This month, the newest live-action Star Wars series hits Disney+. In the past, the shows we’ve seen in live-action from the streaming service have either been about entirely new characters, like The Mandalorian, or connected to the movies that, at this point, we can assume most everybody has seen, like Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, with the Ahsoka TV show, we’re getting something a little different, as the title character has a significant history in the Star Wars galaxy, but almost all of it has been connected to animated series. Some have expressed a fear that if they haven’t watched all of The Clone Wars and Rebels, the events of Ahsoka may not make sense.
If watching seven seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and four seasons of Star Wars: Rebels sounds like fun to you, then by all means, you should do that. Both series are quite good and easily viewable with a Disney+ subscription. If, however, you don’t have that kind of time, then here’s a quick rundown about the key points concerning Ahsoka Tano’s story that will likely be relevant in the new Disney+ series.
Ahsoka Was The Padawan Of Anakin Skywalker
Ahsoka Tano is introduced in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie that preceded the animated series, which fills in the gap between Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The show follows several characters, most notably the trio of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano.
Young Ahsoka is a Padawan and Yoda assigns her to Anakin Skywalker in the hopes that it will teach the brash Jedi a certain amount of responsibility. He’s not really interested in training anybody at first, but she grows on him (and the audience), and eventually the pair become quite close. She called him Skyguy and he called her Snips due to the way she had a tendency to get snippy with him.
Ahsoka Left The Jedi Order
The Clone Wars is, in many ways, the story of Ahsoka above all others. We see her grow, change and become a formidable Jedi in her own right. However, Ahsoka begins to become somewhat disillusioned as The Clone Wars go on, and the Jedi take on a more militaristic position, where they had previously been peacekeepers. Eventually, Ahsoka makes the decision to leave the Jedi Order.
This is prompted when she is framed for the murder of a suspected terrorist while they were in Jedi custody. Ahsoka is essentially suspended from the Order while being put on trial. When she is eventually cleared of the charges, the fact that so many people so important to her seemed to believe she was guilty broke what little faith she had left in the Jedi. While Ahsoka would still maintain the ideals of what it meant to be a Jedi, she would no longer hold the name.
Ahsoka Was An Early Part Of The Rebel Alliance
Star Wars: Rebels was a follow-up animated series that focused on the crew of a starship called the Ghost, made up of Kannan Jarrus, a Jedi who escaped Order 66, and his crew, including pilot Hera Syndulla and a young Mandalorian named Sabine Wren. They also take in a young man named Ezra Bridger, who Kanan realizes is Force sensitive, and he begins to train the boy as a Jedi as best he can. Keep those names in mind as well. We know Hera, Sabine and Ezra are part of the Ahsoka cast, so they will be important.
The crew of the Ghost is part of a loose confederation of people fighting the Empire. They receive and transmit any important information to a go-between they know only by the code name Fulcrum, but at the end of Rebels' first season, it is revealed that Fulcrum is none other than Ahsoka Tano.
Ahsoka Is A Key Part Of The Skywalker Saga
Fighting for the Rebellion, and being one of the few capable of using the Force, of course, puts her up against the Empire's enforcer, Darth Vader. At first, Ahsoka is unaware of the identity of the man behind the mask, but during a key battle between the two, she realizes that she is fighting her former master, making her one of the few that knows his true identity.
But Anakin isn't the only Skywalker with whom Ahsoka is connected. In The Book of Boba Fett, we discover that during the early days of Luke Skywalker's attempt to rebuild a school for Jedi, Ahsoka gave him some assistance. How they met, or how much about their connection they have really shared with each other, has yet to be revealed.
Ahsoka Is On The Hunt For Grand Admiral Thrawn
The latter seasons of Rebels are concerned with the Ghost crew's battle with an Imperial officer named Grand Admiral Thrawn. At the end of the series, Ezra Bridger sends both himself and Thrawn to an unknown part of the galaxy, in an attempt to take Thrawn off the board for the rest of the battle with the Empire. Based on the fact that he does not appear in the Original Trilogy, it appears he succeeded.
However, when we meet the live-action Ahsoka Tano in The Mandalorian, we learn that she is on the hunt for Thrawn. Other references to him in Season 2 of that show would seem to indicate that while he has not yet returned, it is believed he will soon.
Ahsoka’s Ultimate Fate Is Unclear
The events of the Ahsoka series will be set somewhere in the period following The Mandalorian Season 2 and before the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That’s a fairly big period, but, while we have seen where the larger story of Star Wars goes, where Ahsoka fits into it all is unclear. The Sequel Trilogy reveals much about what happens to many popular characters, but not Ahsoka.
We hear the voice of Ahsoka (as provided by her animated voice actress, Ashley Eckstein) among the chorus of Jedi encouraging Rey in the finale of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which would seem to indicate she has become one with the Force, ad all the other Jedi voices we hear are from those we know are dead. So one could deduce that Ahsoka has died by this point, but that’s far from a sure thing. However, it might also indicate that Ahsoka eventually does rejoin the Jedi at some point.
There are a lot of details that you certainly need to watch other Star Wars shows to fully understand. The Ahsoka series is likely to be full of references to them for fans that know them well, but hopefully they won’t be vital to the plot and it won’t be necessary for new viewers to know every detail.
What is likely is that the Ahsoka series will be key to the planned Star Wars movie directed by Dave Filoni, so it will be a show worth watching even if the movies are really what you care about. With this much backstory, you should be in a good enough position to understand who Ahsoka Tano is when her series begins on August 23.
