First, when I was double-checking the spelling I found out “Ashoka” is the name of a Mauryan emperor who brought Buddhism to his part of India. The things you learn when you get a spelling wrong.
When The Mandalorian came out, traditional Star Wars fans were sure that the people behind that show were going to “save Star Wars”. One of the people behind the Disney + shows set in the Star Wars galaxy, Dave Filoni, was going to be the big pushback against Kathleen “The Force Is Female” Kennedy. She may ruin the movies, Indiana Jones, and the Willow series but Filoni made the Clone Wars and Rebels shows, so clearly he knows and cares about the series. He’ll keep Rey from taking over the franchise.
Sure he will.
Because he wants his own creation, Ahsoka Tano, to be the new Luke Skywalker instead.
The schism between LucasFilm Star Wars and DisneyFilm Star Wars has been debatable to begin with, despite some of the more accurate pundits in the fandom declaring it was totally going on. They’re the same sources that insist Kathleen Kennedy is going to either be fired or have her power reduced every other month, only for it to not happen. I think it’s mostly wishful thinking by classic Star Wars fans who hate everything Kennedy has done to the franchise enough to forgive George Lucas for the prequels, even Jar Jar, because outside of The Mandalorian and the barely-watched series based on the Andor character from Rouge One: A Star Wars Story (which I reviewed–the movie, not the Andor series) nothing under the Disney banner outside of the video games have gotten much in the way of positive reviews by fans. I do think there is a division, though. However it’s not based on Luke Skywalker but who has the right to replace him. In fans’ hearts, nobody, and certainly not the two that are tapped by DisneyFilm.
Now I have nothing against female characters taking a lead. I stand by my Saturday Night Showcase of Forces Of Destiny for example. Rey’s problem is that she suffers from the same passing the torch issues as the other new characters. Fans never got to see all of their heroes together one last time, and with Carrie Fisher, Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker all dead in the real world and the three main humans (Luke, Leia, and Han) dead in the movies we will never get that again outside of novels and comics, which aren’t the same thing. They didn’t so much pass the torch to Rey, Finn, Poe, and Rose as die and have someone step into their spot. When C-3PO calls them “his friends” you’re left to wonder why since he didn’t interact with them…unless it’s sarcasm considering they were so willing to let him wipe his memory but that’s not Threepio’s forté.
Rey probably is the worst offender of the bunch. As one reviewer pointed out, Rey basically takes two of Luke’s big character moments from him. Palpatine’s death? He survives the Death Star (though that was technically Anakin’s victory over both his former master and “Darth Vader”) so Rey has to finish him off. Starting a new order of Jedi? He screwed that up royally so Rey has to do it. Luke doesn’t even save everyone so much as give his life to do a long-distance distraction. Luke save nothing and Rey, despite less training than Rowan Freemaker, manages to do everything and saves every day ever. She even tried to take his last name along with the farm, but given how little they connected, if she didn’t want to go with Palpatine (and why would she) she had more connections to Han and Leia (who never got to reconcile) and even their son to an extent. She should have gone by Rey Solo.
I’ve also seem comments that Kathleen Kennedy is joining the ranks of those creators who love to do self-insert characters like they’re writing a DC Comics young adult graphic novel. We’ve seen it in race swaps like Velma Dinkley and April O’Neil. (As it was, Velma was only made Jewish because Mindy Cohn wanted to play her Jewish like she is, but at least she wasn’t physically redesigned to resemble Cohn or change anything else about her personality. Plus she’s really good as Velma.) They point to Rey, some character in the Willow series I know nothing about, and the Indiana Jones replacement from the recent Dial Of Destiny movie. I’m not putting it past anyone in modern “entertainment” right now but I can’t confirm it that much.
“You mean mesa not most hated thing in franchise anymore?”
Then you have Fioni. He has a different problem, as he’s now suffering from Pet Character Syndrome. He created Ahsoka Tano for Star Wars: Rebels as a kid-relatable character and to give another angle to Anakin’s descent towards the Dark Side of the Force between Attack Of The Clones and Rise Of The Sith. As Clone Wars continued, she also was used to help ruin the Jedi Order by showing a…I guess darker side doesn’t work here…maybe a more arrogant side. Between “Dark Jedi” and Ahsoka’s own treatment when she is falsely accused of murder the Jedi come off as a group worth getting Order 66ed between the show and the “in-universe” websites showcasing the media spin to how they acquired padawans. The Jedi underwent the same rework as the Autobots in recent years but at least some of that seemed to be with Lucas’ approval since it was during the movies. Only the Genndy Tartakovsky The Clone Wars was produced during the movies.
Somehow Ahsoka survived Order 66 because Rex’s implant failed because Fioni couldn’t let her die with the other Jedi. In fact, between her and characters in the games like Cal Kestis and others in the Jedi: Fallen Order games you can cut yourself off from the Force and be allowed to live to have another “a Jedi survived” story. Star Wars: Rebels did this as well with Ezra’s mentor, Kannan Jarus. It’s beginning to look like you have enough surviving Jedi that at best the Order just sent them all underground while Sith Lords suddenly get things like Sith Inquisitors to get around the “only two, master and apprentice” rule of the prequels and have more Sith cannon fodder for the extended universe.
Okay, so Ahsoka lives…and then dies in a fight with her old Master to save the cast. Except again Fioni couldn’t accept his creation dying. He wants her to become the most important character in Star Wars because he created her. So he decides to add to the canon with the “world between worlds”. Wookiepedia describes this place as “a mystical plane within the Force that served as a collection of doors and pathways existing between time and space, linking all moments in time together”, something that has never been part of Lucas’ vision of the Force. Ezra could use this to rescue Ahsoka from her fight with Darth Vader, where he apparently was going to kill her. Of course Ezra couldn’t save Kannan from the same fate. Only the great Ahsoka could be rescued because she’s Fioni’s creation.
To further prove he’s not against Kennedy’s “The Force Is Female” initiative, when he got Ahsoka made, which of course was live-action because that’s all Disney cares about now, the main characters are Ahsoka and the other two women from Rebels, Hera, and Sabine, the latter somehow now Force sensitive so Ahsoka can take her as a Padawan for some reason. It makes less sense than Ahsoka being Anakin’s Padawan but at least fans warmed up to that as the snarky edge was toned down a bit. Apparently it wasn’t enough for Sabine to just be a Mandalorian on the outs. I could do an article just on all the powers DisneyFilm has tossed into the Force that wasn’t there prior, turning it into a deus ex machina instead of this mystical energy that binds the universe together.
“First they hated me, then they loved me, now they hate me again.”
When Ahsoka was first introduced she felt unnecessary to fans. I kind of liked her if she were to keep Anakin humble though of course that couldn’t stick since we need him to become Vader, but now fans are convinced Fioni is trying to make the franchise about her, his creation and Pet Character. While not quite a Mary Sue, Ahsoka seems unkillable. Fioni refuses to let her die and more and more she seems to be a focal character, forcing her way into the post-OT pre-ST (original trilogy/sequel trilogy) Disney+ series, making cameos with the Mandalorian, Boba Fett I think, and even meeting Luke and Gorgu. Fioni loves his creation and protects her like his real daughter, and that is where I think the actual battlelines of the Disney-owned LucasFilm are. Fioni protecting his creation and Kennedy hers, both trying to make their Jedi THE Jedi of the franchise and to hell with Luke Skywalker.
Who should win? Rey has few supporters and Ahsoka has fallen from grace. Rey could be better and Ahsoka used to be. However, neither of them should replace Luke Skywalker but should have forged their own paths and taken a spot alongside the beloved Jedi characters of the franchise. Luke should always be #1 but Rey and Ahsoka could stand alongside Kid Fisto, Mace Windu, and other Jedi from the Clone Wars period–with Obi-Wan and Yoda sharing the second spot. (Not sure where Gorgu should go since all the discussion around him seems to only be interested in “baby Yoda”, which he isn’t. He’s not even Yoda’s relative, just another member of his species we know nothing about.) This to me is where any battle lines are actually drawn. It’s not about restoring Star Wars to its traditions or understanding what George Lucas had made, something you wonder if Lucas himself forgot when he made the prequels and had more “yes men” around him than the original trilogy where he had people to help him polish the blemishes. They’re both all in on replacing Luke and screwing up what the Force actually is. It’s a fight over which lady Jedi is going to be the new queen of the hill.
Of course, as someone else on the internet would say, “it’s all just a theory” because I’m not in the back offices and I don’t have any sources like some sites and YouTube channels working behind the scenes at DisneyFilm. I’m going by what I see and what other critics have noticed and tossing out a potential perspective on what’s really going on. I could be wrong but the circumstantial evidence is pointing this way.
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