George Lucas protégé and co-creator ofAhsoka TanoDave Filoni has explained both why Ahsoka left the Jedi Order and why she returned inStar Wars: The Clone Wars—as well as the much worse fate that almost befell her before he stepped in. Ahsoka has only become increasingly important toStar Warsmovies and TV showsas time has gone on, even with her absence throughout the prequel trilogy. As Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan, Ahsoka has had a massive influence ontheStar Warstimelineand has also become one ofStar Wars’best characters.
Evidently, though,Ahsoka Tano almost met a much grimmer fate inThe Clone Wars, which is what George Lucas himself wanted. According toIGN, Dave Filoni explained:
“In the early days, he’d be like, ‘Well, she’s gonna die.’ I’d be like, ‘Well… maybe not.’ [Laughs] We would go back and forth. He’ll say stuff just to get me going, which is really fun. We have a similar sense of humor at times.”
Thankfully, Filoni did manage to convince Lucas to keep Ahsoka alive, as she’s gone on to appear in numerousStar Warsshows and has a future inAhsokaseason 2, butAhsoka’s departure from the Jedi Order inThe Clone Warswas still very painful to watch.
Dave Filoni Always Planned For Ahsoka To Leave The Jedi
This Departure From The Jedi Order Was Brutal But Essential
George Lucas may have intended to kill Ahsoka off inThe Clone Wars, butDave Filoni always planned for Ahsoka to leave the Jedi Order. In the sameIGNarticle, Filoni said:
“I definitely myself would say that Ahsoka and how things have gone for her are very similar to things I thought in 2005. I didn’t necessarily know that it would be such a mystery/crime thing or that the Jedi themselves would lose faith in her, etc., but I had a strong idea that we would be able to engineer that she walks away from the Jedi at some point. I’ve always held that belief because she’s kind of in between Anakin and Obi-Wan. She’s trained with the dogma of Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Jedi, because Obi-Wan kind of representstheJedi of the Prequel era. But she’s given the extra training by Anakin to be more rebellious and to think with your heart, and I think she’s very passionate that way. So she kind of gets the best of both worlds.”
This explanation of Ahsoka’s departure makes complete sense, asit is really both Obi-Wan Kenobi’s influence as well as Anakin Skywalker’s that gives Ahsoka the strength and the ability to walk away. In fact, when Ahsoka leaves the Order inThe Clone Wars, Anakin tells her he has also considered walking away. This proves that Anakin was not able to do what Ahsoka was—that in part came from the fortitude Obi-Wan instilled in Ahsoka—but Anakin had laid the foundation for Ahsoka to go her own way and forge her own path.
Filoni added to this concept when speaking toIGNby pointing out that this would carry over to Luke Skywalker as well. According to Filoni:
“Obviously, there’s something to what Anakin is teaching her, because in the end it’s really Luke’s love and compassion for his father that saves everybody and destroys the Emperor. So there’s something to that that the prequel Jedi were missing. So I thought that would enable her to see the middle ground and be the one that lays her weapon down and says, ‘I’m out, because this is wrong.’ But I didn’t know how she would voice it.”
Although many other Jedi, such as Barriss Offee and Anakin Skywalker, went about addressing the prequel trilogy Jedi’s flaws all wrong,Ahsoka was perhaps the one Jedi in the Order at the time to notice all that was wrong and act on it in an appropriate way, proving what a brilliant Jedi she was.
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Ahsoka Was Right To Leave The Jedi… & Right To Return
This Was The Perfect Journey For Ahsoka To Go On
As painful as it was to watch Ahsoka walk away from the Jedi Order and Anakin Skywalker,she was right to leave. As Ashley Eckstein herself has said, leaving also helped her to be one of theJedi survivors of Order 66. However, Ahsoka was just as right to return as she was to leave.
Seeing Ahsoka willing to come back to the Jedi Order after she had grown and developed on her own was beautiful, even if it didn’t go the way she or anyone had hoped in light of Order 66. It meant that Ahsoka was capable of profound forgiveness, and, even with the Order’s clear flaws, she hadn’t given up on the Jedi and believed they were still good underneath it all. This truly was the perfect narrative arc forAhsoka Tano, and I remain grateful that Dave Filoni saved her from being killed off inStar Wars: The Clone Wars.
