Star Wars Secretly Fixed One Major Ezra Bridger Plot Hole After 5 Years

The ending of Star Wars Rebels created an Ezra Bridger plot hole that lasted for five years, until Star Wars covertly fixed it in the Ahsoka TV show. The animated series’ finale was somewhat controversial, with some viewers saying that Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ezra’s exile was a case of deus ex machina. This, however, wasn’t the biggest issue with the ending, as the series finale had a much bigger plot hole facing it.

When Ezra calls the purrgils to rescue Lothal from Thrawn, he coaxes the creatures to latch onto Thrawn’s ship, the Chimaera, and uses their advanced hyperspace traveling abilities to take Thrawn and everyone else on the ship – including himself – to another galaxy. Ezra never returned, prompting his friend Sabine Wren to look for him. With the help of Ahsoka Tano, Sabine finds Ezra on the extragalactic planet Peridea, and she helps him to return home in the Ahsoka finale – but one plot hole has long since suggested that none of this should have been necessary.

Ezra Bridger Could Control The Purrgils

His Connection With Them In The Force Gave Him Agency

Ezra Bridger learned to connect with animals all the way back in Star Wars Rebels season 1. In season 1, episode 9, Ezra used the Force to connect with and control a group of fyrnocks. He became particularly talented with this particular Force power and had mastered it by the time of the series finale. This is why he was able to connect with the purrgils so well; he had been practicing connecting with animals since very early on in his Jedi training. When it came time to command the purrgils, then, Ezra had no problem doing so.

…But He Didn’t Use Them To Return To The Main Star Wars Galaxy

If Ezra Could Control The Purrgil, Why Wouldn’t He Have Had Them Bring Him Home?

Considering his ability to communicate with and control the purrgils, it seems odd that he never used them to return to the main Star Wars galaxy. After all, he used them to get to Peridea, and there were lots of escape pods and smaller ships on the Chimaera. Yet, he never stole one and used the purrgils to transport himself back. This was a plot hole that Star Wars Rebels never explained, as it didn’t have the space nor the reason to just yet. Ahsoka, however, gives a perfect answer to this inconsistency.

Peridea Is A Purrgil Graveyard

Purrgil Only Travel To Peridea To Die

One of the most striking things about Peridea is its ring system. At first glance, it seems like just a normal ring system. Upon closer examination, however, it’s easier to observe that this matter is made of dead purrgils. In Ahsoka episode 6, when Baylan Skoll, Morgan Elsbeth, Sabine Wren, and Shin Hati arrive at Peridea, Baylan explains that Peridea was actually mentioned in the Jedi Archives as a “graveyard.”

The Jedi Archives spoke of this place. The end of the migration route used by the star whales as they traversed the void from one galaxy to the other… The whales came here to die. Peridea is a graveyard.

This explains why there were enough purrgil bodies around the planet to create an entire ring system. Peridea is the end of the line for purrgils. Unless they die somewhere else along their migration route, they will ultimately die in the space around Peridea.

Purrgils Don’t Return From Peridea – Which Is Why Ezra Couldn’t Either

The Pathway To Peridea Is A One-Way Route For Purrgil, & Ezra Couldn’t Change That

While only a few sentences long, this line completely fixes the plot hole that Star Wars Rebels created. Seeing as Peridea is a purrgil graveyard, it is a place from which they never return. The purrgils who arrive there are too ill to travel back. Even if Ezra could connect with a purrgil and ask it to take him back, the purrgil wouldn’t be able to oblige, making him truly trapped. This not only fixes most, if not all, of the former complaints about the Rebels finale, but it also brings more meaning to Ezra’s sacrifice.

While Rebels stated that Ezra using the purrgils came at a cost – him being exiled – Ahsoka clarified that cost. It raised the stakes by making it clear that, while Ezra could use the purrgils to get to Peridea, he couldn’t use them for a return trip. Unlike in Rebels, he couldn’t just use his Force powers to fix his situation. He would’ve never escaped if it weren’t for Ahsoka, Sabine, and Thrawn’s scheming. This confirmed that Ezra’s sacrifice was truly a selfless one, and not something that he was going to get out of on his own.

Now, Ezra is back home, but two others have made this very same sacrifice to make that possible: Ahsoka and Sabine. With the confirmation that purrgils cannot leave Peridea, Star Wars will have to find another way to explain how Ahsoka and Sabine can possibly make it back to the main galaxy on their own. Another rescue mission to get them would be repetitive with the plot of season 1, and thus it seems that Ahsoka will continue to make true on this purrgil fix and see that a new escape arises for the two heroines.