Ahsoka Sets Up First Ever Star Wars Same-Sex Relationship
Could Shin Hati and Sabine Wren become the first lesbian couple in Star Wars? If you believe the sizable chunk of fans online that ship the two, that answer is yes. But is there anything onscreen in the Ahsoka series that implies the two could really get together in canon? Possibly more than you think.
For readers new to the internet, shipping is when fans take two characters like, say, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock and imagine them in a romantic relationship. This usually leads to fans giving the couple a cute nickname —Spirk for the above example—and writing lots of fanfiction about what the two get up to in their downtime, usually in extremely graphic detail. The current ship name for Shin and Sabine is “WolfWren,” a combination of Norse mythology where Hati is a wolf that hunts the sun and Sabine’s last name Wren.
Many Star Wars fans would love to see Ahsoka‘s Shin Hati and Sabine Wren form a romantic relationship, and there’s a chance Star Wars could make this really happen in future projects.
Also, it rhymes with wolf den, which is cool.
Star Wars fans started shipping the two enemies from the first episode of Ahsoka when Shin is sent to hunt down Sabine and retrieve the key that will allow the bad guys to locate Grand Admiral Thrawn. As soon as the two women engage in combat, their chemistry becomes apparent.
No less than two times during their initial duel, do Shin Hati and Sabine Wren lock sabers and give each other looks that could easily be construed as something more than just an indifferent rivalry.
Of course, that first clash ends with Shin stabbing Sabine right through the abdomen, but as the saying goes, love hurts. For one thing, Shin conveniently manages not to hit any vital organs as Sabine recovers quite quickly from the wound with no lasting damage.
On top of that, Shin immediately leaves after stabbing Sabine rather than finishing the Mandalorian off—almost as if, on a subconscious level, she wants to face Wren again.
No less than two times during their initial duel, do Shin Hati and Sabine Wren lock sabers and give each other looks that could easily be construed as something more than just an indifferent rivalry.
And face her again she does, a few episodes later in a forest on the planet Seatos. Once again, the two share several flirty looks before the fight ends, with Shin throwing a smoke bomb and escaping. So far, all the evidence for a Shin and Sabine pairing seems circumstantial at best until Ahsoka dropped episode 6, and the two “rivals” shared a long lingering look while traveling together on the same starship.
In fact, most of the scenes between the two feature stolen glances that don’t feel like the way enemies look at each other. Unfortunately, Ahsoka ended without any closure for Star Wars’s newest would-be couple.
So why do we think that WolfWren will end up happening for real? Well, believe it or not, the biggest clue might be another Star Wars ship: Reylo. Reylo was the name given to the fan-imagined romance between Rey and Kylo Ren during the Star Wars sequel era.
WolfWren is Lucasfilm’s chance to fix what they botched with Reylo and finally get some decent LGBTQIA+ representation in the Star Wars universe.
Reylo became such a big thing online that J. J. Abrams, in his scramble to try and please everyone with The Rise of Skywalker—and subsequently pleasing no one—even included an awkward kiss between the two at the end of Episode IX. Needless to say, that wasn’t exactly the romance Reylo fans were hoping for, much like Ben Solo’s last-minute turn to the light—while awesome—didn’t exactly satisfy fans hoping for a true Kylo Ren redemption arc.
WolfWren is Lucasfilm’s chance to fix what they botched with Reylo and finally get some decent LGBTQIA+ representation in the Star Wars universe. The Rise of Skywalker featured a blink-and-you-‘ll-miss-it scene where two women kiss in the background, but that hardly counts as meaningful representation.
Whether it was Dave Filoni’s intention for Sabine and Shin’s relationship to come off as flirty and possibly romantic or not, he now has an opportunity to give Shin the redemption arc that Kylo Ren was denied while making the fans shipping the two happier than a Bantha in poodoo.
Let’s hope Disney gets this right and doesn’t do something gross like pairing Sabine with Ezra—the closest thing to a brother she’s ever had. After all, Star Wars flirted with incest once already, and it was….icky.
