One of the most impactful aspects of Star Wars is how new stories enhance existing stories. The Clone Wars changes the way we see the clones in the Prequels, Obi-Wan Kenobi makes Leia’s A New Hope story more tragic, Adam Christopher’s Shadow of the Sith novel adds more depth to the story of Rey’s parents in The Rise of Skywalker, and so forth.
Ahsoka is poised to do something similar by making Mon Mothma’s story in Andor even more heartbreaking. In Andor season 1, Mon Mothma still serves in the Imperial Senate. She is using her position to help secretly build what will become the Rebel Alliance, all while dealing with personal challenges and making sacrifices.
Andor shows how Mon Mothma has to constantly present a façade without ever having any reprieve as a senator or even when she is at home. Her husband, Perrin Fertha, is an apathetic socialite who enjoys spending time with Sly Moore and other prominent Imperials. Their teenage daughter, Leida, resents her mother and how she seemingly prioritizes her political career over a relationship with Leida.
Mon Mothma cannot share the knowledge or burden of what she is doing with Perrin or Leida. This is particularly sad regarding Leida, who interprets her mother’s distance as not caring about her. By the end of Andor season 1, Mon Mothma even agrees to have Leida meet Davo Sculdun’s son, a meeting meant to establish an arranged marriage. She does this to get the money she needs from the Chandrilian oligarch, which will replace the funds she gave to Luthen Rael and the early Rebellion and prevent the Empire from discovering the missing funds.
She doesn’t want her teenage daughter to be in an arranged marriage, let alone with the son of the greedy Davo Sculdun. Yet, Mon Mothma does this for the sake of the Rebellion, going against what she thinks is best for her daughter in order to build the force that will one day defeat the Empire.
Her work is no better as she attends sessions of the Imperial Senate and tries to pass bills that will help people in need, all while knowing that the Senate is nothing more than a sham. Democracy is dead, and only Emperor Palpatine’s word matters in the Senate.
Even building the Rebellion is frustrating as Luthen deceives Mon Mothma and takes action without her, leaving her in the dark about the heist on Aldhani until after it’s happened, not even learning of it until she’s in the middle of an Imperial Senate session.
In Star Wars Rebels season 3, Mon Mothma leaves the Imperial Senate after the Ghorman Massacre, speaks to the galaxy where she denounces Emperor Palpatine, and unifies the various rebel cells into the Rebel Alliance. She dedicates the rest of her life to fighting the Empire and then trying to restore peace to the galaxy after the Empire’s downfall.
It is unknown what happens to Leida or Perrin, and there won’t be answers until Andor season 2, but there is a good chance that she will have to part ways with them for their safety after she publicly denounces Palpatine, yet another sacrifice that she will have to make.
As an Imperial sympathizer willing to turn a blind eye to the galaxy-wide suffering inflicted by the Empire, Perrin doesn’t garner much sympathy. Leida, however, is just a child, and it is frightening to think what might happen to her once the Empire learns of her mother’s actions. Even if Mon Mothma can protect Leida, she may not want a relationship with her mother, given all the secrets and lies, not to mention Leida’s conservative leanings and how she favors Perrin.
By the time of Ahsoka, Mon Mothma is Chancellor of the New Republic. She has lost and sacrificed a great deal in Andor season 1 and will undoubtedly continue to sacrifice and lose even more in Andor season 2. Despite doing all this to defeat the Empire, which she eventually brings about, she will learn in Ahsoka that the Empire may be returning via the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn.
It makes her Andor story even more tragic to see everything she is going through and giving up, only for the Empire to threaten her and the galaxy again a handful of years after their defeat and the beginning of the New Republic. This is not to say her actions are in vain; everything she did to defeat the Empire matters, but it is difficult to see that no matter what she does, the Empire and its remnants continue to put the galaxy and its people in danger.
As much as Mon Mothma would like to help Hera Syndulla, Ahsoka Tano, Sabine Wren, and their allies in defeating Thrawn, she may be unable to due to the significant demilitarization of the New Republic’s forces and the elimination of the chancellor’s emergency powers. Mon Mothma has been building a peacetime government, not a government built to fight another war.
Even if she only appears in a single scene as a hologram, it will be fascinating to see Mon Mothma in Ahsoka and how Genevieve O’Reilly’s portrayal of the characters compares to her in Andor. It will not only make Andor and Ahsoka feel more connected but will further enhance Mon Mothma’s overall story, albeit in a heartbreaking way.
Ahsoka begins with a two-episode premiere on August 22, only on Disney+.