Here’s all the Star Wars content you should watch before checking out ‘Ahsoka’

The highly-anticipated Star Wars series Ahsoka debuts on Disney Plus with two episodes on August 22.

But what do you need to watch to be caught up and ready for the series?

Ahsoka Tano was a Jedi Padawan during the Clone Wars, a rebel spy during the Age of the Rebellion and it appears a wandering crusader during the Age of the New Republic. That’s a lot of canon timeline to catch up on. Here are the key episodes to watch before August 23.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

There are a number of interesting Ahsoka-focused episodes during the run of Clone Wars that helped make her the beloved character she is. Of those, I have highlighted a few arcs below, but outside of those I would also highlight Rising Malevolence (S1, EP 2), Brain Invaders (S2, EP 8), The Academy (S3, EP 6), Assassin (S3, EP 7) and the Padawan Lost arc (S3, EP 21-22).

Mortis arc (S3, EP 15-17)

After receiving a long out-of-use distress signal, Anakin Obi-Wan and Ahsoka travel to Mortis. There they meet a family of Force-wielders — the Father, who balances his children, the Daughter (Light Side) and the Son (Dark Side). This balances the Force. The Father wanted to determine whether Anakin was truly the Chosen One as he wanted Anakin to take his place balancing the Force and his children.

However, the Son wanted to leave Mortis and as part of his attempt to do so corrupted Ahsoka, leading her to battle Anakin and Obi-Wan in an almost zombie-like state. In the midst of all the commotion of battle, the Son fatally wounds the Daughter by mistake while intending to use the Dagger of Mortis on the Father. As her last act, the Daughter transfers the last of her life force to Ahsoka, reviving her. This would lead to the development of the convor Morai following Ahsoka, with some believing Morai to be the physical manifestation of the Daughter and evidence of her eternal ties now to Ahsoka. The arc is also noteworthy because of its foreshadowing of Anakin falling to the Dark Side.

Jedi Temple Bombing arc (S5, EP 17-20)

After a bombing at the Jedi Temple while Anakin and Ahsoka are off-world, the duo are called back to lead the investigation. After the evidence leads to Letta Turmond, who fed nano-droids to her husband to make him a living bomb. After Turmond is taken into custody she wishes to speak to Ahsoka alone, and during their conversation, she is about to reveal a Jedi who put her up to her role in the bombing but is Force choked before she can reveal the name. This leads to Ahsoka being arrested and seen as the likely co-conspirator in the bombing.

While in custody, Ahsoka finds a key card outside her cell and escapes, finding clone troopers wounded by a lightsaber on her way before picking up her sabers and comlink, further implicating her. Anakin prevents an order to shoot to kill on sight and calls upon his padawan to come and stand trial. She refuses, believing he is the only one who believes in her innocence, making her escape and beginning a manhunt.

After contacting her friend and fellow padawan Barriss Offee as well as a brief alliance with Asajj Ventress, Ahsoka is attacked by a mystery assailant at the warehouse where Turmond got the nano-droids, further implicating her once again, and she was captured by the clones.

The Jedi Council, over the objection of Obi-Wan, agrees to Admiral Tarkin’s demand of a military tribunal for Ahsoka, meaning she was expelled from the Jedi Order. Tarkin is seeking the death penalty for Ahsoka, who is being defended by Padme.

Anakin continues to investigate, finding Ventress, who informs him that it was Offee who sent them to the warehouse. Anakin confronts Offee, who eventually reveals herself when she is forced to reach for Ventress’ missing lightsabers. She is defeated by Anakin and forced to admit that she became disillusioned by the Jedi’s role in the Clone Wars and had felt as if they had become the real villains. With her confession, Ahsoka is cleared and the Council apologizes and offers her a return to the Order, but she refuses telling Anakin she can’t go back because the people she trusted didn’t trust her. Her departure had a major impact on Anakin, further fueling his own disillusion with the Council and the Order.

Siege of Mandalore arc (S7, EP 9-12)

After several years’ delay, viewers finally got to see the famed Siege of Mandalore in the final season of Clone Wars in 2020. This included the return of Ahsoka, who had been recruited by Bo-Katan Kryze to help attempt to rid Mandalore of Maul, who had taken over the planet back in season 5 after murdering Duchess Satine Kryze in an attempt to gain revenge on Obi-Wan.

This brought her back into Anakin and Obi-Wan’s orbit, although the chagrin of her old master she was a bit guarded. She did get to reconnect with Anakin, who, in a nod to his somewhat controlling nature and his refusal to let go, returned her lightsabers which he “improved” before she was given the 332nd battalion to face Maul on Mandalore.

That Siege of Mandalore saw Ahsoka back with the clones, including old friend Rex, and featured one of the best lightsaber duels in ALL of Star Wars — animated, live-action, whatever — in “Phantom Apprentice.”

Eventually, she would defeat and capture Maul, but en route to Coruscant, she feels Anakin fall, Order 66 is enacted and she has to fight for her life. Eventually, she removes Rex’s inhibitor chip and the two are able to survive and eventually after crashing their ship the duo able to fade away as the Empire rises.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi

Resolve (S1, EP 6)

This anthology series of short animated episodes released in 2022 sees Ahsoka in the aftermath of Order 66. She attends Padme Amidala’s funeral on Naboo, where she is seen by Bail Organa. Organa helps her escape before she is found by the Empire. However, she initially refuses to take a comlink as she has no interest in any role in the Rebellion.

She eventually settled in a farming village, until one day she used the Force to help save the life of one of a farmer. Unfortunately, the farmer’s brother saw this and reported the incident to the Empire, leading an Inquisitor to the village. The Inquisitor laid waste to the village but was defeated by Ahsoka, who arranged for the family of surviving farmers to be assisted by Organa. This meeting led to actively join his Rebellion.

Star Wars: Rebels

Fire Across the Galaxy (S1, EP 15)

As the Ghost crew works to rescue a captured Kanan Jarrus, Chopper calls “Fulcrum,” the Rebellion spy who had been feeding the group information and missions, for assistance.

Fulcrum had suggested that the Ghost crew not attempt to rescue Kanan, noting that he knew what he was signing up for and they could not risk exposing the larger Rebellion to the Empire. However, when contacted, Fulcrum did send assistance and eventually revealed herself as Ahsoka Tano to the group.

Siege of Lothal (S2, EP 1-2)

In the aftermath of the season 1 finale, Ahsoka and the Ghost crew come into contact with Darth Vader for the first time. Following a failed extraction of a potential Imperial defector, the Ghost crew struggles to get off Lothal.

First, Ezra and Kanan barely survive a duel with Vader, then thanks to some help from Lando Calrissian, the Ghost crew are able to leave Lothal, although they are being tracked by Vader to the Rebel fleet. Vader arrives alone in his TIE Fighter and begins picking off members of the Phoenix cell. Ahsoka and Kanan sense the Force is strong with the unknown TIE pilot and Bridge notes he feels the same cold he felt during the duel on Lothal. Ahsoka and Vader sense each other and Ahsoka screams and falls unconscious. This is the first suggestion for Ahsoka that Anakin may be alive while Vader tells the Emperor that the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker lives.

Twilight of the Apprentice (S2, EP 21-22)

In the two-part season 2 finale of Rebels, Ahsoka, Kanan and Ezra travel to a Sith temple on Malachor. There they get separated with Maul finding Ezra and tricking him into helping him use a Sith holocron to activate the temple’s secret weapon. After briefly teaming up together to battle Inquisitors, Maul once again shows his true colors and attacks Kanan, blinding him, leaving Ahsoka to duel him once again. She leaves the duel to go help Ezra once Kanan recovers enough to face Maul.

In one of the most climatic battles in Star Wars history, Ahsoka catches up to Ezra who is grave danger facing Darth Vader. The Sith Lord attempts to coerce Ahsoka to the Dark Side, saying they need not be adversaries and that the Emperor would have mercy if she aided in hunting down the remaining Jedi. She then says she was beginning to think she knew who Vader was under the mask, but that it was impossible as her master could never be that vile. Vader bites back that Anakin Skywalker was weak and that he destroyed him, leading Ahsoka to vow to avenge his death. Upon being told revenge is not the Jedi way, Ahsoka says she’s no Jedi before beginning the duel. She eventually damages Vader’s helmet to see Anakin and hear his voice and vows not to leave him this time while pushing Ezra out of the collapsing Sith temple.

We don’t fully learn Ashoka’s fate at the end of the episode, although Morai, the female convor with ties to the Daughter from the Mortis arc in Clone Wars, is seen as Vader walks away. After years of speculation and fan campaigning, Filoni revealed at Star Wars Celebration 2017 that she, in fact, did live and would return to Rebels. It is revealed that Ezra saves Ahsoka thanks to a portal on the mysterious World Between Worlds, which could play a role in the upcoming Ahsoka series.

The Mandalorian

Chapter 13: The Jedi (S2, EP 5)

Din Djarin continues his quest to reunite Grogu with his people — the Jedi. After being led to Corvus and Ahsoka by her old comrade Bo-Katan, The Mandalorian looks to get Ahsoka to train Grogu.

Ahsoka, meanwhile, is attempting to free the town of Calodan from the evil grip of Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth while also seeking information on the whereabouts of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Elsbeth attempts to hire The Mandalorian to hunt and kill Ahsoka, and while they briefly fight she is immediately drawn to Grogu. She is able to speak with him through the Force and reveals he was actually a youngling at the Jedi Temple on the night of Order 66. She notes his strong attachment to The Mandalorian and even after seeing his strong Force abilities is hesitant to train him because she’s seen what attachment can do to even the best full-trained Jedi Knights (aka Anakin). She does come to an agreement with The Mandalorian where he will help her take down Elsbeth.

Ahsoka eventually duels Elsbeth and defeats her, demanding information about Thrawn. She still refuses to train Grogu, however, but does direct The Mandalorian to Tython where Grogu could choose his own path. This led to Grogu being captured by Dark Troopers and eventually to his brief time training under Luke Skywalker, who we see Ahsoka interact with during The Book of Boba Fett, making a brief reference to Luke’s father.

Check out Star Wars’ Ahsoka in 30 seconds video and hit me on up on X at @ByAndySilva to let me know how excited you are for the Ahsoka series and where you think they may take the character.