Ahsoka's Nightsisters Are Bringing More Than Thrawn Back To The Galaxy
This post contains spoilers for "Ahsoka" episode 6, "Far, Far Away."
"Ahsoka" is delving into the origins of one of the most interesting factions in the "Star Wars" galaxy: the Dathmiri. This race of space witches made their first live-action appearance in "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" through the presence of Darth Maul, a Nightbrother of Dathomir who became the Sith apprentice to Darth Sidious (Emperor Palpatine) and was enjoying a nice successful career in the dark side until he was rudely cut in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi. (We'll get back to Maul in a moment.)
Episode 6, "Far, Far Away," reveals that the Dathmiri actually came to that galaxy far, far away from another galaxy far, far away. Their true home is Peridea, a grim planet whose rings are made up of the disintegrating bones of dead star whales. Peridea is the other end of the purrgils' migration path, and the witches who live on the planet were, according to Morgan Elsbeth, "among the first to harness and ride the creatures in the days before time was counted," which is what brought them to the "Star Wars" galaxy we're most familiar with.
Now that he has a ride back home, Thrawn is bringing more than just his remaining army of stormtroopers (who have been given a makeover on Peridea, and are referred to in the subtitles as "night troopers"). His return from exile will have to wait for a few days while mysterious "cargo" is transported from the catacombs of Peridea onto Thrawn's ship, the Chimaera. What could Thrawn possibly be planning for his new bid to retake the galaxy for the Imperial Remnant? Two words:
Zombie army
If you haven't seen any of the animated "Star Wars" series, you'd probably assume that Darth Maul died in "The Phantom Menace," and his story ended there. But in the animated series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and "Star Wars Rebels," Maul returned as one of the main villains. He survived what should have been a death blow, thanks in part to the dark magick that all of the Dathmiri possess, which flows through their veins and is soaked into the surface of their home planet, Dathomir.
The Nightsisters of Dathomir have a more casual relationship with death than most people. When a Separatist droid army was dispatched to massacre the population of Dathomir in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," the Nightsisters retaliated by using their dark magick to raise an army of the dead. Those who played "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order" will also have encountered the Nightsister Zombies. They're described in the game's glossary as being "hostile to all life except their Nightsister masters" and attacking "in frenzied swarms."
While Nightsister zombies are certainly formidable in numbers (not to mention being rather scary), they're only reanimated corpses, seemingly devoid of any thoughts or powers of their own. Perhaps that's why their use in the defense of Dathomir was ultimately unsuccessful: the zombies fell when their master was killed, and the Separatists wiped out almost all of the witches. Morgan Elsbeth was one of the few who survived and, having already seen an army of the dead fail on Dathomir, she may have plans for something more evolved than the Nightsister zombies we've seen before.
The matter of Marrok
Mystery still surrounds Marrok, the mercenary who fought for Morgan Elsbeth until being slain by Ahsoka in episode 4. According to the official "Star Wars" Databank, Marrok was once a member of the Inquisitorious, a group of dark side Force-wielders led by Darth Vader, who hunted down and killed surviving Jedi after Order 66. The character's name has connections to Arthurian legend, where a knight called Sir Marrok was once one of the protectors of King Arthur, but he was turned into a werewolf for seven years after being betrayed by his wife.
This casual throwaway line in Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte d'Arthur" was later adapted into a book by Allen French, published in 1902, which imagined Marrok's wife to be a disciple of Morgan le Fay, the malevolent sorceress who appears throughout tales of King Arthur. Between this literary connection and the fact that Marrok's body dissolved into an angry cloud of green dust after his death (green being associated with Nightsister magick), the most popular theory among "Star Wars" fans is that Marrok was an undead warrior raised from the grave by Morgan to do her bidding. When Darth Maul's brother — the rather aggressively-named Savage Opress — was killed in "The Clone Wars," the Nightsister magick that had been cast upon him to enhance his power was seen leaving his body in a similar manner.
If this is the case, then the fact that Marrok wasn't a mindless, screeching zombie attacking people indiscriminately is pretty interesting. Despite apparently being an undead revenant animated by green gas, he was still able to use the Force, wield a double-bladed lightsaber, and go toe-to-toe with Ahsoka Tano (twice). Marrok may have been a sign of things to come.
What's in the box?
Baylan Skoll refers to Peridea as the place that "once was the great Witch Kingdom of the Dathmiri." Just as Dathomir was ravaged by the Separatists, the home world of Morgan Elsbeth's people is now in ruins. The three Great Mothers — Aktropaw, Klothow, and Lakesis — are the only Nightsisters we see in this episode, and may be all that remains of the ancestral Dathmiri (unless those bandits wandering the wasteland are Peridea's version of the Nightbrothers). The reason for the fall of the Dathmiri on Peridea is as yet unknown, but Baylan Skoll notes that the Great Mothers seem very keen to leave, and speculates that they're fleeing "a power greater than their own."
That brings us to the catacombs, and the coffins being transferred to Thrawn's ship, per an "agreement" that he made with the Great Mothers. If Morgan Elsbeth has found a way to bring back the dead as more than just mindless husks, then bringing the remains of her Dathmiri ancestors back to the galaxy could be the first part of a plan to restore Dathomir with a new colony of resurrected Nightsisters. That would certainly explain Morgan's fierce determination to bring Thrawn back out of exile, and an army of Nightsisters would be powerful allies for Thrawn in his plan to retake the Empire.
New episodes of "Ahsoka" release Tuesdays at 9pm ET/6pm PT on Disney+.