How Old Was Ahsoka During Order 66 & How Did She Survive?
The upcoming ‘Ahsoka’ series will finally allow Ahsoka Tano to shine as the main character even though she’s been quite important in the Star Wars world since her introduction in ‘Star Wars: Clone Wars.’ We know that she is one of the few Jedi to have survived Order 66 and the reign of the Empire. But her survival of Order 66 at such a young age was so impressive. So, how old was Ahsoka during Order 66?
Ahsoka Tano was just 17 years old when she got involved in the events of Order 66 while she was onboard the Tribunal on her way back to Coruscant to deliver Darth Maul to the Republic. She survived by quickly escaping the clones with the help of Maul and Captain Rex and by faking her death.
The storyline of the Clone Wars is tragic because fans already knew what would happen to the characters, especially when they knew that ‘Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’ was released before this series. That means that Ahsoka’s survival at such a young age was impressive but tragic at the same time because she had to go through a traumatizing experience at her age. Now, let’s talk more about this topic.
Ahsoka’s age during Order 66
Introduced at the very start of the Clone Wars and just after the events of the First Battle of Geonosis, Ahsoka Tano became a very important character during the events in between ‘Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones’ and ‘Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.’
That’s because she played the role of Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan learner during the Clone Wars. And Ahsoka had great moments in ‘Star Wars: Clone Wars.’
She was just 14 years old when she became a Padawan learner, and that means that Ahsoka was incredibly immature when she joined the war as a teenager. Nevertheless, she had talents that no other teenager her age had, and learning under Anakin accelerated her growth because she was always fighting on the field and participating in different missions that allowed her to grow stronger.
But one of the things that we know is that Ahsoka left the Jedi Order when she realized that her ideals didn’t align with the Jedi Council, who didn’t trust her when she was framed for the bombing of the Jedi Temple. The politicking happening in the Republic made it difficult for Ahsoka to hold on to the ideals that the Jedi held dear, especially when people all over the galaxy were suffering from the war that the Jedi Order should never have participated in.
While it may be true that Ahsoka was no longer a Jedi in name, she eventually returned to the field when Bo-Katan Kryze of Mandalore asked her help to bring Darth Maul to justice because he was the one holding the entire planet of Mandalore under a puppet ruler. And because Ahsoka understood that defeating Maul and helping the people of Mandalore were important, she met up with Anakin and Obi-Wan to discuss the matter.
General Grievous, however, attacked Coruscant and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine in the Battle of Coruscant. That was when Obi-Wan needed to decide the matter. He allowed Anakin to promote Rex to the rank of a commander so that he could command half of the 501st legion to Mandalore while the rest of the group joined the Battle of Coruscant. Ahsoka was sent with Rex as an “adviser” because she wasn’t a Jedi, and Obi-Wan and Anakin went to Coruscant to rescue the chancellor.
These events actually happened at the same time as the events of ‘Revenge of the Sith,’ as the focus was on Ahsoka’s side of things instead of on Anakin and Obi-Wan. As such, we got to learn what Ahsoka was doing while Anakin and Obi-Wan were sorting things out during the events of ‘Revenge of the Sith.’ The ‘Revenge of the Sith’ events happened on 19 BBY, three years after Ahsoka’s introduction. That means that Ahsoka was just 17 years old during the events of Order 66.
How did Ahsoka Survive Order 66?
Ahsoka successfully defeated Maul and carried him onboard the ship called the Tribunal back to Coruscant to face justice. However, while Ahsoka and Rex were returning to Coruscant in hyperspace, Chancellor Palpatine, who was secretly Darth Sidious, initiated Order 66 after Mace Windu attacked him in his office. That was when the clones in the Tribunal started attacking Ahsoka and the captured Maul.
Unlike some of the other Jedi that weren’t able to sense that the clones were going to attack them, Ahsoka already had her suspicions when she saw a transmission of Windu attacking the chancellor. As such, she could keep her guard up and defend herself from the clones that attacked her. But there’s a smaller detail that fans were not able to see.
During the events of ‘Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi’ season 1, we saw an episode that detailed how Anakin trained Ahsoka to be much more skillful in the art of using her Form V: Shien combat style against multiple blaster shots coming from different directions. Anakin’s goal was to make Ahsoka a more effective fighter, especially against multiple droids firing from all angles on an actual battlefield. And the training involved hours and hours of different clones shooting stun bolts at Ahsoka until she could perfect her craft.
As such, during Order 66, Ahsoka survived the initial attack from the clones because she was trained to be skilled enough to handle multiple clones firing at her from all angles. That was the reason why she was able to survive their attacks when the most skillful Jedi Masters all over the galaxy weren’t even to defend themselves against the clones.
On top of that, Ahsoka had help. She decided to free Maul, who had warned her about the impending doom coming to the galaxy. Ahsoka had no choice but to team up with the former Sith Lord because he was the only other person on the ship that wasn’t actively trying to kill her. And Maul was also desperate enough to work with Ahsoka because he was also a target.
Ahsoka and Maul could stun Rex and take out his inhibitor chip so he wouldn’t be compelled to kill them. With Rex as an ally, Ahsoka could escape the Tribunal, which got heavily damaged. The Tribunal crashed and killed everyone inside except for Ahsoka, Maul, and Rex. Ahsoka and Rex visited the crash site of the Tribunal to honor the clones that were loyal to her and to deposit her lightsabers so that anyone that wanted to find her would think that she had died as well.
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