Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, started off as one of the most hated Star Wars characters when she was introduced in the Clone Wars animated film (and then TV series) that bridged the gap between the movies Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. She was written off by many older fans as a bratty teenage girl, but a mix of sincere voice acting and clever writing quickly changes people’s perspectives on her, and over the course of the past 15 years, she has become one of the most popular characters in all of Star Wars.
Early Clone Wars (The Movie, Seasons 1-3)
When Ahsoka Tano first debuted, some Star Wars fans hated her for many reasons.
She was “snippy” and gave ridiculous nicknames to Anakin and R2-D2. She was arrogant, reckless, and flippant. She wore a ridiculous outfit (tube top and short skirt). Her presence retconned the established canon of Anakin having never trained a Padawan (except for Starkiller). In other words, she was a teenage girl.
Some fans did love her, especially young female fans who had very few prominent female Jedi to play with/as. Young fans enjoyed Ahsoka as the perspective character of the series; like them, she was young but eager to learn about the Force, the Jedi, and the Galaxy as a whole. Fellow TMS writer Teresa Jusino shared with me that she got into the show and the character because the two boys she babysat loved Ahsoka and “identified with her rebelliousness and admired her increasing power in the Force. Her ‘being a girl’ never even came up … I came to love the fact that this character clearly had an impact beyond gender.”
I was one of those young fans; I went to see The Clone Wars in theaters for my 11th birthday and have loved Ahsoka Tano ever since. As a kid who didn’t know about the Star Wars expanded universe, I never had a female Jedi to play as. There were female Jedi in the prequels, yes, but none with speaking lines or plot relevance. If I wanted to be a female character, I was limited to being a blaster combatant, like Padmé or Leia. But Ahsoka changed that.
Even better, Ahsoka managed to change people’s minds about her.
Over time, critical fans were surprised to find her character improved. Ahsoka learned the value of patience and the importance of seeing the bigger picture. She provided some levity and brought out Anakin’s protective side. It helped that when she was put in danger, she frequently found ways to save herself or was willing to sacrifice herself to complete her mission.
Late Clone Wars (Seasons 3.5–5)
By the time The Clone Wars went through its mid-season-3 time-skip, Ahsoka had mostly won fans over, but that was when the anxiety began to settle in. The later into the war we got, the more the upcoming tragedy loomed. Ahsoka wasn’t mentioned in Revenge of the Sith, so there had to be an in-universe reason Anakin and Obi-Wan wouldn’t mention the former’s Padawan.
Every arc where viewers saw her become corrupted by the Dark Side, kidnapped by Trandoshan trophy hunters, or accused of treason against the Republic had fans on the edge of their seats. Ahsoka wasn’t like Anakin and Obi-Wan, who couldn’t be killed off in the show. She was vulnerable, and her survival was unlikely.
Then came the Wrong Jedi arc: In a heartwrenching twist, Ahsoka was cast out by the Jedi order over accusations of treason, only for the real culprit to be revealed as her close friend, Barriss Offee. The Jedi Council “invited” her back to the Order, but Ahsoka’s faith was shaken and thus she left the Jedi, and her heartbroken master, behind.
It was a heartwrenching time for fans, because we knew she didn’t want to leave, and we didn’t want her to go, even though we knew that staying would likely lead to her death. As TMS writer Rachel Leishman put it, “[Ahsoka is] someone who wanted this so badly, [who] was so excited about the Jedi, and we see her disillusionment to them and her stance change and she’s had such a fascinating journey because of it.”
At the same time, as Teresa Jusino noted, “She questioned everything while staying true to her ethics and morals. She and Anakin were very similar, but whereas Anakin ultimately succumbed to seduction from the Dark Side, Ahsoka remained entirely on her own side, which I admired. Having not grown up a Star Wars fan, this spoke to the side of me that kind of saw both ‘sides’ of the Force as a cult.”
Star Wars Rebels
From March 2013 to March 2015, that was all we knew. Ahsoka Tano had left the Jedi Order and all but vanished from the Star Wars saga. The Disney acquisition of Star Wars left fans doubtful that we would ever get answers about what happened to Ahsoka with the fall of the Jedi Order.
But then came a little show called Star Wars Rebels, and its first season finale revealed that Ahsoka was alive and well, as well as a major leader in the Rebellion, and Ahsoka’s voice actress, Ashley Eckstein, celebrated with an “Ahsoka Lives” t-shirt. A character who fans previously couldn’t wait to see die was now celebrated. However, fans of Ahsoka found themselves somewhat disappointed; Ahsoka only physically appeared in 10 episodes, and her character was only really explored in half of those episodes.
In some ways, this made sense; Rebels was not her show, but even more controversially, Ahsoka seemingly died during her duel with Darth Vader on Malachor, an emotional end to her character but one that disappointed fans who saw her as so much more than just Vader’s Padawan. For almost two years, Ahsoka was effectively dead.
But that was not the end of Ahsoka Tano. In an incredible twist, the show introduced the World Between Worlds, a.k.a. the path to time travel in Star Wars, allowing Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger to pull Ahsoka out of her duel with Vader literally seconds before her death.
Ahsoka lives. Again.
Disney+ Era
From here, Ahsoka’s popularity and notoriety have only grown.
The announcement of Clone Wars’ return for a final season was universally cheered in the Star Wars fandom, something that is an ever-increasing rarity. The Clone Wars season 7 was almost entirely focused on Ahsoka’s growth as she adapted to life as a non-Jedi, and her part in the Siege of Mandalore, finally answering the question of how she survived Order 66.
TMS writer El Kuiper considers Ahsoka in season 7 to be her favorite era of the character, as “it shows how she overcame the betrayal of the Order with incredible selflessness and integrity. Like, instead of it swallowing her whole (kinda like what happened to Anakin), she becomes a better version of herself. You can really see this once the Clones start attacking her—despite facing what is arguably another massive betrayal (even if they aren’t in control of themselves), she remains true to herself, totally empathetic and steadfast, comforting Rex and handling the situation as best she can. I just think she’s emblematic of everything the Jedi should be.”
They didn’t stop there, either. Ashley Eckstein and many other Clone Wars voice actors cameoed in The Rise of Skywalker, encouraging Rey during her final fight with Palpatine. This vocal cameo was the first acknowledgment of the character in live-action and was a marker of things to come.
After years of rumors, Rosario Dawson made her Star Wars debut as Ahsoka in The Mandalorian, with her own show announced mere weeks after the episode’s premiere. While some fans have been resistant to anyone other than Ashley Eckstein playing the character, Eckstein herself has voiced her support for Dawson’s portrayal of their shared character. It helps that Eckstein continues to voice Ahsoka in animated appearances in Tales of the Jedi, making it clear that she’s not going anywhere.
TMS’s Rachel Leishman actually told me that Ahsoka’s Mandalorian Era is her favorite because “I love how different she is in regards to her stance on the Jedi and her calmness even through the pain of Anakin!” To Ahsoka, being a Jedi is not the best path for all Force sensitives, which is honestly refreshing.
There are still some critics of Ahsoka Tano, or of how the writers handle her character. Some argue that her character has become a little too overpowered and that she retains very little of her original personality. Others have complained about how the focus on her character draws attention away from other important characters.
These complaints at least have some merit, and if anything, they make me glad that we have mostly moved on from irrational hate to (mostly) respectful disagreement.
This is the best possible time to be a fan of Ahsoka Tano, and that itself is a gift.
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios)
