Ahsoka’s finale goes all in Star Wars’ weirdest tangent: the Mortis gods
We all knew that Ahsoka would pick up plotlines from Star Wars: Clone Wars and Rebels. But I didn’t expect its finale to reprise the most baffling piece of cinematic Star Wars media I’ve ever consumed.
Nevertheless, here we are: With an owl and some statues, Ahsoka said “It’s gods of Mortis time, baby!”
The gods of Mortis are a trio of Star Wars characters pitched to the Star Wars: Clone Wars writing room by George Lucas, and it’s hard to explain exactly what they are inside of Star Wars canon, because of how vaguely Clone Wars elucidates them. They’re secretive beings of great and largely unknown power, who are shrouded in legend — they can transform their own shapes, grab lightsabers by the blade like it ain’t no thang, manipulate Force visions, and one of them loves murder. Are they full on celestial beings? Or are they just powerful Force-users? It’s ambiguous.
Outside of the fiction, they read as Lucas using the structure of fable to depict an endless cycle of struggle between Jedi and Sith. The Mortis “gods” form a pantheon of three: The selfless, life-bringing Daughter; the selfish, violent Son; and the Father who seeks to keep each of them from dominating the other. To this end, the Father sequesters them all in a dreamlike realm called Mortis (which may, or may not, or may only sometimes, have a set location in actual space) where the landscape itself represents the battle of the Son and Daughter’s natures, with seasons changing as quickly as the hour.
Though images of the Mortis gods appear in Rebels’ final season, there’s really only one Mortis gods story: A three-part arc in the third season of Clone Wars, including the episodes “Overlords,” “Altar of Mortis,” and “Ghosts of Mortis.” Obi-Wan, Anakin, and
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