Whether you’re intimately familiar with Ahsoka Tano or going into her new series blind, there’s a chance you know all about her falling out with the Jedi. As a padawan, Ahsoka was framed for terrorism and expelled from the Jedi Order, only to be reinstated when her master, Anakin Skywalker, cleared her name.
The ordeal was covered in “The Wrong Jedi,” an episode of The Clone Wars that cleverly dealt with the series’ continuity issue and set Ahsoka on a brand-new path. It’s one of two Star Wars stories — along with the Rebels episode “A World Between Worlds” — that’s routinely cited as one casual audiences should watch to understand and appreciate Ahsoka.
While both are important, they’re just two points in Ahsoka’s arc. Alone, they feel like different stories focused on different characters, which makes Ahsoka’s appearance in “Twilight of the Apprentice” the bridge that connects the two. Not only does it encompass her past as a Jedi, but it also sets the tone for her nuanced future.
“Twilight of the Apprentice” is the two-part finale of Rebels’ second season. It follows Ahsoka, along with Jedi Kanan Jarrus and his padawan, Ezra Bridger, to the planet Malachor. They’re searching for a Sith holocron, which apparently holds the key to winning their battle against the Empire, but Sith Inquisitors are also headed to the planet to retrieve it, as is the formidable Maul. His hatred for the Empire has been festering for decades, making him a tentative ally for Ahsoka, Kanan, and Ezra. But even their efforts combined are no match for Darth Vader, who also makes a surprise appearance.
Ahsoka finds herself face-to-face with her fallen master for the first time since he turned to the Dark Side. She doesn’t want to give up on Anakin, but she’s forced to fight Vader to ensure her mission succeeds. It’s here her arc as a Jedi comes full circle. When she announces her intent to avenge the “death” of her master, Ahsoka defies the tenets she once lived by, a fact Vader tries to use against her.
“Revenge is not the Jedi way,” Vader taunts, to which Ahsoka responds, “I am no Jedi.”
Ahsoka seemed to denounce the Order entirely, but fans have called her a Jedi since. Ahsoka’s marketing even calls her a Jedi too, which feels like a direct contradiction of “Twilight of the Apprentice.” The truth, though, is complicated. While she definitely walked away from the Jedi, Ahsoka continues to wield lightsabers (now with neutral white blades), use the Force, and pursue peace. She’s a Jedi in all but name, or rather she’s everything she thinks the Jedi should have been.
Ahsoka’s actions in “Twilight of the Apprentice” feel like the dissolution of the Jedi Order as we know it. But they also allow a new generation of Jedi to continue in Ahsoka’s place. Her words and deeds aren’t just for Ezra, the Jedi padawan experiencing a pull to the Dark Side. They’re for Kanan Jarrus, Ezra’s reluctant master, who turned from the Order too. They’re for The Mandalorian’s Grogu, and even, perhaps, Sabine Wren, who will take on her own Jedi apprenticeship in Ahsoka. Each character takes a radically different approach to the Jedi Way, but each is still considered a Jedi. And that’s largely due to Ahsoka, who had the guts to forge her own path.
