Star Wars: Ahsoka – Enoch and Night Troopers Explained

Episode 6 of Star Wars: Ahsoka may not have featured spectacular lightsaber fights or dramatic flashbacks, but it brought about the live-action debut of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who is portrayed by the same actor who already voiced him in Star Wars: Rebels.

What’s more, this episode dropped a few very intriguing hints as to what’s to come in the future of Star Wars and provided us with some interesting background lore. Here’s everything we have learned from Star Wars: Ahsoka Episode 6 featuring Enoch, the Night Troopers, and more.

Star Wars: Ahsoka – Peridea and the Nightsisters

We learn that Thrawn was stranded on the planet of Peridea in the other galaxy. First, this planet is surrounded by a ring made up of Purrgil bones, which is amazing.

Second, Peridea is apparently the original homeworld of the Nightsisters, who called themselves Dathmiri and built up a Witch Kingdom there before riding the Purrgil to reach the Star Wars galaxy, where they presumably settled on the planet we know as Dathomir. Only a few of them seem to be left on Peridea and allied themselves with Thrawn – which is huge for the main topic of this article, Enoch and the Night Troopers.

As we’ve previously established, the Nightsisters can harness the Force through Force Magick. This is probably how Marrok was powered, the mysterious masked lightsaber-wielder from the first half of the season. It’s likely also the secret behind Enoch, the Night Troopers, and what’s being loaded onto Thrawn’s flagship, the Chimaera.

Star Wars: Ahsoka – Enoch and the Night Troopers

Thrawn’s forces look absolutely battered. Not only were they kidnapped by the Purrgil at the end of Star Wars: Rebels, which likely led to damage and losses, but Thrawn remarks that their time in the other galaxy whittled their numbers down as well. They must have been fighting something in the area of Peridea. The Chimaera as well as Thrawn’s troops are patched up with lots of very strange, golden metal. Enoch replaced the entire front of his helmet with the stuff, other troopers additionally wear red bands around their armor.

Captain Enoch, who is played by Wes Chatham, also speaks to the troopers in alien language and they almost revere Thrawn as some sort of divine being, chanting his name – that is definitely not how his forces behaved prior to their exile.

Here’s my theory based on this evidence: Captain Enoch and the Night Troopers are powered by the same Nightsister Force Magick as Marrok. Furthermore, not all of them are Thrawn’s original troopers. With Enoch speaking to them in an alien language, we can assume that at least some of these troopers are native to Peridea, perhaps recruited from the nomads – living or dead. The red bands certainly evoke the samurai-inspired look of those nomads for me, but also have the vibe of mummification and burial rituals.

With Thrawn sending two squads after Sabine and Ezra, we’ll likely see this theory tested next week: If the same green mist signifying Force Magick is released when the troopers die, we may have found the truth.

Star Wars: Ahsoka – The Chimaera’s cargo

What’s being loaded onto Thrawn’s Star Destroyer, the Chimaera, are very likely caskets. Morgan Elsbeth tells Thrawn that she’s been to the catacombs to inspect them and mentions that there is more cargo there than expected. With Thrawn having forged some sort of alliance with the remaining Nightsisters, the plan seems to be to use their dead – likely thousands in number – as a zombie army. We already saw the Nightsisters use their own dead as zombie troops in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

This is a nice callback not only to Dave Filoni’s other animated show, but also to Timothy Zahn’s original Thrawn trilogy. There, too, Thrawn needed to replenish his diminished forces by more arcane means, eventually creating a clone army. This time, it seems, he won’t invade with an army of clones, but with an army of zombies.

Star Wars: Ahsoka – Peridea’s dark mystery

We also followed Baylan Skoll and his apprentice into the wilds of Peridea this episode, where Baylan once again speaks of a greater power at work – a power, he says, that’s stirring. Now, that’s intriguing. Are we talking some Eldritch horror here? Some sort of Force god?

Perhaps the reason for the Nightsisters’ departure from this galaxy is this hidden horror. If this thing, or whatever it is, is about to wake up, it could explain why the Great Mother and her few remaining disciples threw in their lots with Thrawn and are so keen on getting away. It might explain why Thrawn, who in Rebels showed himself to be an absolute skeptic when it comes to the Force, is so ready to rely on the Nightsisters’ Magick.

Plus, there are some canon stories about Emperor Palpatine feeling something incredibly dark and evil on the far outskirts of the galaxy, which is why he set up observation posts everywhere. Whatever he felt, he was wary of it.

In any case, one gets the feeling that Baylan is in over his head here and we’ll see some huge surprises at the end of this season of Star Wars: Ahsoka. I’m not saying it’s Abeloth, but ‘ancient Force horror that’s waking up’ certainly has a familiar ring to it. Stuff’s about to go down.

Related: Star Wars: Ahsoka Timeline – Here’s When The Show Takes Place