When did Ahsoka train Sabine?

Star Wars: Ahsoka has finally premiered on Disney Plus, and while fans of Star Wars: Rebels rejoice at the chance to see the final chapter in the Ghost crew’s story, less plugged in fans are struggling to put pieces together. One of the chief concerns for many is the often referenced, but never before seen training period between Ahsoka Tano and her new apprentice, Sabine Wren.

It’s well-known lore now that after the end of Star Wars: Rebels Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) and Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) were transported into the deep, unknown regions of space. In the years following Thrawn’s defeat, Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) remained on Ezra’s home world of Lothal, watching over the planet for her missing comrade and keeping it out of Imperial hands. The gesture would turn out to be unnecessary, with the Empire collapsing just months later through the combined efforts of the greater Rebel Alliance.   

When did Ahsoka train Sabine?

In Rebel’s cannon, Ahsoka returns to Lothal five years after Ezra’s disappearance and recruits Sabine to help her locate the missing Bridger. The timeline gets a little fuzzy here, with Ahsoka wedging itself somewhere after The Mandalorian’s second season. Unfortunately, the visual indicators from Rebels, like the mural depicting the heroes of Lothal unveiled in Ahsoka’s first episode, aren’t much help either. In the animated show, the mural was dedicated the day Sabine and Ahsoka left to find Ezra, a conversation that played out yet again in Ahsoka.

The creatives behind the series certainly needed that background information for time-poor folks who haven’t seen the supplemental material, but could we have gotten something a little more concrete here? Let’s just assume that conversation was a bit of déjà vu, and Ahsoka is returning to Sabine after a failed earlier expedition to find Ezra and Thrawn. We’re honestly not sure how much time was supposed to have passed, but the working theory is that it’s been between one and two years.  

We known that Ahsoka takes place after the titular Jedi captured Morgan Elsbeth and encountered Din Djarin and Grogu on their adventures, but outside of that fans are left to speculate on when things went so wrong between Master and Padawan. Here’s hoping for some much-needed background information on the tumultuous training sessions that led Ahsoka to abandon her apprentice.

Star Wars: Ahsoka is steaming now on Disney Plus.