Ahsoka (novel)

Ahsoka is a young-adult novel from Disney–Lucasfilm Press released on October 11, 2016. The novel, written by E. K. Johnston, centers on Ahsoka Tano in the period of time after she left the Jedi Order and before she became an operative in the rebellion. The title's audiobook edition was narrated by Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Tano on both Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. The title was given a paperback release on October 3, 2017.
==Publisher's summary==
Ahsoka Tano, fan favorite character from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, will be the star of her own young adult novel from Disney Lucasfilm Press this October 11, 2016! Fans have long wondered what happened to Ahsoka after she left the Jedi Order near the end of the Clone Wars, and before she re-appeared as the mysterious Rebel operative Fulcrum in Rebels. Finally, her story will begin to be told. Following her experiences with the Jedi and the devastation of Order 66, Ahsoka is unsure she can be part of a larger whole ever again. But her desire to fight the evils of the Empire and protect those who need it will lead her right to Bail Organa, and the Rebel Alliance....
==Plot summary==
===Exposition===
During the Siege of Mandalore, the former Padawan Ahsoka Tano led the Grand Army of the Republic's assault against Darth Maul's forces. Following a lightsaber duel, she manages to trap Maul inside a ray shield. A year after the establishment of the Galactic Empire, Ahsoka is in hiding on the planet Thabeska. Adopting the pseudonym "Ashla," she finds refuge and work with the Fardi clan, a powerful and wealthy local family involved in smuggling. On the first Empire Day, the Fardi nieces come to her house to inform her that there are Imperial officers in town, who want to meet all the new people. Eager to stay out of the Empire's eye, Ahsoka tells the girls that she'll be at the Fardi house later, and prepares to leave the planet. She gathers her few belongings and heads for the spaceport, setting her blaster to explode in order to lure the stormtroopers on duty away from the ships. Ahsoka takes one of the Fardis' freighters, mentally apologizing for the theft.
===Hiding on Raada===
Ahsoka flees to the Outer Rim moon of Raada, a remote farming settlement. Posing as a mechanic, Ahsoka befriends a local farmer girl named Kaeden Larte. Ahsoka settles into the abandoned home of a woman named Cietra, who moved out after getting married. Her first job with Kaeden is to repair a damaged thresher. After chatting with Kaeden, she agrees to work for Kaeden in return for ration packs. While adjusting to her new life on Raada, Ahsoka reminisces about R2-D2 and having to hide her Force powers. Kaeden talks about the Togruta newcomer with her fourteen year old sister Miara Larte, the farmer Tibbola, and their crew lead Vartan. At Vartan's suggestion, they decide to invite Ahsoka to Selda's cantina.
Despite some hesitance, Ahsoka meets Kaeden at Selda's and befriends her farming crew, including Vartan, the Sullustan woman Malat, and the twins Hoban and Neera. Ahsoka learns that Kaeden and Miara lost their parents in an accident and were taken in by Vartan. When Kaeden asks about her background, Ahsoka claims that she is an orphan. The manager Selda takes an interest in Ahsoka, and asks if she is a refugee from the Core Worlds. Ahsoka remains nonchalant about her past. Meanwhile, the Imperial bureaucrat Jenneth Pilar ruminates about exploiting Raada's resources.
After returning home, Ahsoka gets to work repairing Tibbola's thresher. She reflects on her experiences during the Great Jedi Purge, which coincided with her duel with Maul. When the clone troopers, with the exception of her friend Rex, turned on her, Ahsoka was forced to flee with Rex into hiding. Amidst the chaos, Maul escaped. After falsifying their deaths and digging a false grave, with Ahsoka leaving her lightsabers there to sell the deception, the two agreed to split up and head to the Outer Rim. Ahsoka also wonders about the fate of her former master Anakin Skywalker.
As time passes, Ahsoka becomes the village's mechanic and develops a rapport with Kaeden and Miara. She also explores the nearby hills and caves, which she identifies as a potential hiding place in the event of trouble. While meditating in the nearby caves, Ahsoka senses the arrival of an Imperial Star Destroyer; signifying that the Empire has come to Raada. After panicking that the Empire has found her, Ahsoka decides to stay calm. Later at Selda's canteen, she and the local farming crew talk about the new Imperial presence, believing they have come to exploit the moon's agriculture. Ahsoka learns to play the game crokin and witnesses an Imperial officer and stormtroopers visiting the canteen.
===Building a resistance movement===
When stormtroopers visit her place the following day, Ahsoka uses a Jedi mind trick to convince them not to reassign her on the grounds and that her work is important to food production. Later, she goes to the local spaceport and manages to retrieve her starship after some haggling with an Imperial officer. After hiding her ship, she meets with her farming friends at the canteen. Ahsoka learns that Malat and her husband are moving to take up work on the planet Sullust. Ahsoka claims that her ship was stolen. She also learns from Kaeden that the Imperials have added two hours to every shift. She and the farmers then witness the ill-tempered Tibbola getting into a fight with an Imperial officer. Ahsoka and the others watch in horror as the officer executes Tibbola.
After the Imperials have left, Ahsoka advises Kaeden and the other farmers to resist the Empire by slowing crop production. Two weeks later, the slow crop production leads the Empire to increase the work shifts without increasing food rations or breaks. Ahsoka spends her days smuggling food, medical supplies, and water recyclers to the caves. She learns from Vartan that the new Imperial crops leach the soils, devastating Raada. Ahsoka briefs the farmers about her plans to smuggle supplies into the caves and start a resistance movement. Meanwhile, Jenneth Pilar reflects on his posting to Raada, regarding the moon as a backwater. Kaeden, Hoban, and Miara debate whether to support "Ashla's" plans.
Later, Ahsoka reflects on her reasons for leaving the Fardi family. She saved several of the younger Fardis, including four-year-old Hedala, from falling to their deaths with her Force powers. She later discovered that Hedala herself was Force-sensitive. To avoid arousing the Empire's attention, she decided to flee Thabeska. While "Ashla" is away, Kaeden and Miara talk about the Togruta offworlder's plans to start up a resistance movement. Miara is assembling explosives. Later, "Ashla" returns with supplies. For the next two days, Miara assembles explosives while Ahsoka and Kaeden set up a door for their cave. Four days later, Vartan tells Ahsoka that eight crews (roughly forty farmers) are prepared to support her plan.
===Uprising on Raada===
Later, Ahsoka leads a team consisting of Miara, Neera, and the Rodian Kolvin in planting corrosive charges on the Imperial walkers at the local spaceport. When Ahsoka discovers that Miara has real explosives in her bag, she confronts the younger girl and asks if she is planning her own operations without her. Miara admits to Ahsoka that Vartan has sent Kaeden and Hoban on an unauthorised mission to target the administrative building. Ahsoka orders them to return home. When Miara refuses to abandon her older sister, Ahsoka changes her mind and tells Miara and Neera to bring the charges.
As they approach the Imperial administrative building, the first of Kaeden's bombs explode. From Neera, she learns that Hoban split the group into three for each of the doors of the Imperial building. The insurgents are also armed with blasters. Ahsoka and Neera head to the Imperial tanks in an attempt to disable them. She soon finds Kaeden and her unit, who are pinned down by Imperial fire. Hoban is killed throwing himself at Imperial blasters. They are soon surrounded by stormtroopers, whose lieutenant orders his men to execute the prisoners. However, Ahsoka uses her Force powers to crush the Imperials' blasters. Ahsoka and the Raadans take the opportunity to flee. Kaeden angrily confronts Ahsoka about her secret.
Following the attack, the Imperial bureaucrat Jenneth Pilar ponders the loss of the Imperial walkers. Taking interest in the presence of the Jedi, he taps into his datapad. Back at the cave, the Raadian insurgents sedate the grief-stricken Neera. Ahsoka reveals her true identity to Kaeden and Miara. Kaeden is angry that she did not reveal her true identity earlier since she could have saved Hoban. While resting, Ahsoka is haunted by the face of Hedala Fardi. Ahsoka later learns from Miara that Kaeden has run off into town. She tells Miara to stay behind while she follows Kaeden. Meanwhile, Kaeden is arrested by stormtroopers outside Vartan's house.
In Imperial captivity, Kaeden is interrogated and tortured by Imperial interrogators. With Kaeden facing the death penalty, the Imperial commander offers to give her a merciful death if she reveals where her friends are hiding and the identity of the Jedi. Kaeden remains defiant despite sustaining a broken arm. Ahsoka manages to infiltrate the Imperial prison and rescue her. Using her Force powers, Ahsoka manages to carry Kaeden out of a high window. After escaping, Kaeden counsels Ahsoka to take her ship and flee offworld since the Imperial commander wants to kill her. Ahsoka promises to return to Raada.
===Back to the galaxy===
In a flashback passage, Anakin Skywalker reflects on his past while on a battlefield on Christophsis during the Clone Wars, watching a shuttle fly in that, unbeknownst to him, is carrying Ahsoka Tano into his life. Elsewhere, Senator Bail Organa of the Alderaan sector studies a report about the recent events on Raada. He takes interest in the reported Jedi activity. His adopted daughter Leia Organa is in the same room, mesmerized by the fish in his aquarium. After deleting the report for security reasons, Bail contacts Captain Raymus Antilles to get back R2-D2 for a sensitive mission. He then spends time with Leia, hoping that she won't show any hint of her father's talents. Elsewhere, the Inquisitor known as the Sixth Brother is on Thabeska searching for a reported Force-sensitive when he is recalled to deal with the Jedi presence on Raada.
After traveling through seven Outer Rim worlds, Ahsoka decides to return to the Fardis. Her secondary motivation is to check on the Force-sensitive Hedala. Upon returning to Thabeska, she is greeted by the elder Fardi, who tells her that there is always room for a good mechanic at his home. Upon entering the Fardi home, Hedala tells Ahsoka that she sensed there was a shadow while she was away. Ahsoka spends time with the older Fardi sisters Makala and Chenna, who ask about her travels. Ahsoka tells them that she had found it difficult to go into hiding because as a Togruta she sticks out.
Five days later, Ahsoka asks Hedala about the shadow. The little girl likens it to a dark sun with burning rays and recalls that it disappeared one day. Ahsoka advises Hedala to stay out of the shadow's way and to remain hidden. Ahsoka believes that the shadow is a dark side creature, recalling rumors of a dark lord serving the Emperor. Ahsoka decides to remain in the Fardi household until it is safe for her to leave. A week later, Fardi hires Ahsoka as a pilot. She finds herself traveling to other cities on Thabeska and making offworld trips. During that time, Ahsoka also sees more of the Empire's oppression.
During an offworld cargo trip, Ahsoka picks up several human passengers from an escape pod. The woman tells them that their shuttle was attacked by pirates who took several prisoners, and that they barely managed to escape. The woman tells Ahsoka that her business was underbid by a well-known firm for a large Imperial project. While they were reworking the numbers to see if they could match the lower bid, they were attacked. Ahsoka agrees to help get back the woman's people and travels to the coordinates. For once, Ahsoka feels good being a hero again.
===Getting entangled===
Meanwhile, the Sixth Brother arrives on Raada only to learn that Ahsoka has fled offworld. He decides to leave Raada and get the Jedi's attention. On Alderaan, Senator Organa hires the pilots Chardri Tage and Tamsin to find Ahsoka and then rendezvous with him. Later, Ahsoka returns to the Fardi household on Thabeska. The Fardis have been visited by several stormtroopers. The Fardi elder vouches for Ahsoka and claims that she is his mechanic. Hedala reassures Ahsoka that she did not sense any shadows today. When the Imperials search her room, they find scrap metal but deem it harmless.
Following the Imperial search, Fardi apologizes to "Ashla" for the Empire pinning their activities on her. He tells Ahsoka that he is aware that she has been using his ships for mercy missions. To avoid further trouble from the Imperials, Fardi advises Ahsoka to leave. She also tells Fardi that his niece Hedala is special and to keep an eye on her. Before leaving, Ahsoka bids farewell to Hedala. After departing the Fardi household on her ship, Ahsoka travels to a remote world. She lands her ship, but is soon followed by a starship belonging to an agent of Black Sun.
On Tatooine, the fugitive Obi-Wan Kenobi meditates in the Force. He is haunted by memories of the past, including Anakin's betrayal, until the Force spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn counsels him to let go of his attachments. After traveling offworld to investigate sightings of the Jedi fugitive, the Sixth Brother returns to Raada. In order to lure Ahsoka out of hiding, he decides to hunt down her friend Kaeden. Meanwhile, in the hills of Raada, Kaeden and her sister Miara are hiding in the caves. They sense an approaching figure and decide to retreat deeper into the caves. Elsewhere, the Imperial bureaucrat Jenneth Pilar makes preparations to pack since the harvest is approaching.
Meanwhile, Ahsoka rebuffs the Black Sun agent's attempt to recruit her and flees on her freighter. The Black Sun agent pursues her in her ship. A third, larger ship arrives and attacks the Black Sun vessel. Ahsoka then tries to flee into hyperspace, but is caught in the tractor beam of the third vessel. Back on Raada, Kaeden, Miara, and the others hide from the Sixth Brother. The Inquisitor manages to force Kaeden out of hiding by threatening to kill her companions. Miara attempts to follow her sister, but Neera stuns her with Kaeden's consent. When she surrenders, he reneges on his promise and kills many of her fellow farmers with his double-bladed spinning lightsaber. Kolvin and Neera are killed, but her sister Miara survives. The Sixth Brother then takes Kaeden prisoner.
===An old ally===
Ahsoka's freighter is drawn into the hold of Chardri Tage's ship. Tage and Tamsin greet her, but Ahsoka knocks them out, believing them to be hostile. She soon encounters R2-D2 aboard Tage's ship, and convinces her old friend to release the tractor beam on her ship to escape. She also gets Artoo to transmit the coordinates of the ship he is traveling in. After receiving Tage's report, Senator Organa travels to the coordinates in his CR90 corvette Tantive IV. He rendezvouses with Tage's ship and picks up Artoo, reuniting him with C-3PO. Upon studying the security footage from Tage's ship, he discovers a single frame of footage showing Ahsoka's montrals visible above a crate, and jubilantly identifies her as the Jedi he is after. Entering his office, Bail then discovers that Ahsoka has smuggled herself aboard the Tantive IV, as he turns on the light to discover her sitting at his desk, wearing a spacesuit.
She tells a bemused Organa that Artoo opened the hatch for her as soon as he got on board the Tantive IV. Ahsoka had hidden her ship on one of the asteroids in the system. Ahsoka tells Organa that she did not come with Chardri Tage because she does not trust someone who employs a tractor beam before a hello. Bail informs Ahsoka that he is forming a rebellion, and is recruiting people to fight against the Empire. Ahsoka is haunted by memories of the Clone Wars, but Bail reassures her that she can join forces with him. Bail agrees to help her protect Force-sensitive children before assigning her a new mission.
Senator Organa briefs Ahsoka about the Sixth Brother on Raada. After meditating in the Force and recalling her experiences as a Youngling forging her lightsaber on Ilum, Ahsoka tells Organa about her plan. In an interlude chapter, kyber crystals are shown growing on the ice planet of Ilum. It is revealed that dark side crystals are made by using the Force to bleed them red. The Galactic Empire sends ships to plunder Ilum for its kyber crystals. However, other crystals grow in the wilderness untouched by the Empire.
===Evacuation of Raada===
Following the briefing, Ahsoka travels to Raada on her freighter, turning down Organa's offer to provide backup. When Ahsoka tells Organa that she is not a Jedi anymore, he tells her that she sounds and acts like one. On the way to Raada, Ahsoka visits Ilum and discovers that the Empire has carved up great chunks of the planet for some unknown purpose. Returning to Raada, she lands her ship on the opposite side of the moon from the main town. Ahsoka heads back to the caves and encounters a distraught Miara. Miara tells her that the others were killed and that Kaeden was taken prisoner by a "gray creature". Miara agrees to help Ahsoka rescue her sister by acting as her lookout.
Ahsoka discovers that the Empire's over-harvesting has ruined Raada's fields. Ahsoka sends Miara to Selda with news of the impending rescue while she heads towards the Imperial compound. In the main street, Ahsoka encounters the Sixth Brother. Following a verbal exchange, Ahsoka engages in a lightsaber duel with the Inquisitor. During the fight, the Inquisitor tries to intimidate Ahsoka by activating the spinning mode of his lightsaber. However, Ahsoka cracks the cylindrical hilt with the touch of her hand, causing it to explode. The Sixth Brother is killed in the explosion. She retrieves the kyber crystals from her fallen foe. After meditating with the Force, she succeeds in turning them back to their natural color: the brightest white. These crystals are used to forge her new white lightsabers.
Ahsoka then fights her way into the Imperial compound and manages to rescue an injured Kaeden from her cell. While still inside the compound, Kaeden confesses her feelings for her. She and Kaeden head to Selda's cantina, where they reunite with Miara and Selda. Ahsoka tells her friends of her plan to evacuate the town. As they evacuate the population, Organa's A-wings assault the Imperial compound, shooting down several Imperial fighters. Two A-wings are shot down, with one pilot managing to eject and the other killed when his craft crashes into the Imperial compound.
Bail sent three ships, including the Tantive IV, and they begin evacuating the village. Three Imperial tanks bombard the evacuees. Armed with her twin lightsabers, Ahsoka slices through one of the tanks, causing it to explode and overturn a nearby tank. Ahsoka heads towards the third tank but is too late to stop it from wounding Vartan. She uses the Force to rip the tank's turret apart. Ahsoka picks up the wounded Vartan and carries him aboard the Tantive IV. Onboard, Ahsoka reunites with Kaeden and promises to meet again.
===Joining the Rebellion===
Following the evacuation of Raada, Ahsoka smuggles her way aboard the Tantive III to talk to Organa. Before she enters his office, she overhears him talking to his daughter, Leia, telling her to tell her mother he'll see them both soon. Organa won't be surprised by a Jedi break-in twice and invites Ahsoka inside. She asks the Senator if he's showing his vulnerabilities to put her at ease, and he tells her that the whole galaxy knows he's a family man and that the Empire is counting on it as they think it means Organa will be more amenable to certain suggestions. Ahsoka asks Organa if he worries about his daughter, and he replies that Leia is already a lot like her mother. Ahsoka thinks that Organa might be trying to test her somehow, but as she doesn't know the answer she lets it pass.
The two discuss the recent events on Raada, including Captain Antilles' report that they only sustained fifteen casualties, including one A-wing pilot and fourteen evacuees. Vartan survived his injuries due to treatment from Antilles' medical staff. Senator Organa offers to settle the Raadan refugees, who number a few hundred, on Alderaan. Ahsoka tells Organa that the refugees want to help the rebellion, so Organa agrees to send them to a different planet, where they can grow food for the rebels. Ahsoka shows Organa her newly acquired lightsabers and explains how she healed their kyber crystals. She points out that what happened on Raada and with Tamsin and Tage shows that the rebels need better channels of communication, and offers to help with that. Senator Organa inducts Ahsoka into the Rebellion, and she tells him to call her Fulcrum.
Elsewhere, the Grand Inquisitor surveys the charred fields of Raada. After inspecting Ahsoka's work, he sets a course back to base and tells his crew to inform Darth Vader that they have found evidence of another survivor.
==Development==
Ahsoka was announced on March 31, 2016 as a young adult novel set between the events of "The Wrong Jedi," in which Ahsoka Tano left the Jedi Order, and her reappearance in Star Wars Rebels. Series producer Dave Filoni said that there is much more of her long history to be told, including parts that will never be seen on screen. A novel gives fans the opportunity to learn more about her. Author E. K. Johnston said that it was a tremendous opportunity and a dream come true to write for Ahsoka and flesh out more of her story.
The cover art was released on July 15, 2016 at the "Ahsoka's Untold Tales" panel at Celebration Europe.
While writing the book, Johnston was asked to not write action scenes for the Siege of Mandalore sequence. Unbeknownst to her, Lucasfilm Ltd. was secretly working on an upcoming revival of Star Wars: The Clone Wars which was officially announced on July 19, 2018.
Kirkus Reviews published a brief positive review of the title on August 2, 2016. The review reveals that while on the run, Ahsoka takes on the name of "Ashla" and that she for a time worked as a mechanic on the farming moon of Raada. For the Japanese release in 2023, the novel was separated into two volumes.
==Continuity==
===Errors in the book===
Chapter 9 of Ahsoka contains an editing error in which Vartan refers to Ahsoka Tano as "Ahsoka" rather than "Ashla," the assumed name he knows her as. This was corrected in the UK Paperback edition.
The interlude between chapters 15 and 16 of Ahsoka, which takes place during the opening scenes of the Clone Wars film, states that Anakin "surveyed the battlefield below him for the hundredth time since the shooting had stopped" before hearing a sound above, with the next sentence describing how a "Republic messenger ship" has "broken through the Separatist blockade." With that, he tells "his clone commandos to hold their positions" before going "off to meet Obi-Wan." If the scene is meant to represent the moment where Tano's shuttle arrives in the film, the ship is meant to arrive moments after the droids retreat, and Anakin and Obi-Wan leave together. As the novel does not explicitly say the sound Skywalker heard was the shuttle, this article assumes Skywalker's reflection takes place in a previously unestablished moment between the shuttle's arrival and his approach with Kenobi to it.Star Wars: The Clone Wars film
===The Clone Wars===
The four-part grand finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, released as part of the series' seventh and final season in 2020, contradicts the novel on almost all details given regarding the Siege of Mandalore and Ahsoka and Rex's survival and escape from Order 66.
In the novel, Anakin and Ahsoka's final conversation where he returns her lightsabers to her is described as him warning his former apprentice of Maul being "crafty" and "having no mercy" in him, whereas the episode "Old Friends Not Forgotten" simply has Anakin wishing Ahsoka good luck and them discussing how her lightsabers now have blue blades. The weapons' new color are another contradiction, as her first pair of lightsabers was described as having their original green and green-yellow blades in the original edition of the novel. Later editions, however, were updated to describe the sabers as blue.
"The Phantom Apprentice" presents a version of Maul's capture different from that of the novel's prologue. In the novel, Ahsoka's final duel with him occurs in a plaza, she uses the fight to lure him to a place where her allies ensnare him in a ray shield, and their final conversation is an exchange of taunts about him being "half a Sith" and her not being a proper Jedi. In the episode, the final duel takes place on the support beams of Sundari's bio-dome, their conversation is about his earlier offer to her to join him to defeat Darth Sidious, and she defeats him after being disarmed when she manages to knock him off of a beam before catching him in midair with the Force, at which point Rex arrives with backup in several gunships, two Nite Owl warriors restrain Maul with their wrist-cables, and Rex stuns him. The novel also has Maul address Ahsoka as "Lady Tano" as he did in "Twilight of the Apprentice" and it is mentioned that he got it from the clone troopers, who called her that as a form of respect since she was no longer part of the Republic Military. However, in the episodes, the clones call Ahsoka "Commander" in reference to her former rank of Jedi Commander up until the issuing of Order 66, and "Lady Tano" is not used by anyone.
In the novel, it is implied that Order 66 occurs on Mandalore shortly after Maul's capture and the end of the Siege, and that he escapes in the confusion. "Shattered" instead has Order 66 occur on a starship, with Ahsoka letting Maul out of his confinement to distract the clones. "Victory and Death" then retcons the flashback scene where Ahsoka is depicted abandoning her lightsabers at a false grave created for Rex with the body of another clone to fake their deaths: in the episode, Ahsoka and Rex escape from the Venator-class Star Destroyer before it crash-lands on a moon, killing everyone else still aboard. Ahsoka does abandon her lightsaber at a grave site, but the ones she and Rex dug to bury everyone whose body they could find. The change means that Rex leaves with his armor, instead of dressing another clone's body in it as was done in the novel. Additionally, Ahsoka is only seen leaving behind one of her lightsabers, with the fate of her shoto lightsaber not being shown on-screen. Finally, Ahsoka and Rex are implied to leave the moon together as they only have one starship, in contrast to the novel's description of them leaving separately because they acquired two ships.
Another retcon involves a weapons belt Ahsoka possesses in the novel, which states that she wore it during the Siege of Mandalore and used it to carry her lightsabers. The TV series gives her a Mandalorian-designed combat outfit that lacks a separate belt and has built-in catches on her hips for Ahsoka to carry her weapons.
===Tales of the Jedi===
"Resolve" was released as the sixth episode of the animated anthology Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi on October 26, 2022. On that date, Dave Filoni, Ahsoka's creator, told Nerdist in an interview about the series that "Resolve" was based on the same outline he had written for the novel Ahsoka, and was thus basically the same story. Johnston later said in an interview that she felt the Tales of the Jedi version of the story and the one presented in Ahsoka were compatible as the base elements of their story are the same and that each version represented a different creator's interpretation. She felt excited that elements of her story had been brought to life on the animated screen, noting that some things were hard to write in prose or do on a screen and vice versa. Lucasfilm has not addressed contradictions or retcons as of the airdate.
The episode begins with Ahsoka Tano attending Padmé Amidala's funeral on Naboo, where she is spotted by Senator Bail Organa. He gives her a comlink and tells her to contact him if she needs help. In the second part of the episode, Tano is living and working covertly in a farming village some time later. When she saves a young woman working with her from being crushed by falling bales, she reveals that she is a Jedi. The worker's brother reports Tano to the Empire in the hopes of being rewarded, but the Eleventh Brother arrives, burns down the village, and kills everyone except for the brother and an old man. When Tano and her co-worker return from an errand, Tano confronts the Inquisitor, disarms him using the Force, and decapitates him with his own lightsaber. As the three survivors have nowhere else to go, Tano contacts Organa, who arrives in the Tantive IV to pick them up. She subsequently agrees to his offer to get back into the fight.
In both the novel and the episode, Tano instinctively uses the Force to save someone from being crushed by falling objects. Under the alias "Ashla", she works in a remote farming community during the early Imperial Era, which is threatened by an Inquisitor after she is discovered to be a Force user. She also befriends a human woman around her age who discovers her secret, and agrees to join Bail Organa's rebel movement after arranging for the evacuation of the community's survivors. Various events and characters from the novel are absent from the episode.
After the release of Tales of the Jedi, however, canonical sources have attempted to separate the events of Ahsoka and those of "Resolve." The canon 2023 reference book Star Wars The Dark Side Pocket Expert mentioned the Sixth Brother. While the book lists Tales of the Jedi in appearances for other characters, the Pocket Expert stated the Sixth Brother had only appeared in comics and novels up to that point, leaving out any listing for Tales of the Jedi.Star Wars The Dark Side Pocket Expert The 2023 novel Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade would also feature the Sixth Brother, but he is described to appear as he does in Ahsoka,Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade instead of being described like the "Resolve" Inquisitor. The issue was seemingly cleared for good when the 2024 reference book Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy gave the Sixth Brother and the Inquisitor seen in "Resolve" their own, separate entries.Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy Although the "Resolve" Inquisitor was mistakenly labeled "First Brother," a name meant for the Inquisitor Marrok, the encyclopedia still formally separated the "Resolve" individual from the Sixth Brother. Therefore, the events of "Resolve" and Ahsoka depict separate, if similar, events with different Inquisitors.
The most incompatible change between the novel and the episode is the timing of Tano coming into contact with Organa, and subsequently agreeing to join the rebellion after defeating the Inquisitor. "Resolve" has Organa encountering Tano at Amidala's funeral, which occurs days after the rise of the Empire. The plot stands in sharp contrast to the novel, where Tano and Organa do not even know that the other is still alive until shortly before their first in-person meeting in the book, over a year after the Empire's formation. Therefore, the two must have assumed the other had perished since their last meeting.
==Media==
===Editions===
*; October 11, 2016; Disney–Lucasfilm Press; US hardcover
*; October 11, 2016; Disney–Lucasfilm Press; US eBook
*; October 3, 2017; Disney–Lucasfilm Press; US paperback
===Cover gallery===
File:Ahsoka placeholder cover.jpg|Placeholder cover
File:AhsokaChapterSampler.jpg|72-page preview booklet released at SDCC 2016
File:AhsokaARC.jpg|Uncorrected advance proof cover released at SDCC 2016
File:Ahsoka novel cover.png|Final cover
File:AHS Back cover final.jpg|Back cover
File:Ahsoka - Egmont UK paperback.jpg|Egmont UK Ltd paperback
File:Ahsoka D-L Press paperback.jpg|Disney–Lucasfilm Press paperback
File:AhsokaCoverArt-byWojtekFus.png|Full cover art by Wojtek Fus
File:AhsokaGerman.jpg|German cover
File:French-Ahsoka-SecondPrintingCover.png|French second printing cover
File:Japan-Ahsoka-1.png|Japanese Ahsoka Volume 1 cover by 5Health
File:Ahsoka1-textless.png|Japanese Ahsoka Volume 1 textless cover by 5Health
File:Ahsoka1-backcover.png|Japanese Ahsoka Volume 1 back cover by 5Health
File:Japan-Ahsoka-2.png|Japanese Ahsoka Volume 2 cover by 5Health
File:Ahsoka2-textless.png|Japanese Ahsoka Volume 2 textless cover by 5Health
File:Ahsoka2-backcover.png|Japanese Ahsoka Volume 2 back cover by 5Health
File:Ahsoka-Czech.png|Czech cover
==Appearances==
==Sources==
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==Notes and references==
==External links==
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Category:Canon young-adult novels