Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Ahsoka Episode 4.
Among the many excitements Ahsoka Episode 4 brought us, is an unfortunate revelation. For a long time, especially during Season 3 of The Mandalorian, fans have wondered about Clan Wren’s whereabouts when the Mandalorians took back their home world from the clutches of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). As longtime supporters of Bo-Katan Kryze’s (Katee Sackhoff) claim to the Mandalorian throne, their absence was felt by those who met them back in Star Wars Rebels as Sabine’s (Natasha Liu Bordizzo/Tiya Sircar) troubled, but well-meaning family, as they could’ve provided crucial aid to the Mandalorians. Now we know what happened: they perished during the infamous Night of a Thousand Tears.
The revelation comes as Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) tempts Sabine to surrender the map to Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) by saying, among other things: “Your family died on Mandalore because your master didn’t trust you.” There is a lot to unpack based on this short statement, and a lot of questions come to mind about what happened during the period between the end of Rebels and the start of The Mandalorian; the fate of Clan Wren is now another piece in the big puzzle.
Who Is Mandalore’s Clan Wren, and Why Are They Important?
One of the most interesting aspects of Mandalorian culture is how its whole structure is based on family relationships and how influential they are. First, families are divided into Houses and subsequently into Clans. The most famous of those is House Vizsla, founded by the Mandalorian Jedi Tarre Vizsla back in the golden age of Mandalore. House Vizsla comprises smaller Clans, like the eponymous Clan Vizsla and, finally, Clan Wren.
In Star Wars Rebels, we meet Clan Wren at their seat in Krownest, a moon of the Concord Dawn system. At that time (per the conventional calendar, around 2 BBY, before the Battle of Yavin, as seen in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope), Mandalore was still under Imperial control, so Mandalorian Clans were scattered through neighboring systems in that sector of the galaxy. But every House and Clan can trace their origins back to Mandalore, so reclaiming the planet was important. Sabine had the Darksaber back then (partly why she’s so proficient with lightsabers), and went back to her Clan’s home to try and convince them to join her in the quest to retake Mandalore. It took a long time, but she earns the trust of her family after defeating the Mandalorian Imperial Governor Gar Saxon (also voiced by Stevenson) in a duel.
The whole Mandalorian arc of Rebels then moves towards its conclusion when a host of Mandalorian Clans invades Mandalore with the help of the Phoenix Squadron. They join Bo-Katan Kryze and her Nite Owls and finally take back their ancient home world. That’s also when Sabine gave the Darksaber to Bo-Katan, who was acclaimed as the new ruler of Mandalore. Unfortunately, we know that’s not how ownership over the Darksaber works, and eventually, the Empire went back to Mandalore and laid waste to the whole planet.
But Clan Wren has always been on the right side of Mandalorian history. At the end of Rebels, the chief of the Clan was Ursa Wren (Sharmila Devar), who also fought beside Bo-Katan and the Republic Army during the Siege of Mandalore decades earlier (as seen in Season 7 of The Clone Wars). She was married to historian and professor Alrich Wren (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), and they were the parents of Sabine and Tristan Wren (Ritesh Rajan).
What Happened to Clan Wren During the Night of a Thousand Tears?
War is something that’s intrinsic to Mandalorian culture. There are never big periods of peace in their history, they’re always fighting someone. In the years after the Mandalorians retook Mandalore, the Empire quickly struck back, only this time it was even worse. Led by Moff Gideon, Imperial forces went back to Mandalore and laid waste to the planet in what eventually became known as the Great Mandalorian Purge, and its bloody culmination, the Night of a Thousand Tears.
This event was first mentioned by Gideon himself in the Season 1 finale of The Mandalorian, but we came to understand it better when The Armorer (Emily Swallow) explained it to Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal/Brendan Wayne/Lateef Crowder) in The Book of Boba Fett episode “Return of the Mandalorian.” According to her, it happened because “those born of Mandalore strayed away from the path,” referring to how Bo-Katan became the leader of Mandalore by receiving the Darksaber from Sabine Wren, not winning it in combat.
In Season 3 of The Mandalorian, Bo-Katan reveals that she surrendered to the Empire when Moff Gideon, then an agent of the Imperial Security Bureau, reached out to her with terms and an offer of a cease-fire. Bo-Katan knew surrendering would bring shame upon her, but accepted the offer in order to save her people’s lives. That’s when Moff Gideon got the Darksaber for himself, and also when he betrayed Bo-Katan by continuing the purge on the fateful following night, when all remaining Mandalorians on the planet were killed and the surface of the planet itself was completely turned to glass by Imperial bombs.
What Does Baylan Mean When He Says Ahsoka “Didn’t Trust” Sabine?
Although there’s no confirmation of when exactly the Night of a Thousand Tears took place, estimates place it between 1 BBY and 9 BBY (when Season 1 of The Mandalorian takes place). This period coincides with another narrative gap in Star Wars, the whereabouts of Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson). She was saved by Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi/Taylor Grey) and taken to the World Between Worlds around 1 BBY, too, but we only see her again in Season 2 of The Mandalorian.
In the meantime, Ahsoka has taken Sabine as her apprentice and walked away from her, too — although we also have no official confirmation of when that took place. The fact that Baylan mentions this to Sabine is the first overlapping account about Sabine’s training and the Great Mandalorian Purge, meaning that they happened in the same period. Sabine probably wanted to rush to Mandalore and fight but wasn’t allowed to by Ahsoka, which caused the rift between the two of them. Of course, Baylan says Ahsoka “didn’t trust” Sabine as a way to play with the Mandalorian’s already troubled emotions and persuade her to not follow her master’s instructions to destroy the map. It’s likely that Ahsoka didn’t let Sabine go to Mandalore because she knew there was a high chance the Padawan wouldn’t make it off the planet, regardless of her abilities as a warrior. With all that happened in Episode 4 of Ahsoka, the reference to Sabine’s family is easy to miss. This thread, however, is sure to be picked up later in the series to further explain the tumultuous history between Master and Padawan.
