This article contains spoilers for Ahsoka.
Ahsoka introduced viewers to the live-action version of the droid Huyang, voiced by David Tennant, and he’s even older than he hinted – and has trained untold numbers of Jedi over the millennia. David Tennant’s droid Huyang serves as something of a sidekick to Ahsoka Tano, but he’s clearly far more than that. In one poignant conversation, Ahsoka remembered Huyang teaching her when she was just a child growing up in the Jedi Temple.
As much as he enjoys chatting, Huyang is surprisingly reserved about his past. Sabine Wren noticed this in Ahsoka episode 8, asking Huyang how old he really is, but he studiously avoided giving her an answer. Secrecy seems to be part of Huyang’s programming – as much a part as the Jedi protocols he insists on adhering to, perhaps indicating this secrecy is indeed one of those protocols. Despite that, though, Star Wars viewers know more about Huyang’s story than Ahsoka has revealed – courtesy of tie-ins.
Huyang Is 25,000 Years Old
Huyang is officially the oldest character in Star Wars, making Master Yoda look like an infant in comparison. According to Lucasfilm Publishing’s recent book Star Wars Timelines, Huyang is actually 25,000 years old. He was activated shortly after the Prime Jedi founded the Jedi Order, created to train the next generation of Jedi in the art and science of constructing a lightsaber. He has continued to perform this role ever since, seeing helping Younglings fashion lightsabers in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Analyzing Baylan Skoll’s lightsaber earlier in Ahsoka, he was able to correctly identify its maker and note no Jedi in 500 years had made one like it – suggesting Huyang keeps meticulous records in his database.
Huyang Has Been Training Jedi For Almost As Long As They’ve Existed
All this means Huyang has been training Jedi for almost as long as they’ve existed. Curiously, there’s some evidence he has always been a wandered; Ahsoka notes that he has been maintaining their Jedi shuttle for longer than she’s been alive, suggesting that he tended to be away from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant quite a bit. Still, he certainly visited quite a few times, because she also remembered him telling her the legends and myths of galactic history when she was just a Youngling.
By the time of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Huyang tended to accompany groups of Younglings on a ceremony called the Gathering. He would take them to the sacred Jedi planet of Ilum, a planet rich in the Force, where they would retrieve their kyber crystals. With that done, Huyang would guide them in constructing their first real lightsaber, an important rite of passage for the Jedi. This was typically something of a mystical experience, although Ahsoka revealed there are quite and easy processes that can be carried out in emergency situations. According to Star Wars comics, Huyang left records at the Jedi Temple detailing how to make these basic lightsabers – although they were surely lost after Order 66.
Is Huyang Really 75% Original Parts?
He may be 25,000 years old, but in Ahsoka episode 1 Huyang excitedly claimed to be still 75 percent original parts. This is rather surprising, perhaps indicating there’s a reason Huyang has survived successive Jedi purges; it’s possible he is the real reason the Jedi Order keeps coming back from the brink, staying out of the action and training the next generation of Jedi. This would fit with Ahsoka episode 1, in which he insisted on keeping his ship far back because this was according to Jedi protocol.
Alternatively, it’s also possible Huyang is wrong to believe he is still 75 percent original parts. Any droid only has a limited storage capacity, and it’s reasonable to assume older droids can store less data than modern ones like C-3PO. It’s easy to imagine a scenario where Huyang has overwritten some of his older records to store newer ones; indeed, this may explain why he could only compare Baylan’s lightsaber to ones he has seen in the last 500 years. Alternatively, Huyang could even have been memory-wiped at some point to ensure he remained useful to the Jedi Order. If so, that memory wipe must have been a long time ago, because Star Wars has hinted memory wipes prevent a droid developing a distinct personality of their own.
All episodes of Ahsoka are streaming now on Disney+.
