Did ‘Ahsoka’ Just Introduce a New Variant of Stormtroopers?
Ahsoka episode 6, “Part Six: Far, Far Away,” has introduced yet another new variant of Stormtroopers to the Star Wars universe. Stormtroopers have a long history in Star Wars as the elite soldiers serving under the Galactic Empire. Although they were most prevalent during the Empire’s reign, they have also crept into the New Republic. Technically, during the timeline in which Ahsoka and The Mandalorian are set, the stormtroopers should be demobilized. However, many of these mindlessly obedient soldiers remained loyal to the Empire, allowing Imperial holdouts like Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) to build forces of remnant Stormtroopers.
Spoilers for Ahsoka episode 6, “Part Six: Far, Far Away,” ahead!
In The Mandalorian, Gideon strengthened the Imperial remnant with his own variation of Stormtroopers—Dark Troopers. Rather than using humans, these Stormtroopers were powerful and deadly droids who eliminated “human error.” Now, Ahsoka has introduced another Imperial remnant with unique Stormtroopers, this time led by Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). In the latest episode of Ahsoka, Thrawn makes his highly anticipated live-action debut, preparing to end his banishment on Peridea and return to the Star Wars galaxy.
However, viewers will be surprised to learn that Thrawn hasn’t been alone on Peridea for all these years. He has a full-fledged army on Peridea waiting to descend on the galaxy. This, of course, raises the question of how he built this army.
Grand Admiral Thrawn’s Night Troopers
In Ahsoka, it is revealed that Thrawn’s army is made up of a new variant of Stormtroopers called Night Troopers. At first glance, it looks like Thrawn has assembled a massive army of standard Stormtroopers. However, upon closer inspection, viewers will see that these Night Troopers have a very unique design. Instead of the typical clean, white Stormtrooper armor, the Night Troopers’ armor is worn, dull, and cracked. As a result, the soldiers seem to have gotten creative, filling the cracks in their armor with gold and using red bands to hold the pieces together. Their design also appears to be a nod to the Japanese art of kintsugi and the method Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) used to fix his helmet in The Rise of Skywalker.
The Night Troopers are led by a soldier named Captain Enoch (Wes Chatham), who has replaced entire portions of his armor with gold. Enoch and all the Night Troopers demonstrate the extreme loyalty and obedience of typical Stormtroopers. Their devotion to Thrawn, however, may go beyond oaths and loyalty, as they are heard chanting his name while he makes his entrance. It almost seems that they worship him.
Then, there’s the question of where all these Night Troopers came from. On the one hand, they could be some of Thrawn’s original forces, last seen in Star Wars Rebels. Given that the purrgil were used in a monumental battle on Lothal between the rebels and Thrawn’s forces, it is possible that quite a few soldiers got carried to Peridea besides Thrawn and Ezra Bridger. At the same time, we did see the purrgil destroying many of Thrawn’s forces and badly damaging their ships, so it doesn’t seem likely that enough of them survived the trip to Peridea to form an entire army.
One theory is that not all of Thrawn’s Night Troopers are his original forces. Instead, they could be non-living soldiers powered by the Nightsisters’ magick. Viewers will recall that the mysterious Marrok dissolved into green smoke after being wounded in a battle with Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), leading many to conclude that he was a corpse reanimated through Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto)’s magick. It could be that whatever magick was powering Marrok is also what is powering Thrawn’s army. The Night Troopers could be his remaining troops, but perhaps also his dead troops, as well as the deceased inhabitants of Peridea.
It remains to be seen who or what exactly the Night Troopers are, but Ahsoka may have introduced Star Wars’ first undead army.
(featured image: Disney+)
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