The Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures Annual reveals that Anakin Skywalker was not the only Jedi in the galaxy to be assigned a padawan.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures 2021 Annual and Star Wars: The High Republic: Out of the Shadows, on sale now.
In the Order of the Jedi, Masters generally either choose their Padawans or the Padawans request to be trained by a specific master. However, that is not always a case. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ opening movie, Anakin Skywalker was assigned to be Ahsoka Tano’s master by Yoda. Similarly, the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures 2021 Annual revealed that Stellan Gios was assigned to be the master of Vernestra Rwoh, a young prodigy. While these assignments can work, they also can lead to trouble in the future because of the Master’s lack of an initial bond with the Padawan.
When Anakin Skywalker first learned that he was assigned a Padawan, he was completely resistant to the idea because he believed that a student would get in his way. However, after Ahsoka helped Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi achieve victory on Christophsis, Anakin embraced the idea of becoming her teacher. When Yoda entertained the idea of giving Anakin a possible reprieve from the responsibility, the young Jedi argued that while Ahsoka was, in his estimation “a little rough around the edges,” he believed that “with a great deal of training and patience, she might amount to something.” While this assessment was condescending, it did cement Anakin’s role as Ahsoka’s master.
While Ahsoka and Anakin had a rocky start, their trust for each other grew over time. After his initial reluctance to teach Ahsoka, Anakin finally embraced his new role as teacher, but he had a hard time trusting in her abilities, a recurring theme throughout all of his relationships. In response, Ahsoka resented his protectiveness. The true turning point in their bond occurred after Ahsoka was kidnapped by Trandoshan hunters in the final arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ third season. After Ahsoka effectively saved herself and other kidnapped Padawans with a little help from Chewbacca, Anakin finally began to see that Ahsoka could handle herself, and Ahsoka also recognized how much she had learned from Anakin. While Ahsoka later left the order, she did not lose faith in Anakin until she learned that her former teacher had turned to the dark side.
In contrast, both Stellan and Vernestra were excited to work with each other, as shown in the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures 2021 Annual‘s “First Mission” (by Justina Ireland, Yael Nathan, Neil Uyetake, Riley Farmer and Heather Antos). After meeting, Stellan and Vernestra attended a banquet that was supposed to celebrate a peace treaty between the Hutt Cartel and the Hynestrian royal family. However, Vernestra inadvertantly uncovered a plot by the Hutts to use the negotiations to instead attack. Overall, their first mission showed that Stellan could handle surprises even if he leaned more toward tradition, and although Vernestra hated surprises he could easily think outside of the box for solutions.
Despite this auspicious beginning, in the Star War: The High Republic subseries, Vernestra has been keeping secrets from her former master despite the fact that she was proud to have been his student and admired his leadership. In Justina Ireland’s Star Wars: The High Republic: Out of the Shadows, Vernestra decided not to tell Stellan about the modifications she made to her lightsaber out of fear that he would not approve. She also avoided telling him that her hyperspace visions had returned because she believed that he would make a much bigger deal out of them than she wanted.
Some of this distrust was born out of Vernestra’s secret desires. She desperately wanted to be a normal, while gifted, Jedi, and she was ambivalent toward the gifts she possessed that marked her as extraordinary. She also felt a need to prove herself because she became a Jedi Knight so young and has already taken on a Padawan of her own, Imri Cantaros. Because Vernestra has not had much conflict with Stellan in the past and is by nature far less rebellious than Ahsoka, she focused on avoiding the conflict rather than admitting her own fears to her former master directly.
While both master and apprentice pairs began as assignments rather than chosen bonds, they show that these assignments can have different trajectories based upon the personalities involved. While Anakin and Ahsoka at first seemed to be the less compatible pair, their bond was more successful because they grew together and Ahsoka felt safe questioning Anakin’s strategies and plans. However, Anakin’s fall to the dark side severed their bond completely. Even though Stellan and Vernestra did not have nearly as much initial conflict, they currently are at odds because they avoided conflict in the past and have not figured out how to resolve their issues. While Vernestra could still open up to Stellan, the rift between them could lead to trouble for both her and Stellan in the future.
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