Face It: Star Wars Knows the Perfect Way to Answer a Burning Question About Hera

By Jenna Wrenn

Published Feb 2, 2025

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Custom Image by Simone Ashmoore

Star Wars character. Hera’s actions after the fall of the Empire have yet to be fully depicted, and a Star Wars comic could fill in the gaps in her story between the Battle of Endor and her live action appearance in Ahsoka.

An arc in the Disney+ series, The Bad Batch, gives an isolated glimpse into Hera’s childhood. A New Dawn, the 2014 canon novel by John Jackson Miller, revealed one of Hera’s early adventures and how she met her future love, Kanan Jarrus. Star Wars: Rebels shows

Hera Syndulla in Star Wars Rebels smiling and saluting

Hera’s life in the early years of the Rebellion before war officially broke out, as seen in Episode 4: A New Hope. After Rebels, though, Hera is off the grid for years, until the events of the Ahsoka series. However, what happened to Hera between those years is a mystery a comic could answer.

What Fans Already Know About Hera Syndulla In Star Wars Canon, Explained

A Fearless, Ferocious Freedom Fighter

Affectionately known as “Space Mom” by the Star Wars fandom, Hera Syndulla is a Twi’lek from the war-torn planet Ryloth. She dreamed of life as a pilot and eventually achieved her goal as the commander of her beloved ship, the Ghost. With her loyal droid, Chopper, at her side, Hera took to the sky at a young age with a mission to help those in need, and never looked back. Eventually, the end of Star Wars: Rebels revealed that Hera gave birth to her son with Kanan Jarrus, Jacen, sometime after Kanan sacrificed himself.

Hera Syndulla in Star Wars Rebels and Ahsoka.

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Hera's subsequent live-action appearance in Ahsoka was accompanied by a retcon to the Star Wars timeline, which shifted the epilogue of Rebels to nine years before A New Hope, close to the start of the Disney+ series. The retcon has created some uncertainty among fans about Hera's post-Rebels life, and this is exactly the kind of nebulous creative territory that a comic book series could make great use of to tell an impactful story about this hero of the Rebellion, while offering some more concrete answers to readers.

Since the era of the Prequels, Star Wars media has followed a certain structure; the films lay out the big tentpole, galaxy-defining moments, while books, comic books, and video games expand the universe in greater detail, including answer questions raised by the films, and giving exciting characters more chance to take the spotlight. As Star Wars TV shows have become more common, they have in many ways replicated this dynamic – meaning what Rebels and Ahsoka established, it is now on the comics to elaborate on.

What Fans Don't Know About Hera In Star Wars Canon, But Want To

Gaps In The Character's Timeline Should Be Filled With A Comic Series

So, with this idea that the comics are intended to flesh out the most memorable Star Wars characters in mind, it is worth making the case for Hera Syndulla as an obvious candidate for a comic series. Whether a miniseries, or an ongoing, Hera clearly has many more adventures in the Star Wars galaxy that deserve to be depicted, something that both the end of Rebels and her role in Ahsoka make evident. As fans of the character know all too well, there are many details of her life that still need to be revealed.

A storyline about the disbanding of the Ghost crew would be heartbreaking, but would give a deeper understanding into the person Hera has become.

There is a lot about Hera to unpack after the Rebels finale that could be addressed in comic format. With Kanan’s death coming so close to the end of the series, a comic series could show Hera’s grieving process and how that affects her place in the Rebellion, as well as her early years as a mother. Further, a comic series could answer one of the most pressing questions fans have following Hera's Ahsoka appearance – that is, what happened to the rest of the crew from Rebels.

When Ahsoka starts, Hera, Sabine, and Zeb have all gone their separate ways. Rebels hones in on the fact that Hera and her crew are family. Though Ezra’s absence was not of his own choosing, a comic series could explain when and why Sabine and Zeb decided to leave and how that loss impacted Hera. A storyline about the disbanding of the Ghost crew would be heartbreaking, but would give a deeper understanding into the person Hera has become by the time Ahsoka starts.

Hera Syndulla's Role In "Ahsoka" Raised More Questions Than Answers – Perfect For A Comic Book Extension Of Her Story

Give Readers What They Want, Marvel

Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla in Ahsoka speaking in front of senators

In Ahsoka, Hera mentions that her son, Jacen, is very much like his late father, Kanan, and in the series, Jacen is shown connecting to the Force in a way he had never done before, proving to be a natural like his father. A comic storyline with Hera learning her son is Force sensitive and showing the choices she made in raising him would make the mother-son relationship all the richer – in addition to the many other looming uncertainties about Hera's life that the comic medium could be used to fill in.

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Another unanswered question from the ten year time gap is how Hera rose through the ranks from a Rebel leader in the Outer Rim to a trusted General in the New Republic as a whole. In Ahsoka, the power and respect Hera demands from other military personnel is clear. A comic series could explore her journey to her position in the New Republic as shown in Ahsoka, all while being a single mom. In other words, the comic book potential of Hera Syndulla, who is already an iconic Star Wars character, is very clear.