Ahsoka Tano

Ahsoka Tano was a female Togruta and a Force-sensitive who became an outcast from the Jedi Order. Discovered on her homeworld of Shili by Jedi Master Plo Koon, she was assigned as the Padawan of Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars and grew from an eager apprentice into a respected commander in the Grand Army of the Republic. After being framed for a bombing of the Jedi Temple, she left the Order entirely. She survived Order 66, helped build the rebellion against the Galactic Empire as the agent "Fulcrum," and lived on long after the war as one of the galaxy's last connections to the Jedi.

Childhood and a new master#

In 36 BBY, Ahsoka Tano was discovered among her people on Shili by Jedi Master Plo Koon, who brought her to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant for training. As an initiate she traveled to the temple on the ice planet Ilum to acquire a kyber crystal for her first lightsaber, trusting Grand Master Yoda's teaching that she would know her crystal when she found it.

Following the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Yoda assigned the young Tano as the Padawan of Anakin Skywalker, who had spoken adamantly against taking on an apprentice. Yoda hoped that teaching would help Skywalker learn to let go of his excessive attachments. Tano met her new master at the Battle of Christophsis, where he nicknamed her "Snips." Eager to prove herself and paired with a master known for recklessness, she had a difficult start, but the two worked together to rescue Rotta, the son of crime lord Jabba Desilijic Tiure, securing a crucial alliance between the Hutt Clan and the Republic.

Commander in the Clone Wars#

As a commander in the Grand Army of the Republic, Tano found a mentor in Clone Captain Rex of the 501st Legion, and with him and Skywalker she led frontline campaigns against the Confederacy of Independent Systems. In her first command position at the Battle of Ryloth, she disobeyed orders and lost her entire squadron of pilots, but she rebounded and helped secure the planet's liberation. Her assignments pitted her against a range of opponents, from General Grievous and the Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress to bounty hunters such as Cad Bane and Aurra Sing.

Her early campaigns ranged widely. She helped disable the Separatist superweapon Malevolence, contained the Blue Shadow Virus on Naboo, and fought at the Second Battle of Geonosis. When Cad Bane captured her on his frigate in the Devaron system, she bested him in hand-to-hand combat before he stunned her unconscious and took her as a hostage. She also faced personal trials away from the front: pickpocketed of her lightsaber on Coruscant, she was helped to recover it by the elderly Master Tera Sinube, learning patience over speed. Captured by a Trandoshan hunting guild on the moon Wasskah, she led a band of former younglings to survive and revolt against their captors. Over time she matured into a respected leader, contributing to key Republic victories and helping free a colony of Togruta from the Zygerrian Slave Empire.

Friendship with Anakin Skywalker#

Tano and Skywalker formed a bond that defined them both. They playfully competed over kill counts in battle and trusted each other through repeated near-disasters. When Tano went on the run accused of murder, she realized that Skywalker was the only person who would believe in her innocence and begged him to trust her judgment.

In their final meeting as friends, before the Siege of Mandalore, Skywalker gifted Tano her old lightsabers, now fitted with blue blades to match his own. Before he left, she allowed her emotions to show, thanking him for his help and wishing him luck. She would not learn until much later that Skywalker had become the Sith Lord Darth Vader.

Cast out of the Order#

Tano's faith in the Jedi was shattered when she was framed for the bombing of the Jedi Temple hangar and several homicides. She escaped into the Coruscant Underworld to clear her name, forming an unlikely alliance with Asajj Ventress along the way, but was detained by Republic forces and barred from the Jedi Order at the Senate's insistence, pressed by Admiral Wilhuff Tarkin.

Skywalker ultimately uncovered the true culprit, Tano's friend and fellow Padawan Barriss Offee, and prevented his former apprentice from being convicted of sedition. The High Council offered to reinstate her, but the ordeal had dislodged her faith in the institution. She refused to rejoin, instead departing the Order in search of a new path.

Order 66 and survival#

Tano briefly returned to lead Republic forces during the Siege of Mandalore, where she captured Maul. Order 66 was enacted shortly afterward, and aboard a Star Destroyer her own troops turned their blasters on her. Captain Rex raised his own weapons, a tear rolling down his face as he fought the inhibitor chip implanted in every clone. Tano helped free Rex from the chip's control, and together they escaped the rest of the 501st. To disappear, they buried a clone trooper in Rex's armor with her lightsabers, faking her death.

Fulcrum and the rebellion#

After the Galactic Empire came to power, Tano went into hiding under the name "Ashla," first on Thabeska and then on Raada. Following the evacuation of Raada she joined Senator Bail Organa's growing rebel movement, becoming the manager of his intelligence network under the codename "Fulcrum." She supplied intelligence to rebel cells including Hera Syndulla's Spectres, taking a particular interest because one of their members, the Jedi Kanan Jarrus, had begun to train his own Padawan, Ezra Bridger. Through this work she was reunited with Rex, who joined the Rebellion, and she came into contact with Darth Vader and the Inquisitors, never realizing that Vader was her former master.

Following the mission to Malachor, Tano was believed to have died in a duel with Vader. In truth she was saved by a future Ezra Bridger, who pulled her through a portal into the World Between Worlds, a mystical plane of the Force connecting all time and space. After a confrontation with Darth Sidious, who sought access to the dimension, she returned to her own time.

Later years#

After the end of the Galactic Civil War, Tano joined Sabine Wren in her quest to find the missing Ezra Bridger, training Wren in the ways of the Jedi before they parted. She journeyed to Calodan on Corvus seeking information on the vanished Grand Admiral Thrawn from Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth, allying with the Mandalorian Din Djarin, who had been trying to bring the Force-sensitive youngling Grogu to the Jedi. She declined to train Grogu and directed Djarin to Tython, but later visited Luke Skywalker at his new Jedi temple and briefly oversaw Grogu's training.

Faced with Thrawn's return, Tano went back to Lothal and again enlisted Wren's help in finding both Bridger and the Grand Admiral. Decades later, her voice joined the multitude of Jedi spirits who guided the young Jedi Rey during the final battle of the war against the resurrected Darth Sidious, inspiring Rey to stand against him.