#dyn: wolfpack

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shin hati — season one character study

introduction in the odyssey, emily wilson / ahsoka, 'master and apprentice' / ahsoka, 'fallen jedi' / so we must meet apart, gabrielle bates & jennifer s. cheng / ahsoka, 'far far away' / between dog and wolf, rené-xavier prinet / ahsoka, 'far far away' / ahsoka, 'dreams and madness' / ahsoka, 'dreams and madness' / camp damascus, chuck tingle / ahsoka, 'the jedi the witch and the warlord' / the sun is also a star, nicola yoon

[awsok]

wait one more thing. in previous episodes it's been clear that shin is fiercely loyal to baylan, and that she looks up to him and respects him immensely. but in this episode i feel like we saw that it goes beyond that. shin cares about him. and more than that, baylan cares about her too. i kept expecting him to chastise her or dismiss her when she asked questions about their goals or his past, but instead he indulged her and corrected her when he believed her to be wrong without malice. and like. shin's body language when she leaned into his space without fear. i think because baylan is a dark side user a lot of people assumed that their relationship was at worst abusive and at best cold. but there's real affection there! shin seemed at her most vulnerable around baylan in this episode - felt safe to be vulnerable. and baylan responded by putting his hand on her shoulder. this is such a departure from the usual dark side master/apprentice dynamic and it is fascinating

[awsok]

baylan skoll — (former) jedi knight

revenge of the sith by matthew stover / ahsoka 'far far away' / star wars episode iii: revenge of the sith / what will happen by leila chatti / ahsoka 'toil and trouble' / grief lessons: four plays by euripedes by anne carson / in the dream house by carmen maria machado / ahsoka 'far far away' / waiting by marya hornbacher / ahsoka 'far far away' / the wolves pursuing sól and máni by j. c. dollman / revenge of the sith by matthew stover / ivan the terrible and his son by ilya repin / ahsoka 'far far away' / devotion by the staves / lauren bowman / ahsoka 'dreams and madness' / giovanni's room by james baldwin / ahsoka 'dreams and madness'

bonus:

[awsok]

okay but shin going to the bandits is soo interesting to me. like of course (of course!!!) she had no interest in joining thrawn's new empire like baylan said. (honestly that was probably just an excuse on baylan's part to send shin away so she could be safe/he could focus on his mission). but it is interesting that she didn't want to join up with thrawn to the extent that she'd rather be stranded in a strange galaxy.

so what now? is she joining the bandits? leading them? is she going to seek out a rematch with sabine (or ahsoka?) or is she trying to avoid them? is she going to try and reunite with baylan despite him sending her away? is that why she stayed?

shin hati!! i want to dissect your brain!!

[awsok]

@shinhatism your tags are hurting me!!

Okay but it’s really kinda hilarious that Baylan “we are no Jedi” Skoll is literally travelling around in a Republic era ship, one commonly and recognisably used by Jedi during the clone wars, is using a lightsaber as his primary weapon, and he doesn’t just have a padawan learner, he has a padawan learner who is wearing a padawan braid. And then he’s all “we are no Jedi” and “I parted ways with the Jedi long ago” like. He’s basically wearing all the merch and being offended when people mistake him for a fan

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moment where shin symbolically cuts off her padawan braid when?? symbolising that if baylan's going to reject her by sending her away she's gonna reject him back? only for her to be hit by the full force of just how much she misses him?

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It occurs to me that Shin has zero reason to believe Ahsoka & Sabine are still on Peridea. She likely assumes they returned to their galaxy to fight Thrawn. As far as she knows, only Baylan is out there somewhere, but from her perspective, he dragged her to this wasteland & ditched her, & now she's left to survive on her own (which is probably what she was doing before Baylan). Gonna be a surprise when she realizes the Jedi are still around.

oh! oh that's so true, i didn't put that together!

my instinct is that she doesn't want to go back to baylan (or at least her pride/sense of betrayal won't let her) after he sent her away (at least not yet). she had no interest in joining thrawn, and (as you point out!) as far as she knows the quest to hunt sabine/ezra/ahsoka is now impossible.

so in joining the bandits, is she just retreating to the only allies she has? falling back on some old habits from her past? seeking the only power she can grasp? rallying them to follow baylan?

and when she does realise that ahsoka and sabine are still on peridea, will she seek them out? to join them, or kill them? will she flee from them? will she try to seek out baylan to join him/warn him/protect him?

[awsok]

ok it's 3am i have to go to bed soon but. head SO full about shin in this episode. how conflicted and uncertain she seems! how her anger and hatred of sabine seems to have melted away. how much she seemed like baylan's daughter, how she wants his approval and his guidance and for him to tell her stories. and the way he put his hand on her shoulder!! i guess what i'm trying to say is that in this episode more than any other shin seemed so young.

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I just need Huyang telling Shin the old Jedi stories he used to tell younglings (including little Baylan), because she didn't get to hear them.

ohhh TOTALLY! i'm convinced that once huyang got over the whole shin trying to murder ahsoka and sabine thing they'd really get on. like. i feel shin would be so taken aback that huyang holds the entire history of the jedi order within him and all she has to do if she wants information is ask. and i feel like shin is a very good and diligent student so she'd quickly become huyang's favourite. i can really see huyang being the person she trusts first out of ahsoka's team

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ok ALSO feeling incredibly smug that i was right about shin's backstory. okay as i'm typing this i feel like we didn't learn much beyond shin not being raised at the temple but being trained by baylan on the go but. still! i just know that he raised her up from nothing and gave her power and purpose. and that is a debt she can never repay. and also he's her dad! boogie woogie woogie

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oh that's such a good point about anakin and ahsoka! ahsoka is so so scared of creating (or becoming) another vader, and like. force abilities aside, sabine clearly has it within her to kill others and to be driven by her attachments (giving the orb to baylan). ahsoka feels (and rightfully so!) that sabine could turn dark. to take on a padawan where the goal is not to risk sending them to the dark side but to pull them out of it? that would be honestly really healing for both ahsoka and shin and provide narrative closure and poetry!!

entirely convinced shin wants to be a jedi now. she doesn’t want baylan to train her to be “something more”, she wants to be trained to be a jedi like he was.

like he was.

i think she wants to be just like baylan as she matures into her own and as she completes her training. it’s why she asks him about if he misses it, and asks for stories, and all this stuff he experienced. she wants to be a jedi, like her master was.

[awsok]

i am so happy you are talking about shin and baylan! i like wolfwren but the conversation about shin in the fandom is so dominated by the ship that i feel like there’s no room for anything else 🥲 so i’m glad you have a good balance!! like you care about shin as a character! not only as one half of a ship.

aw cheers! tbh wolfwren was what drew me to the show, and for the first few episodes i honestly didn't think much of the series as a whole. but shin in particular was always really interesting to me - we're shown so little and so much about her, so it's been so fun to puzzle out what's going on with her and her relationships with other characters. i actually hadn't given her dynamic with baylan much conscious thought, but everything in this episode with them was sooo interesting and complex and nuanced and now i can't stop thinking about them.

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For sure there's real affection & trust between Baylan & Shin! But it's also kind of fucked up??? He won't let her in on his actual plan & only addresses her very real concerns w/ cryptic answers that aren't easing her discomfort. He's also seemingly kept her isolated & apart from others like them, though she appears to be interested in Jedi culture & finding that kind of connection. I find their dynamic fascinating & can't wait for more, but I can't say Baylan deserves a Father-Master of the Year award, lol.

yeah absolutely! it's not good parenting - but it is parenting. something about the way baylan controls shin in a way that is disguised/intended as protection feels like fatherhood gone wrong (or maybe just. gone normal). it's a little patriarchal, in a way, although that may be a bit of a reach. that's his little girl! meaning: loved, protected, his responsibility. but also meaning: obedient, naïve, and his. and now she's chafing at her bonds, she's having her own ideas and questioning his. little murderer all grown up. i don't know how it's going to play out, but i can't wait to see it.

[awsok]

have you seen that baylan has a ring with a green stone in it and shin has green stones braided in her hair? 🤔

i saw the stones in her braid but i hadn't noticed baylan's ring. interesting! if that is a purposeful connection in costume design, it gives off the same vibe as like, a family crest or something. it would make sense actually, considering shin's outfit is literally just a smaller and lighter version of baylan's.

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Thoughts on Baylan as a master? I get the sense he's a patient teacher, providing a sense of certainty & stability; showing quiet affection, warmth, & pride; encouraging curiosity & self-sufficiency but ready to jump in if Shin gets in over her head. BUT he's also overall emotionally distant, cryptic, & keeps Shin in the dark to the point she doesn't know what he's trained her to be. He tells stories of Jedi community but isolates her. 1/2 cont.

hmmm yes it's so complicated!! i definitely think he modelled their dynamic on the jedi master/padawan relationship (maybe even specifically on his own experience if he had a padawan during the clone wars). i don't know about the no attachments mindset though, i think baylan really could go either way with that (on the one hand he seems to adhere to some jedi stuff, on the other hand he might be keen on rejecting jedi stuff if he thinks they're weak). and although he thinks trauma is necessary for growth i'm not sure he would deliberately inflict trauma on shin. challenging situations that she doesn't feel prepared for, sure. but not straight-up trauma (i wonder if part of what drew him to shin was that she had already endured trauma when they met... not because that made her easy to manipulate but because that made her like him). and i reckon he was probably more keen on teaching shin to manipulate others than manipulating her himself (at least not much). ohh now i'm wondering whether shin is able to manipulate people. so far she's been aggressive and of few words. but what if she does know how to manipulate people... to show people what they want to see and gain their trust... and then when the moment comes the kindness in her face just slides right off. and it's entirely stoic underneath. that would be so unexpected from her but i can see it somehow.

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went into this fandom only for wolfwren > stumbled on your blog > am now obsessed with baylan and shin and i can only think of them

omg i'm honoured