If you recall, last week we shared some information about these little avian creatures on Ahch-To in Star Wars: Episode VIII. These birds were said to be “protectors of Ahch-To.” When the puppets were being described to me last summer, certain things like their sharp teeth stood out to me that I never saw in the a Star Wars design. But they also made me not consider it was a bird-like creature we had seen before. Many of you asked me if the “puffins” were “convorees.” I thought about it and dug a little.

It appears highly likely we will be seeing convorees in Star Wars: Episode VIII. The sources that got back to me so far have said that’s the gist of the design; however, “leave some room open for the animated shows’ interpretation.” Without having seen the designs myself at this point, I think that’s about as good as I can do to confirm we will see convorees in Star Wars: Episode VIII.

This could change everything. Speculation follows below. It will either be a fun exercise in speculation of a tiny detail or something really big. We just don’t know yet.

Convorees have shown up in Star Wars Rebels at pivotal moments, but sometimes they’re subtle. One sits on the shoulders of Bendu when he meets the Jedi and Maul. In “Mystery of Chopper Base,” Ezra Bridger, who has been interfacing with wildlife, struggles with the power, but then he looks up to the sky to see a convor flying over his head. In the same scene Ahsoka Tano appears and says “In my experience, just when you think you understand the Force, you find out how little you actually know.” Later, after Ahsoka fights Darth Vader, we see a convor after the fight, showing us once again that these creatures glimpsed something important.

Dave Filoni’s Star Wars Card Trader Ashoka card shows us a less cartoonish rendering of a convor:

In Episode VIII we have Luke Skywalker on an island on Ahch-To. What’s he doing there? Are these space owls how the Jedi beat the Sith even further? After twenty years of the Sith dominating the galaxy, destroying Kyber crystals and desecrating Jedi holy places like Jedah, is this how the Jedi preserved their memories? Are the convors how they recovered what Palpatine destroyed?

Star Wars has always been influence by Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel Dune, and in this possibility there may be another similar influence. In Dune, there are the Bene Gesserit, a group of superbly trained women, similar in a way to the Jedi. When a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother ingests a special water she attains a great knowledge of dead and gone Reverend Mothers. Additionally others with certain breeding can achieve a shared consciousness with their ancestors after ingesting large quantities of the precious Spice. It would be an interesting addition to the Jedi mythos to have Luke Skywalker speaking to great Jedi who came before him though these avatar-like birds.

Back in March of 2016, Eric Goldman at IGN interviewed Dave Filoni and convorees came up:

“In some ways, I could say that it’s a messenger, it’s an observer. It is definitely something. And I would suggest – I would rather have fans debate – but I would suggest to say that whatever that thing is an avatar of has actually appeared in the animated Star Wars universe before.”

Filoni also notes that there may be different breeds of convorees, like the brown ones we saw in The Clone Wars. If you notice, the convor image at the top of the article has coloring that matches “The Sister” from the Mortis arc of The Clone Wars. Do these creatures maintain the memories of the Jedi and or powerful Force users? Do they simply document and watch the history of the galaxy unfolding like the concept of The Journal of the Whills?

The convorees could be the trick that allows the Jedi to begin to uncover their mistakes and have access to long lost knowledge. Could Ezra Bridger end up talking to Ahsoka through a convor with whom he uses the Force to interface? Is that what Luke Skywalker is doing on Ahch-To to some extent? Are the Force-sensitive trees we’ve seen The Clone Wars, Shattered Empire, and behind-the-scenes Episode VIII photos linked to this same concept?

We have heard these convorees are protectors of Ahch-To. They don’t look like a threat via physical force (unless they go full-on Hitchcock’s Birds, which I doubt). Maybe they’re protecting that place by preserving the knowledge that was once there? Will Rey be able to talk, interface, or communicate with them, too? Or will she see Luke Skywalker doing this and think he’s totally convor-shit insane? Is this how we might see Yoda in Episode VIII? Will this be the catalyst that gives us our “Forceback” and lets Rey see something integral to her murky history?

This could be the biggest trick the Jedi have pulled since they were able to retain their identity after death. We will have to wait and see what comes about in the future before we know how likely or unlikely this interpretation is. I like the general idea of it and I hope they do something like this that expands the Force and uses it in way we haven’t seen on screen before.