'The Mandalorian' Might Have Just Changed Ahsoka Tano's Entire Timeline

Of all of the characters in the expanded Star Wars universe that are still canon, arguably none are as popular as Ahsoka Tano, the Padawan of Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. She became disillusioned with the Jedi after some false accusations against her among other cracks in their order that she saw, and left the Jedi before she could become a victim of Order 66. We still saw her in other media outside of The Clone Wars TV show, most notably in Star Wars Rebels. She wields twin white lightsabers, something that we had not seen before in canon. With fans of Star Wars eager to see more Ahsoka, it was little surprise that she showed up in the most popular piece of Star Wars media of our generation: The Mandalorian. Rumors abounded that she would be in the show, and fans were rewarded for their patience with her appearance in the show. They were not disappointed, as her first appearance showed her cutting through the soldiers of an evil governor of a nearby town.

In her first appearance in the fifth episode of the second season, she provided invaluable information, most importantly, revealing the name of Baby Yoda once and for all.

However, he'll still be Baby Yoda to most of the fanbase. Much cuter and easier to remember.

Her appearance in The Mandalorian does raise a lot of questions about the timeline of the Star Wars universe. When we last saw Ahsoka, she had teamed up with Sabine Wren to search for Ezra Bridger. In The Mandalorian, she is looking for Grand Admiral Thrawn, a tactical genius for the Empire, and another one of the characters favored by Star Wars fans.

The Star Wars timeline has never been completely understood (both because of Disney's decanonization of the vast majority of Star Wars material, and whenever a story universe gets too big, it inevitably starts to get confusing and contradictory), and Ahsoka's appearance in The Mandalorian is a great example of that. It's accepted that Rebels mostly takes place before A New Hope, save for the epilogue of the show which takes place after the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi. The Mandalorian is confirmed to take place five years after Endor. Ahsoka's appearance and confirmation that she's still looking for Grand Admiral Thrawn bring into question what happened after Rebels, or even if her appearance on The Mandalorian is before her quest with Sabine Wren to find Ezra Bridger. To quote Dave Filoni, who recently directed an episode of The Mandalorian and was the showrunner for Rebels,

“That’s not necessarily chronological. I think the thing that people will most not understand is they want to go in a linear fashion, but as I learned as a kid, nothing in ‘Star Wars’ really works in a linear fashion. You do (episodes) 4, 5 and 6 and then 1, 2 and 3. So in the vein of that history, when you look at the epilogue of ‘Rebels’ you don’t really know how much time has passed. So, it’s possible that the story I’m telling in ‘The Mandalorian’ actually takes place prior to that. Possible. I’m saying it’s possible.”

It is in question whether or not Ahsoka will make another appearance in The Mandalorian that would clear up this question of timeline, as her role in the episode was mainly to give Din Djarin his next quest to help Baby Yoda, and to finally reveal his name. We might have to wait a while before we get real answers to that question. Either way, it was great to see her rocking things in The Mandalorian. So even if the timeline is still in question, we at least have her awesomeness to fondly look back on.

Written By Tommy Durbin

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