AHSOKA TANO A HERO FOR OUR TIME (#160, OCT 2015)
In her ongoing series on the Hero’s Journey in Star Wars, Tricia Barr examines how Ahsoka Tano’s arc in Star Wars: The Clone Wars reveals the evolution of mythological heroes.
In the Star Wars films, the principal protagonists progress through character arcs that define them as heroes. Luke Skywalker and his father, Anakin, follow mirrored versions of the Hero’s Journey, one triumphant and one tragic. Princess Leia, Padme, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Han Solo also grow and change across the saga. When Ahsoka Tano’s journey began in The Clone Wars, however, it wasn’t clear that her personal story would map out to a heroic arc. After Padme’s demise in Revenge of the Sith, fans wondered whether Anakin Skywalker’s new Padawan was doomed to a similar tragic fate. She might grow into a memorable heroine in her own right, or she could serve as a temporary, forgettable sidekick whose death could accelerate his ultimate fall to the dark side. For advocates of strong female characters and more diversity in storytelling, watching and critiquing The Clone Wars became an exercise in hope for the future of Star Wars. The next generation of fans would be introduced to the franchise by way of the animated television series and, just like the storytellers of our time, they would be influenced by nostalgia for their earliest adventures in the galaxy far, far away. Fortunately, Ahsoka Tano and The Clone Wars delivered on her potential.
THE POWER OF MYTH
If you asked a thousand fans what Star Wars means to them, likely you would hear a thousand different answers, and from their aggregate you might see the mosaic of what makes the franchise special to so many people. When writer and mythologist Joseph Campbell undertook the process of analyzing the Hero’s Journey, he similarly combed through hundreds of stories and parsed out the common strands among the mythic tales, seeking to uncover the storytelling architecture which gives them their weight. But why do heroic journeys seem to resonate more with an audience? And more importantly, what is behind their staying power? After the prequel trilogy filled in the missing pieces of Anakin Skywalker’s rise and fall, Star Wars confronted both of those questions within the context of its new animated television show.
One common thread in myths is that their stories provide a roadmap to how society is supposed to behave. On a basic level, myths delineate the divide between right and wrong. Beyond demarcating good versus evil, ancient myths reinforced the divine right of kings. Most heroes were supernaturally chosen or predestined champions, suggesting to the audience that the gods selected who could become a savior.
From the beginning, A New Hope worked within this concept. Once the “white knight” heroism of the original trilogy’s Jedi had been shaded by the prequel trilogy’s fall of the Republic, though, the mythic divide of good and evil was blurred with a muddled, compromised morality. The subsequently published books and comics then took that theme to its extremes. While some fans enjoyed the edgier, ethically ambiguous themes and characters, others in fandom often commented that the stories didn’t “feel like Star Wars.”
Into this uncertain era, Ahsoka Tano was introduced. She was the apprentice to a supernaturally powered Chosen One, who the audience knew was destined to fail, perhaps in some part because his entire Order had lost sight of their true purpose. Her mere existence seemed to run counter to the entrenched culture of continuity consistency that previously had predominated across the franchise.
THE PADAWAN’S PATH
Admittedly, I harbored mixed feelings about Ahsoka at first. Like many fans, I struggled with the fact that her existence did not factor into Revenge of the Sith, not even as a memory or off-hand mention in dialogue. The prequel trilogy drove home the point that those in closest orbit to Anakin Skywalker were doomed like space debris inside the event horizon of a black hole. I was very reluctant to become invested in her character for fear that she would be killed off just at the point I became fond of her. At the time The Clone Wars premiered, many fans felt the positive portrayals of female characters in the franchise had tapered off after high points with Queen Amidala in The Phantom Menace, Mara Jade in the Hand of Thrawn duology, and Jaina Solo through The New Jedi Order: Destiny’s Way. Still, Star Wars had always been about hope to me. Having often spoken up to ask for more and better female characters, I watched skeptically out of the corner of my critical eye. In its initial seasons, The Clone Wars’ meandering chronology and anthology format made it difficult to discern the show’s vision. It was most definitely defying some of the expectations of the existing fanbase, first by disregarding publishing continuity and second by bringing a female Jedi front and center. But Ashley Eckstein (the voice of Ahsoka) waded into the fandom with a positive attitude, while supervising director Dave Filoni handled press conferences and convention panels with poise worthy of a Jedi Master—even as fankids began standing up to ask if Ahsoka Tano was going to die.
The year 2009 proved exciting for female fans. The second season of The Clone Wars began to take a less disjointed approach to its storytelling and an arc began to emerge for Ahsoka Tano. Even better, it wasn’t just Ahsoka’s journey as a lone female in a sea of male characters; she developed friendships with Senator Amidala and fellow Padawan Barriss Offee, as well as an adversary in bounty hunter Aurra Sing.
At the same time Eckstein, correctly perceiving a dramatic lack in geek-themed apparel targeted at the female fan, launched Her Universe. In my article on Han Solo earlier this year, I expressed my caution in considering an actor when critiquing a character’s heroic journey; it was Eckstein’s role in shaping Ahsoka’s story that began to change my opinion on that matter. It is simply impossible to separate the actress from the importance of the character. Over the entire run of The Clone Wars, Ahsoka’s champions, Dave Filoni and Ashley Eckstein, took a novel approach to their relationship with fandom. After the prequel era, Filoni and Eckstein embraced The Clone Wars’ fandom, with Filoni remaining the Plo-Kool cat showrunner and Eckstein wooing fans one at a time through upbeat interviews and numerous personal appearances, not just at big events but also at smaller conventions. From the charismatic original trilogy cast to the Star Wars Rebels voice cast, it has become apparent that Star Wars characters shine their brightest when the actor or actress already embodies the qualities of that character. For an era such as the Clone Wars, steeped in pessimism and defeat, there needed to be a helpful portion of hope to come out the other side.
Considering Ahsoka’s future beyond Order 66 was not always guaranteed, it certainly suggests that the power of hopeful fans can play a role in heroic journeys, much in the way it has for other notable female characters of the past few years.
I have always been in the “Ahsoka lives” camp, though, if need be, Ahsoka would die. I don’t have a problem with that if the story demands it. I’ve always thought Ahsoka’s existence is tied to two things: A) if we can come up with a story that’s good enough that George says, “Okay, she can keep going,” and B) if fans like the character enough that we can all say, “Okay, she can keep going.” Those are two pretty important things.
—Dave Filoni interview with StarWars.com (2013)
A HEROINE’S PATH
As modern society has changed, so too has the role of myth and our perceptions and expectations for the values and themes modern myths should convey. At FANgirl Blog, editor B.J. Priester and I have been analyzing the Campbellian model and evaluating how it has evolved, particularly in light of many prominent and successful contemporary stories with female protagonists from Wonder Woman and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Katniss Everdeen and Kamala Khan. Campbell created his model based on centuries of mythical lore, stories that had been commissioned by kings and written by men. When a student or a storyteller today poses the question of how a female character would be included in the Hero’s Journey model, there isn’t centuries’ worth of books or decades of comics and film to help guide the way. Some disagree on whether Campbell’s model is even applicable for a heroine in myth. Ahsoka Tano’s story borrows some key elements of the Campbellian model, such as a physical and emotional metamorphosis through her trials and tribulations, a spiritual death and rebirth on Mortis, and repeated conflict with several metaphorically paternal authority figures. In other aspects, though, her journey forges new directions, particularly in her drive to make a difference in the real world rather than striving for spiritual glorification.
Ahsoka Tano is far from ordinary, but over the course of her journey through The Clone Wars she rose above what appeared to be her preordained fate. Like heroic journeys of old, The Clone Wars created a story that, through the lens of its heroine, attempted to show its primary audience how it should behave, to listen to elders and mind those with more experience. But Ahsoka’s heroine’s journey also revealed a powerful lesson that is nearly impossible to impart to a child—which is that at some point they have to decide for themselves what is right and wrong.
“Eventually you have to face the fact that good and evil aren’t that clear-cut and the real issue is trying to understand the difference.”
—George Lucas (1983)
