Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Ahsoka Episode 4.Episode 4 of Ahsoka has seemingly revealed the identity and perhaps even the fate of a character who fans have been heavily speculating about since the first episode. To be completely blunt, the apparent path that Dave Filoni and Lucasfilm decided to take for the rising fan-favorite character of Marrok (Paul Darnell) will not be to everyone’s taste and will likely feel like a bait and switch for fans who bought into a theory. Still, the path that this new foe falls into is honestly for the best. Not only does Ahsoka already have enough villain characters as is, but not every mask-wearing bad guy needs to be a popular legacy figure.
Marrok Is Apparently a Nobody in ‘Ahsoka’
Though Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevens) and Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) are the primary evil Force users in Ahsoka, fans were curious when Marrok appeared. Designed almost as if he were the Star Wars equivalent of the Black Knight, Marrok aids Baylan and Shin in their fervent search for Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) so he can rebuild the Galactic Empire. Though Marrok is an individual of few words, his actions make him a formidable foe against even the most experienced Jedi Knights like Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), with him easily holding his own in combat.
However, Ahsoka gets her chance for a rematch against Marrok in Episode 4. While Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) has a rematch of her own with Shin Hati, Ahsoka is in a tense duel with Marrok, being prepared to deal with the masked warrior this time around. The battle eventually turns into a standoff, with Ahsoka and Marrok taking their stances and staring each other down. Ahsoka comes out on top this time, cleaving Marrok and seemingly killing him.
Thus, Marrok’s time in Ahsoka seems to come to an end, though we still don’t know too much about who he was. The green smoke that bursts out of Marrok upon death seems to hint that he may have been imbued with Nightsister magick, which would be consistent with Morgan Elsbeth’s (Diana Lee Inosanto) connection to the Witches of Dathomir. Either way, it looks like this is the end of Marrok, at least for now.
Fan Theories Connected Marrok to ‘Rebels,’ ‘The Clone Wars,’ ‘The Force Unleashed,’ and More
The death of Marrok also comes with the death of several fan theories that claimed he was an established legacy character in disguise. The most obvious theories came thanks to Marrok’s dual-bladed spinning lightsaber, which is the weapon of choice for the Imperial Inquisitors seen in Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: Fallen Order, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and more. Some even went as far as to suggest that Marrok could even have been the person Ahsoka and Sabine were looking for, Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi), suggesting the young Jedi may have turned to the Dark Side in between the events of Rebels and Ahsoka.
Speaking of fallen Jedi, another now-seemingly defunct theory surmised that Marrok could also be Barriss Offee (Meredith Salenger) — a character who has not been seen in the franchise since Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Barriss was a fellow Jedi Padawan and close personal friend to Ahsoka Tano prior to the rise of the Empire, but that all collapsed when Barriss slowly but surely fell to the Dark Side. Being the one who framed Ahsoka for murder, Barriss was the one ultimately responsible for Ahsoka leaving the Jedi Order and beginning her path to become a neutral yet good-hearted Gray Jedi.
Perhaps the most outlandish theory for Marrok’s identity was how he was potentially being used as the reintroduction of a popular Legends character from the fan-favorite video game, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. The protagonist of that game, Starkiller (played by veteran Star Wars voice actor Sam Witwer), is Darth Vader’s (James Earl Jones) secret apprentice who ultimately becomes indirectly responsible for the creation of the Rebel Alliance. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is no longer considered canon, and while perhaps we’ll see Starkiller return one day, it won’t be through Marrok.
‘Ahsoka’ Already Has Enough Villains
Marrok’s death may be disappointing for some, but Ahsoka already feels a bit overcrowded with the number of villains we have so far. For starters, Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati already provide a prominent Force-sensitive threat for Ahsoka and Sabine, so a third one below them feels somewhat redundant. Plus, Morgan Elsbeth’s Nightsister abilities also make her another borderline supernatural Force that the heroes will have to deal with.
Not to mention, Ahsoka is four episodes in, and we haven’t even seen the show’s main antagonist yet. Grand Admiral Thrawn’s return is on the horizon, and if Ahsoka wants fans both new and old to understand just how vital he is to the franchise, it will need to spend as much time as possible fleshing him out. The list of villains is already getting too long, so somebody just had to be cut (literally).
Marrok’s Death Mirrors Snoke’s in ‘The Last Jedi’
As Star Wars fans who are frequently online no doubt remember, this isn’t the first time a character’s legacy connections have been blown out of proportion. The prime example of that is Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) from the Sequel Trilogy, who many predicted was actually Emperor Palpatine’s (Ian McDiarmid) former master, Darth Plagueis. That ended up not being the case in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, where Snoke was betrayed and cast aside by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). That said, it would later be revealed that Snoke was a clone created by Palpatine.
Marrok can also easily be compared to the laundry list of other Star Wars characters who were introduced as characters with a cool outfit and not much else. Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch/Temuera Morrison), General Grievous (Matthew Wood), Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) — all of these characters were fleshed out later in either sequel shows or supplementary Star Wars stories, like tie-in books or comics. That may end up being the case for Marrok, as Ahsoka has not yet concluded at the time of this writing. Shin Hati seemed particularly enraged by his death, so perhaps there is something more to Marrok that we don’t know about just yet, but for now, it seems that all those fan theories may have just gone up in a puff of smoke.
The first four episodes of Ahsoka are streaming on Disney+ now.
