Big news dropped from Lucasfilm and Disney this evening with regards to new Star Wars content along with Marvel content and other Disney content that will be going to Disney +.

In case you haven’t heard yet, Ahsoka is now confirmed to have her own spinoff series! We were confident that it would happen at some point considering that there is so much missing content from Ahsoka’s post Rebels storyline. It sounds as though that this series will take place during the Mandalorian timeline. We have been given very little details to the plot and any other characters that will be involved but we can speculate which characters might make an appearance. It may not have any other main protagonists, it may just be Ahsoka in the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn.

This information gives me mixed emotions. There’s obviously a great deal of excitement but at the same time anxiety and nervousness as we watch our favorite woman going at it against who knows who. We have no real plot details although it seems relatively clear what she will be doing.

We do know that Dave Filoni will be the show runner here which is a good sign to Ahsoka fans as Dave has stated many times that he wants to keep Ahsoka’s stories as authentic as possible. Let’s hope he doesn’t lose his momentum here. That is still a fear of mine is that he will do something inauthentic with her somehow.

There is no information on whether or not Ashley Eckstein will be involved in anyway. It seems unlikely since she wasn’t involved at all during Ahsoka’s very first live action appearance. I’ll be honest, it feels like a slight slap in the face to not involve her.

As for plot details and other characters, hopefully more info will be coming out in the coming months.

*****SPOILERS AHEAD*****

Ahsoka fans all over the world just had something HUGE to be thankful for the day after Thanksgiving. Although we knew it was coming, none of us really knew just how it was going to feel seeing her live action. Many of us have only dreamt of the day she would appear in live action; but in the 5th episode of the Mandalorian season 2, she came to us. We all knew Rosario Dawson was cast in this season ever since March of 2020 and we were all pretty much convinced from the beginning that she’d be playing Ahsoka and there had been much speculation over the past year as to what she’d be doing when she appeared. That wait has been worth it in the eyes of us Ahsoka fans and I will be sharing my thoughts on how this went and what we got to see in this episode below.

I was skeptical of how Rosario Dawson would do as Ahsoka. Her appearance and her voice are key factors in how well it would go over. Not to mention the fact that no one really had any idea what she would be doing as far as the story goes considering the fact that we were left at a major cliff hanger at the end of Star Wars Rebels. I plan to tackle my thoughts on these three details of this live action appearance of my favorite Star Wars character.

APPEARANCE

This was a major factor for me considering that Ahsoka has very distinct features especially in Clone Wars and when the thoughts came up about Rosario portraying Ahsoka, I was not really on board. Rosario really doesn’t look like the Ahsoka that most of us fans first fell in love with when we saw her in Clone Wars. I’d say that Rosario looks most closely like Ahsoka in Rebels which makes sense considering the age of the character during the time of The Mandalorian. I had also seen a few generated images of what it would look like with Rosario playing Ahsoka in live action and in my own personal opinion, they weren’t exactly flattering. But my excitement grew more and more as the big day approached, and once I saw her, I was hypnotized by her. She didn’t really look much like the Ahsoka I know and love but just seeing her in that way didn’t really matter. It was just exciting that even some of the small details of her appearance didn’t really bother me, but there are some things about her appearance that were a little off.

First off was her montrels: Montrels are basically the horn like features on top of her head. As she grew throughout Clone Wars and well into Rebels, her montrels grew taller, but they seemed way too short in The Mandalorian. To me, it wasn’t a huge deal but I know there are a few fans who noticed that which made her a little inconsistent with how they looked in Rebels.

Her lekku: Lekku are the parts on her head that hang down similar to hair. In the case of Ahsoka Tano, she has one on each side of her head that drape down her chest and then one that goes down the center of her back. Her lekku was far too short for her age, even her lekku in the newest season of Clone Wars was longer than they were in Mandalorian. Again, not a huge deal for me in the long run, but it is worth making note of some of these things for those who maybe haven’t viewed it yet or to those who don’t know much about Ahsoka.

HER VOICE

For the last 12 years, Ahsoka was portrayed by 1 person; Ashley Eckstein. She has been very active with the fans whether it was at Star Wars Celebrations or social media. She has mentioned that a great deal of her own personality was written into Ahsoka’s character which if you know Ahsoka and Ashley, it’s fairly easy to pick up on, so much so that even Dave Filoni; the one who created Ahsoka, has even referred to Ashley as Ahsoka when describing unfinished story arcs. It’s incredible that Ahsoka fans over the last 12 years have looked to Ashley for inspiration and comfort. The thing is that Ashley’s voice is perfect for Ahsoka and it’s hard to imagine Ahsoka without Ashley being involved in any way. But in an interview earlier this year Ashley mentioned that she had no involvement in The Mandalorian which means that Ashley had no involvement in Rosario’s portrayal of Ahsoka. A part of me feels really bad for Ashley because like Dawson, Ashley has also expressed a great interest in portraying Ahsoka in live action however, I understand why they would use Dawson over Eckstein as she just matches Ahsoka’s body type more closely, but it’s just natural that after 12 years of Eckstein’s voice behind Ahsoka that she just doesn’t have the same aura about her, not to mention major personality differences. As much as I liked what I saw, it just feels wrong to not include Ashley in some way.

PLOT DETAILS

Pretty much every Ahsoka fan knows that shortly after the fall of the Empire, Ahsoka appears in front of Sabine Wren (who is also Mandalorian) and they fly off in search of another young Jedi who vanished Ezra Bridger. There’s not a lot of time in between the Rebels finale and this moment in The Mandalorian, it’s only a few years. One plot point in Ahsoka’s history was clearly questioned as soon as we knew she was going to appear in The Mandalorian and that’s the question of; has she and Sabine found Ezra yet? And we more or less got our answer just before we get our dual. Ahsoka demands that the villain give her information about Grand Admiral Thrawn which is another major character from Rebels who was last seen fighting with Ezra Bridger just before Ezra vanished. This conversation wrapped up that question. It seems safe to assume that Ahsoka and Sabine have yet to find Ezra, so we still don’t know the outcome and majority of the story of Ahsoka and Sabine searching for Ezra and we still have no information in regards to this story.

So overall I was beyond excited to see Ahsoka in live action. I could barely sleep that night knowing that the show was just waiting on Disney+. It didn’t quite feel real actually seeing her especially with the different voice. But all in all, I’d say it worked pretty well

I know I’ve gone over Ahsoka’s love interests before, but this time we need to look at why her only real love interest is incredibly important to the story of not only Ahsoka, but of Star Wars.

When you think of the primary plot of the prequal trilogy and the original trilogy, what exactly do you think of? Many people think of many different things in regards to the plot of the Skywalker saga but one of the most important pieces of the story is love, or at least some strong sort of infatuation. But Anakin’s secret love affair and marriage to Padme was the primary reason Anakin fell to the dark side. Sure Palpatine had his play in using that secret affair to his advantage but the big choices here were all on Anakin and Padme and their feelings for each other.

Why is Ahsoka’s love interest important? I’ll explain.

Seeing as though Ahsoka’s key role in the SWU is to represent the female fanbase, this has been made clear by Dave Filoni and Ashely Eckstein multiple times in interviews and Star Wars panels, it would make sense that they would give her something so relatable as somewhat of a secret crush. Ahsoka was 16 years old when she first met Lux and that fire ignited. Pretty much everyone could relate to their situation. Certainly not everyone liked Lux, but there’s no doubt that without that story arc, Ahsoka would be much less complete as would her connection to Anakin.

All three of our main protagonists in Clone Wars developed feelings for someone at some point during the war. They all happen to be politicians as well which is just kind of ironic seeing as the Jedi really didn’t trust politicians.

On Onderon when Ahsoka starts to lose her focus due to some jealousy regarding Steela and Lux, who’s the one person who noticed? Anakin; who was also having one of the most secretive of romantic relationships. Anakin pulls Ahsoka aside and tries to not only comfort her but also to keep her head on track. “I can’t help it Master.” Ahsoka says. “I understand.” Anakin replies. This short piece of their conversation brings the two characters to a new level of that brother and sister type bond. Ahsoka got a small taste of what led Anakin to the extreme. But the dynamic of Ahsoka and Anakin became so much stronger after this. It really works as a piece of Ahsoka’s history and one of the building blocks that helps Ahsoka understand her reality in the Jedi at that time.

Personally, I’d love to see Ahsoka and Lux re-unite although that doesn’t seem to be in the plans.

I’ve noted before that I hate Star Wars speculation. I feel that it gets people riled up in both directions, not to mention almost all of it is baseless. I am going to try my  best not to make this blog a speculation piece but rather use logic and reason to asses the material we SHOULD NOT expect to see Ahsoka in and what there COULD BE a chance of seeing her in with what we know about the upcoming material.

Right now it seems like a dead end for Ahsoka. After seeing her at the end of Rebels, it could seem as though there is going to be some continuity to her story. Now there has been nothing announced saying that she is getting her own anything, she still could make an appearance in something other than the upcoming Clone Wars season 7. Like I mentioned in my last blog, some Ahsoka fans tend to think she will be in each show or movie coming up and have their speculation as to why or how she will fit in, but she can’t be everywhere folks. A character this complex and developed, with a fanbase such as hers, needs to be carefully included in whatever she’s in. I’m going to skip over episode 9 since we already covered that.

Star Wars Resistance:

Ahsoka made her debut in the first canon animated series, Star Wars The Clone Wars, as all of us know, and she made a shocking return in Rebels. Many are saying it would be fitting for her to appear in Resistance. While this is a logical conclusion, I think it’s incorrect. Dave Filoni has stated that he is protective of Ahsoka and has a story in mind for her, well Dave Filoni hasn’t been nearly as involved in Resistance as he was with the other two animated series.

Now why do I think she won’t appear in Resistance? Well because as of right now, this show isn’t about the force nor does have any force users in it at this time. Obviously things can change. The fact that Kanan and Ezra and even Darth Vader were in Rebels made it easier and more believable to bring Ahsoka into it. It answers the question of “does Ahsoka know about Darth Vader?”

So in conclusion, there is no strong evidence to show that Ahsoka will have any reason to become involved in the happenings of Resistance yet.

The Mandalorian: 

Dave Filoni directed two episodes of The Mandalorian and is also one of the executive producers for the show. This doesn’t mean that Ahsoka will be in this at all, but it makes the chances a bit greater.

It’s clear that Star Wars fans appreciate Dave Filoni and his work what with the outrage of the cancellation of Clone Wars, which eventually led to a revival season. Many fans have even petitioned Lucasfilm to make him president of the company. I don’t think that will happen anytime soon if at all but I’m sure Lucasfilm would love to utilize him more, and it seems as though they have with The Mandalorian. This could be a test to see how Dave does working on live action material in order to possibly lead to him doing a movie, or it could be Lucasfilm utilizing his knowledge or Mandalorian culture, since who knows the culture better than Dave Filoni; we’re not really sure what’s next for Dave after this project and Clone Wars

Other possible reasons Ahsoka could appear in the Mandalorian include the fact that Ahsoka was last seen with Sabine Wren who is a Mandalorian. This show is not about Sabine, but the timeline is seven years after the battle of Endor which could easily be while Ahsoka and Sabine are in search of Ezra since we have no idea how long that journey will take. Perhaps there will be a short encounter between those two and the Mandalorian. While I think that it would be interesting and fitting to see them in this show, I also feel like it could be damaging to the show especially for Ahsoka or Sabine fans to see them in one or two episodes, people might find their journey more interesting and rather see that than the show they are currently watching. Mixing old characters with new ones can be tough as I think we are seeing with the current film trilogy. They put to much emphasis on the classic characters and don’t develop the new characters, of course it can be done if done correctly and done carefully. At the premier of Solo, Jon Favreau stated that this would be an all new case of characters as well, so we need to take that into consideration.

Cassian Andor Series:

So far we don’t know much about this series other than who stars in it as the lead role. We know very little about who will be responsible for directing episodes or who is producing the show. We know that it will take place during the early stages of the rebellion. Many Ahsoka fans have speculated on whether or not Ahsoka will be in her Fulcrum role at the time of this series or not. It’s likely that she will be around but I’m going out on a limb and saying that Dave Filoni is likely not involved in this series therefore I don’t see it all too likely that Ahsoka will appear. But without having more information on this show, it’s just too difficult to tell.

Rian Johnson’s Trilogy:

We know even less about this trilogy as well at this time. I haven’t even seen an expected release date for this. The only solid information about this I could find came from digitaltrends.com who say that this trilogy will focus on characters with little or no connection to the Skywalker bloodline thus excluding Ahsoka, and depending on your feelings about Johnson, could be a very good thing.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/movies/future-star-wars-tv-shows-and-movies/

Game of Thrones Creators Series:

It seems we know the least amount about this series as well. We don’t even yet know if it will be a series of movies, or an episodic TV show, but according to the same site as above, they will be positioned in their own corner of the universe, which to me could very well mean a whole different time period than what we’ve been seeing. There’s almost no chance of Ahsoka being in this.

For now, I think we Ahsoka fans need to be patient as there just doesn’t seem to be room for Ahsoka in any of the upcoming material. We know Dave has a story in mind but we have no idea how long it will be before we get it, if we even do get it. We may end up surprised and she may appear in something somewhere, but I don’t think we should expect it, nor should we be disappointed when she doesn’t.

 

It’s 2019 which means that the final installment of the Skywalker saga is on it’s way. We have most of the components we need such as the director, and we also have many new cast members joining the Star Wars Universe for this installment. With this bit of information and still lacking a lot of information about the new characters, there has still been more than enough speculation about who those characters could possibly; anything from Grand Admiral Thrawn, to young Palpatine and yes, Ahsoka Tano has rumored from many speculations pages could make an appearance as well. Of course, Ahsoka is the rumor that I want to focus on for this page.

Ahsoka is my all time favorite character in the Star Wars Universe, or any fictional universe for that matter, so you might assume that rumors about Ahsoka being in episode 9 would excite me right? Well, it doesn’t and I’ll tell you why.

Regardless of how you feel about the current trilogy, it’s safe to say that it has its fans and its haters, I’ll admit, I’ve become very uninterested in this trilogy since seeing The Last Jedi which has lead me to have a lack of interest in episode 9 as well. To me, it seems like we will have an over abundance of new characters that won’t have much time to develop and it also seems like there was little direction for where the story was going. JJ Abrams has said that he will need to make it right after backlash of TLJ and some of the rumors and speculation that I’ve heard just seem like pandering to the fans which can have negative affects on the story quality. So with that, let’s address the first speculation piece regarding Ahsoka in episode 9.

It has been said by speculators who shall remain nameless, that Abrams is going to do right by the fans by using episode 9 to connect all three trilogies, which I think is a great idea; but this speculator says that it makes sense for that connecting piece to be Ahsoka, that I disagree with. First of all, Ahsoka wasn’t in any of the trilogy movies, so how would she connect the trilogies at all? Also, this saga is not really about Ahsoka although she is a crucial part to Anakin Skywalker and his development, after all it is the “Skywalker Saga” so it makes sense for the connecting piece to be more about a Skywalker rather than Ahsoka here at the last minute.

Many fans have also said that this would be the best time to bring Ahsoka to live action. My response is, why? Seeing a live action Ahsoka is a dream of many Ahsoka fans and that is perfectly fine but why now in this movie? This trilogy has not done or shown anything that insinuates that she is involved in anything taking place during this time. It’s logical to say that she’s still alive during these events but maybe she’s not involved anymore, we know that she has a much deeper purpose in the universe now after what we saw at the end of Rebels. Getting involved in Resistance skirmish is most likely not the big picture for her. Also, there really doesn’t appear to be a believable way of bringing her in right now. As an Ahsoka fan, I feel that she deserves more than just being shoehorned into a trilogy that is struggling to please the fanbase.

We also need to consider the fact that not everyone knows who she even is, although to me this seems strange but it’s true. There are many fans that only follow the live action movies. Bringing such an already developed character into the final installment of the entire saga could really tick off those fans who didn’t boycott, trust me there are better ways of bringing her to live action and the fact that we have two live action shows coming to the streaming service should be proof of that as long as they are successful.

“Who would play her in the movie?” “Well, Keri Russel of course!” Sorry speculators but that’s more than likely wrong. Pay attention to the details; first of all, Ahsoka would be in her early to mid 70s by this point and Keri is not even close. Also, in my opinion, the biggest detail proving this idea wrong is the height. Ahsoka was 5’6 at the end of the Clone Wars and 6’2 in Rebels. Keri Russel is only 5’4. Post Rebels Ahsoka is almost an entire foot taller than Keri so it seems pretty likely that she won’t be playing Ahsoka.

It has been noted many times in interviews that Dave Filoni (the man behind Ahsoka) is very protective of his characters especially Ahsoka and for good reason. This being said, it would seem that Dave is the one who wants to tell her story and my guess is he already has a story line made up in his head for her. From what we know right now, Dave Filoni has no involvement in episode 9 which I think makes the chances of seeing Ahsoka even less. Dave seems like he has a full plate right now what with directing two episodes of The Mandalorian and being one of the executive producers for it, also working on Clone Wars season 7, plus overseeing work done on Resistance.

My last point is simply this. This is just not Ahsoka’s story, she doesn’t really fit within the context we already have from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. It seems that bringing her into episode 9 would just be forcing her into a story without giving her a real creative reason to be there. Fans of the character want to see her in something but this needs to be done without shoehorning a fan favorite character. She deserves better than that.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton