How Ahsoka Introduces a Fan-Favorite Star Wars Rebels Character
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Ahsoka episode 3.
Following a premiere that drew 14 million views and a second episode that set the scene for where the season appears to be headed, Ahsoka‘s third episode delivered the kind of action-packed space combat sequence that fans have come to expect from a Star Wars property.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]But before Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) found themselves in a frenzied starship dogfight with Shin (Ivanna Sakhno) and Marrok (Paul Darnell) above the planet Seatos, General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) had her own high-stakes mission to accomplish.
Titled “Time to Fly,” the third episode saw Hera go to work trying to convince the New Republic Senate that Imperial loyalists had a dangerous new cause to rally behind, the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), one of the Empire’s top commanders. Hera ultimately failed to get approval to send a task force to the Denab system to investigate what former Imperial Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) was up to on Seatos, but she at least got to reunite with her son, Jacen Syndulla (Evan Whitten), after the meeting.
Read more: How Ahsoka‘s First Two Episodes Set Up a Long-Awaited Star Wars Story
Who is Jacen Syndulla?
First introduced in the animated Star Wars series Rebels, Jacen Syndulla is the son of Hera and the late Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus. Prior to Kanan’s death in the series’ final season, he and Hera functioned as the de facto parental figures of the found family that was the Ghost crew, a small rebel cell that primarily operated off of the Outer Rim planet Lothal and whose activities drew the attention of Thrawn ahead of the Galactic Civil War.
After Kanan sacrificed himself to ensure Hera, Ezra, and Sabine could safely escape the Empire’s clutches, it was revealed in Rebels’ series finale that Hera was pregnant with their child. A flash-forward at the end of the episode showed a young Jacen helping Hera to pilot the Ghost.
Jacen’s introduction in Ahsoka episode 3 is brief, but not without meaning. After learning that his “Aunt Sabine” is again training with Ahsoka, Jacen tells his mom that he wants to become a Jedi. The declaration appears to cause Hera some grief, presumably because it reminds her of what happened to Kanan.
What happens to Jacen Syndulla?
Jacen’s fate has yet to be revealed in Star Wars canon. However, before Disney bought Lucasfilm and made the sequel trilogy with Kylo Ren, the name that Han and Leia’s son Ben Solo takes on after falling to the Dark Side, Jacen Solo was the name of Han and Leia’s son (who also falls to the Dark Side) in the now-non-canon Star Wars Legends books.
This has led some fans to speculate that Jacen Syndulla will eventually attend Luke Skywalker’s Jedi training academy alongside Ben Solo and potentially meet a devastating end when Ben kills off his fellow students on the road to becoming Kylo Ren.