What happens to Ahsoka Tano?

I’m not a prequel apologist, even though I do love my Star Wars, the prequel trilogy is depressingly bad for those of us who waited a majority of our lifetime for them. There are however some sequences in all three episodes of the prequels that I like.

They also serve as a great jumping off point for both animated versions of the Clone Wars.

Genndy Tartakovsky’s animated version, which appeared first, was, to me, more enjoyable than the two prequel movies that existed at the time. It showed jedis kicking ass in battle after battle.

This was something I had wanted to see since first hearing about the Clone Wars in A New Hope. I remember planning with my Kenner action figures imagining epic battles with clones and jedis, not sure what side the clones would be on.

The cartoon was awesome!

Then came the launch of the new Clone Wars series with the first animated Star Wars theatrical movie… When it started with the Warner Brothers shield instead of the traditional Fox logo and fanfare I should’ve known it would be trouble.

And yes, for the launch of a series, they could’ve done better. But Dave Filoni’s series has grown, and though Lucas does have story input, he has taken a bit of a back seat (something he should have done with the prequels – develop story ideas and then let others run with it). Yes George has approval on what works and what doesn’t, but he’s not the one writing the stories any more, though he continues to provide ideas for it.

With this series the Expanded Universe got so much bigger, and brought back familiar characters as well. The one at the center of it all, forming a heroic trio with Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker is Anakin’s padawan Ashoka Tano.

I watch the Clone Wars once a year, when the new blu-ray comes out, and then I just plow through the entire season in the space of a day or two.

The further I get into the series, the more I start to worry about what is going to happen to Ahsoka.

She’s an interesting character, and has grown and changed in the three seasons of the show that I have seen for. She’s gotten taller, her costume has changed, and she now uses two lightsabers in a back-handed grip.

Emotionally we’ve seen her flit with darker emotions already, will she fall to the dark side before Anakin?

There’s a rumor that the series is only going to run for 5 seasons altogether, which means we must find out what happens to Ahsoka before it’s end, the rationale being she’s not in Episode III. Now it’s possible she’s just one of the many jedi killed during the slaughter that was Order 66, but I would expect them to at least have that as a tag to the series.

Does she escape the slaughter and go into hiding like Yoda?

I hope not that would feel like a cheat to me.

In short, and this may be brutal for what is deemed a children’s show, though the subject matter is getting a little more grown up, and the body count on both sides is growing (it is a war after all)… Ahsoka Tano must die.

It’s brutal, and I’m sure it may scar a number of the younger viewers, but it may show them the cost of war, in a simplistic kind of way. They’ve followed this character for years, and then to have her ripped away by the show’s end… that would be insane! And ballsy!

Will Grievous kill her? Dooku?

If she falls to the Dark Side will Obi-Wan or Anakin have to put her down?

There are so many fates open to Ahsoka, and I am truly hoping that George and Dave don’t shortchange us on this one and let her live.

I’m not a bad person, I just don’t see how she fits into the Star Wars universe after the events of Episode III. It would be a cheat! It would be wrong!

George seems to have mucked up so much of the Star Wars Universe with the prequels, and honestly, it is his to muck up, its a universe he created, he just lets us visit.

But I so don’t want him to muck this up.

George…

I’ll be watching…