Why You Will Love Ahsoka Tano

anakin always wanted to be a father

because he never had one

so he built one (C-3PO)

but everyone told him,

"that dad isn't real, he's just a droid. get the fuck out of my bar."

so, instead, he became a galactic police officer.

and they told him that his job was to keep the peace.

and anakin took their word for it.

and so he began a life as a peace-keeper who was unafraid to stand up to bullies, because being, you know, a slave, had left him a little fucked up.

so anakin kills bullies without a second thought.

because bullies owned, and abused, and killed his mom.

the mom who raised him on her own

and made a good life for him

even as slaves

raised him to know nothing of greed

the same mom that he said he would come back for

and free

but instead

a man named lars

is the one who freed his mother.

and then she was abducted by sandpeople a month and a half ago

the same time he started having his nightmares

about her death

but obi-wan had said

"dreams pass in time.

don't worry about it.

it's nothing."

and so he ignored his dreams.

when, if he hadn't,

he could have been in time to save his mother.

can you see how that might fuck up a 19-year old a little bit?

can you see how that might dampen his faith in his "master" and the jedi order?

and how a kindly father figure like palpatine rolls around, telling him how special he is and how unfair the jedi are being to him,

that he might choose to save that man from the asshole with the purple lightsaber

who has never respected you

from the time he said you were too dangerous to be trained

to twenty minutes ago when he said he still didn't trust you until he found out the chancellor was the sith

can you see how anakin might have had a little bias?

but what anakin didn't understand

was that just because sand people killed his mom,

does not mean that every sand person killed his mom.

but anakin didn't understand.

so he killed them.

every last one of them.

and not just the men.

but the women.

and the children.

because he held them all accountable.

for the sins of their fathers.

are you still surprised that he slaughtered the younglings?

would you kill baby hitler?

would you kill a child, because you feared for what their life would become?

would you drown a kitten if it meant that she wouldn't suffer for a lifetime, but instead for only a moment?

or would you do your best to nurse her back to health, knowing that there was little chance that she would make it, and when it turned out that all you did wasn't enough to save her, would you hold her and look into her eyes so that she knew she wasn't alone in her final moments?

because that is what i am asking you to do.

shoot Old Yeller if he starts foaming at the mouth, but let yourself cry. because you know your friend is still in there, and he is asking you to let him go.

he is gone now.

this is something different.

be like Jon and Ned

and swing the executioner's blade yourself

look into the eyes of the men

who you condemn to die

because death should frighten you.

and you shouldn't sentence someone to death

if you won't end their life yourself.

and if you do it yourself

you'd better know that

there will still be

people who don't like it

hold your head tall anyway

and stand by your choice

knowing that you alone made it.

batman knows he is capable.

that is why he makes his rule.

no.

killing.

because he believes

that no one

has the right to take a life

but ...

just because i won't kill you

doesn't mean i have to save you.

spoilers for clone wars.

but read it anyway.

and then watch the show anyway.

you'll forget by the time you see it

ahsoka refuses to kill any clone troopers after order 66.

because she knows that good men are still in there.

but they were bred for war.

and like any good soldier,

they follow orders.

but the great soldiers,

follow whats right.

and that's why Rex is the best of them.

even when his 66 inhibitor chip kicks in

he fights his orders,

his entire belief set,

only long enough to say,

"find him. find him. fives."

because he can't resist any longer

because he knows no other way

but to follow orders

the inhibitor chip programmed him that way.

but then ahsoka does the incredible.

and she goes back for him

she fights her friend, because she has to, but she only knows him out. she just needs to put him on pause.

and she finds the source of what's hurting him.

the knowledge that to disobey his orders

means to lose the only family he has ever known.

but he does it.

with ahsoka's help, and some technology.

because anakin taught her to treat technology like a living thing.

to treat droids as beings with minds and feelings.

together they remove rex's inhibitor chip.

and he no longer doubts himself.

he knows what is right, and what is wrong.

and he knows where order 66 lies on that spectrum.

and he is ready to kill his brothers

to save ahsoka

and himself.

he knows how merciless they can be.

but she knows what is hurting him.

she is not fooled by his mask, even for all it's tally marks and dents and paint

because she knows that under the mask

is a man

a good man.

who just had his whole family turn against him

only because he was trying to do the right thing.

and ahsoka does the next incredible thing.

she forgives them.

she knows there are

people under

each mask

hurt people.

proud people.

loyal people.

lost people.

and so she will not be the one to kill them.

ahsoka is batman.

ahsoka is the key.

the fulcrum.

the middle.

the Force in balance in One.

Ahsoka Tano

thank you.

you and Rey need to talk.

.

.

.

... xZo .