Star Wars' latest lightsaber-wielding Force-user to hit live-action is here, but viewers might be shocked to learn that Ahsoka Tano isn't technically a Jedi. Here's why.
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00:00 Star Wars' latest lightsaber-wielding Force user to hit live-action is here, but viewers
00:05 might be shocked to learn that Ahsoka Tano isn't technically a Jedi.
00:09 Here's why.
00:11 Ahsoka Tano doesn't usually have time in between lightsaber duels, traveling the galaxy,
00:15 and settling old scores to clarify her Jedi Order status.
00:19 So those unfamiliar with the world of Star Wars animation would be forgiven for assuming
00:23 she's a Jedi, if all they know of her are from live-action appearances on The Mandalorian
00:27 and its spin-offs.
00:28 Now, granted, it wouldn't be fair to expect everyone tuning in for the continuing adventures
00:32 of Din Djarin and friends to have seen the combined 200+ episodes of Star Wars The Clone
00:37 Wars and Star Wars Rebels that cover most of Ahsoka's backstory.
00:41 Still, The Mandalorian has been curiously blasé about highlighting a key sticking point
00:46 - Anakin Skywalker's ex-Padawan isn't actually a Jedi.
00:50 In the show's defense, Ahsoka's had little reason to explain that she left the Jedi Order
00:54 years ago in casual conversations, but with the Ahsoka TV series now airing, this feels
01:00 like a good time for a Star Wars history lesson.
01:03 One could argue Ahsoka's schism from the Jedi was a gradual process.
01:07 Having been taken from her home planet to train at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant at a
01:10 very young age, Ahsoka knew little of life outside of the Jedi prior to becoming Anakin's
01:16 Padawan.
01:17 Fighting alongside her master and his peers during the Clone Wars gave Ahsoka a crash
01:20 course in different cultures and the ways of living across the Star Wars galaxy.
01:25 It also taught her that the Force is not necessarily binary, and the line between right and wrong
01:30 or the light side and the dark can be much fuzzier than she originally thought.
01:34 Even so, Ahsoka was dealt a rude awakening when she found herself falsely accused of
01:38 bombing the Jedi Temple.
01:46 Convinced it was up to her to clear her own name, Ahsoka fled into the underbelly of Coruscant
01:50 - even allying herself with Count Dooku's former apprentice and her sworn enemy, Assaz
01:55 Ventress.
01:56 Things didn't work out though, and Ahsoka was ultimately captured, expelled from the
02:00 Jedi Order, and found herself on trial for the crime under the threat of a death sentence.
02:05 Luckily thanks to Anakin, the real perpetrator was exposed - Barriss Offee, a fellow Jedi
02:11 and a close friend who Ahsoka had even reached out to while going on the run.
02:15 As if being betrayed by a trusted companion and, to some degree, saved by her nemesis
02:20 wasn't enough to leave Ahsoka's head spinning, Barriss was far from repentant upon being
02:24 exposed.
02:25 Instead, she justified her actions, arguing that the Jedi had lost their way over the
02:29 course of the Clone Wars, becoming as corrupt and ineffectual as the Old Republic.
02:33 The thing was, Ahsoka didn't entirely disagree with her, even if she didn't realize it at
02:39 first.
02:40 While the Jedi Council offered to reinstate Ahsoka as a member of the Jedi Order after
02:43 the dust had settled, she declined, telling Anakin that she couldn't trust herself if
02:48 the Council didn't trust her.
02:50 When Anakin insisted she was making a mistake, she replied that she needed to sort out her
02:54 feelings away from the Jedi Order and away from Anakin.
02:58 When Anakin admitted he understood her wanting to leave the Jedi Order, it felt like the
03:01 show acknowledging that Barriss was more right about the Jedi than anyone would want to admit.
03:06 And considering how the prequel trilogy ended, it's fair to say she had a good point.
03:11 For Ahsoka, of course, it was all a deeply traumatic experience, a moment in which any
03:16 gnawing doubt she had ignored or brushed aside fighting over the course of the Clone Wars
03:20 came flooding in all at once.
03:22 The fact that she refused to return to the Jedi Order prior to its downfall during Order
03:26 66 is proof positive that, on some level, she knew Barriss wasn't wrong.
03:31 That Ahsoka's absence in Anakin's life directly contributed to his fall to the dark
03:35 side only further compounded her guilt, something that's important to bear in mind while watching
03:40 Ahsoka, and that she's not actually a Jedi.
03:44 Ahsoka is now streaming on Disney+.
03:46 (Outro)