Star Wars Rebels Finale airs March 30 at 9 PST.
When Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker, he had an apprentice: Ahsoka Tano who relinquished her journey to become a Jedi knight before the events in Revenge of the Sith on the popular show Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
And now years later in the Disney XD hit show Star Wars: Rebels Tano returned as a guide for the show’s crew to find a way that the rebels can thrive against the power of the Empire. For the past few months, we’ve seen the once apprentice come to terms with what has happened to her master as he edged closer to tracking the Rebels down.
Tonight’s season finale realizes the long asked question by fans and creators alike, “What will happen to Ahsoka if she faces Vader?”
At the Q&A for the show’s second finale screening, show runner Dave Filoni and writer Simon Kinberg talked to the audience about how they thought it would go down over the years. Kinberg recalled, “Dave will draw images as we’re working on story. He drew an image of Vader’s split mask, which I thought was one of the most compelling images I’d seen in all over Star Wars and it ended up in the show.”
Dave Filoni described how it’s been over the years even before considering that Ahsoka would be in Rebels. “It was one of the images paramount to the story. In all of the versions of Ahsoka fighting Anakin over the years. I’ve thought about it all the time.” When he’d sketch out how it’d play out, one image kept sticking in his mind. “It’s the image of her literally leaping onto his chest. There’s this scale, she’s this small and he’s this monolith. And she can just be poised up there with two sabers, knock one away and then strike at the helmet.”
Actress/designer and voice of Ahsoka, Ashley Eckstein has been really ecstatic about being able to bring a more adult version of her character to life even if it meant drawing her closer to that showdown with Vader. “I’ve always said no matter what happens with Ahsoka I trust Dave.” Eckstein shared at the Q&A after the shocking series finale. “He’s always going to do the right thing for the right Star Wars story. So whatever that may be. I promise that I’m always fine with it.”
As the finale episode unfolds, the story culminates in the ultimate match between master and apprentice which never holds back all the way down to the last shot. Like her fans, Ahsoka was so endeared to Eckstein. “Of course I became attached to her and didn’t want anything bad to happen to her but he once told me that if Vader and Ahsoka faced off it wouldn’t be a good thing for Ahsoka. That was several years ago.” she said about the time before she was called back to reprise her role and discover her fate.
“That was always something that lasted year after year after year.” Filoni teased about finally bringing to the screen Vader vs. Ahsoka before adding gleefully about his process leading up to the finale, “Sometimes she died, sometimes she didn’t die after that course of events.”
So what exactly happens in the end? Tune in to Star Wars: Rebels on Disney XD to find out!
