Idk if you are an Ahsoka fan.... I used to like her a lot. I especially do in TCW.
But dear Gods. Am I tired of hearing the takes:
- Anakin wouldn't have fallen to the dark side if Ahsoka remained on the Order (When his fall has so many multilayered reasons, none of them attached to Ahsoka)
- Anakin loved Ahsoka more than his children. (This one especially really pisses me off the most. Like. It truly does. Everything I can remember is that Vader did kill Ahsoka on Malachor, and she would have died if she wasn't Filonis favorite character who made Erza literally pull her out of the battle through time and space. If that is not plot armor, I don't know what else is.
I just can't. I can't. I swear. I try. Maybe I am too sensitive but whenever I hear someone say Vader/Anakin loved ahsoka more than he did his children, that Ahsoka could bring him back to the light, I feel like a bitter old lady. Because NO! HE DOES NOT AND SHE WOULDNT BE ABLE TO DO SO.
Personally I like Ahsoka, but I accept her place in canon as a liminal character and an EU retcon, and my understanding of her character is rooted in that.
Would Ahsoka staying with the Jedi helped Anakin stay in the Light in the PT? To that, I say it's complicated: if you want to look at TCW plotline, does the Wrong Jedi arc still happen? Is Ahsoka still falsely accused? Because if Ahsoka weren't falsely accused and her name cleared, she wouldn't have been offered the rank of Knight, which would have promoted Anakin to Mastery had she accepted, at least in theory. And the fact Anakin was denied the rank in ROTS despite being promoted to the Jedi Council is a plot point in the novelization because the rank would have allowed him to access deeper knowledge in the hopes of saving Padmé. And in addition to that, Ahsoka staying could theoretically help Anakin maintain his support network a bit better. BUT on the other hand, 1) the Jedi having Mastery-level knowledge to save her is not a guarantee either, and 2) skeevy Sheev is clever and can probably still twist a way for Anakin to Fall despite changed events, e.g. sending Ahsoka to Mandalore as in TCW S7. As much as I enjoy fix-it fics where Anakin doesn't Fall, I think we should also be realistic here, especially considering once again that she is a retcon.
Would Ahsoka have been able to bring Anakin back to the Light in Rebels/OT-era? I answered an ask similar to that a month and a half ago in more detail, and to summarize, as much as I enjoy fix-it fics where it happens, I say either "there's no guarantee" or simply "no". If fans believe Ahsoka does stand a chance (from a Watsonian perspective), she never got that chance to do so. And if not that, Anakin and Ahsoka first met and bonded in the context of the Jedi Order, and Anakin would have thusly associated her with that, with all the ramifications entailed.
I enjoy a lot of fix-it fics and AUs where things are better because characters are less emotionally constipated or whatnot, but I go in with the full and unmitigated understanding that this is not the case in canon (i.e. the fanfic version of "acceptable breaks from reality"), so I'm not mad about it, I'm just accepting AUs as they are, including Ahsoka's status as an EU character and not a core saga character.
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