Even though Ahsoka Tano is only just getting her own series, the character has been going on adventures since 2008, when she was first introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, as voiced by Ashley Eckstein. Her live-action debut was relatively recent, appearing in the second season of The Mandalorian, played by Rosario Dawson. Even though she’s only been around for 15 years, her fictional history covers over 40 years of adventures in the Star Wars universe. So, before Ahsoka’s debut on August 22, 2023, let’s take a look at 10 of Ahsoka Tano’s best moments to get us excited about the upcoming series.
1) The Trandoshans Hunt Ahsoka
Ahsoka went on many adventures with the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker while she was training as a Padawan in The Clone Wars. On occasion, the pair would be separated, like in the season 3 episode, Padawan Lost, when she was captured. A Trandoshan by the name of Lo-Taren took Ahsoka to Wasskah – a moon in the Kashyyyk system – where she and some other younglings were hunted for sport. This is one of the earliest times in the series that we see her deal with enemies by herself, without the aid of Anakin or the other Jedi.
She managed to kill a couple of her captors using the Force and her newly honed Jedi skills to fight back. In the next episode, Wookie Hunt, she saves Chewbacca, who calls some other Wookies to come help them. Once she returns to Coruscant, she thanks Anakin for everything that he had taught her up to that point, as she was confident that she wouldn’t have survived without his teachings.
2) The Trial of Ahsoka Tano
Arguably Ahsoka’s best moment is also one of her saddest. Anakin’s Padawan is accused of orchestrating a bombing at the Jedi Temple, unknowingly set up by her friend, Jedi Knight Barriss Offee. The arc took place in the last four episodes of season five of The Clone Wars, from Sabotage to The Wrong Jedi. Ahsoka investigated the bombing, went on the run after being accused, and then stood trial for it.
Even though she proves her innocence to the Jedi Order, she then turns her back on them. After years of fighting alongside and for the Jedi in the Clone Wars, this sudden accusation felt like a betrayal. After a conversation with the council and with Anakin, she leaves the Order. Of course, this probably saved her life by the time Order 66 occurred as if she were with the other Jedi and Clone Troopers, she probably would have been killed.
3) The Phantom Apprentice
The last season of The Clone Wars is special for many different reasons, and one of the best moments to come out of it was Ahsoka’s fight with Maul. Maul orchestrates a war on Mandalore in the hopes that Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi would interfere, giving him a chance to kill Anakin, who he suspects to be Darth Sidious’s new apprentice.
Unfortunately, Ahsoka does not believe that Anakin could be capable of turning to the Dark Side. This happens to lead to one of the best fights in The Clone Wars, if not in all of Star Wars. Because of Maul’s involvement, it is similar to the fight in Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace. And of course, we can’t forget that despite the fight ending with Maul’s capture, he is proven right about Anakin in the very next episode.
4) Ahsoka During Order 66
Another one of Ahsoka’s best moments is her most bittersweet. After fighting Maul, she feels Anakin turn to the Dark Side, which is followed by Darth Sidious commanding the clone army to “execute Order 66,” forcing the clones to kill the Jedi. The last two episodes of The Clone Wars‘ seventh season, Shattered and Victory and Death, depict Ahsoka escaping leagues of clones. At first, she was fired upon by her longtime friend, Commander Rex. Fortunately, Rex realized that he might have been under the control of an inhibitor chip, which was implanted in all the clones, including his old friend Fives.
Once Ahsoka manages to get his chip out of him, the pair fought their way through a Star Destroyer full of clones. While Rex and Ahsoka managed to escape, the Destroyer crashed into a moon, killing everybody on board. The two look upon the helmets of the deceased clones solemnly, as Ahsoka leaves behind her lightsabers, thus faking her death.
5) Fighting Her First Inquisitor
The only entry on this list that comes from Tales of the Jedi is when Ahsoka battles an Inquisitor. Although the entirety of the episode, titled Resolve, is fantastic, the fight is the best part. Taking place after Order 66, the episode starts with Ahsoka attending Padmé Amidala’s funeral and refusing the aid of Bail Organa, before settling in a farming village to leave the fighting behind her.
One of the villagers sent a tip to the Empire informing them that the village had a Jedi living amongst them, having seen Ahsoka use her force abilities to save someone. An unidentified Inquisitor then arrived at the village, killing almost everybody. He was able to recognize her as Ahsoka Tano and even though she was unarmed, Ahsoka managed to swiftly decapitate him using his own weapon. She then accepts Bail’s communicator, which is a step on her way to becoming the Fulcrum.
6) Finding Out That Anakin Is Alive
One of Ahsoka’s best moments comes right after she first appears in Star Wars Rebels. After making her appearance as the older, wiser Fulcrum that Hera was associating with during the first season of Rebels, the crew of the Ghost runs into Darth Vader. In the episode, The Siege of Lothal: Part 2, Ahsoka and Kanan try to use the force to uncover who exactly is chasing them.
Ahsoka reaches out into the Force, which Vader feels, and he says, “The apprentice lives.” Of course, this is the first sign Vader has that his former Padawan survived Order 66, thinking she previously died in the Star Destroyer crash. It is also the first time Ahsoka encounters Anakin as Vader, after her realization that he turned to the Dark Side. Feeling the anger and hate flowing off of him, she screams and passes out.
7) Ahsoka Fights the Inquisitors
Ahsoka rarely got her hands dirty in Star Wars Rebels, but when she did, it was always an event. In the season two episode, The Future of the Force, Kanan and Ezra protect some force-sensitive children from the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister. Unfortunately, the pair have got their hands full trying to escape with the children, so they are easily hunted by the Inquisitors. Luckily Ahsoka steps up and confronts them, giving Kanan and Ezra the time to make their escape.
While she doesn’t kill either of the Inquisitors, she easily dispatches them both. Ahsoka even manages to use the Seventh Sister’s lightsaber against her, just as she did to the Inquisitor in Tales of the Jedi. Ultimately, the Empire closes in on her and she escapes, but not before using her abilities to prove that she probably could have beaten them both blindfolded.
8) Ahsoka Fights Darth Vader
What was probably conceived as a bit of fan service ended up being one of the best parts of Rebels, and one of the best Star Wars moments of all time. After a whole season of Rebels in which Ahsoka knows who Darth Vader is under the helmet, she finally confronts him on Malachor in the final episode of season two, Twilight of the Apprentice: Part 2. To distract Vader from attacking Ezra, she confronts him, claiming that he couldn’t be Anakin. Vader claims that he himself was the one to kill Anakin Skywalker and the pair battle.
It’s all emotion between them as Ahsoka wields her white blades against her former teacher in one of her best moments. At one point he sends her flying off the side of the Sith temple. But Ahsoka flies back at Vader swiping at his helmet and revealing the damaged face of Anakin Skywalker beneath. As if seeing Anakin didn’t make the moment heartbreaking enough, his voice modulator breaks and it’s Matt Lanter, the voice of Anakin from The Clone Wars instead of the voice of Vader, James Earl Jones.
9) The Standoff in The Mandalorian
It isn’t surprising that one of Ahsoka Tano’s best appearances is when she was finally introduced in a live-action Star Wars project. The episode entitled Chapter 13: The Jedi takes place in the second season of The Mandalorian, and it was the first live-action appearance of Ahsoka Tano, as played by Rosario Dawson. She appears on Corvus to confront Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), taking out a bunch of her guards before appearing before her at the gates of the city.
Ahsoka is eventually aided by Din Djarin and Grogu, and she confronts Elsbeth in a duel. Also known as The Magistrate, Elsbeth wields a Beskar staff, but she proves to be no match for the former Padawan. Ahsoka ends the duel, questioning her adversary about the whereabouts of Grand Admiral Thrawn. The fight is one of the best from all of the Disney+ shows, so hopefully we get many more of them in Ahsoka.
10) Ahsoka Advises Luke Skywalker
It’s a small moment, and one fueled by pure fan service, but Ahsoka advising Luke Skywalker over what to do with Grogu is an incredible moment. Hopefully, we will see more moments like it. The episode titled Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger in The Book of Boba Fett, sees Din Djarin head to Luke and Grogu to give Grogu some armor. But he is intercepted by Ahsoka who takes the gift and gives it to Luke, so as not to cloud Grogu’s feelings with emotion.
Luke senses that Grogu’s heart isn’t in his training and so he asks Ahsoka for advice, in a short but powerful scene. Ahsoka says “So much like your father,” to Luke, which is everything a fan of The Clone Wars would want. What’s best about this moment is knowing how close Ahsoka was to Anakin, and seeing her realize that there is still a strong piece of her friend in the form of his son. On top of that, he’s the one who – as far as she knows – will be leading the Jedi Order.
