Ahsoka Finale Ending Explained: We Are What They Grow Beyond

While "Star Wars" animation fans like myself will probably always be haunted wondering what might have been had "Ahsoka" been the animated "Star Wars Rebels" sequel series we always longed for, the first season of the live-action continuation we got has left the story of Ahsoka Tano in a decidedly interesting place. Picking things up from "The Mandalorian," the show has Anakin Skywalker's former Padawan (Rosario Dawson) reunite with her estranged pupil, Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), to continue their hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), in the hopes of both preventing him returning to reunite the scattered remnants of the Galactic Empire and recovering their lost friend Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi). Their subsequent adventure takes them to a completely different galaxy far, far away, bringing the pair face-to-face with fallen Jedi, Dathomirian witches, a graveyard of purrgil or "star whale" bones, and even zombie troopers.

As is typical for the "Star Wars" animation maestro, "Ahsoka" saw head writer and showrunner David Filoni paying homage to the fantasy works of Hayao Miyazaki, J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis, as well as the Akira Kurosawa samurai epics that have always informed George Lucas' space opera, all the while building on the fascinating Force mythology of the animated "Star Wars" shows past. But there's also an underlying thematic thread that not only ties all of the show's disparate components together, it gives "Ahsoka" a purpose for existing beyond serving as another brick in the wall leading to Filoni's upcoming New Republic movie. And it all comes down to a key line that Yoda says to Luke in "Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi": "We are what they grow beyond. That is the burden of all masters."

When "Ahsoka" begins, Ahsoka and Sabine have been apart for some time. As we come to learn, Ahsoka is still struggling with the knowledge of what Anakin became and, more pertinently, the question of whether he passed that darkness onto her, which was the main reason she pushed Sabine away rather than finishing her training and continued her search for Thrawn alone, with naught but the centuries-old lightsaber-building droid Huyang (David Tennant) for company. Having lost her family to the Great Purge of Mandalore and the Night of a Thousand Tears in the years since "Rebels" ended, and with Ahsoka abandoning her, Sabine has embraced a solitary existence of her own, taking up residence in Ezra's old stomping grounds on Lothal with nothing but his hologram and a very cute Loth-cat to keep her company.

Upon recovering a star map that leads to Thrawn's location (and, with it, possibly Ezra), Ahsoka and Sabine cautiously reunite to finish what they started, pitting them in a race against Thrawn's loyal ally and a Nightsister of Dathomir, Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), as well as the seasoned dark Jedi Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and his pupil Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno). Unfortunately, on the planet Seatos, Ahsoka and Sabine are separated after Ahsoka loses a lightsaber duel with Baylan and is left for dead, with Sabine agreeing to give Baylan the star map unharmed in exchange for a chance to find Ezra. The forces of darkness and light ultimately converge on Peridea, a planet located in a distant galaxy and the fabled homeworld of the Dathomiri people. There, Thrawn awaits them, having allied himself with a powerful group of Nightsisters known as the Great Mothers and spent the last decade plotting his next move.

Hitching a ride in the mouth of a purrgil, Ahsoka and Huyang manage to make their way to Peridea. There, they find not just Sabine but also Ezra, the latter of whom has been living with the Noti, the planet's hermit crab-like native species, and biding his time in the years since he and Thrawn vanished at the Battle of Lothal on "Rebels" (that and turning himself into Space Jesus, apparently). But just as Ezra has been refining his ability to use the Force, to the degree that he can fight pretty efficiently without a lightsaber, so too has Thrawn learned from his prior missteps. Rather than squaring off against Ahsoka — whom Thrawn is justly unnerved to learn was once Anakin's Padawan — and her crew directly, he tosses one obstacle after another into their path to keep them away long enough for him to finish loading his Star Destroyer, the Chimaera, with mysterious crates and make the journey home using the Eye of Scion (the giant hyperspace transport ring Morgan and the others utilized to reach Peridea themselves).

Luckily, Sabine is able to finally tap into the Force in the nick of time and help Ezra board the Chimaera before it departs, even as she, Ahsoka, and Huyang are left behind on Peridea to finish off Morgan and the undead night troopers magically revived by the Great Mothers. Meanwhile, Baylan abandons Shin to search for a mysterious power on the planet (one which, as seen near the end of the season 1 finale, is connected to giant statues of the entities that represent the different sides of the Force, aka the Mortis Gods), leaving her to take up with the local bandits that had previously aligned themselves with Thrawn.

"The greatest teacher, failure is," Yoda tells Luke during "The Last Jedi." So, too, must everyone in "Ahsoka" learn from the failures of their "masters" before them. In Ahsoka's case, her near-death on Seatos leads to her facing off against Anakin's Force spirit (Hayden Christensen) in the World Between Worlds, allowing her to let go of the guilt she feels for leaving him so many years ago and accept that his subsequent fall to the dark side was not her doing (nor is she destined to follow in his footsteps). When it comes to Sabine, she too must learn from the mistakes she made after Ahsoka originally took her on as a Padawan and find her own way to the Force via her instincts as a Mandalorian warrior, rather than trying to follow the same path as Ahsoka and Ezra.

Over on Team Evil, Thrawn learns as much from his own mistakes as those of the larger Empire. Where he once refused to treat the Force as anything but a nuisance to be overwhelmed through sheer firepower, Thrawn has now (quite alarmingly) realized that it can be a handy tool to add to his collection. His willingness to form an alliance with the Great Mothers also shows just how much more effective he is as a leader than Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine before him, both of whom ruled through fear and intimidation rather than loyalty and careful strategizing like Thrawn. Baylan has a similarly troubling takeaway from the failings of the Jedi, which is why he teams up with Thrawn and his forces only long enough to remove himself from the cyclical war between the light and the dark side in search of something greater (though precisely what that is remains to be seen).

Much like his characters, Filoni appears to have learned some lessons from his own real-world master Lucas, fashioning himself as more of a "plotter" than a "pantser" (like Lucas) when it comes to planning out the future of the "Star Wars" franchise. It's clear that Filoni has a specific goal in mind so far as where he's taking the story from not just "Ahsoka" but also his animated shows, weaving them together with plot threads from "The Mandalorian" and its spin-offs in the build-up to his New Republic movie. Presumably, this is also why "Ahsoka" season 1 takes its time getting to Thrawn and his master plan (zombie army, anyone?), preferring to hold onto that ace for when it really counts. We can definitely quibble with the way he's going about getting there, but there's no denying Filoni knows where he's headed.

Whether it's in "Ahsoka" season 2 or "The Mandalorian" season 4 (or another upcoming "Star Wars" show entirely, like "Skeleton Crew"), it's reasonable to assume the majority of threads left dangling at the end of "Ahsoka" season 1 will be picked up at some point before Filoni's movie. The only question is whether Filoni and his many collaborators will learn from their own previous missteps in building this interconnected narrative of theirs, which has proven to be quite the bumpy ride so far. Like the final shot of Anakin's Force ghost surveying his former Padawan at the close of "Ahsoka" season 1, all we can do for now is watch and keep the faith that "Star Wars" itself will continue to grow beyond what it has been in recent years.

The first season of "Ahsoka" is now streaming in its entirety on Disney+.