Star Wars: The Tragedy of Baylan Skoll
Ahsoka has wrapped up and the story of Baylan Skoll, and actor Ray Stevenson, is a tragic loss.
Star Wars: Ahsoka was a good show, with some great characters. I think most people would agree that Baylan Skoll is the best thing to come out of the show. The late Ray Stevenson gave a masterful performance in the show. However, it’s one that’s now married by tragedy.
The Best Character
via Lucasfilm
Baylan came out of the start of this season really strong. And I do mean strong. This guy is a powerhouse anytime he gets into a fight. He’s a brooding, mysterious and deadly character. Overall just a real badass, but with more behind him. Fans pretty instantly latched on to him and its no wonder. He, and his apprentice, also served as a great foil to Ahsoka and Sabine, a dark version of them. However there was also more going on.
Is Baylan A Lightsider?
A lot of people have called Baylan a Sith. That’s clearly wrong, neither he, nor Shin Hati, his apprentice are Sith. Despite their willingness to work for the Imperial Remnant they don’t really do Sith things, or have the eyes. Part of the misconception comes form their sabers, which people mistook at times for being red, like a Sith’s. However both are in fact orange, and based on what Huyang says Baylan had his when he was a Jedi. It might then be better to call him a Fallen Jedi. 
And this brings up an interesting question. Is Baylan a Light side user or a Darksider? He doesn’t use a whole ton of Dark Side powers. A bit of light chocking, but we’ve seen Jedi do that before. Certainly no Force Lighting. He doesn’t seem to act out of anger or hatred. In a number of cases he actively attempts to avoid conflict. He doesn’t even hate the Jedi, just what the Order became. Even his motives seem much more about following the will of the Force than anything else. He’s fallowing fate, don’t as far as we’ve seen trying to dominate things. All of that seems much more like a Jedi or a Light Side user. Just because he’s fighting the New Republic doesn’t actually mean he’s evil. Much like Ahsoka herself, who is famously “not a Jedi” he’s much closer to being a Grey Jedi then a Dark sider. All of this just adds to the tragedy of Baylan Skoll.
The Tragedy of Baylan Skoll
All of this brings us to the big tragedy around him. Baylan is an amazing character. He’s also a very incomplete one. We don’t really know what his goal or motivation is, it’s only been hinted at. Many people thought his story would wrap up in Season 1 of Ahsoka, but that was not the case. Instead we saw very little of him in the last episode. However we do know that he had gotten near to his goal and found statues of the Mortis Ones. His story was patently unfished with a lot left to tell. 
Unfortunately this is where real life has interrupted our fantasy. Just before Ahsoka Season 1 came out Ray Stevenson passed away. He never got to see how well received his portray of Baylan Skoll was. Moreover he never got to complete the arc of the character. That means Baylan’s future is very uncertain right now. If Ahsoka gets a second season how will they deal with him? Kill him off between seasons? Kill him off quickly and just use makeup? Recast him? Use deep fakes? There’s just no real good answers. Most likely they will have to recast him. This is really just a tragedy. Ultimately it will be hard for a new actor to step into replace Ray after his stellar performance. On top of that all of use watching will know what was lost. I hope they can find a way to make it work, but the story of Baylan Skoll really is a tragedy at this point.
Let us know what you thought about Baylan Skoll, down in the comments!
