28
The lesson of standing on your own
Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Season 5, Episode 20, “The Wrong Jedi”
Writer: Charles Murray
Director: Dave Filoni
We knew something had to happen to Ahsoka Tano. When she was introduced to the Star Wars world in The Clone Wars movie and subsequent series, one thing was clear: she wasn’t going to be around for Revenge of the Sith. Some answer to this potential canon quandary had to be provided and what it was going to be grew in importance with each season of The Clone Wars. Ahsoka didn’t just become a popular character, she became an essential character to so many fans’ love of Star Wars. What happened to her mattered to many. Was she just off to the side of the action in Episode III? Was she killed in Order 66? Did she get a job at Dexter’s Diner? Well, season five of the series finally brought the answer. She was falsely accused of a terrorist attack on the Jedi Temple and set up by one of her friends, Barriss Offee. This put her in a fight she and her fans never could have imagined: One Padawan against the Jedi Order.
This was a brave choice. There are risks in taking an inspirational character, particularly to young girls, and removing everything she had held most dear. Ahsoka Tano was a Jedi Knight in training, a general in a way, and time after time one of the purest souls in the saga. What’s to be gained by ripping it all away from her?
A lot, actually.
Through the investigation of the bombing, the spiraling situation that leads to her being accused of the crime, and the trial that expels her from the Jedi Order, Ahsoka Tano is being forced to question everything she’s been taught. Jedi aren’t supposed to have feelings and emotions for they lead to dangerous attachments. Jedi are supposed to rise above them, but when does that start to pull you away from what you are really supposed to be? While on the run, she is forced to work with Asajj Ventress, and the unlikely alliance drives home the truth that both of them have been betrayed and abandoned by their mentors and chosen belief systems. Their trust rises from the ashes of broken promises. And finally, the only Jedi left to believe her is Anakin Skywalker, whose own doubts and fears about who he is as a Jedi are bubbling to the surface.
Soon Ahsoka Tano stands before an intimidating tribunal of Jedi that includes Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Ki-Adi Mundi, and the Jedi that first discovered her, Plo Koon. These are her teachers, mentors, and biggest influences (“I thought I was a part of that order,” she says poignantly says later). She’s expelled from the Jedi Order and put to Republic trial where, despite a passionate defense by Padmé, Tarkin and Palpatine are about to condemn her to death until Anakin shows up at the right time with evidence to save her.
These are the trials, the questions, and the fallout of the situation. It’s one of the best arcs in The Clone Wars series for a reason, but, when you strip away those story points, what you have is way more important than just what happens to Ahsoka, it’s what we learn.
You see, when the dust settles, those same superstar Jedi now stand before her and offer excuses and apologies AND a place back in the Jedi Order. It’s suggested that this is her final Jedi trial and, hey, she passed! (Haha, we’re cool, right?) Not only is Ahsoka going to be welcomed back, but she finally achieves the title of Jedi Knight. She wanted this. As Anakin says, “The Jedi Order was your life.”
But she walks away.
Ahsoka Tano turns her back on it all, leaves the Jedi Order, leaves Anakin, and doesn’t look back, only forward.
It’s not easy. The Order has flaws and cracks at the seams. There are problems there that are already leading to their demise. Complacency, a false sense of security, suppression of individuality, rules and doctrine over compassion and insight. It’s all there in front of her. What she wanted might not be what she needs. Yet not everything Ahsoka learned from the Jedi is wrong. There are individuals there she holds most dear, but even they have failed her. Ahsoka’s sense of trust is shattered, even in herself. When Anakin pleads for her to stay, calling this a mistake, she doesn’t disagree. She only knows she has to figure this out on her own. Define who she really is, away from the Order and the Jedi within it. What a powerful lesson from such an influential character. Dave Filoni, George Lucas, and the entire Clone Wars’ team took their most important new character and taught her universe of fans the power of standing up strong and discovering yourself. It was one girl against an institution. One girl against her heroes. One girl no one would believe. So, she walked away to learn how to believe in herself. When she returns in later stories, she is something new and reborn. She’s not a Jedi Knight. She’s Ahsoka Tano and what happened to Ahsoka Tano?
She became herself.