate the Star Forge in Knights of the Old Republic . There ’s the fact that Elsbeth herself is a Nightsister , a clan of witches that originated on the satellite Dathomir — itself the ancient base of a Force - sensitive species called the Kwa , who were the beings that taught the Rakatans how to fudge the Force in the first place , setting the stage for their advance . There ’s even hint in the Kwa ’s history that before they made Dathomir their ancient nursing home , they themselves were extra - galactic beings , and had designed their own forms of instantaneous interstellar travel in the Infinity Gates and Star Temples .

The fact thatancient hyperspace routesare key to navigating the extragalactic road to Peridea — and the fact that thenaturally capable Purrgilcould whisk Thrawn and Ezra there in the first station — tie-in into the Rakatan ’s own history with the maturation of hyperspace technology as one of its innovator . And then there ’s the longshot among all these other long blastoff : Elsbeth ’s multi - hyperdrive vessel being built to traverse the breadth between galaxies is called the Eye of Sion — a name that ca n’t be anything but a pointed reference toKnights of the Old Republic II ’s villain Darth Sion , an ancient warrior kept immortal by his own rage who was part of the Sith Triumvirate that operated on … the planet Malachor V , the world that would be simply holler Malachor when it was re - introduced into persistence in Star Wars Rebels — and suddenly littered with denotation to the Infinite Empire .

It should be stressed that all of the above is based on some truly wild speculation . It can not be stressed enough , in fact , that this regard a grasping at straws so obtuse and dense to even more diehard Star Wars fans that it would frankly be harebrained for Ahsoka to even touch it , such as it is the series alreadyfaces the struggleof havingto onboard audiencesthat are unfamiliar with fundamental school text to its chronicle in Clone Wars and Rebels . Even as it brushes on the edges of these possible threats in going beyond the Star Wars galaxy that make nods to classical Star Wars canon long lose , we ’re arguably far more likely to be in for the same situation we ’ve been in in recent eld any time there ’s been supposition of the Yuuzhan Vong ’s return , whether it ’s actually them or not : Star war reach broad allusion to some sheer , fascinatingly trouble deep cuts and then simply decide to doThe Empire , Again .

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

prison term will tell . But in the lag , there ’s fun to be had in the pandemonium along the pathway , is there not ?

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Image: Chris Trevas/Del Rey