The Mortis Gods Figure Strongly Into the 'Ahsoka' Finale
The following story contains spoilers for Ahsoka Season 1, Episode 8, titled "The Jedi, The Witch, and The Warlord."
WHILE THE FINALE of Disney+'s Ahsoka ostensibly served to wrap up the storylines that had been set up throughout the first eight episodes of live-action Ahsoka Tano Star Wars adventures, it actually wound up just continuing the story and setting up even more storyline for the future. Ezra (Eman Esfandi) was reunited with Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) after being stuck in a far away galaxy. Thrawn made his big move (back to the main galaxy with a ton of zombie stormtroopers?!?!), and Ahsoka (after killing Morgan Elsebeth) is stuck on Peridea for the time being.
But perhaps most interesting in the Ahsoka finale, titled "The Jedi, The Witch, and The Warlord," was the fact that we only briefly checked in with two of the season's most interesting and compelling characters: former Jedi Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and his apprentice, Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno). After the two parted ways in the previous episode, we see where they are now after their major fights with Ahsoka and friends. Shin, for one, finds the camp/village where the planet's bandits are camped out, flashes her lightsaber in the air, and presumably joins their people.
Baylan, however, is a much more interesting case. We see him near the end of the episode on top of a cliff, only looking out stoically. Remember from the previous episode that Baylan wasn't just coming to Peridea to complete his mission for Morgan Elsbeth, to find Thrawn, or to track down Ahsoka; it was very apparent that he always had some kind of ulterior motive, and he mentioned that the land called out to him, and that he was seeking "the beginning."
Unfortunately, actor Ray Stevenson (who plays Baylan) passed away earlier this year, before Ahsoka premiered. But it's clear, given where the show leaves Baylan at the end of the season, that there are (or, perhaps, were) big plans for this character.
Who are the Mortis Gods and what is their story?
The (literal) cliffhanger ending for Baylan Skoll in Ahsoka (seriously, he's literally standing on the edge of a cliff) finds him standing near an enormous shadow of two figures—with one other seemingly destroyed. This is a callback to a bit of Star Ware lore that was explored in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars around a group of characters called The Mortis Gods (aka "The Ones").
As it turns out, there were three ancient, god-like beings (called Celestials, not indifferent from the characters of the same name in the Marvel universe) on the planet Mortis: the son was considered to represent the dark side of the force, the daughter to represent the light, and the father to represent the balance between those two.
In The Clone Wars arc, The Father lured Anakin to their planet, believing him to be the chosen one who could destroy the Sith, restore order to the force, and, eventually, possibly take his place as essentially the living representation of the balance between the dark and light sides. This didn't all turn out great, as the son eventually kidnapped Ahsoka (who tagged along with Anakin on the mission) and ended up fighting everyone and killing the daughter. The Father eventually sacrificed himself, taking his own life with the Dagger of Mortis (a dangerous weapon that he primarily used to control his children) and leaving essentially this whole thing vacant.
Some fan theories believe that now that Anakin has died and been redeemed (at the end of Return of the Jedi) that he could eventually take the place of The Father on Mortis (and since we saw him at the end of the episode in Force Ghost form, it may not be so far-fetched).
But with Baylan looking for "The Beginning" on Peridea, and winding up near the statues meant to represent the three Mortis Gods, it's pretty clear that he's doing his requisite homework. Where will things go from here? That much remains to be seen. Does he want to become the new father? Does he want to complete the work of the son? That doesn't seem too likely, since Baylan seems to be about as morally gray a force-using character we've seen. We also see in the larger landscape shot that there's a statue of the father, a statue of the son, but not a statue of the daughter. Does that mean The Daughter needs to be replaced? That the dark side is far out-powering the light? There are a lot of ways to look into it, and we don't have any definitive answers just yet.
No matter what, though, it does seem like Baylan has got a fairly interesting story ahead of him.
Will Baylan Skoll be recast?
Whether the Ahsoka story continues with a Season 2 or goes right into the announced movie set to be directed by Dave Filoni, if Baylan Skoll is going to be a part of it, Lucasfilm will have to recast the character due to Ray Stevenson's tragic passing earlier this year.
That said, nothing has been said one way or another, and there's no way of knowing what the production company's intentions are. Baylan clearly has been set up for another storyline that goes deep into the history of the force—perhaps he could've been involved with James Mangold's biblical Jedi epic?—but we've also had things teased in Star Wars that never went anywhere as well.
Marvel (also owned by Disney) has been inconsistent with whether they recast characters or not based on actor deaths. When Chadwick Boseman died, the studio was very adamant that the character would not be recast and would instead be written out; when William Hurt, who plays General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, died, the studio went out and got Harrison Ford to play the character in future MCU projects.
We'll have to wait and see what happens with Baylan Skoll going forward.
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