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Ahsoka Tano is a Tortugan Jedi and the former padawn to Anakin Skywalker. She has been a beloved Star Wars character for years, and fans are finally being satisfied with a television show dedicated just to her!
If you've watched the Clone Wars show all the way through (plus the Rebels show), you probably know a lot about this passionate woman... but you might not know it all! This article covers some of the interesting details you can discover about Ahsoka in various parts of Star Wars canon.
7 Too-Short Lekku
If you're a dedicated Star Wars fans and watched the Rebels TV show, you may have noticed that the protrusions on Ahsoka's head are fairly sizable in that show, but are considerably shorter in the Mandalorian. It gives her an effect of looking too human to be alien, but too alien to be human, all resulting in a strange character design that just doesn't gel with fans' images of her grown up.
Apparently, it was an unavoidable change. According to the showrunners, longer protrusions - which are actually called lekku, by the way - stopped the actors from performing the stunts correctly.
It's especially bad considering that females of Ahsoka's species, the Tortuga, naturally have longer lekku than males. Conversely, the montrals (the long parts that extend below the face) have more branches on males of the species.
6 Ahsoka's Namesake
When they were working on Ahsoka's character, she was originally named Ashla. This was the name that George Lucas had once used to refer to the light side of the force. Eventually, it became canonized as the word in Lasat (the language spoken by Zeb Orrelios' species) for the light side, so it would have been a little on-the-nose if that had been Ahsoka's name.
Her real namesake was a historical figure: an Indian emperor called Ashoka the Great, whose reign began around 263 BCE. This emperor majorly influenced the spread of Buddhism in the Mauryan Empire and the 'Edicts of Ashoka' are ancient writings of his that discuss the social and religious problems their society faced.
5 An Unfinished Arc
When the Clone Wars television show ended, we learned that there were supposed to be twelve more episodes that resolved Ahsoka's story. Eventually, eight of those episodes were finished and released as part of the final season, which came out in 2020.
So, we're missing four planned episodes. We don't know all of the details, but they were supposed to revolve around a Sith Shrine that Ahsoka would have found underground on Coruscant - and, more specifically, directly under the Jedi Temple.
4 Encounter With The Bendu
The timeline of Star Wars can be weird and convoluted at times, but we know one thing for sure: Ahsoka definitely met the Bendu during the Star Wars: Rebels show. Specifically, the episode "The Mystery of Chopper Base."
Intuitive fans may have suspected it, but showrunner Dave Filoni confirmed it by tweeting their dialogue and some artwork. As you might have guessed, the conversation is cryptic, short, and vague, but seems to allude to Ahsoka's upcoming confrontation with her former master.
3 Preferred Lightsaber Form
Lightsaber combat is not merely swordplay. The wielder's force abilities, the use of an omnidirectional blade, and the type of opponent (among other aspects) play a part in how a Jedi uses their saber. As a result, several distinct forms of combat have been developed. As younglings train, they are taught all of them and eventually come to master a few.
Ahsoka favors the Shien discipline of Form V. It is designed for fighting opponents with blasters (as Ahsoka often did during the Clone Wars) while also being optimized to allow the user to hold a lightsaber in reverse. Her master, Anakin Skywalker, also used Form V, but favored the Djem So discipline that is used against melee opponents.
2 She Knows Some Ur-Kittât
The Sith Order is pretty mysterious. After wiping themselves out many years ago, the Sith swore to only have one Master and one Apprentice at a time, so it makes sense why information about them is so sparse. One thing we do know, though, is that they have their own language.
The runic language Ur-Kittât is used by Sith to communicate with one another secretly, all the way into the modern day. During the last episode of the second season of Star Wars: Rebels, Ahsoka is able to read some Ur-Kittât words when they visit a Sith Temple. This begs the question: where did she learn that?! We can't imagine that it's required reading for most padawans.
1 She Can Echolocate
Remember those montrals we mentioned earlier? The long parts that extend from Ahsoka's crown to below her chin? Did you know that they're not just for show? After all, species don't usually evolve features without a good reason.
A Tortuga's montrals actually allow them to echolocate their surroundings! Don't ask us how it works, but this detail is definitely canon; it was included in a book called 'Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know' that came out in 2015. Apparently, they can echolocate a significant distance, too: around 82 feet (25 meters).