Ahsoka: Met Her Yet? If Not, You’ve Got Some Research to Do, Padawan

By John Kirk

Rating: A

We first met Ahsoka Tano, Padawan Learner and Apprentice to Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Knight and General in the Republic Forces in the animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. These were the interstitial battles and adventures set between Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: The Revenge of the Sith. Fair warning: there’s going to be good amount of history here.

Throughout the course of The Clone Wars, Ahsoka learns enough from her master that the cost of being a Jedi is more than she can afford. She makes the decision to walk away from her Master and the Order. It’s a journey that sees her character grow and develop into a unique one that has endeared her to fans in other iterations of the Star Wars franchise including Star Wars: Rebels and Star Wars: The Mandalorian.

But it’s Star Wars: Rebels that you really need to be aware of for the purposes of appreciating this series better.

In the first two episodes of Ahsoka, creator, Dave Filoni picks up from an imperceptible point in Rebels where the relationship between Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and her former padawan, the Mandalorian Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) has become strained. Wren is spiritually lost, pining for her former compatriots of the Rebel cell we saw in the animated series, particularly the missing Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) who sacrificed himself by going into exile for the group in the final episode.

The time for this series is set after the Battle of Endor in Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi. The New Republic is seeing its ascendency and it is contemporary with Lucasfilm’s recent television offerings Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett. So, there’ll be a great deal of crossover amongst these series and Ahsoka, at least if the fans have their way about it.

This is a time when the Empire, though on the ropes, is still far from defeated. The Emperor was destroyed on the second Death Star (if fans will remember), but splinter factions of the Empire’s military might still remain at large in the galaxy, waiting for a unifying force to bring them together once more. That force is embodied in one of the greatest villains to emerge in the franchise, Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen).

A superb genius-level tactician known for his ruthless methodology, this character was first introduced in the 1991 novel written by Timothy Zahn, Star Wars: Heir to the Empire. The blue-skinned, red-eyed Thrawn emerged as one of the most engaging villains in Star Wars history and re-appeared in the Rebels series. When Ezra Bridger went into exile, he took Thrawn with him. Their fates are inextricably linked, it seems, in this series.

That’s the ambition in the story. When Ahsoka Tano discovers a map in an abandoned Jedi temple that could lead them to Bridger, she faces opposition from a villain we met in Star Wars: The Mandalorian – the wealthy industrialist and Imperial Weapons manufacturer, Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto). Captured by Ahsoka Tano in that series, she was remanded to a New Republic prison to serve out a sentence for her crimes. However, if the map that Ahsoka is seeking can find Bridger, it can also find Admiral Thrawn.

Like I said, there’s a lot to unpack here.

But that’s the appeal of this show. More than anything, Filoni has justly earned the love and admiration of Star Wars fans worldwide for the level of detail and precision he has brought to piecing the canon and continuity of the franchise together.

In fact, the first two episodes of the show barely go over its immense background and take it on faith that the audience will know what’s happened until this point, and therein lies a fully justified criticism. Unless the audience is aware of the other shows in the franchise that have contributed to this development, a good amount of that history will be lost on them.

For example, when the audience is introduced to General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), they’ll meet who they think is just a general in the New Republic forces and a pretty cool Twi’lek character to boot. But will they know of the instrumental role she played during Star Wars: Rebels, her relationship with Ahsoka and Sabine, or the rich historical tapestry of storytelling behind her character’s growth?

There is a scene in the first episode where we see the main cast of the Rebels crew depicted in a wall painting that honors their efforts in liberating the planet Lothal (where the story is set), but it’s just a brief nod to those four seasons of storytelling. Those who do will appreciate her more than just the average viewer.

Not to say that the story will be incomprehensible to the casual audience. Star Wars is Star Wars and it has a rich tradition of allowing the acceptance of grandiose story details at face value. For instance, the idea of the Clone Wars, first brought up in Star Wars: A New Hope was mentioned once and was not fully described until about 20 years later. If there’s anything Star Wars does well is to drop background story concepts of epic importance with a bare mention.

But the plot is made instantly clear and like other Star Wars stories, we are shown an array of immediately likeable and fascinating characters like the Jedi Temple Droid, Huyang (David Tennant) or the mysterious Sith-like agents Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) and Balan Skoll, played by the recently deceased Ray Stevenson. We are treated to spectacular light-saber swordplay, daredevil stunts, and compelling and romantic characters. In short, it’s Star Wars as we’ve come to know and love.

A dynamic show that showcases an iconic character, Ahsoka deftly threads the needle in balancing the canon that die-hard fans will want to see represented and a story that can be appreciated by all. That’s what gives rise to the phrase that fans have adopted in regard to televised Star Wars: “In Dave Filoni we trust.” A worthy successor to George Lucas’s own Empire, Filoni will bring balance to the franchise and we certainly see this in Ahsoka.

Do yourself a favour though: go watch the last few episodes of Star Wars: Rebels and see what I mean.

Ahsoka. Directed by Dave Filoni. Starring Rosario Dawson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, David Tennant, Diana Lee Inosanto, Lars Mikkelsen, and Eman Esfandi. Debuts on Disney+ on August 23.