Star Wars: Clone Wars Retcons How Ahsoka Survives Order 66

The Clone Wars season 7 finally enacts Order 66 and how it shows Ahsoka surviving is different but also better from what was previously established.

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Warning! SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7, episode 11.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7 has finally enacted Order 66, but how it shows Ahsoka Tano surviving is different from what was previously known and it’s all the better for it. Season 7 is the final season for the beloved cartoon and it has since caught up with the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. While The Clone Wars has been following Ahsoka and Commander Rex fighting in the Siege of Mandalore, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are at the same time rescuing the Chancellor and traveling to Utapau.

With the season 7 finale approaching, Clone Wars has been setting the stage for the prequel trilogy’s final moments while also wrapping up its own threads. In the case of Ahsoka, this has meant explaining her whereabouts during Revenge of the Sith in way that’s both meaningful and believable. Her leaving the Jedi Order and now participating in the Siege of Mandalore has allowed Ahsoka to be involved in the story but remain secluded from the main events seen in the film. The same goes for her experience during Order 66, because while it’s no secret she survives thanks to her later appearances on Star Wars Rebels, exactly how she survives has been a mystery. The novel by E. K. Johnston titled Ahsoka includes some references to the event, but even those now appear to have been retconned by this most recent episode of The Clone Wars.

In The Clone Wars season 7, episode 11, “Shattered”, Order 66 is given while Ahsoka is helping to transport a captured Maul back to Coruscant. The episode shows not just the order being given but the immediate aftermath, including how both Ahsoka and Rex survive. But the episode doesn’t exactly line up with any previous accounts for their survival, like that found in the Ahsoka novel or what’s later recounted in episodes of Star Wars Rebels. Still, the changes Clone Wars is making to these events are for the better and give Ahsoka a larger role in her own survival.

How Ahsoka Survived Order 66 Originally

Prior to The Clone Wars season 7, the only real information about Ahsoka’s role in the Siege of Mandalore and what followed came from the novel Ahsoka by E. K. Johnston. Set after the siege, the novel explores Ahsoka’s life during the earliest days of the Empire and up to her joining Bail Organa’s rebellion as Fulcrum. Through flashbacks, the novel has Ahsoka reflect on the events in her life that led her there, and this includes Order 66.

According to Johnston’s novel, Ahsoka’s duel with Maul ends with her trapping the former Sith lord inside a ray shield. Soon after, while Ahsoka and Commander Rex are still on Mandalore, Order 66 is given and the clone troopers turn on Ahsoka – all except Rex, who had already removed his chip following the incident with Fives, a trooper who was killed for being suspicious of the inhibitor chips. Together, they manage to fight off the clones and escape (as does Maul), but in order to completely disappear, Ahsoka and Rex fake their deaths. They even dig false graves, using another clone’s body for Rex, and Ahsoka leaves behind her lightsabers (which are still green, not blue, another Clone Wars retcon). The pair then split up and make their way to the Outer Rim where they go into hiding.

The novel’s flashback to how Ahsoka survives Order 66 is light on details, but the idea of Ahsoka and Rex working together to survive Order 66 and escape Mandalore is what sets the stage for their reunion years later on Star Wars Rebels. It’s then that Rex also reveals he and his fellow troopers, Wolffe and Gregor, had removed their chips and did not betray their Jedi during Order 66. Now, though, The Clone Wars season 7 actually shows what happens to Ahsoka and Rex and it does not match up with what the novel or even Rebels previously established.

How Ahsoka Survives Order 66 In Clone Wars Season 7

In The Clone Wars season 7, episode 11, “Shattered”, Ahsoka and Rex are already on their way back to Coruscant with Maul as their prisoner. They’re traveling through hyperspace on a Republic cruiser when Order 66 is given, and similarly to what happens in the Ahsoka novel, the clone troopers immediately turn and attack Ahsoka. In this telling, Rex also attacks Ahsoka, but he’s trying to fight his programming to do so, and in a moment of clarity, tells her to find Fives.

Ahsoka escapes the troopers and does hunt down Fives, enlisting the help of a few droids and using a terminal to learn about the strange circumstances of his death. She also comes across a classified report from Rex on the incident in where he shares his suspicion over what the inhibitor chips actually are. Using this information, Ahsoka deduces that the chips have been programmed to turn the clones against the Jedi. She next goes to Maul and frees him, though not out of any sympathy but because she needs him to cause a distraction. Ahsoka then engages with the troopers again and singles out Rex, who she stuns and captures. She brings him to a medbay and proceeds to remove the chip from his brain, finally freeing him from Order 66’s murderous compulsion just as more troopers arrive.

The episode leaves off there, but in its short runtime, “Shattered” has already retconned much of what the novel previously established as happening to Ahsoka and Rex during Order 66. They’re no longer on Mandalore, Maul doesn’t escape, and Rex doesn’t already have his chip removed. There may yet be more changes when The Clone Wars season 7 finale airs, but already, this episode has changed much of what was previously set up.

Why Clone Wars’ Retcon Is Good For Ahsoka

With the release of The Clone Wars season 7, it appears that at least some elements from the Ahsoka novel are being retconned. Whether or not this will lead to the novel being removed from official Star Wars canon is unclear, but it’s obvious Clone Wars isn’t strictly holding itself to anything previously established within it. And really, the decision to largely ignore the novel is for the better.

With their changes, The Clone Wars uses the camaraderie shared between Ahsoka and Rex to maximize the impact of Order 66. Rather than just having Rex be unaffected, the episode shows him actively struggling against the programming, and by incorporating the story of Fives as part of Ahsoka’s discovery, audiences are reminded why that earlier incident is now so relevant. As for her part in The Clone Wars season 7, episode 11, Ahsoka’s role is now even more active. Instead of Maul escaping, Ahsoka makes the difficult decision to free him, and instead of Rex already being free of his chip, she removes it and saves him from being forced to execute Order 66. These changes make Ahsoka’s survival of Order 66 not just something that happens by luck or chance, but something she herself enables through her skill and compassion.

It remains to be seen if The Clone Wars season 7’s finale will stick with having Ahsoka and Rex fake their deaths and sneak off to the Outer Rim, but it’s likely some version of that outcome will happen. First, though, they’ll need to escape their current situation of being stuck on a cruiser heading to Coruscant with a bunch of murderous clones and Maul. It won’t be an easy escape, but Ahsoka and Rex are going to manage it, that much is certain. Exactly how they do it, though, that’s the mystery the Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7 finale gets to reveal.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/star-clone-wars-ahsoka-order-66-retcon-canon/