The quest to find Ezra Bridger, otherwise known as the search for Ezra or the search for Grand Admiral Thrawn, was a quest undertaken to find Jedi Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn in the New Republic Era. In the ensuing campaign to liberate the planet Lothal from the clutches of the Galactic Empire, the Ghost crew's mission ended with Bridger disappearing with Thrawn after the young Jedi used the star whales known as the purrgil to defeat him in the Battle of Lothal, leaving both in exile and presumed dead. Several years later, after the end of the Galactic Civil War, a quest to search for Ezra as well as prevent Thrawn's return as heir to the Empire was undertaken by Sabine Wren and former Jedi Ahsoka Tano.
In the years following Ezra Bridger and Thrawn's disappearance, the once invincible Empire began to fracture, the small Rebellion had become bold, and Emperor Palpatine's reign of terror in the galaxy came to an end with the decisive victory at the battle of Endor. Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano embarked on a quest to find the missing Bridger, while the former Jedi and Professor Huyang also trained Wren in the ways of the Jedi until parting ways. Wren stayed on Lothal to protect the planet and the people Bridger cared for, taking residence in the LothalNet comm tower E-272, Bridger's former hideout, where she lived for a number of years after the war. Although the Empire had fallen and a New Republic had risen to take its place, sinister agents of the Imperial Remnants were at work in a plot to find the lost Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn and bring him out of exile. In spite of his vanishing and unconfirmed death at Lothal years prior, Ahsoka Tano started hearing whispers of Thrawn's imminent return and began searching for the last missing Grand Admiral in 9 ABY, which led her to capture of Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth, Thrawn's ally as well as a Nightsister witch. Through Elsbeth, Tano learned of a secret map which was vital to their plans.
As she was transported to the New Republic for trial, Morgan Elsbeth escaped prisoner custody with the help of mercenary for hire Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati. After Ahsoka Tano found the map on Arcana, she reunited with Sabine Wren on Lothal in a search for answers until Hati recovered the map as well as defeated Wren in a lightsaber duel. Following a discovery in New Republic shipyards, General Hera Syndulla tangled with New Republic politics and risked her career to help her friends, with senators responding to the search for Bridger and the perceived threat of Grand Admiral Thrawn's return with skeptical doubt. Meanwhile, Tano and Wren voyage to Seatos, where they confront Hati and Skoll in a space battle as well as lightsaber combat. However, Wren gave up the map to Skoll, who promised to reunite Wren with Bridger, thereby letting Elsbeth's forces use the map and the Eye of Sion to complete an extragalactic journey beyond the galaxy. Tano used the purrgil to follow them as the quest reached the planet Peridea.
Despite Ahsoka Tano, Sabine Wren, and Ezra Bridger's race to prevent it, Grand Admiral Thrawn was able to escape from his exile on his Star Destroyer, the Chimaera, with the help of Morgan Elsbeth, the Great Mothers and their dark magick. Free from his exile, Thrawn and the Great Mothers traveled to the Nightsister homeworld of Dathomir. Unbeknownst to Thrawn, however, Bridger also escaped aboard the Chimaera, while Tano and Wren remained stranded on Peridea.
At the Battle of Lothal, Ezra Bridger summoned purrgil to drag Grand Admiral Thrawn into deep space.
Early in the Rebellion, Grand Admiral Thrawn was tasked with suppressing the stubborn rebels in the Lothal sector. The Grand Admiral smashed Phoenix Cell at the Battle of Atollon. However, the Lothal rebels—Captain Hera Syndulla, Lasat Garazeb Orrelios, Mandalorian Sabine Wren, and Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus and his Padawan Ezra Bridger—were able to escape and regroup with the Rebel Alliance. Nevertheless, they went on to break away and join the local resistance led by Ryder Azadi to aid in liberating Bridger's homeworld of Lothal from Thrawn.
Both Jarrus and Bridger went on to sacrifice themselves to defeat the Galactic Empire on Lothal. At the Battle of Lothal, Bridger summoned a pod of purrgil to latch onto Thrawn's Star Destroyer and launch them into hyperspace toward deep space. In the years that followed, the Rebel Alliance went on to declare a New Republic and defeat the Empire across the galaxy, while the long disappearance of Bridger and Thrawn led them to be presumed dead.
While Syndulla became a general in the New Republic, Wren remained on Lothal to watch over Bridger's people. She was eventually joined by the former Jedi and rebel spymaster Ahsoka Tano, who had once been saved by Bridger from her own former master, Darth Vader. Tano took on Wren as her own Padawan, and the two came to believe that Bridger was still alive, leading them to begin a search for him. Around the same time, however, Imperial loyalists had begun searching for Thrawn.
In the years that followed the Battle of Jakku, the New Republic dismissed the threat posed by the Imperial Remnants, believing them to be scattered and broken. What they were unaware of was that many of these remnants reorganized as a new Shadow Council dedicated to restoring Imperial rule in the galaxy. Rumors began to reach both the New Republic and Imperial remnants that Grand Admiral Thrawn's return was imminent. Council members, such as Captain Gilad Pellaeon, who served Thrawn during the Galactic Civil War, and Commandant Brendol Hux, believed that the Grand Admiral's return would give rise to the Imperial military once more and worked to keep it as secretive as possible. While few rumors of Thrawn spread, others, such as Moff Gideon doubted the former's return to the galaxy and resolved to claim leadership.
Despite the efforts of Pellaeon and the Shadow Council to keep Thrawn's return a secret, this information would make it into the hands of New Republic allies, such as Ahsoka Tano, who set out to stop the Grand Admiral's allies and subordinates from bringing about his return.
Wren and Tano began their search for Bridger around 5 ABY, five years after Tano's promise to Bridger that she would find him when she returned. It was during this time that Tano took on Wren, who wielded Ezra's second lightsaber, as her Padawan. As part of their efforts, the pair voyaged into the Unknown Regions. However, their relationship was difficult, and the two eventually went their separate ways. Wren returned to Lothal while Tano continued to travel the galaxy.
By 9 ABY, Tano had picked up on rumors that Thrawn was alive, and efforts were underway by Imperial loyalists to find him. She followed a lead in her search for Thrawn to the planet Corvus, where she sought out Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth, a Nightsister witch of Dathomir and an ally of Thrawn's during Imperial rule. With the help of Din Djarin, who arrived with his ward Grogu in the hope that Tano could train the Child, Tano liberated the city of Calodan, captured Elsbeth, and delivered her to her old ally, General Hera Syndulla. She also declined to train Grogu even though Djarin warned of how he was being hunted by Gideon's Imperial remnant, with Tano instead suggesting he take the Child to the seeing stone to reach out to any Jedi who could take on the youngling.
Tano's interrogation of Elsbeth led her to a Nightsister stronghold on the planet Arcana, where she recovered an ancient compass from the temple. However, Tano was accosted by five of Elsbeth's HK-87 assassin droids, which destroyed the temple after they failed to prevent her from taking the map. Meanwhile, during Tano's search, Elsbeth was liberated from New Republic imprisonment by former Jedi Knight Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati, who worked for the witch as mercenaries alongside the former Imperial Inquisitor Marrok. At Syndulla's suggestion, Tano returned to Lothal aboard her T-6 shuttle to enlist Wren's help in her search for Thrawn. Wren unlocked the compass, which displayed a star map, but before she could tell Tano, she was attacked by Hati, who took the compass back.
One of the droids captured from Elsbeth led Tano and Snydulla to a facility in the Santhe Shipyards on Corellia, where they discovered Elsbeth's operations were still ongoing through Imperial loyalists. Although Republic forces arrived to shut down Elsbeth's operation, Imperial loyalists were able to transport one final hyperdrive offworld while Marrok held off Tano in a lightsaber duel. Syndulla's droid C1-10P "Chopper" placed a homing beacon on the transport, however, which they tracked to the planet Seatos in the Denab system.
At a henge on Seatos, Elsbeth unlocked the compass, revealing a star map of the legendary Pathway to Peridea that led to another galaxy, where she believed Thrawn to have been banished by Bridger. As part of their efforts to recover Thrawn, Elsbeth oversaw the construction of the Eye of Sion, a massive hyperspace transport ring where numerous hyperdrive cores were installed, including the final one from Corellia.
Ahsoka Tano on the world of Seatos
Tano returned to Lothal after Wren's recovery, finding her by the Spectres mural and reflecting on the history of her rebel family. Tano brought Wren aboard her ship, where she and Huyang continued Wren's Jedi training en route to the Denab system. Upon exiting hyperspace outside of Seatos, their shuttle was set upon by starfighter squadrons led by Hati and Marrok. Elsbeth's forces disabled their shuttle, but Wren was able to bring it back online while Tano defended her from outside the ship in space. Huyang scanned the Eye of Sion, discovering it to be a hyperspace ring. Tano and Wren then lost Hati and Marrok by maneuvering through purrgil in Seatos' atmosphere and landing in the planet's forest, where they powered down. As a result, Skoll deployed scout guards and assassin droids to hunt them down.
After being attacked by scout guards, Tano and Wren pursued Elsbeth's forces into the forest, where they encountered Marrok and Hati waiting for them. As Hati and Wren dueled, Tano killed Marrok and continued to the henge, where she faced Baylan Skoll. Skoll overpowered Tano, knocking her down a cliff, but Wren arrived and seized the compass, threatening to destroy it. However, Skoll convinced Wren to hand over the compass so that she could reunite with Ezra. Upon the completion of the hyperspace calculations, Skoll and Hati brought Wren on board the Eye of Sion with Elsbeth and jumped to hyperspace.
Acting without authorization, General Syndulla arrived in the Denab system on the Ghost with a squadron of New Republic pilots, but they were unable to intercept the Eye of Sion. The survivors landed on Seatos, where, with the help of Jacen Syndulla, they were able to recover Tano from Seatos' sea. Three New Republic cruisers commanded by Captain Girard arrived to apprehend the rogue pilots. However, Carson Teva was able to stall Girard long enough for Tano and Huyang to escape into hyperspace inside a purrgil, with the hope it would take them to Elsbeth's destination.
The search for Ezra begins in Star Wars Rebels
The quest for Ezra Bridger with Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano first appeared in the 2018 series finale of Star Wars Rebels, "Family Reunion – and Farewell." When asked about a possible "Sabine Wren Ahsoka Tano show" by Donald Faison, Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni refused to give any answers. One year after the Rebels finale, Filoni tweeted out an image of Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano during their search. It was first identified as the "search for Ezra" in the 2018 issue Star Wars Helmet Collection 74 and the 2019 reference book Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition. The storyline was later continued in the 2023 television series Ahsoka, which focused on the search for Ezra and Grand Admiral Thrawn. The "quest for Ezra Bridger" first appeared onscreen in "Part Three: Time to Fly" by Hamato Xiono. The name "search for Grand Admiral Thrawn" was used in the 2023 issue Star Wars Insider 218 and the episode description for "Part Six: Far, Far Away" on Disney+.
The 2018 reference book Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy initially placed the scene from Rebels around 5 ABY. The "Part Two: Toil and Trouble", the second episode of Ahsoka, later depicted the same scene with some minor differences and continued the storyline, moving the scene to around 9 ABY instead. The 2023 reference book Star Wars: Timelines still provides a "circa 5 ABY" start date for the search, but does not explicitly say this date refers to the moment from Rebels. Therefore, this article assumes the following: Tano and Wren began their search around 5 ABY, only to go their separate ways, as described in Ahsoka. In circa 9 ABY, they resumed their search. This article assumes the Ahsoka depiction of the Rebels epilogue as canonical due to being the most recent depiction.
The parody of the search for Thrawn in Insider 203.
The search for Thrawn was parodied in "The Light Side" comic strip from the Launchpad entry in Star Wars Insider 203. Within, Tano finally manages to corner Thrawn, only to become enraged when she sees Thrawn has hidden himself amongst a grouping of blue aliens and droids.
- Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy
- Star Wars Helmet Collection 74
- Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition
- The Star Wars Book
- "Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 203
- Star Wars: Timelines
- "Ahsoka So Far" — Star Wars Insider 218