Star Wars is such a huge franchise that it feels absurd to believe anyone has forgotten a movie from the series. Even the films that flopped at the box office, like Solo: A Star Wars Story, are remembered, and the movies that received poor reviews, like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, were still blockbusters that people recall, even if it’s for the wrong reasons. Alas, there was one theatrical release in the franchise’s history that didn’t make a huge dent at the box office and has mostly been forgotten about or ignored by most fans, even though it marked the debut of an important character.
Released in 2008, Star Wars: The Clone Wars remains the series’ only animated movie. It takes place soon after the events of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and details Anakin and Obi-Wan’s mission to rescue Jabba the Hutt’s son to foil a plot by the Sith Lord Count Dooku. The film received lackluster reviews and one of the aspects that people didn’t appreciate much was the debut of a new character named Ahsoka Tano. Despite a rough start, Ahsoka remains Dave Filoni’s greatest creation, a pivotal character, and is still around nearly two decades later.
It seems like every Star Wars movie before 2018 was a monster success at the box office but The Clone Wars remains the outlier from that time. Although grossing around $68 million on a budget of $8.5 million is good, that’s not a huge number and it means a lot of people saw the animated project and went about their day. Part of the reason could be that it seemed like an unimportant film and another aspect could’ve been the animation style, which many criticized as looking cheap.
In fact, critics didn’t have love for the movie, evidenced by its 18% Rotten Tomatoes rating, which is easily the low point for the franchise. The people who watched it likely followed when The Clone Wars TV series premiered, which is what most people remember when they think of the title. There are elements from this movie that continued to be relevant, from shining a brighter light on Asajj Ventress to its connection to 2026’s The Mandalorian and Grogu through Rotta the Hutt, yet you don’t need to recall this film to appreciate those things. The same goes for Ahsoka Tano, who debuted in the movie.
Ahsoka Tano was introduced as a Padawan apprentice for Anakin Skywalker, even though he himself was still a Padawan. The idea was that she would help showcase how Anakin develops from a brash character into the man he’d become by Revenge of the Sith. However, reception to Ahsoka was pretty awful early, with Roger Ebert even calling her annoying, and other reviews saying that her bickering with Anakin felt strained.
When Ahsoka was featured as a main character in The Clone Wars TV show, it also didn’t get off to a great start. Fans struggled to really get invested in her, especially since many early episodes of the series were aimed at kids and didn’t do much in the way of deep storytelling. Thankfully, Dave Filoni stuck with the character and gave Ahsoka a lot more to do as time went on, especially once the show began to give us impressive and more mature episodes.
Ahsoka had plenty of time to develop over seven seasons of The Clone Wars TV. We watched as Ahsoka grew from a snippy young Padawan into a fully fleshed-out hero. Her relationship with Anakin grew from something somewhat irritating to something heartwarming. She also forged important bonds with Obi-Wan and Captain Rex. The storyline where Ahsoka gets framed for a crime and leaves the Jedi Order after becoming disillusioned with them is one of the best things Star Wars has ever done. It furthered Ahsoka’s arc while also helping to set the stage for Anakin’s eventual turn.
Ahsoka also played a huge part in the show’s final episodes, which are incredibly well done and show how Order 66 played out from her perspective. She remains a prominent Star Wars character away from that series, appearing in several others. Star Wars Rebels saw her befriend a new group of heroes and featured her greatest scene as she came face-to-face with Darth Vader. From “I am no Jedi” to hearing Anakin’s voice during their battle, it’s one of Star Wars’ finest moments. This has all helped Ahsoka become a crucial part of the franchise.
She was brought into the world of live-action in a thrilling episode of The Mandalorian, where she provided plenty of information on Grogu and name-dropped Grand Admiral Thrawn. Ahsoka returned in The Book of Boba Fett alongside Luke Skywalker, who we never even knew she had a relationship with. Now, Ahsoka has her own series and it’s one of the better ones put out by Star Wars on Disney+. That’s an incredible turnaround for someone who started as a widely disliked supporting character. Now, it’s hard to imagine Star Wars without Ahsoka Tano.
What are your thoughts on Ahsoka Tano and her place in the Star Wars universe? Let us know in the comments.
