Star Wars fans have been speculating for a while about just who (and what) Ahsoka villain Baylan Skoll really is. This has only been heightened by Ahsoka episode 4, where he discusses his past with Ahsoka Tano, referencing his time training alongside a certain someone…
We’re getting into spoiler territory from here on out, so make sure you’re up to date on the Star Wars spin-off before reading any further!
The latest insight into the chilling villain has come from an intriguing Reddit theory. User Darthjerbear writes, "I wonder if Baylan had an apprentice that was killed during Order 66." A quick refresher: Order 66 was a secretive clone protocol where all Jedis were labeled as traitors and sentenced to execution. Thousands of Jedi were killed and the order was scattered after this.
Baylan was a Jedi before the cataclysmic moment but wasn’t heard from for years after. The Redditor thinks they might have worked out why. "We’ve seen multiple padawans survive, (usually because of a master’s sacrifice), the most obvious that come to mind are Kanaan/Caleb, Cal Kestis, and Grogu (if you wanted to include Ahsoka here you could, but she wasn’t a Jedi at the time, she did survive because of her master)," they wrote. "However we’ve never, to my knowledge, seen a master survive and their padawan is killed. Perhaps he’s carrying some guilt that he couldn’t protect his padawan."
The timings on this one do make sense, and there is definitely more to Baylan’s story, as some others pointed out. "To everyone thinking that he was a padawan who lost a master. Anakin was only 45 when he died," another viewer named Liburoplis_XIII replied. "This is, give or take, 6 years after RotJ. Idk about you guys but Baylan looks like he is older than 50. I agree with OP that it's more likely that he lost an apprentice to Anakin/Vader along the way rather than a Master."
What’s more, if it were true, this would also add an interesting dynamic to his relationship with his new apprentice, Shin Hati, which we’ve only seen glimpses of so far. However we have heard another interesting theory about those two, all to do with Norse mythology...
Ahsoka releases a new episode on Disney Plus weekly. For much more on the show, check out our deep dives on:
- Who is Jacen Syndulla?
- The purrgil explained
- Explaining the mystical realm of the World Between Worlds
- The history between Anakin and Ahsoka explained
- Why Anakin calls Ahsoka Snips
- Everything you need to know about Star Wars Rebels
- The Ahsoka end-credits clues explained
- The Nightsisters of Dathomir explained
- Who is Clancy Brown playing in Ahsoka?
- Huyang explained
- Where have we seen Morgan Elsbeth before?
- What to watch before Ahsoka
- How to watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars in order
- The Ahsoka timeline explained
- The Ahsoka release schedule
