Credit: LucasfilmAhsoka (2023) has already made some huge changes to the future of Star Wars, but now, it has drastically altered its very origin and meaning.
Warning — major spoilers ahead for the sixth episode of Ahsoka.
There are many iconic things that have become synonymous with Star Wars in the 46 years since Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (1977) arrived in theaters. Characters, lightsabers, spaceships, theme tunes, quotes, and, of course, the “text crawl.”
The text crawl is used within the opening sequence for the Star Wars films to provide context and backstory, and present the films as fables or fairy tales. It starts with “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” and is accompanied by John Williams’ score.
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This iconic signature phrase opens all nine films in the Skywalker Saga. Based on this phrase, we’ve always been under the assumption that we are telling the stories from a “faraway galaxy”, which take place in the past. But Star Wars just destroyed that illusion.
The sixth episode of Ahsoka, “Far, Far Away”, picks up where “Shadow Warrior” left off, with Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Huyang (David Tennant) inside their ship, which is sitting inside one of the star whales known as the purrgil as it travels through hyperspace.
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Ahsoka and Huyang are hoping to find Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), who was taken to the “second galaxy” aboard the hyperspace ring by Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), and Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) in the fourth episode.
“Intergalactic travel within a star whale; I really have done it all,” Huyang marvels.
“I remember them from the stories you would tell us,” Ahsoka recalls. “When we were younglings back at the temple.”
“Ah, yes. History of the Galaxy parts one, two, and three,” Huyang says, referring to a trilogy of stories from the Jedi archives. “I still have those stories in my archive memory. Would you like to hear one?”
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At first, Ahsoka isn’t keen to listen to any stories, but after they discuss Sabine’s actions in trying to find Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi), she changes her mind and says, “On second thought, tell me one of your stories. Your choice.”
Huyang responds, saying, “Very well. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” We then cut to the second galaxy to catch up with Sabine and the others.
For the first time in Star Wars history, one of its characters has finally uttered the most iconic phrase associated with the franchise. And this changes everything we thought we knew about Star Wars.
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The idea behind this iconic phrase is that the faraway galaxy we’ve become so familiar with, home to planets such as Tatooine and Hoth and all the many different beings, is indeed the “galaxy far, far away” in question.
But Ahsoka has now brought a completely different perspective to the phrase and, in doing so, has retconned the history of Star Wars in a way we never expected.
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In the episode, the second galaxy is revealed to be called “Peridea”, and we learn from Elsbeth that the desolate planet they set down on is the ancient home world of the Dathomirians, who were, according to legend, the first to ride the purrgil between galaxies.
In other words, Peridea is the original “faraway galaxy.”
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There are also some major similarities between this reveal and the science-fiction thriller series Battlestar Galactica (2004– 2009), in which a bastion of human survivors fleeing their home world (the Twelve Colonies) after it’s attacked by Cylons (cyborgs) sets about finding a new home in the form of the “legendary” Earth.
However, the Earth they find has long been destroyed by Cylons, leading the humans to lay claim to a new planet, which they name after its predecessor and over time becomes Earth as we know it. There’s also a line repeated throughout the show that refers to the cycle of destruction caused by humans and Cylons: “All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again.”
In the sixth episode of Ahsoka, Baylan Skoll says something similar when talking to Shin Hati about how the galaxy is in an eternal state of chaos: “Fall of the Jedi. Rise of the Empire. It repeats again and again and again.”
What else will we learn about the second galaxy in the last two Ahsoka episodes? While there’s not much time left for the show to expand upon anything else, the upcoming Star Wars film from director James Mangold, which will delve into the origins of the Force, will likely further explore this new faraway galaxy.
As per Disney and Lucasfilm, here’s the official trailer for Ahsoka:
Ahsoka stars Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka Tano), Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine Wren), Eman Esfandi (Ezra Bridger), Lars Mikkelsen (Grand Admiral Thrawn), Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Hera Syndulla), Genevieve O’Reilly (Mon Mothma), Ivanna Sakhno (Shin Hati), Diana Lee Inosanto (Morgan Elsbeth), and the late Ray Stevenson (Baylan Skoll).
Ahsoka is now streaming on Disney+. New episodes will be available to stream every Tuesday, with the eighth and final episode airing on October 3.
What did you think of this huge retcon to Star Wars? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!