How Ahsoka Tano shaped Anakin Skywalker as a character

They got off on the wrong foot. The relationship Ahsoka Tano had with her master, Anakin Skywalker wasn’t always the close bond people remember.

In 2008, a partnership formed. The Clone Wars television series started with a feature film of the same name. In the film, we see Anakin Skywalker in a new way. He goes from not wanting an apprentice in Ahsoka Tano to having a newfound respect for what Obi-Wan did for him all those years earlier.

During the series, Anakin and Ahsoka travel from planet to planet, fighting in the legendary war mentioned by Anakin’s son, Luke some 20 years later. The pair had a rather unique relationship few people understood.

In this exposé, we’ll examine the Jedi duo’s relationship and how Ahsoka helped to shape Anakin into the man we meet during Revenge of the Sith.

An unwelcome Padawan

When we meet Anakin in The Phantom Menace, he’s a 9-year-old boy with a selfless heart who loved his mother and had an uncanny ability to pilot a Podracer. Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn freed him from slavery and by film’s end, the boy gained the status of Padawan, despite the protests of the Jedi Council.

Fast forward 10 years and Anakin is just out of his Padawan training and is fighting alongside Obi-Wan on Christophsis. A new Jedi Knight, he feels a Padawan will slow him down. Guess again, Anakin. Guess again.

When a ship arrives, he and Obi-Wan suspect their new troops and supplies. Obi-Wan believes it’s his new ‘Padawan’. Onboard is a teenage Togruta who introduces herself to the pair. The battle commences and the trio go back on to the battlefield. After the battle, proper introductions go around with Obi-Wan introducing himself as Ahsoka’s master.

Ahsoka corrects him, explaining her assignment to Anakin and not Obi-Wan. It becomes suspect to the audience because we know Obi-Wan was lying.

Anakin, being Anakin, complains but get called back into battle and takes Ahsoka with him. The head clone of the 501st mentions Anakin told him he would never have a Padawan. Anakin tells him of ‘a mix up’ and Ahsoka isn’t with him. He cops Ahsoka’s snarky attitude and receives the nickname, Skyguy. This later leads to Ahsoka gaining the nickname ‘Snips’.

Photo Credit: Lucasfilm

Bonding over a Huttlet

Before they receive their first assignment, Anakin and Ahsoka engage in combat with Super Battle Droids and Droidekas. They make it… barely. After the fight, Ahsoka becomes afraid Anakin will send her back to the temple.

Anakin tells her she would never have made it as Obi-Wan’s Padawan. He surprises her by saying she’d make it as his apprentice. The pair shared an understanding smile before they went to meet with Obi-Wan and Yoda.

Obi-Wan tells the Grand Master about the awkwardness of the situation between Anakin and Ahsoka. Yoda considers having Ahsoka reassigned to someone else, but Anakin butts in and defends Ahsoka’s actions. He explains she could amount to something if she’s trained right.

Yoda issues Ahsoka and Anakin their first assignment. Their task requires rescuing Jabba the Hutt’s kidnapped son, Rotta. Anakin, because of his past with the Hutts, immediately becomes suspicious. Ahsoka becomes enthusiastic and loves the idea before runs off to get the troops organized.

Over the course of the story, Anakin and Ahsoka take light-hearted jabs at each other. Though, they remain professional and on task. They bond as they take on the role of surrogate parents to the young Huttlet.

Ahsoka gets a reluctant Anakin to form a small bond with Rotta to where Anakin calls him “little guy”. However, this does not deter Anakin’s hate for the creatures that enslaved him and his mother so many years earlier.