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| Yoda: If into the security recordings you go, only pain will you find. |
As the dust settles following the developments in The Clone Wars Season Five finale, it is time to revisit the fate of Ahsoka Tano and how the series should end. I am not going to even deal with the issues of production and distribution in this post, this is purely about what I really care about, the story.
Just as the Jedi Council lost faith in Ahsoka, her faith in the Order and the Republic has been shattered. So quickly they were to believe in her guilt despite of her devoting her life to their cause, can you really blame her?
The Jedi try to make it up to her by granting her the rank of Jedi Knight based on her experience in this arc representing her great trial. The irony is that even the council seems not to understand that the rank bestowed by the Order means nothing to someone who no longer respects the Order. Their olive branch is meaningless to Ahsoka, the only thing that even makes her briefly question her decision to leave is her familial love for Anakin.
What does Ahsoka's departure from the Jedi and from her role as a Commander in the Grand Army of the Republic mean for her and for the series as a whole?
For Ahsoka her life is at a cross-roads. She is no longer a Jedi, but her separation from the Order could allow her to be a true Jedi. This story line also strikes me as a bit of insurance. If the show is not picked up for distribution and continued production on a new channel or avenue, leaving Ahsoka alive but outside the Jedi Order and the GAR allows for a plausible explanation of her absence from Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and allows for her character to survive and be used in other storytelling venues, be it books, comics, a spin-off TV series or a stand-alone film.
I am an eternal optimist so assuming arguendo, that The Clone Wars continues to be produced let me lay out how I see Season Six and Season Seven going.
Season Six would see the Clone Wars ramping up to the wars end, we would continue to see stories focusing on Anakin, Obi-Wan and the rest of the background Jedi leading the Grand Army as they get closer and closer to capturing Dooku and Grievous. At the same time we should see at least two full arcs or between 6-8 episodes focusing on Ahsoka. The first arc would be Ahsoka finding her own new path, the second would be a more action packed adventurous arc as Ahsoka is being a galactic do-gooder.
I think it would be interesting to see TCW borrow a bit from the Expanded Universe and Ahsoka seeking out some other Force using groups a bit like Jacen Solo's off-screen five year Force journey. Ahsoka could visit a few different Force using groups seeking to find answers or inner peace on what she should do in her future apart from the Jedi.
Ultimately I think Ahsoka finds her role by acting to help those in the galaxy, doing things that the Jedi would normally have done in the past but are too consumed with the war to currently do.
Then either in the Season Six final arc or early in Season Seven, something happens that causes Ahsoka to cross paths with Yoda, Anakin, or Obi-Wan and causes her to either re-join the Order or to work as a Jedi Independent Contractor.
In Season Seven or possibly in Season Eight if it continues that far, I believe we are now on an inevitable course that will end with Ahsoka's death.
The only question in my mind is if George Lucas and Dave Filoni are willing to deal Ahsoka as tragic an end as I have in mind.
If I were telling the story, Ahsoka will selflessly return to the Jedi Order in a time of their great need just before Order 66, this act of selflessness ultimately leading to her own death at the hands of her former Master.
Anakin Skywalker when confronted by Obi-Wan on Mustafar doesn't believe that he had killed Padme, it is only after when Palpatine convinces him of it that he comes to this "knowledge." The Clone Wars gives us the chance to expand on what can feel like an abbreviated and rushed fall to the Dark Side of Anakin. If there is one act short of killing Padme that Anakin could never forgive himself for it would be killing Ahsoka. As such I believe Star Wars: The Clone Wars will end with Order 66's Operation Knightfall. I believe that this fate is foreshadowed by the inclusion of the Young Jedi arc younglings in the Season Five finale. Ahsoka will be in the Temple when Anakin comes in with the clone troopers, she will step between Anakin and the younglings and they will duel. Ahsoka will actually duel Anakin to an advantage but hesitate and be unable to kill Anakin. Sensing this moment of hesitation Anakin kills Ahsoka and then proceeds to the slaughter at the Temple. This is the moment that Anakin is reliving on the balcony on Mustafar, the guilt, shame, and regret that he is overwhelmed by. This helps push Anakin so far that neither Obi-Wan or Padme can reach him at the end. At the end as the Vader personae takes dominance, he hates himself more than anything else.
The only other ending that feels right to me at this point is the same set up except Ahsoka escaping her duel with Anakin, much like Yoda escaping his duel with Sidious and fleeing into hiding with a small group of padawans or younglings. This would be the less tragic and more commercially friendly ending for future projects, but to me would be less emotionally profound.
I am very pleased to say as skeptical as I was of Ahsoka during The Clone Wars movie, she is now one of my all time favorite characters in the vast Star Wars universe. I care about the character's fate and that means that the goal of any good storyteller has been accomplished. As much as I wish Ahsoka could live, when the series ends she should die.
Only the dark side deals in absolutes.
ReplyDeleteAhsoka will be killed by starkiller in Star Wars:The Force Unleashed. It is a good ending.
DeleteAhsoka Tano vs Galen Marek
It's possible since he killed Shaak Ti in the Force Unleashed storyline. Shaak Ti was one of the last Jedi to survive until just before the rebellion.
DeleteShaak Ti was killed by General Greivous i believe, i knows its one of the deleted scenes on episode 3 i think
DeleteI can see Ahsoka using the force to help the common people now that she is no longer part of the Jedi Order, as you point out. However, let's remember that Ahsoka was abandoned by Jedi Order in her time of need (with not 1 but 2 masters she knew personally), the order which she faithfully followed for most of her life up till this point, and that a good Jedi friend of hers willingly betrayed her. Her faith in the Order was shattered, her views turned on their heads and her emotions overwhelming her (atleast for now). She may have to struggle with keeping her emotions in check and quite possibly, resisting the Dark Side.
ReplyDeleteWill she warm up to rejoining the Jedi Order, assuming there is atleast another season of The Clone Wars? Such a betrayal could take years to mend, and most likely not going to happen as Order 66 is probably less than a year away.
On a side note, I would like to see how her departure from the order effects the other characters, Plo Koon in particular, but also Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, Rex, and Lux.
No. She should not die. PERIOD! I for one, would like her to cross paths with Luke Skywalker and co. 20 or so years after her departure from the Jedi Order. Keep in mind that the ordeal she had suffered by the Council will take months, even years to heal emotionally and mentally!
ReplyDeleteI highly doubt she'll warm up to rejoining the Jedi Order anytime soon. She felt abandoned by them when she needed them the most. Not to mention that she was also betrayed by the one friend she thought she would rely on also. Come to think of it, it fits well to Anakin's fall to the Dark Side by her leaving the Order and also resenting the Council for treating her like crap in the first place!
For the next few years she'll be working alongside Ventress. They will be the odd couple but will most likely windup good friends. Then at some point Ahsoka will find someone and start a family, have kids and grandchildren. At 87 years old she lays on her deathbed before she passes away, she recalls the Jedi Code for the first time in 60+ years. She closes her eyes...the end.
ReplyDeleteI don't see why she has to die a violent death or rejoin the order. She could be the one who got a way. Escaped it all...the one who lived. But now that I think about it there was that one episode where she met her future (older) self on Mortis.
"While sleeping inside the cave, Tano was awakened by the sound of her own voice. She then saw a vision in the form of her future self, an older Ahsoka Tano who sought to warn her younger self about the great danger that Anakin Skywalker posed due to his gradual succumbing to the dark side. Before vanishing, the older Tano gave a cryptic warning to the younger version of herself, insinuating that Tano's future might never come to pass as long as she remained at her master's side." - From Wookieepedia on Ahsoka Tano's page
Ahsoka has left the Jedi Order, and is very unlikely indeed to rejoin it before Order 66 goes into effect, destroying the Order. So, IMO Ahsoka will survive the fall of the Jedi and the end of the Clone Wars, and will reach adulthood to become the vision of her older self that she saw on Mortis.
ReplyDeleteHowever... Ahsoka surviving the Dark Times, the next 25 years of Imperial rule, right up until the Battle of Endor... well, that's something else entirely, I'm afraid.
There has to be a very, very good reason why Ahsoka doesn't reappear and help the Rebel Alliance fight the Empire during the Rebellion - and the most likely reason is that she dies before that.
One tragic ending to Ahsoka's life that comes to my mind is: that after doing what little she can during the Dark Times, a sadder and wiser Ahsoka ends up on the last planet in the Empire to hold onto sanity, justice, democracy and peace - Alderaan. Perhaps she guards Leia during Leia's childhood as Obi-Wan guards Luke - from a distance, like Obi-Wan did. (Leia may not even know that Ahsoka is a former Jedi - Luke didn't know Old Ben was a Jedi until Obi-Wan's last days.)
And Ahsoka is still on Alderaan when the first Death Star fires its superlaser and destroys the planet - leaving Yoda as the last of the Old Jedi Order still alive.
Actually it was another ex-Jedi named Ferus Olin who ended up guarding Leia.
DeleteActually Ahsoka wasnt completely abandoned by the Jedi Council. Mace Windu (i think) said that the decision was made but it was not unanimous so I'm assuming Obi Wan and Plo Koon disagreed with the council and Anakin never truly gave up on her either.
ReplyDeleteAs to her fate, I really hope they explore what happens to her but not in a tragic way. I'd like to see a happy ending for Ahsoka despite all the death and destruction wrought by the next several decades of star wars history. I could see her joining one of the other force orders and learning to be calm and reserved and living a happy life to its end. Maybe Ben or Luke Skywalker or even Jaina Solo could meet her daughter and learn more about Anakin. That would be awesome.
I too went from hating ahsoka in the movie to really loving her by the end. I hope they do right by her and I don't think she has to die.
ReplyDeleteI hope that I will live on ahsoka tano do not want that she dies she is my favorite person and I hope that it also appears in the new series starwars rebels. (: And how it looks now with season 6 does anyone know exact facts of
ReplyDeleteWho's to say she can't appear in the new movies, even as a hologram/holocron image, or Force spirit. The novels beginning with Timothy Zahn's series brought up different Jedi that have managed to survive and remain hidden, as well as children everywhere discovered with force ablities. Were those kids born from hidden Jedi? And in the Legacy comic series, you have Darth Krayt, who was a Jedi during the Clone Wars, so Ahsoka could easily still be alive for the new movie. It would be a great touch.
ReplyDeleteAshoka and Assajj Ventris become bounty hunters and sort of batman and robin type figures. They avoid the purge and travel the galaxy one step ahead of Vader, Starkiller, and other jedi hunters. Later in life, Ashoka is one of the members of the reformed, Jedi Counsel and talks to Luke and Leia about the good side of their father. So much more marketing potential there. Killing Ashoka is about as bad of a move as making Jar Jar Binks a jedi later on.
ReplyDelete