A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a Togruta woman named Ahsoka Tano joined the Jedi Orde𓆏r as a Padawan under a young Anakin Skywalker. She later exposed said Order for its systemic failures - it wrongfully accused her of bombing a hangar - and became the head of intelligence in a new rebel alliance, eventually proceeding to have a gruelling battle against her former mentor, Darth Vader. Somewhere along the way, she died and came back to life. Ahsoka Tano is a badass.
To start this piece, I want to draw some attention back to Anakin. Specifi🍰cally, I want to say this: get rid of him. The age of Star Wars games with discount Anakins🌠 as their protagonist should have been over millennia ago. It’s nothing personal, Cal. You just look the exact same as this other guy I know.
With news of Ubiso🐽ft Massive working on the first non-EA Star Wars game🌌 in ages, I’m tentatively excited about the prospect of another Ana✤kin-but-not-Anakin missing the X-Wing. New studio, new devs, new story - new everything. And so I’ve started entertaining what sort of ideas could make me, a long-dormant Star Wars fan, interested in the IP again. In case you hadn’t realized, “I hate sand” guy is not one of tꦺhem (although, admittedly, I’d love to see a bit of Rogue One-era Vader action).
Anyway, so far I’ve come up w💮ith one single answer in terms of what could possibly make m༺e give a shit about this series: make Ahsoka Tano the protagonist of the next Star Wars game, you cowards.
Ahsoka Tano made her debut in the 🐼Star Wars: The Clone Wars film, and later reappeared in the animated s💧eries of the same name. She’s also in Star Wars Rebels and appears as one of the Jedi voices that encourage Rey to give Palpatine a good smack in The Rise of Skywalker. She’s even in The Mandalorian now, almost entirely because of fan service. This is because fans like Ahsoka Tano, which is in turn because of the fact that she is a badass.
The main reason I reckon Ahsoka deserves her own game is because she’s probably the most multifaceted character in the Star Wars universe. Seeing a Force-Sensitive Outcast spearheading rebel troops against the Empire after being wrongfully expelled from the Jedi Ord๊er sparked a completely different response in me to how I usually feel about Star Wars’ typical good vs evil binary. Theꦛre’s a lot more going on here than Luke Skywalker banging on about “the light” or Emperor Palpatine having evil lightning fingers.
This is a character with real depth, who stands trial at the age of 16 for a crime she didn’t commit and, after being acquitted, says, “Actually, you’re all idiots.” This is a character who never received full Jedi training, but still holds her own agai🍌nst General Grievous, Darth Vader, and, in the finale of Clone Wars, Darth Maul himself. Listen, I could bang on about how great Ahsoka is for hours - that’s why I’m saying Ubisoft should give us more hours to bang on about.
Ahsoka reminds me of the Gray Jedi, except she’s much better. For those unacquainted with the concept, Gray Jedi are Force users who tread the thin line between light and dark. Loads of people reckoned Qui Gon Jinn was actually a Gray Jedi at heart, mainly due to the fact he disagreed with the Jedi Council on… everything. The thing is, Ahsoka is as anti-Imperial as they come. She fights for people, and justice, and does it all whiඣle wielding akimbo lightsabers and donning her signature snarl. She’s not bound to the Jedi Order, sure, but she knows where her allegiances lie, and is far more likely to act on them than the vast majority of Jedi we’ve already seen one million times.
If you’re sick of Star Wars, join the club. But I’ll tell you one thing: if Ubisoft’s Star Wars game has Ahsoka Tano in it - preferably as the protagonist - I’ll let you boot me out of the cl𓂃ub, make me stand trial for something I didn’t do, and then, after being proven innocent, say, “Get lost, I’m out, you🔜r club structure is wrong.” Because that’s basically what Ahsoka did with the Jedi Order, and she’s a proper legend.