Hera Syndulla has lost a lot in life. Her great love, Kanan Jarrus, gave his life for her and the rest of her crew, and now her other de facto family member, Ezra Bridger, is MIA. But she does have one thing to hold to: Jacen, the son she had with Kanan. In a bittersweet moment in Ahsoka Episode 3, we see Hera discuss Jedi training with Jacen, knowing full well she’s already lost two Jedi. However, a closer look at the scene reveals a hidden Easter egg that paints it in a new light.
Jacen may have never met his father, but he’s definitely heard stories of him. Kanan Jarrus is a hero on Lothal, where there’s a mural dedicated to him and his compatriots. And now we know Jacen personally idolizes his father in a very tangible way.
As Twitter user @starrysyndulla pointed out, Jacen appears to be wearing a smaller version of his father’s pauldron on his right shoulder. In this scene, Jacen excitedly says he wants to train to be a Jedi just like his aunt Sabine, a statement that clearly upsets Hera. But of course Jacen wants to be a Jedi; he looks up to his father so much that he’s started partially cosplaying as him.
It’s not the first bit of pauldron-based storytelling in Ahsoka. In Episode 2, when Sabine cuts her hair and dons her Mandalorian armor, her pauldron’s symbol has changed from a doodle in honor of Ahsoka to a symbol of a Purrgil space whale in honor of Ezra Bridger. If you’re ever uncertain of what a scene in Ahsoka is meant to communicate, try looking at everyone’s shoulders.
Jacen donning an item of his dad’s shows exactly who he is at this point in his young life, and what he means to Hera. He’s got huge shoes to fill as a child of the Rebellion, but to Hera, he’s all she has left of the Jedi she fought beside. This little detail shows just how important this quest is to Hera, and how the Jedi loom large over this era of the Republic.
