Forget About The Death Star, Ahsoka Revealed The Empire’s GREATEST Achievement

The Empire is one of the greatest technological governments Star Wars has ever seen, and even though it was destroyed by the Rebellion, the Ahsoka series proves just how much it managed to achieve. Palpatine’s Empire couldn’t last because of the corruption and deceit it fostered; Imperial officers wouldn’t hesitate to stab one another in the back if it meant ascending the Empire’s ranks sooner. Therefore, Palpatine created the Death Star to keep both the Empire and the systems it governed in check. And while both Death Stars were great achievements, they pale in comparison to the Empire’s true greatness.

Ultimately, the Empire collapsed in on itself after the destruction of the Second Death Star. Without a massive, planet-destroying superweapon to keep itself afloat, many of the Imperials gave up the fight against the Rebellion. This left much of the Empire’s technology—especially the countless Imperial Star Destroyers—in the hands of the New Republic. However, The Mandalorian season 3 shows the Supreme Chancellor of the New Republic, Mon Mothma, deciding to carve up and salvage most of the Empire’s impressive warships rather than utilize them—as her colleague Leia suggested—to protect and serve the fledging New Republic.

The Eye Of Sion Consumed A Staggering Amount Of Power

The Ahsoka series shows Morgan Elsbeth and Baylan Skoll salvaging several parts from old Imperial ships to build the Eye of Sion, the largest hyperspace ring seen in Star Wars. Hyperspace rings first appeared in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones on a much smaller scale. The concept behind them is simple; hyperspace rings were add-ons for ships too small for a hyperdrive. Obi-Wan Kenobi’s compact and agile Eta-2 Actis-class Jedi Interceptor lacked a hyperdrive, which is why he utilizes a hyperspace ring in order to reach Kamino out in the far reaches of Wild Space.

The Eye of Sion takes George Lucas’ hyperspace ring idea even further. While a standard Imperial Star Destroyer possesses a Class-2 hyperdrive (and a Class-8 backup hyperdrive), it was only sufficient enough to travel between planets in the galaxy far, far away. And even then, in Build the Millennium Falcon #23, one Imperial Star Destroyer was said to use “more raw power in one hyperdrive jump than many planetary nations would consume during their entire existence.” Nevertheless, the Eye of Sion boasted not one, but seven Imperial hyperdrives. Making it one of the most costly ships in existence.

As if the Elsbeth’s hyperspace ring wasn’t impressive enough, the seven hyperdrives it used were not typical Class-2 drives that come from standard Imperial Star Destroyers. Instead, the Eye of Sion used SSD-class (Class-1) hyperdrives that were commonly seen aboard Super Star Destroyers such as Darth Vader’s flagship Executor seen in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. These enormous hyperdrives were meant to catapult some of the Empire’s largest ships throughout the galaxy, but Morgan Elsbeth refitted them to build the Empire’s last true great achievement: the Eye of Sion.

Hypedrive Configurations Boost A Ship’s Speed

The “class” rating for hyperdrives not only represents the cost of operation, but also the speed at which the ship traveled. Class-1 hyperdrives are able to reach their destination almost twice as fast as Class-2, with lower classes being even slower. Therefore, the Eye of Sion’s seven Class-1 hyperdrives weren’t necessarily installed to reach great distances. Instead, the sheer number of hyperdrives was needed to make the journey between galaxies as quickly as possible. If the Eye of Sion were down even one hyperdrive, its likely Elsbeth and Skoll’s journey to find Thrawn would have taken days, or even weeks.

The proper configuration of a hyperdrive also greatly improved the speed of the ship. The Eye of Sion used two clusters of three Class-1 hyperdrives on either side, and a final single Class-1 at the bottom. This configuration was merely a prototype, since nothing like the Eye of Sion had ever been built before. Even Huyang, who has roughly 25,000 years of history stored in his databank, had never seen anything as powerful as the Eye of Sion. In other words, while the galaxy had seen large, planet-destroying superweapons before, it had never seen a hyperspace ring like this.

In The High Republic novels, some of the galaxy’s more optimal hyperspace configurations are discovered. This only further solidifies just how impressive the Eye of Sion was. The Empire never intended for the Class-1 hyperdrives in its Super Star Destroyers to be used for extragalactic travel, but because Elsbeth and Skoll stole them from the New Republic and repurposed them, they were able to create something beyond the Empire’s dreams. Of course, Palpatine likely intended to one day conquer other galaxies once he completely dominated the Star Wars one, but he never got to that part of his plan.

Reaching Another Galaxy Should’ve Been Impossible… But The Empire Succeeded

Scientifically speaking, extragalactic travel with a single hyperspace jump should be impossible. At the very least, due to the distance, one would have no idea where they’d emerge after making such a journey. The Ahsoka series makes it clear that even the slightest miscalculation could result in the Eye of Sion landing somewhere completely unknown. Nevertheless, with the help of Arcana Star Map and the henge at Seatos, Morgan Elsbeth is able to successfully navigate the path to Peridea and rescue Thrawn from his exile.

Having successfully made the voyage to and from Perdiea, the Eye of Sion has done what no ship ever has. According to some of the oldest records, the ancient ancestors of the Nightsisters tamed the Purrgil and used them to travel to the current Star Wars galaxy. Therefore, the only known beings who could make extra galactic travel were the Purrgil. But Elsbeth, on behalf of the fallen Empire, did the impossible by artificially making the journey back to Peridea on the Eye of Sion. Now, the Empire has discovered a reliable way of traveling between galaxies.

In conclusion, the Empire’s greatest technological achievement happened long after it was destroyed. While the Death Stars were some of the largest and most formidable weapons ever built, the Eye of Sion has the potential to broaden the size of the known universe. The Death Star was a finite space station, but the Eye of Sion opens the door to infinite possibilities. Star Wars has only shown us a fraction of what new technology and species lie beyond the reaches of this galaxy, and Ahsoka season 2 will likely continue to develop the Empire’s greatest achievement.