I have been anxiously waiting for the mysterious Sith temple to appear in Star Wars Rebels ever since it was teased in the initial trailer and it seems that after last week’s episode, I might be finally getting my wish.
WARNING: INCOMING SPOILERS FOR STAR WARS REBELS SEASON 2
In episode 18 of Rebels Season 2, Ezra sought out Yoda for answers on how to defeat Vader and the inquisitors in the old Jedi temple he and Kanan visited in Season 1. Yoda did indeed appear to him (and Ahsoka!) and told him to go to “Malachor” for answers. At which point, the not-so-inner Star Wars nerd inside me exploded.
So what exactly is a Malachor, and why would it get me so worked up?
You see, Malachor – or rather Malachor V – is a big deal in Star Wars Legends canon and as Yoda hinted, it has huge ties to the ancient Sith, dating all the way back to the Old Republic era, even before Darth Bane established the Sith Rule of Two. Making its first appearance in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 (my favourite Star Wars game ever), Malachor V played host to the final battle of something called The Mandalorian Wars.
Before George Lucas decided to ignore and overwrite the Mandalorian race’s amazing warrior history and make them a peaceful society in The Clone Wars TV series, Mandalorians were a warrior race who placed a great importance in battle to prove they were stronger (and therefore better) than anyone else. Eventually, they took to war mongering and conquering planets across the Outer Rim in a bid to draw out the Republic. The Republic took the bait and so began the Mandalorian Wars. However, while the Republic had no qualms about going to war, the Jedi Council urged caution and refused to support them, sitting out the entire war.
This decision split the Jedi Order; some couldn’t abide sitting around watching the Mandalorians burn world after world(the Republic was losing, badly) so they disobeyed the Council’s orders and joined the war effort. This all culminated in a final battle around Malachor V.
Now, Malachor V was already a pretty nasty place. So steeped was it in the dark side that the Sith had already set up an academy long-abandoned before the war arrived. The Mandalorians even considered it a taboo world for that very reason. But the battle only made things worse. Keen to deliver the final blow to the Mandalorians, the Republic activated something called the Mass Shadow Generator (basically a massive freaking bomb) that created a gravity vortex, sending every ship crashing into the planet’s surface. There were horrific losses on both sides.
After the Mass Shadow Generator, Malachor shattered. The planet was completely fractured, held together only by the gravity fields created by the bomb. Any beauty the planet had possessed had now been transformed into a barren and jagged wasteland. The dark power already present was amplified by the millions of deaths that all occurred in one single moment. It was enough to draw the Sith back and repopulate their academy, until you cleared them all out at the end of KOTOR 2.
The man who made all this happen? Darth Revan. The Jedi leader of the Republic forces who went on to become Darth Revan as the battle of Malachor V acted as a catalyst for his descent towards the dark side.
But why does this matter, I hear you ask? Well, it looks Rebels is about to make a great deal of this backstory canon. It’s been noted that The Force Awakens art book mentions Malachor, though without the Roman numeral on the end. It claims that the design for Kylo Ren’s cross guard lightsaber was seen earliest at the “Scourge of Malachor” (suggesting this is where Ezra finds the one we see in the trailer).
It’s the only detail we have, but that certainly sounds like an event as big as the one at the end of the Mandalorian Wars, though since George Lucas changed the Mandalorians’ entire history I doubt they will be involved. But still, Malachor should be every bit as steeped in the dark side as it was in Legends canon.
That could mean Ezra has an incredibly tough challenge ahead of him. Season 1 showed the boy briefly flirting with the dark side to get out of danger, and Season 2 has frequently reminded us that he is still vulnerable. Travelling to a planet like that could do terrible things to someone like him, especially when it could be the secret hide-out of a certain Darth Maul.
We also see Ezra holding a Sith holocron in the mid-season trailer. If this is also in Malachor’s Sith temple, Rebels could reveal a second awesome part of Legends canon and make Darth Revan a part of the new canon. There have been reports that Darth Revan is part of a new line of toys for Rebels Season 2, so it’s entirely possible that this holocron belongs to him, ready to impart some wisdom to Ezra.
Also, as an aside – anyone else notice the similarities on the right between Revan and Kylo Ren from the latest film? Come on, I know you do. Perhaps Vader wasn’t his only source of inspiration
For anyone who’s only kept up with the films it probably won’t mean much, but for those fans who devoured Expanded Universe content and played the KOTOR games, it means a hell of a lot. Star Wars Rebels has a chance to do some incredible world-building here.
The Sith don’t have much backstory anymore in the new canon; we only know of Moraband – previously known as Korriban – as one of the ancient Sith worlds introduced in the final Clone Wars season, but that’s it so far. Adding Malachor would be a big step towards fleshing out the Sith (Ziost hasn’t been mentioned once yet, to my knowledge) and would go a long way to adding some of that mysticism back into the Star Wars universe.
So yeah. Malachor could be back. Darth Revan could be back. We know Darth Maul’s going to be back. Maybe all in the same episode. Damn right I’m pumped.
Breaking Josh 