‘Ahsoka’: Who Is Senator Jai Kell? Meet Vinny Thomas’s Character

We already knew that the storyline of ‘Ahsoka’ would be an extension of ‘Star Wars: Rebels,’ because there were a lot of different characters from ‘Rebels’ that were going to return in ‘Ahsoka.’ In that regard, even the minor and supporting characters featured in ‘Rebels’ made their live-action debut in ‘Ahsoka.’ One such character in particular is Jai Kell. So, who is Jai Kell?

Jai Kell was one of the friends that Ezra Bridger made when he infiltrated the Imperial Academy. He urged Jai to leave the academy, and that was when Jai eventually became a member of Ryder Azadi’s resistance group. Jai stayed in his home of Lothal and became its senator a decade after the Battle of Lothal.

It was nice to see one of the supporting characters of ‘Rebels’ appearing in ‘Ahsoka’ as we were allowed to see what happened to these characters after they helped Ezra and the Spectres liberate Lothal from the Empire. Jai was one of those characters, eventually earning enough credit with the people of Lothal to become a senator. That said, let’s look at what we know about Jai Kell.

Jai Kell was Ezra’s friend in ‘Rebels’

Back in the events of ‘Star Wars: Rebels,’ one of the things that we learned was that the Spectres that were operating from the Ghost were kind of like guerillas in the sense that they preferred to use smaller attacks that crippled the Empire and allowed more and more people to see and understand that the Empire was not invincible. To that end, the Spectres also used espionage and infiltration to their advantage.

During one of the missions of the Spectres, Ezra Bridger had to pose as Dev Morgan when he decided to infiltrate the Imperial Academy so that he could learn the location of a Kyber crystal shipment that the Empire had scheduled. In that regard, he befriended a few Imperial cadets at the Imperial Academy, and one of them was the young Jai Kell, who was just around Ezra’s age.

Unknown to them, the Imperial Academy ran a secret program known as Project Harvester so that they could tell which of the young cadets were sensitive to the Force. That was why they were subjected to tasks that required the reflexes of a Jedi. And because Jai Kell excelled in what he did, he was one of the cadets that the Grand Inquisitor thought was sensitive to the Force.

As such, Ezra had to convince Jai to leave the Imperial Academy after they discovered that the Inquisitors were coming for them. He asked the Spectres to arrange an escape for Jai and his family so that they could live in peace after Jai escaped from the Imperial Academy. And that was how Jai developed the same disdain that the other Rebels had for the Empire.

Unknown to Ezra, Jai eventually stayed on Lothal, where he made contact with Ryder Azadi, who found the courage to fight back against the Empire after he escaped from an Imperial prison. Four years after Jai and Ezra met, the young Bridger returned to Lothal in response to a message from Ryder regarding the new TIE Defender project spearheaded by Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Jai was there to bail Ezra out of trouble in an Imperial cantina on Lothal, as Ezra barely recognized his old friend. That was when Jai revealed to Ezra that he had joined Ryder Azadi’s resistance group on Lothal and was actively working as an operative who occasionally spied on the activities of the Empire on that planet.

He also helped the Spectres escape through the sewer system and eventually assisted in recovering the hyperdrive of the stolen TIE/D Defender Elite. He assisted in the Liberation of Lothal when he and the other Rebels trapped Governor Pryce. And he was also valuable in the defeat of the Empire on Lothal.

Jai became Lothal’s senator

The Liberation of Lothal required the help of all of the Rebels that resisted the Empire, including Jai Kell, who helped the Spectres and their allies in the defeat of Grand Admiral Thrawn, whom Ezra transported to the deep sectors of the galaxy together with himself when he asked the Purrgil to use their abilities to travel through hyperspace.

In that regard, Lothal was no longer occupied by the Empire, allowing the people of the planet to govern themselves once more. Ryder Azadi returned to his previous post as the governor of Lothal. Meanwhile, the Spectres kept a close watch on the planet to ensure the Empire wouldn’t return. Four years passed, and the Empire never returned to Lothal because the Rebel Alliance kept them busy. The Rebels eventually defeated the Empire, leading to the rise of the New Republic.

Around a decade after Lothal was liberated from the Empire, Governor Azadi led the celebration to commemorate the anniversary of the liberation of the planet. He was about to unveil the mural of the Spectres to the people of Lothal while presenting Sabine Wren as their guest of honor. However, Sabine was nowhere to be found.

That was when Ryder asked a young man to speak on behalf of Sabine and create a distraction to keep the people busy while they were searching for Sabine. This young man happened to be Jai Kell, who was introduced as the senator of Lothal. That means that he was able to work his way up the political ladder of the planet to become its representative at the Galactic Senate of the New Republic.

Of course, while we are happy to see one of the Rebels becoming a senator, this also shows a deep flaw in the New Republic. That’s because the important posts of the governments of the different systems of the galaxy were all taken by the Rebels, regardless of whether or not they were ready to take on such important leadership roles. Jai, who never showed any aptitude as a politician, was now a senator because he was one of Ryder Azadi’s most trusted allies during the Rebellion.

There’s a good chance other systems followed suit by installing Rebels as governors and senators of their own planets. This could be one of the reasons why the New Republic wasn’t strong enough to resist the rise of the First Order, as people with no political background were now asked to have high positions in different governments throughout the New Republic.

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