Who Are the Sith Warriors in the ‘Ahsoka’ Trailer? Meet Baylan Skoll & Shin Hati
The Ahsoka trailer broke the internet because there were many fans that started talking about this upcoming release and what it has in store for fans of Star Wars. But while many fans focused on the appearances of the Star Wars: Rebels characters, some focused on the Sith-like warriors that were seen wielding orange lightsabers. Two of these were reportedly named Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati. So, who are these Sith-like warriors in the Ahsoka trailer?
Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati are likely users of the dark side of the Force and were corrupted during the reign of the Empire. In Baylan’s case, he is likely a former Jedi that had fallen to the dark side. Meanwhile, he must have taken Shin as his apprentice during the reign of the Empire.
At this point, we don’t know much about Baylan and Shin except that they are clearly hostile characters looking to give Ahsoka and the other characters some trouble in this upcoming series. But what we know is that they are going to give us some entertaining lightsaber battles. Now, let’s look at who Baylan and Shin could be.
Who Are Baylan and Shin?
The storyline of Star Wars continues with the upcoming release of the Ahsoka series, which will focus more on Ahsoka Tano. Ahsoka has seen almost everything during the Skywalker Saga because she was there during the Clone Wars, the Rebellion, and the Age of the New Republic. And in the current timeline of The Mandalorian in the New Republic era, she is looking to reunite with her friends in Star Wars: Rebels to go looking for Ezra Bridger and find a way to stop Grand Admiral Thrawn and the Imperial remnants all over the galaxy.
Of course, we know that the series now has a trailer that broke the internet due to plenty of fans that love Ahsoka Tano and the characters of the Rebels series. But while plenty of fans were talking about the abovementioned characters, many fans talked about the fact that the trailer featured Sith-like warriors that wielded orange lightsabers and were obviously on the opposing side. Recent reports say that these characters are named Baylan and Shin.
We don’t know the full details behind these characters except that they seem hostile toward Ahsoka and the New Republic. There’s also the fact that they are skilled in the Force. But we do have theories as to who these characters could be.
First, let’s look at Baylan Skoll, who Ray Stevenson plays. Before his name was revealed, some fans thought he could be Joruus C’baoth from Timothy Zahn’s Heir To The Empire book trilogy. Joruus is a clone of a Jedi Master and was one of the characters that worked with Thrawn in the books that may or may not be canon. However, it is clear that he is not the Jedi clone and is an entirely different and new character.
Baylan is an elderly Force user that has been around for at least five decades. That means that he was alive during the days of the old Jedi Order and might have been one of the Jedi that survived the events of Order 66 and lived through the days of the Empire. As such, at one point in his life, he might have gotten corrupted and eventually turned over to the dark side of the Force.
He must have survived the events of Order 66 and probably was never an Inquisitor during the reign of the Empire. But there’s a good chance he decided to turn his back on the light side due to the flaws he saw in the Jedi Order. As such, he might be similar to Taron Malicos, who wasn’t a Sith or an Inquisitor but was still close to the dark side of the Force after his corruption.
Meanwhile, there’s a good chance that Shin, who is much younger than Baylan, is the apprentice in this relationship and is probably a character born during the Empire era. That means she probably never trained in the Jedi Temple during her younger years and was most likely discovered by Baylan. As such, she was trained in the ways of the Force by Baylan but in a manner that’s different from how the Jedi are usually trained to become Force wielders.
As seen in the trailer, Baylan and Shin fought the good guys, and that means there’s a good chance that they are working under Grand Admiral Thrawn, who is said to be the “heir to the Empire,” as Ahsoka mentioned in the trailer. This duo is likely Thrawn’s version of what the Inquisitorius should be. And because the Sith are no longer around during the New Republic era, we can’t say for certain that Baylan and Shin are Sith Lords.
Why Do Baylan and Shin Have Orange Lightsabers?
One of the things established in the trailer was the fact that Baylan and Shin wielded orange-colored lightsabers. This is a departure from the usual saber colors we see in the Star Wars continuity, as we often see blue, green, and red as the primary lightsaber colors often used by Jedi and Sith alike. So, why do Baylan and Shin have orange lightsabers?
Remember that the New Republic era no longer merely looks at the Force wielders as either Jedi or Sith because many different Force users don’t necessarily belong in those categories. Ahsoka, for instance, is the only one that wields white lightsabers. Her saber color symbolizes her status as neither Jedi nor Sith but is still with the light side of the Force. The same can be said about Baylan and Shin.
In most cases, those who dwell in the dark side of the Force wield red lightsabers, as the red color appears when they use the dark side to “bleed” the Kyber crystal. Of course, we all know that lightsaber color doesn’t really matter in terms of combat prowess, but we do know that the color of a lightsaber can reflect the type of person the user is.
Baylan and Shin are most likely closer to the dark side than to the light side, but that doesn’t mean they are Sith. This means that the orange symbolizes that they are users of the dark side but aren’t necessarily Sith. After all, the dark orange coloration of their lightsabers is closer to the red color of the Sith than any other lightsaber color we’ve seen in Star Wars. As such, like Ahsoka, they have saber colors that symbolize that they are neither Jedi nor Sith but are still aligned with one of the two sides of the Force.