Rebels, The Clone Wars and more: Every Star Wars episode you should watch to understand Ahsoka

The first two episodes of Star Wars: Ahsoka are now out on Disney+. This is another show in the ever-expanding Mando-verse; indeed, ex-Jedi Ahsoka Tano was introduced in her live-action form on an episode of The Mandalorian. It’s also a followup to the animated show Star Wars Rebels, which itself takes place after the animated show Star Wars: The Clone Wars. And all of it is managed by showrunner Dave Filoni, who has been building out this new Star Wars universe for over a decade at this point. That’s a lot of history.

The season premiere of Ahsoka showed Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) reunite with former allies and lead Rebels characters Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). The story will follow Ahsoka’s hunt for Admiral Thrawn, a villain from Rebels. She’s also hoping to find Ezra Bridger; the two of them disappeared together into the deep reaches of space in the Rebels finale.

You can watch Ahsoka and enjoy it just fine without having tuned in to all of this other stuff. However, you may not have as rich an understand of the backgrounds of each character, nor will you catch all the stray Easter eggs.

If you want to catch up, don’t worry; you don’t need to watch the entirety of The Clone Wars and Rebels to be in the know. You can catch up with a select few episodes that will be enough for you to understand what’s going on.

Following are the episodes from Rebels, The Clone Wars, and other TV shows you need to watch to fully understand Ahsoka. Beware: there will be spoilers in this list.

Tales of the Jedi

Tales of the Jedi is an anthology series where every episode looks at the life of a different Jedi from the prequel era of Star Wars. It’s here we’ll meet Ahsoka Tano at the beginning of her life:

Season 1, Episode 1: “Life and Death”

We meet Ahsoka as a newborn and watch her grow up in this episode. We see how she exhibited her first signs of Force-affinity by taming a sabertooth that was ready to attack.

Season 1, Episode 6: Resolve

This episode is very crucial for understanding what fueled Ahsoka to become part of the Rebellion. We see her living a quiet, isolated life following the events of Order 66. However, things take a turn when a villager witnesses her powers and reports her to the Empire.

An Inquisitor comes to hunt her down and burns down the village in the process. She manages to defeat and kill him. This sparks something inside Ahsoka and reminds her of her old self. She summons Bail Organa to tell him she’s ready to join the Rebellion and fight against the Empire. This paves the way for all of her future appearances in the Star Wars saga.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

The Clone Wars is an animated series that ran for seven seasons between 2008 and 2020. Naturally, it’s concerned with the Clone Wars, which take place during the back half of the Star Wars prequel trilogy of movies.

The show actually kicks off with a feature film which features Ahsoka and her Jedi master Anakin Skywalker teaming up on their first-ever mission: hunting down Jabba the Hutt’s kidnapped son.

Their camaraderie is apparent right away, as Ahsoka tells a reluctant Anakin, “You’re stuck with me, Skyguy,” to which Anakin replies, “Don’t you get snippy with me.” This paves the way for the famous nicknames they had for each other throughout the show: Skyguy and Snips. This movie establishes the chemistry between the master and the apprentice which continues for a better part of the show till…well, we all know what happens to Anakin.

Season 5, Episodes 17-20: The Trial of Ahsoka Tano

This four-episode arc sees Ahsoka lose her faith in the Jedi Order after serving a long time in the Clone Wars alongside Anakin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and others. She finds herself betrayed by a friend and put on trial for crimes she did not commit. The Jedi Council refuses to believe her and sentences her to death.

She is eventually acquitted after Anakin, who believed her all along, proves her innocence. She is asked to return, but no one really apologizes to her for the treatment she received. Ahsoka becomes disenchanted with the Jedi Order and finally decides to leave and move on with her life.

These four episodes are crucial to understanding Ahsoka as she leaves behind the only path she ever knew, but also doesn’t give up on the Force and later fights the Empire along with her old colleagues.

Season 7, Episodes 9-12: The Siege of Mandalore Arc

Ahsoka shines throughout the entire Siege of Mandalore Arc frrm season 7, courageously fighting for the greater good as well as for her own life. Ahsoka team up with Clone Commander Rex to apprehend the former Sith Lord Maul, who was controlling Mandalore from the shadows.

Episode 12 overlaps with the events of Revenge of the Sith. Palpatine executes Order 66 right in the middle of Ahsoka and Rex’s mission. Their starship crashes on a moon.

In the final scenes of the episode, which is also the series finale, we see Anakin as Darth Vader exhume a blue lightsaber which was his parting gift to Ahsoka two episodes earlier. We watch him depart through the red-tinted glass of a fallen clone’s helmet. Although Ahsoka and Anakin do meet again, this moment effectively draws to an end to their endearing master-apprentice relationship that the fans cherished for over seven seasons.

In short, if you are a Star Wars fan, you will be bawling when you finish watching The Clone Wars.