Character Chronicle: Ahsoka Tano

Ahsoka Tano is – arguably – the most popular Star Wars character to have never appeared in a live action iteration of the franchise, with only a few possible rivals (chiefly Grand Admiral Thrawn). With rumours of her impending arrival in The Mandalorian, though, I thought it might be instructive to revisit the history of the character for those unfamiliar with the various animated series.

Self-evidently, spoilers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels follow.

Ahsoka Tano is a member of the Togruta species, a humanoid race hailing from the planet Shili. They are mostly humanoid with varying skin shades, and a highly distinguishable head crest known as a lekku, similar to those of Twi’leks. The lekku aids in communication. Ahsoka is the second Togruta to appear in the franchise, after Jedi Master Shaak Ti appeared briefly in Attack of the Clones and was killed in Revenge of the Sith. 

Born in 36 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), Ahsoka displayed Force proficiency almost from birth and was identified at the age of three by Jedi Master Plo Koon, who took her to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, where she underwent vigorous training. In 22 BBY, at the age of 14, she was assigned as padawan to Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, shortly after the Battle of Geonosis marked the beginning of the Clone Wars between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems (the Separatists). Grand Master Yoda assigned Ahsoka to Anakin in the belief that it would temper his recklessness and encourage maturity, whilst Ahsoka would do well to learn from one of the most skilled Jedi warriors in the order.

Ahsoka would serve alongside Anakin and, often, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi throughout the three years of the Clone Wars. Anakin was initially resentful of her presence, having expressed to Yoda a desire not to have a padawan, believing they would distract him and hold him back. However, Ahsoka soon proved her worth during the Battle of Christophsis, saving Anakin’s life and helping ensure victory over the Separatist forces.

As well as fighting alongside fellow Jedi, Ahsoka served alongside and sometimes commanded the 501st Legion of the Grand Army of the Republic, a unit of Clone Troopers under the command of CT-7567, colloquially known as “Rex.” Rex and Ahsoka struck up an easy friendship and alliance, respecting one another’s skills in battle and saving one another’s lives many times.

Ahsoka served in many battles and on many fronts during the war, but developed a rapport with the planet Mandalore. She first visited the planet to support Duchess Satine’s rule from an internal coup led by another member of the government. She also acted as a mentor and inspiration to the Duchess’s heir, her nephew Korkie Kryze. Ahsoka had several more engagements with the Mandalorians, first fighting the militant group known as Death Watch which wished to return Mandalore to a culture of violence but later alongside them when they became the only hope of defeating the Separatist hold on the planet. During these battles Ahsoka became an ally of Bo-Katan Kryze, Duchess Satine’s sister, after an initially hostile relationship. With Ahsoka’s help, Bo-Katan rallied the Mandalorians and defeated both Separatist plots and an attempt by former Sith Darth Maul to conquer the planet, although Satine was killed in the process. Maul was defeated and Bo-Katan became Regent of Mandalore for her nephew, Korkie. Bo-Katan also became the wielder of the famed Darksaber, a weapon of impressive power.

After her first mission to Mandalore, Ahsoka visited the planet Mortis alongside Obi-Wan and Anakin, a world which would have a profound affect on her destiny. On this planet, which was strongly touched by the Force, Ahsoka had a vision of her future self, who warned her that Anakin was touched by the Dark Side and his corruption would destroy her if she remained at his side. Ahsoka was dubious of this warning, believing it might be a hallucination or itself a manifestation of the Dark Side, and resolved to remain Anakin’s true and loyal friend. During these events Ahsoka was infected with the Dark Side and apparently killed, but she was saved by Anakin at great cost.

The war continued to rage and Ahsoka continued to serve on the front lines. In the battle for Onderon, she worked alongside Steela and Saw Gerrera in establishing a viable resistance force and helping guide it to victory. However, Ahsoka was unable to save Steela’s life during a battle and she was killed. Saw blamed Ahsoka for his sister’s death and this was one of several incidents that made Saw bitter and increasingly ruthless in his war against the Separatists and, later, the Empire.

In 20 BBY, as the end of the war approached, Ahsoka’s position in the Jedi Order was endangered when she was framed for a bombing in the Jedi Temple that killed six Jedi. The attack had been orchestrated by Ahsoka’s erstwhile friend, Barriss Offee, who believed the Jedi had become militant and authoritarian during the conflict. Offee then planted evidence framing Ahsoka. Ahsoka was imprisoned by the Jedi Order, despite her longstanding record of service. Shocked at her treatment, Ahsoka freed herself and attempted to clear her name, working alongside her former nemesis Asajj Ventress to this end. Ahsoka was captured again and put on trial, but Anakin was successful in identifying and exposing Offee as the real culprit.

Despite her exoneration, Ahsoka was badly shaken by how easily everyone had believed that she could be a traitor. The Council suggested that this had been a final trial to prove her worthiness to become a Jedi and offered her the title of Jedi Knight and a formal place in the order. To their shock, Ahsoka rejected the offer. Their lack of faith in her had led to her faith in the Jedi Order being similarly eroded. She quit the Order and departed Coruscant. Yoda may have intervened to ask her to stay, but during one confused vision of a possible future he had seen Ahsoka dying in the halls of the Jedi Temple, possibly a reason why he let her go so easily. Ahsoka’s absence increased Anakin’s feelings of isolation and resentment during the closing months of the war.

Ahsoka became embroiled in various escapades during the closing part of the war before being recruited by Bo-Katan to help free Mandalore from Darth Maul. This operation was completed successfully and Maul taken into custody. Ahsoka escorted Maul back to Coruscant on a Star Destroyer with a detachment of Clone Troopers commanded by her old friend Rex. However, she was struck by a powerful vision of Chancellor Palpatine battling Jedi Master Mace Windu, and witnessing Windu’s death at Anakin’s hands moments later. Ahsoka tried to confide in Rex about her vision, but at that moment Palpatine activated his famed “Order 66,” a command driven by a biological inhibitor chip in the brain of every clone. This forced the Clone Troopers to turn on and kill the Jedi. Ahsoka, forewarned by Rex as he managed to briefly fight the command, was able to evade the initial attack. She freed Darth Maul as a diversion and was able to take Rex prisoner in combat. Through a combination of the Force and surgery, she identified and removed Rex’s inhibitor chip. Unfortunately, Rex was able to confirm that almost every single Clone in the entire Republic had such a chip and had turned against the Jedi in their millions.

Working together, Rex and Ahsoka crashed the Star Destroyer into a remote moon. They survived by escaping in a Y-wing, but most of the crew were killed. Horrified at the death and destruction that had been unleashed, Ahsoka abandoned her lightsabres at the crash site. Some months later, they were discovered by Darth Vader, as Anakin Skywalker was now known, and he assumed she had perished as a result.

Ahsoka spent the next eight years in hiding on the Outer Rim, moving from world to world. However, witnessing the brutality of the newly-proclaimed Galactic Empire led her into contact with various resistance cells and eventually Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan, who was planning (alongside Senator Mon Mothma of Chandrila) to fight against the Empire. Ahsoka was reluctant to return to front-line combat, so Senator Organa decided to employ her as his chief intelligence agent. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of groups had sprung up across the galaxy in opposition to the Empire, fighting isolated, secluded campaigns on backwater planets with little hope of victory. Ahsoka decided to contact these groups and start spreading resources between them, using the code-name “Fulcrum.” Although it was Organa and Mothma’s diplomacy that sowed the seeds of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, it was Ahsoka Tano’s hard work that made it a reality.

Another seven years passed and Ahsoka became particularly intrigued by the hard work of the crew of the starship Ghost, who were fighting the Imperial occupation on the planet Lothal. Ahsoka provided intelligence and support to the Ghost crew for more than a year before meeting them in person. Ahsoka believed that Hera Syndulla, the group’s leader, had the potential to be a much greater leader and her recommendations saw Hera rise high in the Rebel Alliance’s ranks, eventually (much later) gaining the rank of General. Ahsoka also helped former padawan Kanan Jarrus and his own protégé Ezra Bridger learn more in the ways of the Force.

Ahsoka’s work with Kanan and Ezra led them to an ancient temple the planet Malachor, but also attracted the attention of Darth Vader. Vader and Ahsoka engaged in combat. Ahsoka had come to believe that Vader might really be Anakin, but Vader claimed that he had killed Anakin. During a ferocious duel, Ahsoka destroyed part of Vader’s helmet, exposing enough of his face to make her realise he really was Anakin. The two continued to fight as the temple collapsed. Later, only Vader emerged alive, leading the Rebels to believe that Ahsoka had perished. However, Vader himself was not sure what had happened. Ahsoka had badly damaged the floor of the temple and when he struck a killing blow, the floor collapsed. He could find absolutely no trace of Ahsoka afterwards, and had no choice but to believe she had perished, but could not be sure.

In reality, Ahsoka had been rescued through a most bizarre manner. Two years further down the line, Ezra had located a mysterious dimension accessible through the Force, the World Between Worlds, which stood outside of time and space. At great risk, Ezra had opened a portal to the moment of Ahsoka and Vader’s duel and rescued her, pulling her into this place between dimensions. Ahsoka realised the tremendous danger this realm represented, with the ability to undo events and upset the flow of time and destiny. Ahsoka helped Ezra return to his own time and convinced him not to try to undo the death of his mentor Kanan.

Ahsoka’s activities after this time are unclear; she may have remained within the World Between Worlds for a time or returned to her own time and laid low to avoid attracting the attention of Vader. It appears that Ahsoka initially believed she had cheated fate and death and was unwilling to do anything to change events. As a result, she did not take part in the Galactic Civil War and kept her head down during the events of that conflict. However, five years after the Battle of Yavin, two after the Battle of Endor, she returned to Lothal and made contact with Sabine Wren, one of the other Ghost crewmembers. Ezra Bridger had disappeared in battle with Grand Admiral Thrawn, his command Star Destroyer vanishing into the Unknown Regions of the Galaxy. She and Sabine agreed to join forces to travel into the Unknown Regions in search of them. 

• 36 BBY: Born on Shili.
• 33 BBY: Found by Jedi Master Plo Kloon and taken to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Begins training.
• 22 BBY: Assigned as padawan to Anakin Skywalker at the outbreak of the Clone Wars. Also serves as a commanding officer over the 501st Legion of the Grand Army of the Republic, meeting CT-7567 “Rex” and becoming his close friend and ally (The Clone Wars).
• 20 BBY: Framed for murder and treason, banished from the Jedi Order and forced to go on the run. She clears her name and is exonerated, but feels betrayed by the Jedi Order and refuses to return. As a private citizen, she fights alongside Bo-Katan Kryze in the liberation of Mandalore. Shortly after the battle, she is betrayed by Rex during the execution of Order 66. She saves Rex from his inhibitor trip and they escape. Anakin, now Darth Vader, believes her dead in a Star Destroyer crash (The Clone Wars).
• 18 BBY: After years in hiding on the Outer Rim, Ahsoka joins Senator Bail Organa’s nascent Alliance to Restore the Republic. She becomes an intelligence specialist coordinating the activities of dozens of autonomous cells, codenamed “Fulcrum.”
• 5 BBY: Ahsoka begins working with the Lothal rebels, principally the crew of the Ghost (Rebels).
• 3 BBY: Ahsoka battles Darth Vader on Malachor, confirming he is her former master, Anakin Skywalker. Ahsoka vanishes during the battle, Vader believing her dead. In reality, she is rescued by Ezra Bridger from two years in the future, using the time-warping power of the “World Between Worlds.” Fearing her survival has changed history, Ahsoka lies low for a long time (Rebels).
• 3 ABY: Destruction of the Second Death Star at the Battle of Endor and death of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader (Return of the Jedi).
• 5 ABY: Ahsoka and Sabine Wren join forces to search for the missing Ezra Bridger in the Unknown Regions of the Galaxy (Rebels).
• 9 ABY: Adopted Mandalorian Child of the Watch Din Djarin encounters Bo-Katan Kryze during his search for the Jedi. Bo-Katan directs him to find Ahsoka Tano, whom she believes is currently located on the planet Corvus (The Mandalorian).

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs.