Warning! Spoilers for Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #32!Two iconic Jedi seemingly killed in Star Wars' Order 66 purge have been brought back from their deaths. Jedi have a habit of coming back as force ghosts after they die, but these two fallen Jedi do not appear to be apparitions when they welcome Luke Skywalker into the Jedi Temple on Sason.
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #32, by Alyssa Wong, Minkyu Jung, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Joe Caramagna, begins aboard Doctor Aphra's ship. She has kidnapped Luke Skywalker to help her gain entry to the Jedi Temple. She convinces him to help her by showing him a Holo-message from Shaak Ti, a Jedi general from the Clone Wars era. Shaak Ti is warning fellow Jedi knight, Aayla Secura, about a weapon too powerful to let fall into Sith hands, which she hid in the Sason Temple. Skywalker's interest is piqued by the Jedi's message from the beyond, and he agrees to help Aphra find a way into the temple. However, when they finally make their way inside, Shaak Ti and Aayla Secura are waiting for them.
Aayla Secura & Shaak Ti Are Back
The issue ends with Shaak Ti and Aayla Secura looking down on the two intruders, lightsabers drawn - and no blue glow. Force ghosts are not flesh and blood, rather they are a Force-representation of the Jedi's former physical form. As the two stern-looking Jedi are without glow, it seems they are truly physically present. If this moment is as it seems, it's the most significant Jedi resurrection following Order 66. While the Sith had ways of reconstituting their physical bodies, this was tied to the Dark Side and their unwillingness to let go of physical power, and Jedi have no comparable ability that Star Wars fans know, though there are a few that would give the same impression.
Is This Huge Jedi Resurrection Really Possible?
In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker was able to "project" his physical form all the way from another planet to battle Kylo Ren on Crait, which could somehow explain what's going on. The World Between Worlds time travel realm that was introduced in the final season of Star Wars: Rebels could also explain how dead Jedi could be inside that temple about 20 years after they died. Luke also recently encountered the Living Sea of Gazian, which stored a memory form of every Force-user who has ever visited it. The world seemed unique, but it again gave Luke at least the illusion of meeting past Jedi face to face, so it's possible Aayla Secura & Shaak Ti can only manifest at this particular temple. Suffice to say, there are ways for these Jedi to return without betraying established canon. However, perhaps they never died at all.
Aayla Secura & Shaak Ti Could Be Order 66 Survivors
Shaak Ti and Aayla Secura died at the end of the Clone Wars. Secura's death is straight forward, as the Twi'lek Jedi was killed by Clone Commander Bly and his squad of clone troopers while executing Order 66. The film Revenge of the Sith shows her dying from blaster bolts on the jungle planet Felucia - although her body is obscured from view after the initial shots. Shaak Ti's death is more complicated because her actual demise has never been portrayed on screen. Shaak Ti was killed in two deleted scenes from Revenge of the Sith. In one, she was run through the chest with a lightsaber by General Grievous, while the other scene depicts Darth Vader killing her with his lightsaber as she meditates in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The latter appears to be the more likely canonical cause of death as it was in the "Voices" episode of season six of The Clone Wars series. However, it's inarguable that Star Wars has revealed key characters to have survived more definitive death scenes.
What fans know so far is that Shaak Ti requested Aayla Secura's help against a major threat, making it possible that the two somehow survived and have been standing guard over the Jedi Temple on Sason ever since. If that's the case, then Star Wars truly did just bring back the dead Jedi Aayla Secura & Shaak Ti for future adventures.
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #32 on sale now from Marvel Comics.