“Now more than ever, Ahsoka’s journey — and the evolution of the public’s perception of her — offers a blueprint for young women who seek to do good and be honest in their resistance and activism amid increasingly chaotic, violent, and corrupt times.”
.” In 2010, at a time when many teens and young adults in America were questioning imperialist foreign policy and skeptical of reductive arguments about “democracy promotion,” Ahsoka’s character inexplored how the war she was fighting in as a Jedi was not as morally simplistic as she’d been told.
Her dissonance was widely felt. Yes, Star Wars is a thinly veiled story about fascism. But it’s also a story about how to find a central identity of goodness that isn’t tied to the rise and fall of institutions. It spotlights the irreparable harm corrupt, divisive, and hypocritical powers that be can do.
These are radical acts for any young woman.
Even as her political and spiritual allegiances undergo relatively seismic changes and her identity faces reckonings over the decades of canon leading up to, her charm, empathy, and inquisitiveness have stayed the same. She leaves the Jedi Order but does not leave the Force. She rejects the duality taught by her own mentor and his eventual son, which is that using the Force outside of its dominating institutions is a path to chaos or an active danger.
Ahsoka’s resonance with fans is a rare and welcome anomaly. Angry, bigoted fanboys were never going to like Ahsoka , but her ability to shake off a botched introduction is extraordinary. When her live-action show premieres next year, audiences everywhere will come to understand that defying the expectations, dichotomies, and desires of oppressive systems is a key part of Ahsoka’s broader identity and appeal.