We are now just a couple of months away from the release of Ahsoka and I cannot wait! Ahsoka is probably my favourite character in the whole of Star Wars, while I was a huge fan of Rebels, and it very much looks like this new series will be a sequel to that show.
Of course, this means that I am very familiar with a number of key characters, many of which will be new or relatively unknown to those who have stuck to live action Star Wars, and I don’t know just how much detail this show will go into about our characters’ pasts or the events before this show. As such, I have decided to prepare a short series of articles that will give some background on the characters and their past events.
So let’s kick this series of with an obvious question: Who is Ahsoka Tano?
This will contain spoilers for Tales of the Jedi, The Clone Wars and the novel Ahsoka
Preparing for Ahsoka
- Who is Ahsoka Tano?
Born on the planet Shili 14 years before the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Ahsoka Tano was a female Togruta and daughter of Pav-ti and Nak-il. In her infancy, an experience with a carnivorous raxshir led to her tribe realising that she was Force-sensitive. Plo Koon would later arrive and take her to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Over the net years, she would live the life expected of a youngling at the Temple: training as a Jedi, while visiting Ilum to take part in “The Gathering” to find her lightsaber crystal and then creating her lightsaber under the tutelage of Jedi architect droid Huyang.
At the age of 14, and with the Clone Wars now in swing, Ahsoka was sent to the planet Christophsis to join Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. While Kenobi had put in a request for a new padawan—Skywalker having now passed his trials and become a Jedi Knight—Ahsoka had actually been assigned to Skywalker. Over the next 3 years, she (like all padawans) would serve as a commander within the Grand Army of the Republic while learning under Anakin but also from Obi-Wan (who frequently fought beside the pair) and spending some moments under Jedi Masters Yoda, Plo Koon, Aayla Secura, Tera Sinube and Adi Gallia (alongside Gallia’s padawan Barriss Offee, who became a close friend), while she also learned much about politics from Padmé Amidala, Riyo Chuchi and Bail Organa. Throughout the war, she would also find herself facing off against such enemies as General Grievous, Asajj Ventress, Cad Bane, Aurra Sing, Pre Vizsla (leader of the Mandalorian terrorist group Death Watch) and Bo-Katan Kryze (Vizsla’s lieutenant). While her exploits as a padawan are numerous, these are a few worth highlighting…
During the First Battle of Felucia, her youthful overconfidence got the better of her and she refused to order a retreat which almost le to her position being overran. As a result, she was removed from the front line and sent to help in the Jedi Archives. While she was in this role, Cad Bane attempted to steal a holocron. While he was successful, Ahsoka was able to capture Cato Parasitti, a changeling who had been impersonating a Jedi to assist Bane from inside the Temple. The capture of Parasitti led to the Jedi learning that Bane was attempting to find and capture Force-sensitive children. Ahsoka was able to assist in Bane’s capture, along with the rescue of the kidnapped younglings from Mustafar.
Ahsoka was assigned a solo mission to Mandalore after Duchess Satine Kryze requested Jedi aid. While apparently there to help teach the youth, she was in fact there to work undercover and root out corruption within the government. With the assistance of Korkie Kryze (Satine’s nephew) and his friends, she was able to trace the corruption back to the Prime Minister, Almec, who was imprisoned as a result.
Tano began to use a shoto lightsaber as a second lightsaber, often dual-wielding, which led to her once again visiting Ilum for a second crystal. She would later visit Ilum again, this time leading a group of younglings who were there to find their first crystals.
Ahsoka, Obi-Wan and Anakin found themselves mysteriously called to the planet Mortis, hoe to a trio of Force Users: The Father, the Son and the Daughter. When the Son (who embodied the Dark Side) captured Ahsoka to force Anakin—confirmed to be the Chosen One—to stay on Mortis, she was infected by the dark side of the Force, becoming the Son’s servant until he no longer had any use of her, at which point he drained the life from her. The Daughter (who embodied the Light Side), mortally wounded, chose to give what life she had remaining to resurrect Ahsoka, which also freed her from the darkness.
Ahsoka became unintentionally tangled with Death Watch while rescuing an old friend Lux Bonteri from Separatist forces. When Death Watch began to raze the village of the local populace, Ahsoka revealed herself as a Jedi and fought back, defeating a number of Mandalorians and holding her own in battle against Bo-Katan Kryze.
Ahsoka, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Captain Rex (Skywalker’s second-in-command) were sent to Onderon to train a group of Rebels (including Bonteri and Saw Gerrera) to become a force abe to fight back against the Separatists.Once trained, Ahsoka was left with the rebels for a period, during which she helped them liberate their planet.
During the final year of the Clone Wars, Ahsoka and Anakin were called back to Coruscant to investigate the bombing of a hangar at the Jedi Temple. While they successfully apprehended the person responsible, it soon became clear that they had done it on behalf of someone, but the bomber was killed and Ahsoka framed as the mastermind. While imprisoned, she found that a key card had been left outside her cell and, thinking that it was her master freeing her, she used it to leave her cell, only to soon come across the bodies of the clones who worked at the prison, with her lightsabers and comlink among the dead, further framing her. She escaped custody and went on the run in the lower levels of Coruscant to prove her innocence, receiving some assistance during this time from her former rival Ventress, who had left the Separatists and become a bounty hunter. Once back alone, Ahsoka was attacked by the real traitor while investigating a lead at a warehouse. Caught by surprise, she was defeated, and discovered moments later by clones right next to the nano-droids that had been used in the bombing. Admiral Wilhuff Tarkin had Ahsoka tried in a military title, but to do so, the Jedi Council were forced to expel her from the order and turn her over to the Republic. With Padmé Amidala acting as her defence and Tarkin her prosecutor, Tarkin argued that Tano face the death penalty. Luckily, Anakin Skywalker had continued to believe in her innocence and undertook investigations of his own, which led to him catching the real traitor: Barriss Offee. Exonerated, Ahsoka was welcomed back to the Jedi Order, but hose to leave.
During her adventures after leaving the Jedi Order, Ahsoka unwittingly found herself involved with the Pyke Syndicate and, as they were part of the Shadow Collective, soon learned that the renegade Sith Lord Maul was on Mandalore. She was soon approached by Bo-Katan, no longer a member of Death Watch since Maul had taken over rule of Mandalore and the pair joined forces.
Putting together an army to help retake Mandalore during the final days of the Clone Wars, Ahsoka and Bo-Katan approached Skywalker and Kenobi who were preparing to assist, but were recalled to Coruscant following a surprise attack on the capital by the Separatists. However they did still provide some support, with Skywalker splitting his forces in half and creating a new unit, with Rex promoted to Commander in order to lead them, while Skywalker also gave Ahsoka her old lightsabers (which had been taken off her following her arrest and expulsion from the Order). Ahsoka and the 332ⁿᵈ joined Bo-Katan and her Mandalorian forces in the Siege of Mandalore, specifically fighting in the assault on the capital city of Sundari. Ahsoka’s presence was a surprise for Maul after he ambushed her in the Undercity, as he had been expecting Kenobi and Skywalker instead. Ahsoka would soon by rescued by the arrival of Rex with reinforcements, but it was not long until the pair found themselves facing off again as the battle for Sundari reached a climax.
By the time of this second meeting, Ahsoka had learned from a captured Almec that Maul’s recent thoughts had been on someone called “Skywalker”, while also learning some information on the mysterious Darth Sidious, who Maul had said was about to take control of the galaxy. Maul meanwhile had learned about her by capturing one of her more experienced officers, Jesse, and using the Force to interrogate him. Maul this time appealed to Tano by noting how they had both been used by hypocritical higher powers, and asked her to join him to help defeat Darth Sidious. Ahsoka initially agreed, but changed her mind when Maul revealed that he wanted to kill Anakin as he had identified him as the one long-groomed to become Sidious’ next apprentice. The pair fought again and as Bo-Katan and Rex’s forces defeated Maul’s, Ahsoka also managed to defeat the former Sith Lord, who was captured and imprisoned within an old Mandalorian Vault, designed to hold Force-users.
While Bo-Katan remained on Mandalore and prepared to rule, Ahsoka joined Rex in escorting Maul back to Coruscant. However during the travel through hyperspace, Ahsoka felt a ripple through the Force as Anakin betrayed Mace Windu and fell to the dark side, while all of the clones aboard turned on her moments later after receiving Order 66, though Rex appeared to fight back for a moment and told her to find Fives—a clone they had both previously known, who had been killed after discovering a supposed conspiracy that included inhibitor chips in the head of each and every clone trooper. While Ahsoka made her way around the Venator avoiding the clones, she released Maul as a distraction and was later joined by her old astromech R7-A7 and a couple of other droids, who helped her access Fives’ records to learn about his death, including Rex’s report about suspicions towards the chips. Ahsoka and the droids managed to capture Rex and surgically removed his chip.
Maul’s attempts to escape saw him pull the ship out of hyperspace and leave it crashing towards an uninhabited planet, and he escaped on the last shuttle while Rex and Ahsoka were being attacked by all the remaining clones, who were prioritising defeating the pair over their own safety. The pair eventually managed to escape in a Y-wing as the Venator entered atmosphere. After the Venator crashed, the pair found and buried the bodies of as many of the clones as they could, while Ahsoka left her lightsabers at the graves. After covertly attending the funeral of Padmé Amidala, the pair soon separated to go into hiding. Over the next year, Ahsoka would collect random pieces of metal or electronics.
About a year after the Rise of the Empire, Ahsoka found herself on the moon of Raada in the Outer Rim, where she was going under the name “Ashla”. Setting herself up as a mechanic, she befriended a group of famers. Things soon took a turn as the Empire arrived. The impact of the Empire taking control of production led a number of farmers to consider rebelling, and while Ahsoka would not directly get involved, she subtly advised on techniques while creating a safe hiding space away from the town and farms. Over time, Ahsoka began to be more involved with the resistance, including taking the lead on a sabotage mission, however some of the resistance had chosen to secretly take more brazen action, and Ahsoka was required to use the Force to rescue as many as she could. Hearing that the Imperial commander had taken an interest in her exploits, she left Raada and returned to a family who had housed her for a time before she left for Raada, taking up work as a transport pilot within the family’s business (the freedom of having a ship also allowed her to secretly do a number of “acts of kindness within the system), though she was eventually forced to leave again as the family began to come under closer scrutiny from Imperials.
Her “acts of kindness” soon attracted attention and brought her back in contact with Bail Organa, who tried recruiting her to the Rebellion. Since leaving Raada she had learned that something was hunting Force-sensitive children, so she agreed to join as long as Organa helped protect the children. Organa asked for her help with Raada, explaining that an Imperial agent with a red lightsaber had arrived on the moon and slaughtered most of the resistance, with a pair of Ahsoka’s friends 2 of the only survivors, though one of them was captured. Preparing to return to Raada, Ahsoka used the material she had been collecting to make new lightsabers, though she was unable to collect new crystals from Ilum due to a large Imperial mining operation. Returning to Raada, Ahsoka faced off with the Imperial agent—an Inquisitor called the Sixth Brother—and defeated him despite not having a weapon of her own. She took the red kyber crystals from his lightsaber and used the Force to heal them of the dark side presence, causing them to turn white, and added them into her new lightsabers. Ahsoka organised for rebel shuttles to evacuate the people of Raada while she rescued her friends and held of the Imperial forces. With the people of Raada now safe (and many joining the rebellion), Ahsoka arranged with Organa how she would be of use to the Rebellion, and chose to take charge of the intelligence network, going under the codename “Fulcrum”. And it was in this role that she came into contact with the Spectres….
This year, I’m doing Movember a little different with my Movember Marathon.
You can find all the details on my announcement.
Visit my JustGiving page for updates or if you would like to donate.
Help me to change the face of men’s health!
The Canon Padawan 