Disney Plus’ Tales of the Jedi show takes Ahsoka from her Clone Wars origins and brings her all the way to her solo TV show, Star Wars Rebels, and more.
When Ahsoka Tano made her first appearance in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the 2008 theatrical premiere of the animated series of the same name, it was hard to imagine that she would grow into one of the most popular and prolific characters in the franchise. In the early years of The Clone Wars, Ahsoka could be easily dismissed as an annoying kid sidekick shoehorned into the saga to engage younger viewers, but in the decade-plus since, she has become the soul of the Star Wars expanded universe, appearing across multiple animated and live-action television series. She’s arguably the most important Star Wars character who doesn’t appear in the Skywalker Saga (though her voice can be heard among the choir offering encouragement to Rey at the climax of Episode IX).
Tales of the Jedi, the latest addition to the Star Wars canon that was released on Disney Plus this week, includes three animated shorts centering on Ahsoka Tano, filling a few gaps in her journey from padawan to soldier to outcast.
Tales doesn’t seem meant to stand on its own; it’s a series of vignettes that expand on the stories of both Ahsoka and the errant Count Dooku, using them as keyhole viewpoints into the turbulent years surrounding the fall of the Jedi Order. Where Dooku’s three episodes have a clear, coherent narrative thread running between them, documenting his disillusionment and separation from the Jedi, enjoying the Ahsoka-centered shorts depends more on the viewer’s ability to place them in the context of her life as documented throughout a wealth of other Star Wars works.
The first chapter of Tales of the Jedi, entitled “Life and Death,” begins on the day of Ahsoka’s birth to hunter Pav-ti and her husband, Nak-il, on the Togruta homeworld of Shili. One year later, Pav-ti takes her young daughter along with her on a hunt, as is tradition in her village. Pav-ti is skilled with a rifle, but is caught off guard by a large feline predator that steals Ahsoka away. Instead of becoming the beast’s next meal, however, the baby Ahsoka reaches out with the Force and telepathically influences it to return her home to her family. As Ahsoka rides into her village on the back of the big cat, a village elder stands in awe and identifies the child as a Jedi. This is the unseen beginning of Ashoka’s story, but also establishes the Jedi as something wondrous, an idea that is gradually eroded over the course of Tales of the Jedi and Ahsoka’s journey in the Star Wars canon.
“Life and Death” is the first Star Wars story to take place on Shili, in either the current canon or the Legends canon that preceded it. Our only other on-screen glimpse is in a brief flashback in the season 1 Clone Wars episode “Rising Malevolence,” in which we see a 3-year-old Ahsoka get recruited into the Jedi Order. Ahsoka becomes Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice at age 14, which places “Life and Death” in the years 36 and 35 BBY. (BBY is short for “Before the Battle of Yavin,” placing A New Hope as Year 0 for the Star Wars calendar.
