Ahsoka Episode 6 Theory Introduces a Canon-Destroying Star Wars Villain
That galaxy far, far away may contain an eldritch god.
Baylan Skoll has been a mysterious character from day one of Ahsoka. He’s gone from a hooded murder machine, to a master persuader who captured Sabine and brought her to Peridea without a fight, to a philosopher opining on the Jed Order. But it’s still not clear why he’s hanging out with Morgan Elsbeth. As neither Jedi nor Sith, he doesn’t really have a vested interest in Thrawn coming back, and for all the talk of him being a mercenary, he doesn’t exactly seem motivated by money.
In Episode 6, we finally got an inkling of his true agenda: he’s searching for “a new beginning.” But what form will that take? Once Baylan and Shin arrive in the new galaxy, Shin asks exactly how helping Morgan will advance his agenda. “What I seek is the beginning, so I may finally bring this cycle to an end,” he says, referring to the constant power struggle between the Empire and the Republic, the Jedi and the Sith. “And that beginning is here?” Shin asks. “If the old stories are true,” Baylan says.
The Mortis Gods — the Father, the Daughter, and the Son — were once joined by Abeloth the Mother.
So just what could achieve this “beginning” that necessitated schlepping to a whole different galaxy? One theory suggests he could be searching for one of the franchise’s biggest villains: Abeloth. Abeloth, also known as the Bringer of Chaos, was the main baddie of the now non-canonical Fate of the Jedi novels, though she has ties to the modern canon. She was once a benign being of immense power known as the Mother, existing among the Father, the Son, and the Daughter, characters we saw in The Clone Wars who lived in the ethereal Force realm known as Mortis.
But like all the best Star Wars villains, the Mother sought immortality and rebelled against her fellow quasi-deities, which led to her embracing the Dark Side, becoming known as Abeloth, and inhabiting the Maw, the fiery black hole seen in Solo. Long story short, she’s pretty much the closest thing Star Wars has to an evil cosmic god.
Maybe the modern canon has moved Abeloth from the Maw to this neighboring galaxy, which would explain why the Nightsisters are drawn to the area, and why old stories led Baylan to believe there’s something there that could end the struggle between Light and Dark forever. It’s hard to overstate how powerful Abeloth is; we won’t dive into the minutia of Star Wars’ mystical side, but she has the power to unravel the Force itself and eliminate its powers forever. The struggle between Jedi and Sith could end because becoming a Jedi or a Sith would be impossible.
Anakin balances the Daughter (the Light Side) and the Son (the Dark Side) while the Father looks on in The Clone Wars.
Later in the episode, we hear Baylan talk about something “calling” to him. Could that be Abeloth, looking to get back at an entire galaxy? Whatever Baylan’s plan is, it’s lofty enough to involve extragalactic travel. Ahsoka has already brought one Legends villain into live-action with Thrawn. Will Abeloth be the second?
