What’s With That Gold Stormtrooper In Star Wars Ahsoka?
Star Wars history was made last night when Ahsoka episode 6 dropped on Disney+. Not only did the episode entitled “Far, Far Away” introduce the Star Wars fandom to a new galaxy outside of the one they know and love, but was also the live-action debut of both Grand Admiral Thrawn and Rebels favorite Ezra Bridger. Along with Thrawn and Ezra, viewers were also treated to a brand new Star Wars character never before seen in Ahsoka, Legends, or anywhere else: Captain Enoch.
The latest episode of Ahsoka reveals a stormtrooper whose helmet mysteriously has a gold face plate, Captain Enoch played by Wes Chatham.
Thrawn’s entrance—to the episode as well as live-action Star Wars as a whole—was heralded by a legion of Stormtroopers chanting his name. Leading the chant and sticking out like a sore thumb was a single trooper with a gold face where the front of his helmet should be. Thrawn soon reveals that trooper to be Captain Enoch.
But who or what is Captain Enoch? Is that gold face a mask or his real face? Is he a robot?
To answer the question of who Captain Enoch is in a literal sense, he’s Wes Chatham, an actor best known for his work in the Hunger Games franchise. To answer the question in terms of Star Wars and Ahsoka specifically, we don’t know—but we can speculate.
Is it possible that Enoch and the rest of the Night Troopers are undead abominations resurrected by the Nightsisters’ dark magic?
An important clue to not just Enoch’s identity but possibly that of Thrawn’s whittled-down and battle-hardened army is the fact that they are referred to as Night Troopers. The name, along with the random bits of red cloth the troopers have woven around their standard stormtrooper armor, invokes the Nightsisters, Force witches who hail from the planet Dathomir.
It’s revealed in Ahsoka episode 6 that there are also Nightsisters in this new Star Wars galaxy, a trio of which are seen helping Thrawn on Ahsoka‘s new planet Peridea.
The Nightsisters are known for their ability to create undead, zombie warriors from the corpses of fallen comrades. These zombified combatants are recognizable by a green mist that seems to fill their bodies; a mist that Star Wars fans saw spewing out of Marrok when he was defeated by Ahsoka in episode 4.
Is it possible that Enoch and the rest of the Night Troopers are undead abominations resurrected by the Nightsisters’ dark magic? Thrawn did say that years of being exiled on Peridea had caused his army to suffer casualties. Perhaps those dead troopers were then raised by the Nightsisters and made again to serve their Grand Admiral in combat.
If the cops from THX-1138 were the inspiration for Captain Enoch’s look, then it’s likely nothing more than a fun nod to Star Wars and Ahsoka Tano’s original creator.
That could mean the cargo being loaded onto Thrawn’s Star Destroyer The Chimaera is fresh corpses ready to be reanimated and put to work against the New Republic.
That would explain the Night Troopers, but what about Enoch himself? He could also be one of Nightsisters’ zombies, but why does he get a cool gold mask, and none of the others do? Why was he promoted, and none of the other troopers were?
At this point, Captain Enoch’s place in the greater Star Wars mythos and Ahsoka specifically raises many questions that can’t be answered for sure until we find out more about the character, hopefully the next episode. Until then, however, we do have a theory about what inspired Enoch’s shiny face-like mask.
Before Star Wars and long before Ahsoka was even a twinkle in Dave Filoni‘s eye, George Lucas made an underrated sci-fi gem, THX-1138. That movie featured police with polished chrome masks that look very similar to Enoch’s golden mask. If the cops from THX-1138 were the inspiration for Captain Enoch’s look, then it’s likely nothing more than a fun nod to Star Wars and Ahsoka Tano’s original creator.
On the other hand, the metal-faced cops in THX were androids… hmmmm. Definitely food for thought.
