Luke, Ahsoka and Starkiller: My Proposition

I love Star Wars. And more than that, I love the animated Star Wars TV shows. Over my many years of life, I’ve come to realize that the animated side of this glorious universe has just as much merit as its cinematic counterpart. 2020 was the year that really cemented this for me, with the four-part series finale of the Clone Wars being the best Star Wars content I’ve seen in years.

I recognize this may be an unpopular opinion given the widespread universal acclaim of Dave Filoni’s other masterpiece, The Mandalorian, but I actually found myself enjoying the Clone Wars finale a bit more than Mando’s adventures. However, I must say, one of my favorite parts of The Mandalorian was watching how the galaxy evolved after the defeat of the Empire in Episode 6. 

After watching both series, my mind was spinning, trying to come up with ways to combine the best parts of each story. I simultaneously wanted more Ahsoka adventures, more content relating to the cast of the Original Trilogy and that was set in the early days of the New Republic, and more content that brought in elements of the original Legends continuity. 

Friends, allow me to present to you my pitch for a new Star Wars series. 

Setup:

As I envision it, this would be an animated series, taking place shortly after the Battle of Endor and leading up to The Mandalorian. 

Our story would begin with Luke, Leia and Han on Coruscant following Palpatine and Vader’s death. Leia and Han have thrown themselves into their work: Leia is trying to spread the news that the Emperor is dead, trying to assemble every politician and senator still alive to create the New Republic; while Han is busy rounding up the military and trying to stamp out the Imperial remnant. 

Luke, meanwhile, feels aimless. He goes through the ruins of the Jedi Temple and the Republic’s databases, trying to get as much information about the Jedi of old. It doesn’t take long for Luke to stumble upon a wealth of information about his father, and he eats it up. Every free second he has, he’s watching videos of Anakin training, trying to mimic his movements. He finds the footage of Anakin teaching Padawans from Rebels. He looks at flight records and matches his dad’s aerial maneuvers. 

And then, one day, he stumbles upon something. Three years before Luke was born, when the Clone Wars were first beginning, Anakin took on an apprentice. A young Togrutan girl named Ahsoka. Luke eagerly reads about her: battle records, kill counts, training logs, anything he can find. 

And then, one day, the information just...stops. Anakin Skywalker is reported to have killed the padawans at the Jedi Temple, and then he just disappeared, around the same time Darth Vader was first made known to the public. Obi-Wan vanished from the galaxy, never to be seen again. And the last anyone ever heard of Ahsoka, her ship went down on an icy moon and she was presumed dead. 

Frustrated, Luke decides to switch gears. He begins looking through Imperial records instead, trying to find information about his father after turning to the Dark Side. At first, it’s sickening. The Jedi Purge, Order 66, all of it. But, yet again, he finds something intriguing. As a Sith, Vader killed a Jedi named Kento Marek, and took his son, Galen, as an apprentice. 

Luke shows it all to Leia, and a lightbulb goes off over her head. She recognizes Ahsoka as Fulcrum, one of Bail Organa’s informants in the early days of the Rebellion; and she recognizes Galen as a Dark Jedi named “Starkiller'' that saved Bail’s life. Luke and Leia, in their search for information, decide to set off. If they can find Ahsoka and Galen, they can tell them more about Anakin. 

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The early stages of the show would follow Luke and Leia, going from planet to planet, trying to rebuild the Jedi Order, but also looking for any information about Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader. Their journey takes them to numerous planets of the Expanded Universe and the Legends continuity: Mandalore, Lothal, Dothomir, Ilum, Jedah, Mustafar, even Mortis. 

Ahsoka finds the twins on Naboo. She explains that she heard rumors of a legendary pilot who single-handedly destroyed the first Death Star, and she felt two faint but familiar Force signatures on Endor; remembering Padme and Anakin’s relationship, she put the pieces together. 

Ahsoka tells them everything. About her friendship with Obi-Wan and Anakin. About Anakin’s relationship with Padme. The Clone Wars. The Separatists. Her trial, her leaving the order, Maul, Mandalore, all of it. 

Eventually, Luke and Leia tell her about Starkiller, and they invite her to come with them and find him. Ahsoka accepts, and the trio sets off. 

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At this point, the focus shifts to Galen Marek, aka Starkiller, Darth Vader’s apprentice during the Rise of the Empire. Galen and Juno Eclipse have been living together and working as bounty hunters since the Battle of Yavin, and now, in a post-Empire world, he can be more open about his Force abilities. 

My pitch would play somewhat fast and loose with Galen’s original appearance as Starkiller in The Force Unleashed. Galen often has flashbacks to his days as Vader’s apprentice, but his powers are dramatically downplayed to a more believable level; additionally, his confrontation with Palpatine and subsequent death are omitted, and this version is not a clone. 

Eventually, the trio of Luke, Leia and Ahsoka would find Juno and Galen on Sorgan. Galen tells them everything he knows about Vader, though these stories are far more depressing than Ahsoka’s. He describes the torture he went through, the Jedi he was forced to kill, how Vader stabbed him and betrayed him, how he defeated Vader and drove off into the cosmos with Juno. 

Luke invites the two to join him on his quest to rebuild the Jedi Order. While Juno doesn’t go, Galen---searching for a grander purpose in life---accepts and joins the others. 

The Group Dynamic:

The main hook of this show would be putting so many fan-favorite characters on the same journey and watching them bounce off each other. And in this pitch, the heart of the show is the dynamic between our four main characters: Luke, Leia, Galen and Ahsoka. I think there’s a lot you could do with this group:

• Ahsoka could act as a sort of wise mentor figure, specifically to Leia, helping her build the lightsaber seen in Episode 9 and teaching her Force techniques. She also is the only one to have lived in the time of the Galactic Republic, so she could have a much different view of the galaxy than the others. Perhaps, for example, she recognizes certain groups and factions from her days as a Jedi. 

• Ahsoka’s blunt criticisms of the Jedi, despite being a Jedi herself, could also plant the seeds for Luke’s cynicism in The Last Jedi. 

• Galen could act as a foil to Luke, having a more aggressive, hostile “Shoot first ask questions later” type of personality to contrast with Luke’s diplomacy and more subtle means of intimidation. 

• In general, there could be a lot of conflict in taking four relatively self-sufficient characters---with Galen and Ahsoka in particular being real lone wolves---and putting them in a team. 

• All four of them could be exchanging war stories, with Galen and Ahsoka realizing they participated on opposite sides of the same battles. 

The major themes of this series are legacy and trauma. The four main characters all represent the legacy of Darth Vader. Leia and Luke are his biological children, Ahsoka was his apprentice as a Jedi, and Galen was his apprentice as a Sith. 

While this legacy brings them all together, all four have also been defined---in some way, shape or form---but the trauma Vader inflicted on them. Leia had her planet destroyed by Vader, Luke lost his hand, Galen was tortured and nearly killed by his master, and Ahsoka’s entire way of life was burned to the ground by Anakin’s betrayal. 

In much the same way that The Clone Wars moved from planet-to-planet to emphasize the scars of the Clone Wars, this series could move from planet-to-planet to emphasize the scars and the trauma of Darth Vader and the Empire. All while focusing on the ever-changing and complex group dynamic of the Skywalker twins, Starkiller and Ahsoka Tano. 

Bringing in More Characters:

This is the basic pitch of the show. In much the same way that The Mandalorian is an episodic story focusing on the life of a bounty hunter in a post-Empire world, this would be an episodic story focusing on the lives of the surviving Jedi in a post-Empire world, with numerous EU and Legends characters being integrated into the narrative.

An experienced Cal Kestis, a nomadic Sabine Wren, a wiser Ezra Bridger, and canonized versions of Rahm Kota, Jaden Korr, Kyle Katarn, Corran Horn and Kenth Hamner could be just some of the characters in this new series. 

This pitch would be the unifying glue of the Star Wars galaxy, bringing in characters from all eras and both continuities into one singular group. They don’t necessarily have to join the Jedi Order, but it would be incredible to see how these individuals would all be drawn together in a galaxy that no longer persecutes them. In addition, it could give a sense of continuance and closure to certain characters who need it, like Ezra. 

Closing Thoughts:

In closing, I want to emphasize that a story like this would serve a few key functions in the larger Star Wars story:

• Providing insight into what Luke and Leia’s lives were like post-ROTJ, and giving them a chance to learn about their father. 

• Showing what the galaxy was like between Episodes 6 and 7. 

• Explaining how Ahsoka developed into the version of her we see in The Mandalorian. 

• Canonizing certain characters like Starkiller, Jaden Korr and Kyle Katarn. 

• Acting as a sort of “glue” that brings characters from all media types together. 

• And explaining the fates of certain characters, both canon (Cal, Ezra) and non-canon (Galen). 

I know a story like this is ridiculously unlikely to happen, for several reasons, but it’s still fun to think about. And at the end of the day, Star Wars is something that’s supposed to be fun.