Who Is Shin Hati In Star Wars Ahsoka?
Who’s the cute blonde Jedi that Star Wars fans can’t stop talking about? No, the answer isn’t Luke Skywalker, though we appreciate a guess so thirsty it needs its own moisture vaporator. No, the answer is Shin Hati, the new Dark Jedi threat on the Disney+ show Ahsoka, and we’ve got everything you need to know that this dark new apprentice who nearly put an end to Sabine Wren’s Jedi dreams (and, you know…her life).
The Origin Of Shin Hati
On the most basic level, Shin Hati is Baylan Skoll’s apprentice, the biggest bad guy on Ahsoka (at least, until Grand Admiral Thrawn inevitably shows up). Skoll, in turn, is a servant to Lady Morgan Elsbeth, and he sees helping her as a way of ushering some very necessary destruction into a galaxy far, far away. Skoll doesn’t seem to be a Sith (who won’t come back until Emperor Palpatine “somehow” returns in The Rise of Skywalker, set years later), but in taking Shin Hati as an apprentice, Ahsoka shows us he is at least committed to the Sith ideology of each Master training an apprentice.
“She’s impatient, but she’s a seeker, She’s only in the beginning of finding her own voice.”
Ivanna Sakhno describing her character, Shin Hati
Perhaps the best way to learn more about who Shin Hati is in Ahsoka is to listen to the actor who plays her, Ivanna Sakhno, who talked about the character and her motivations in a pre-strike interview with Entertainment Weekly. According to Sakhno, Shin Hati is “very calculated” and has some slightly contradictory traits. “She’s impatient, but she’s a seeker,” the actor said, and “She’s only in the beginning of finding her own voice.”
While Ahsoka hasn’t yet completed its eight-episode run, we have already seen evidence of what Sakhno has said about her character. As Baylan Skoll’s apprentice, she is obviously seeking a number of things: greater knowledge of the Force, more power for herself, and evidence of whether or not Thrawn will usher in the cleansing destruction her mentor has foreseen. At the same time, we have seen her get impulsively angry during combat (unsurprising, really, for a Dark Jedi), and she briefly ignored her master’s command when spitefully Force-chocking Sabine after the would-be Jedi reluctantly joined forces with Skoll.
How Ivanna Sakhno Helped Create Shin Hati
Another fascinating thing about Shin Hati’s portrayal in Ahsoka is that the actor played a significant role in creating the character’s aesthetic and even her backstory. In that same interview, Ivanna Sakhno said, “I just felt like my involvement mattered” and that “With the costume and makeup, it felt like storytelling.” Hati looks for all the world like a bleached bob Renaissance Faire cosplayer who picked up a red lightsaber, and it’s wild to know that the actor was personally responsible for creating one of the most memorable looks in the world’s most iconic franchise.
Ultimately, the only way we will learn more about Shin Hati (including her background and her motivations, which may be very different than her master’s) is to watch the rest of the season of Ahsoka unfold. We’re not expert Sabacc players like Han Solo or Lando Calrissian, but we’d be willing to bet the Millennium Falcon that Baylan Skoll will die before the end of the show, leaving Shit Hati as a wild card Dark Jedi. And since this show is clearly setting up a more ambitious story involving Grand Admiral Thrawn, we wouldn’t be surprised if this laconic blonde ends up being his reluctant servant who ultimately vies with him for the true title of “Heir to the Empire.”
