Why the explanation in Ahsoka about Sabine Wren pursuing Jedi training works so well

Ahsoka is a story of masters and apprentices. And at the heart of that is the relationship between Ahsoka Tano and her apprentice, Sabine Wren. It was something hinted at heavily in the trailers, and confirmed in the first two episodes of the series. Ahsoka trained Sabine, but left her – and now it’s time to begin again, as Huyang says.

And though some fans were skeptical about Sabine becoming Ahsoka’s padawan when there was no indication of that in Rebels, I actually think the explanation in these episodes is great. In the second episode, Sabine speaks with Huyang about how she never had the talents and abilities, like Ezra did. Huyang agrees with her, then adds, “I have known many Padawans over the centuries, and I can safely say your aptitude for the Force would fall short of them all.” So this show isn’t pretending that all of the sudden Sabine is Force sensitive in a way she wasn’t in Rebels. Huyang confirms as much – and he’s almost as old as the Jedi Order itself.

But it’s also very important that it’s Huyang who still holds out Sabine’s lightsaber to her, encouraging her to resume her Jedi training. It’s not like Huyang is becoming lax in his standards, as early in the first episode Ahsoka chides him for still following Jedi protocol even though the Order is no more. Yet Huyang, who has seen almost every generation of Jedi apprentices come through the Order, both knows that Sabine’s aptitude for the Force would rank at the bottom and still sees in her something becoming of a Jedi. That’s significant.

I think a major theme we’ll be exploring this season, even if it lies under the surface a bit, is what the Jedi should be. Ahsoka famously said “I am no Jedi” in Rebels, and that’s true. She left the Order. Even in this show, in the opening crawl, she’s referred to as a “former Jedi.” She certainly doesn’t view herself as a Jedi any longer. But Ahsoka Tano is still as good of an example as anyone of what the Jedi should be, and despite loss and suffering she has remained true to the light. Baylan Skoll, on the other hand, is no Jedi either, but he has embraced the darkness. The Order is important, but it is not the Order that defines a Jedi. I think we’ll see Ahsoka coming to learn that she is what a Jedi should be. And in that context, I think we’ll also come to see that Sabine is an example of what a Jedi could be, as there’s far more to it than simple Force aptitude. In other words, the Jedi Order of old would surely have had no place for Sabine, but perhaps this “former Jedi” Ahsoka Tano can see something different in Sabine, and we could see a person who learns to grow in opening herself up to the Force nonetheless.

This is actually very much in line with how George Lucas saw the Force, something he passed down to his own padawan, Dave Filoni (showrunner, director, writer, and executive producer on Ahsoka). In what is surely one of the biggest misconceptions amongst Star Wars fans, the Force is not something belonging only to the Jedi and Sith, but to all people.

In J.W. Rinzler’s excellent The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi book, he records a conversation between George Lucas, director Richard Marquand, and writer Lawrence Kasdan, the transcript of which dates the conversation as taking place in 1981. At one point in the transcript, here’s what we read:

Kasdan: The Force was available to anyone who could hook into it?

Lucas: Yes, everybody can do it.

Kasdan: Not just the Jedi?

Lucas: It’s just the Jedi who take the time to do it.

Marquand: They use it as a technique.

Lucas: Like yoga. If you want to take the time to do it, you can do it; but the ones that really want to do it are the ones who are into that kind of thing. Also like karate. …

Now, not every detail in their conversation is considered Star Wars canon, as with any conversations that take place during the story process. But it nonetheless gives us insight into how George Lucas viewed the Force, and it’s something he remained adamant about. In 2019, for instance, StarWars.com ran an oral history of The Phantom Menace, and in it Lucas said:

People have a tendency to confuse it — everybody has the Force. Everybody. You have the good side and you have the bad side. And as Yoda says, if you choose the bad side, it’s easy because you don’t have to do anything. Maybe kill a few people, cheat, lie, steal. Lord it over everybody. But the good side is hard because you have to be compassionate. You have to give of yourself. Whereas the dark side is selfish.

What becomes evident is that Lucas believed anyone could wield the Force if they were willing to put the effort into it. It came easier to some people than others (that’s where the Midichlorians come into play), meaning it will take a lot more work for others, but it’s still possible for anyone willing to concentrate enough on it. And a big part of that is how you decide to use it: are you going to compassionately give of yourself, or take for yourself?

Drawing on the tutelage of his mentor, Dave Filoni included this very idea in Star Wars Rebels – importantly, in the very episode dealing with Sabine training to use a lightsaber. Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus tries to train Sabine Wren to fight with the darksaber, he has her practice with training sticks yet grows increasingly frustrated with her lack of progress. He talks with Hera Syndulla about this, and part of their conversation is as follows:

Hera: Were you careful with Ezra? I don’t remember him fighting with a stick.

Kanan: Well, maybe I’m trying to do things differently this time.

Hera: Or maybe because she doesn’t have the Force you don’t believe she can do this?

Kanan: No. The Force resides in all living things, but you have to be open to it. Sabine is blocked. Her mind is conflicted. She’s so expressive and yet so… tightly wound. She’s so —

Hera: Mandalorian.

Kanan: Very!

Importantly, when Hera mentions Sabine not having the Force, Kanan corrects her to say that the Force resides in everyone – but the problem was Sabine’s focus and openness. Which sounds exactly like the way George Lucas envisioned the Force, right?

This same idea has shown up in various other Star Wars stories too, such as Charles Soule’s The Rise of Kylo Ren comic mini-series published in 2020. Showing Luke Skywalker train a group of Jedi younglings in the period in-between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, one of the students complains about how Ben Solo is so much stronger than she is. To this, Luke responds:

“Ben isn’t stronger, Voe. That’s not how it works. The Force can be a trickle, a stream, a river, a flood… for anyone who can sense it. Think of yourself as a door. The wider you open, the more easily the Force flows through you. Some people just start out with their door a bit more open. But any door can open wide.”

There are other examples we could look at, but I trust the point has been made clear: it is a misunderstanding to say that the Force is something only Jedi have. This is precisely why Luke Skywalker says to Rey in The Last Jedi “that light does not belong to the Jedi alone. To say that if the Jedi die the light dies is vanity.” It’s drawing on what George Lucas has taught about the Force all along, and what better illustration of Luke’s point than Ahsoka Tano – a former Jedi who survived the Purge, yet embodies the light nonetheless.

And Ahsoka’s padawan, Sabine Wren, might not have that strong of a natural aptitude for the Force, but the Force resides within all living beings. If she’s driven enough, she can learn to tap into it. And I can get excited to think about this series exploring that reality, taking someone the old Order would have rejected and watching her learn what being a Jedi is really about.