It’s always exciting to hear Dave Filoni’s opinions on Star Wars. He has loads of knowledge and spent quite a bit of time with George Lucas during the creation of The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. George Lucas has even paid a few visits to the sets of The Mandalorian in LA, including during the filming of Chapter 13: The Jedi. When one thinks of Filoni, it’s hard not to think of Ahsoka, however, during a featurette about the making of the series, Filoni surprised some fans when he shared whom he believes is “the greatest Jedi of all time”.
According to Filoni, Anakin Skywalker is the best Jedi of all time. Filoni explained that Ahsoka was “trained by the greatest Jedi of all time in Anakin Skywalker.” While many might disagree with his opinion, it’s easy to make a case for Anakin being the greatest Jedi simply on the basis of his potential and the fact that he was The Chosen One.
Anakin wasn’t just force sensitive, but his blood contained more midichlorians than Master Yoda. He was an expert duelist, and during The Clone Wars, along with his master, Obi Wan, Anakin was considered a hero throughout the galaxy. He was the most skillful warrior and that was nearly an indisputable fact.
It’s Anakin’s impatience, anger and his inability to let go which became his downfall, but his power was unrivaled. Filoni’s partner in crime, Jon Favreau also seems to hold the same opinion about Anakin. When asked to choose between prime Luke and prime Anakin, Favreau went with Luke’s dad, and explained:
"“I think it has to be Anakin, right? I mean it has to be. I mean who– a prime Anakin? And there’s so many different phases of it. But… we never really got to see– we saw a little bit of prime Luke with what we did. We alluded to it, but who knows what he’s been off to? But Anakin faced so many more challenges… He was in his prime in a more dynamic period in Star Wars history, right?”"
Sadly, neither father nor son ever got to show what they would’ve been like in their prime. Anakin was extremely young when he fell to the dark side. As Vader, he was only at partial strength since he had lost all his limbs by this time. If Anakin hadn’t turned to the dark side, then he would have continued to evolve and grow in power and probably ended up as the greatest Jedi ever. In comparison, that era of Luke’s life hasn’t really been covered in live action.
Ahsoka, however, who’s defeated many a powerful foes, even those twice her size, is in many ways an extension of Anakin’s greatness since he taught her the longest. Similar to Anakin, Ahsoka also went through the Clone War and grew up being trained by various masters at the Jedi temple at a time when the Jedi were in their glory days.
Ahsoka premieres August 23 on Disney+.