Star Wars: Ahsoka Reveals Tragic and Shocking Detail About Sabine’s Mandalorian Past

Star Wars: Ahsoka may have fans captivated with the race to find Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ezra Bridger, but the show has also been filling in deeper sketches of its characters along the way. The biggest example of that has been Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo): in Star Wars Rebels we thought we got to know Sabine, but the Star Wars Universe has added much more depth to the Mandalorian people since Rebels ended and The Mandalorian TV series brought the warrior culture into the mainstream. Ahsoka Episode 4 made us feel the weight of that new context, by dropping a shocking reveal about Sabine’s Mandalorian past! 

In Ahsoka Episode 4 “Fallen Jedi” Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine are forced to fight Morgan Elsbeth’s (Diana Lee Inosanto) faction of dark side warriors. Sabine eventually ends up at the site where Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) is dueling Ahsoka, and tries to aid her master in the fight. However, Baylan turns out to be a powerful dark side user, reaching out through the Force to get inside Sabine’s head, and use her darkest thoughts against her. That tactic includes mentioning the traumatic detail that Ezra Bridger is someone Sabine considers to be the last of her family – since her actual family died on Mandalore – then twisting the emotional knife even deeper by hinting that it was Ahsoka’s fault that Sabine’s family died!

What Happened to Sabine Wren’s Family on Mandalore? 

The early theory being cooked up from all these backstory breadcrumbs is that Clan Wren fell during the Great Purge of Mandalore  – a pivotal event in the Galactic Civil War that took place after Rebels ended, but has been repeatedly referenced in The Mandalorian/The Book of Boba Fett. “The Night of A Thousand Tears” was the Empire’s most decisive strike against Planet Mandalore, as the entire surface was bombed into oblivion. A large portion of the Mandalorians were wiped out – genocide so great it convinced Bo-Katan Kryze to surrender the Darksaber to Moff Gideon, to save the remainder of her people. 

There have been a lot of big hints throughout Ahsoka that Sabine and Ahsoka had a massive falling out – one which ended Sabine’s training as a Jedi. The Great Purge of Mandalore would’ve been something that either compelled Sabine to try and intervene to save her people – or to avenge them if she learned about the Great Purge only afterward. Either scenario would’ve put Sabine at odds with Ahsoka and the Jedi code: attachment to her family, the darker emotions of desperation, vengeance, etc., all of it would be a potential path to the dark side for a Jedi Master – let alone a padawan. Ahsoka is wise enough and experienced enough to have held Sabine back from throwing away her life and/or soul – but the emotional cost of following the Jedi way in that moment may have broken Sabine’s faith in the Jedi and the Force, and made Ahsoka question her own views all over again. 

If this theory proves true, it’s another great way to lay a foundation that eventually builds up to Sabine Wren being a key bridge character between Din Djarin and Bo-Katan’s new Mandalorian settlement and the remaining Jedi/Force users in the galaxy at this time. Exactly the kind of leader needed for Dave Filoni’s eventual MandoVerse event film. 

Star Wars: Ahsoka streams new episodes Tuesdays on Disney+.