Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
This week’s Star Wars character spotlight features the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano…
The first appearance of the beloved Star Wars character, Ahsoka Tano, was first introduced all the way back in 2008, with the theatrical release of the animated film — Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Now Ahsoka lives (or does she?) through the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, with her fate currently in limbo.
How did Ahsoka evolve from aspiring Jedi Padawan to a seasoned Force user? Here are some of the highlights from the journey of her within the Star Wars story.
We first meet Ahsoka in the Clone Wars animated film, where she is sent by Master Yoda to relay a message to both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.
Once she fulfills her mission, Ahoska then informs the duo that of her assigning to Anakin Skywalker as his Padawan.
Initially, the script had her assigned to Obi-Wan as his new learner, but George Lucas thought that it would add maturity to Anakin with him taking on his very own apprentice.
That decision had a major payoff, as Lucas not only provided depth to Anakin but created one of the most iconic characters in Star Wars history.
It was comically hinted at during the episode that Anakin didn’t want a Padawan and that she belonged to Obi-Wan, referencing the original intent of the Lucasfilm story group.
Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
Strong in the Force at a young age
Ahsoka was discovered to be strong in the Force by Jedi Master Plo Koon, who brought Ahsoka to the Jedi temple at a very young age.
After learning the ways of the Jedi under the protection of the walls within the Jedi Temple, she was then sent to battle as the learner of Anakin Skywalker as a young teenager. Ahsoka spent almost three years as the apprentice to Anakin, where both master and student were impulsive and headstrong, forming a virtually unstoppable duo as the Clone Wars raged on.
The Padawan went toe-to-toe with some major adversaries during the Clone Wars, surviving encounters with General Grievous, elusive bounty hunter Cad Bane, and the former Sith Lord (Darth) Maul.
It seemed that Ahsoka was close to achieving full knighthood as a Jedi, but the Force had different plans for the young Torguta Padawan.
The framing at the hands of her “friend” Barriss Offee as a culprit for a bombing of the Jedi Temple. Her Master proved her innocence, but the damage was done. Before she could earn the title of Jedi Knight, Ahsoka walked away from her Master Anakin and the Jedi Order.
Released in the Ahsoka’s Untold Tales, Ahsoka spent the next few months on Coruscant, learning how to live as a non-Jedi. Then right before the Jedi were betrayed by Emperor Palpatine’s Order 66, Ahsoka discovered that Maul was in fact still alive on Mandalore.
Ahsoka’s untold tales
She then requested the help of her former Master Anakin Skywalker and mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi, in capturing Maul, but Anakin and Obi-Wan were then dispatched to Coruscant to save the kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, while Ahsoka was left with a handful of clones, including her friend Captain Rex, to handle Maul on their own.
Her former Master Anakin Skywalker told Ahsoka how proud of her he was and returned to her the lightsabers she left on Coruscant months before she departed the Jedi Order. Ahsoka accepted her lightsabers but still was not a Jedi.
Ahsoka went on to defeat Maul, but in the chaos of the Jedi slaughter of Order 66, he escaped.
Being marked as a Jedi still, even though she didn’t feel the same way, she flees, going into hiding to survive.
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Once Ahsoka found her place within the Force, and in the galaxy, she constructed her new lightsabers, with both blades appearing as a white glow, the first white lightsabers in Star Wars canon history.
She defeated an Inquisitor in the process, and her superiority over them is showing during the years of the Galactic Empire’s reign.
Over the next 15 years, Ahsoka joined Bail Organa and the early formation of the later Rebel Alliance, going by the code name of Fulcrum, leading rebels as a spymaster, as well as hunting the Inquisitors of Darth Vader.
She befriends former Jedi Padawan Kanan Jarrus and Force-sensitive Ezra Bridger, joining the duo on a few Jedi adventures.
Photo Credit: Lucasfilm
The trio then journeyed to the former Sith world of Malachor, where Ahsoka later duels her old master Anakin Skywalker, who now is transformed into the evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
She then injured her former Master during the duel, but her fate remained a mystery — and it still does to this day — as the Sith Temple closed on the two former friends.
Next: 50 Most Memorable Moments from Star Wars Rebels
The fate of Ahsoka still hangs in the balance to this very day.