The highly anticipated Star Wars: Ahsoka is finally streaming on Disney Plus, and it’s already introduced a slew of animated characters into the realm of live-action. Even the most die-hard cinematic fans might find themselves a bit confused by the new faces, but that hasn’t stopped them from falling in love with Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the plucky, battle-hardened Twi’lek general. Team Mom of the Ghost’s crew, Hera is an important character from Star Wars Rebels, who hasn’t been seen since the end of the series, approximately five years before the beginning of The Mandalorian. In her last appearance, she was still fighting the good fight for the rebels, with her son, Jacen, in tow. The half-Twi’lek, half-Jedi human was around five years old at the end of Rebels, but his first appearance in Ahsoka revealed him to be an adorable preteen with green hair. His father’s legacy flows through him, and now fans are wondering if Jacen might find himself a Jedi master in the future.
Who was Jacen’s mother, Hera Syndulla?
Rebels first introduced Hera Syndulla, a skilled Twi’lek pilot and leader of a small band of rebels aboard the ship Ghost. Syndulla herself is a legacy rebel leader — she follows in her father, Cham Syndulla’s, footsteps, whisking her crew across the galaxy to help those in need however she can. When Hera isn’t leading her tiny band of rogues, she leaves them in the capable hands of Kanan Jarrus, her trusted lieutenant. While the show hints regularly at the romantic tension between the two, it largely left fans to fill in the gaps until the fourth season when the two finally share an onscreen kiss. Their relationship was more than what was shown during the series, and though it is never outright said that Kanan Jarrus is Jacen’s father, it’s heavily implied. Shortly before Hera’s capture, during a temporary lull in the war, she and Kanan share a moment together (and presumably make Jacen) before the Jedi would ultimately sacrifice himself for the cause.
Who was Jacen’s father, Kanan Jarrus?
Kanan Jarrus has too much history to include here, but he is easily one of the more interesting Jedi introduced in the new canon. After surviving Order 66, the young Padawan Caleb Dume fled Empire space and put his Jedi history behind him. Changing his name to Kanan Jarrus, Dume fell in with Hera Syndulla and her Spectors. Reticent to use his abilities for fear of the Inquisitorius finding him, Jarrus largely ignored his Jedi talents until he encountered Ezra Bridger. It was only Hera’s forceful encouragement that pushed Kanan to train the younger Jedi, but even so, Kanan was more than reluctant as a mentor.
Despite Kanan’s best efforts, he and Ezra grew close as master and apprentice. It was their bond as master and apprentice that elevated Kanan from a good man to a great man. His growth over the series leads him to make the ultimate sacrifice for those that he loves when a rebel liberation mission goes awry. As a fuel cell starts to explode, Kanan suppresses the blast using the Force, allowing his friends to escape but trapping himself in the process. Though Kanan’s physical form was destroyed, in true Jedi fashion, his death made him more powerful.
Kanan’s spirit lingers in the Cosmic Force, a similar method to the one Yoda and Obi-Wan use to appear before Luke, though his form is that of a giant wolf. Determined to help those he loves survive the war, he continues to guide Ezra, helping him to understand some of the most important concepts for a true Jedi, like sacrifice, letting go, and being where one is most needed. With his final lessons taught, Jarrus leaves Ezra and presumably joins the other Jedi greats in the Cosmic Force for good.
Who is Jacen Syndulla and where is he now?
While there was no explicit confirmation about Jacen’s lineage, Sabine Wren says the boy was “born to fly like his mother” and continues that “we all knew what his father was like.” Rebels showed that Jacen is perfectly at home in a cockpit, and his Force-sensitive nature gives him an edge his already accomplished pilot mother never had. Many Jedi are accomplished pilots, and if Jacen followed in her footsteps, he would make a valuable addition to any team. But Jacen’s first appearance in Ahsoka has already confirmed he’s a lot like his father and wants to learn the ways of the Force — and his age puts him square in the range of those who would later be taught by Luke Skywalker.
Jacen has the potential to be every bit the Jedi his father was. While Kanan was raised in the Jedi temple, his skills were largely self-taught. Not only was he strong enough to enter the Cosmic Force on his own, but he even retained his individual voice in the gestalt of Jedi. Luke has already lost one apprentice, the young Mandalorian Grogu, so we know that Skywalker is still in need of a student. Jacen is definitely several years older than Ben Solo and could turn out to be one of those students trained alongside him, though we have to hope for Hera’s sake that he had already moved to the rank of knight before Ren’s murderous rampage.
Beyond his tenure as a Jedi, Jacen has another incredibly unique trait. The half-human and half-Twi’lek boy is one of only three mixed-species children that have ever been shown in the Star Wars universe, and the implications are interesting points to explore. Jacen is shown as mostly human in appearance and could be “human passing,” though we hope that’s not a prejudice that exists out there in the galaxy. In a universe where race largely doesn’t matter, the concept of interbreeding aliens and humans may not be a point of contention, but it could allow the writers to explore some issues that are prevalent in our own world.
We’re excited to see Jacen’s first appearance in Ahsoka and are absolutely in love with the idea of the slightly fried droid Chopper playing nanny while Hera shows off just how much of a boss babe she is.
