The Mortis Arc from the Clone Wars is a puzzling one. Did it really happen or was it an illusion? Are we done with those characters, or will they end up being a larger part of the Star Wars saga? Could they have any connections to the sequel trilogy? Let’s speculate.

Even if Mortis was a lot of illusion, there was a part of this series of events that was definitely real and in the real world. Do you recall the reason why Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan found their way to Mortis? The trio were drawn by a 2,000 year old Jedi distress signal coming from wild space. Following the signal led them straight to Mortis, where they were trapped. But where could this signal have come from, and what does this tell us about The Last Jedi? Read on for more.

How could a 2,000 year old Jedi distress signal fall into the hands of the Force Wielders from Mortis? Or did they even send the signal? Perhaps the key to all this is to do a little digging into Star Wars lore, and see what happened back then. Whatever it is, I would think the easiest hypothesis is that it came from a Jedi, but who? After a little digging I came up with none other than Darth Ruin, formerly a Jedi known as Phanius and left the Jedi order 2000 BBY:

But who was he? He was a male Umbaran Jedi that left the order to pursue an individualistic philosophy, and ultimately became a Sith Lord, named Darth Ruin, who would be responsible for bringing back the Sith. If you’ve followed the site for a long time, you may have read an older article trying to connect the Knights of Ren to Darth Ruin. It all comes from probably the most interesting of Mizzlewump’s statements about The Force Awakens:

Loredump: In the script, the Sith are a couple thousand years old, founded by an ancestor of Palpatine called Ruin; the apprentice in this film also goes by that name

In that article, I speculated that the apprentice “Ruin” was changed to “Ren” during the development of the film, given that so many of his other statements came true. So the fact that this guy left the order around the same time that the Jedi distress call that drew out our heroes to Mortis originated from, this places Darth Ruin as a likely candidate for somehow playing a role in the origin of that ancient Jedi distress signal. Ruin also recruited fifty other Jedi to his cause, any of whom could also be the culprit.

Beyond this, it isn’t clear what the connections between the ancient 2,000 year old Sith resurgence, and Mortis plays, but here could be something. Ruin and crew spent a lot of time reclaiming some ancient Sith worlds and presumably temples. One can’t help but think of the Malachor temple, which showed up in Star Wars Rebels. The temple exploded in a battle with the Sith “Thousands of years” before the Clone Wars, but it isn’t clear how many exactly. I’ve already pointed out the connections between Malachor and Mortis (hat tip to The Shadow Emperor). For example, the similarity between the upper half of “Mortis Monolith”, and Malachor Temple:

Also, the altar for the Dagger of Mortis and the where the Sith Holocron altar in the Malachor Temple:

So, there is something of a connection here, but we don’t know what. Why would there be a connection between the ancient Sith and the Force-wielders on Mortis? After all, the Father of Mortis was not a Sith. In the episode The Overlords, the Father explains himself to Anakin:

You have a very simple view of the universe. I am neither Sith nor Jedi. I am much more.

The Father goes on to say to Anakin

You are the chosen one, you have brought balance to this world. Stay on this path, and you will bring balance to the galaxy, but beware…your heart.

So the Father doesn’t care about taking over, he wants balance. Nevertheless, some parts of Mortis could have their roots in both Jedi and Sith teachings via Darth Ruin’s group of Jedi-turned-Sith, or Ruin’s group may have at least encountered them.

It was said that the Dagger of Mortis was able to kill the Force-wielders, and using on the Father would make his children lose their immortality. However, it never said that it would kill the Father explicitly.

For example, Anakin’s lightsaber passes through the Father *after* he stabbed himself with the Dagger of Mortis,

Only to have the saber hole disappear:

Then, the Father disappears:

So did the Father actually die? The Father is the only Force-wielder on Mortis that vanishes. Could it be that he was somehow transformed, and entered the real world?

Make no mistake, even thought the Father was not a Sith, he was not really a good guy. He put Obi-Wan and Ahsoka at risk to test Anakin, and definitely displayed morally-ambiguous tendencies. But if he didn’t die, what happened to him?

If the Dagger of Mortis caused the mortality of the Son and Daughter, could it have also led to the Fathers mortality after he vanished? Could it be the Father was transformed to a mortal being?

Shortly after Jason Ward and Jared Jones posted a drawing of Snoke, some images confirming the drawings leaked online:

I’ve pointed out the similarities of Snoke and the Father before. They both are seven feet tall, both powerful Force-users, they both have pale blue eyes, they both were interested in balance. Snoke liked Kylo’s balance of light and dark, and the Father sought Anakin’s ability to balance the Force. OK, so maybe these last two are two different things, but they certainly have some similarities. Anakin was able to control both the Son and Daughter at the same time, therefore had some control of both light and dark. Importantly, the Father had the ability to wipe peoples memories–a power that plays into a lot of theories out there about The Force Awakens…

To me, Snoke’s opulent robe sort of matches the outfits of the Force-wielders on Mortis. We don’t know what caused Snoke’s injuries, but there definitely a lot of similarities between Snoke and the Father. Could it be that the Father’s work on Mortis was done with both the Son and the Daughter dead, and now after re-emerging as a mortal being he seeks do the same with the galaxy in his own way by bringing an end to the Jedi and the Sith? Wait a minute, my friend @mazlow is here to bring me back to earth…

Dear fellow Star Wars fans… Plagueis is dead, Snoke is a new character. Neither Snoke or Kylo are Sith. That is all. — J-Red! 5 (@mazlow01) July 28, 2017



So it’s a tantalizing theory to me, but I have to concede that there is plenty of evidence that Snoke is a new character. For example, consider this tweet from Pablo Hidalgo:



One way to put all this together is to consider that the Father was a forerunner to Snoke, a type of being that the Clone Wars first introduced us to. Snoke could be something very much like the Father, yet be a totally new character. While we haven’t connected all the dots, there is something intriguing about these “Celestials” and ancient Force-users thousands of years in the past. I think fans would love to see connections going back to ancient lore as the new canon gets fleshed out over the coming years. I want to hear what you guys think. Leave your comments below, or tell us on twitter!

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