Star Wars: Ahsoka – Jacen Syndulla Explained

In Episode 5 of Star Wars: Ahsoka, Jacen Syndulla (Evan Whitten) played a pivotal role in locating the missing protagonist, who was unconsciously drifting in the waters of Seatos. Why can this green-haired boy use the Force, though? And why isn’t he Ahsoka’s apprentice instead of Sabine?

Like many other things in Ahsoka, that has to do with events from Dave Filoni’s animated show Star Wars: Rebels. Rebels featured both of Jacen’s parents as main characters: Hera Syndulla (voiced by Vanessa Marshall), an ace pilot and leader of a rebel cell, and Kanan Jarrus (voiced by Freddie Prince Jr.), a former Jedi apprentice. By the time we meet them, they are already in a relationship and this is hinted at several times in the show.

In a saucy detail for an animated show targeted at children, one episode makes it very clear that Kanan left his usual sleeping spot on the Ghost to spend the night with Hera. In the final season of Rebels, Kanan sacrifices himself to allow the rest of the crew to escape from the Empire. However, Hera must already have been pregnant with their child by that point and we see Jacen for the first time in a quick shot during the epilogue to the show.

Huyang (David Tennant) explains this in a quick sentence during Episode 5, confirming that Jacen’s connection to Kanan is why the boy can use the Force. This also explains something that Jacen said back in Episode 4 – when a bunch of New Republic pilots died due to the turbulence the hyperspace ring caused, he mentioned to Hera that he had a bad feeling. This wasn’t a crude attempt at humor on the part of the writers, referencing the old Star Wars classic “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” – it was Jacen feeling the death of other sentient beings around him through the Force for the first time. This was a very serious moment for him and one can see how concerned Hera was at that moment.

It’s this connection to the Force that allowed him to hear the lightsaber fight Ahsoka was likely imagining in her mind while she was floating in the water. While Hera may not be particularly comfortable with her son’s Force powers, she knows to trust those instincts from her own experience.

It seems like Jacen is very curious about his heritage and wants to learn more about the Jedi, but his mother is against this. She must not want her son to follow the path of his father – and you can’t blame her: Everyone she knows that’s been able to use the Force is either dead or lived through some other tragedy. It’s not exactly a fate any mother would want for her son. So even if Ahsoka did offer to train him at some point, which seems unlikely given her own reluctance to take an apprentice on, Hera probably put in her veto.

The galaxy is likely better off for it: Imagine a kid that grew up with the psychopath that is Chopper gaining mastery of the Force. Nightmare fuel. Anyway, with Ahsoka now on her way to the other galaxy through the power of the space whales known as Purrgil, Jacen and Hera likely won’t play a major role for the rest of the season.

I’ll leave you with a piece of trivia: Jacen Syndulla is named after Jacen Solo, who was one of three kids of Han and Leia in the old Legends continuity – he became a very powerful Jedi, but ultimately fell to the Dark Side. Let’s hope that’s not an omen for this Jacen’s destiny.