Due to her absence in the prequel trilogy, Filoni and friends were forced to get creative when it came to explaining why Ahsoka wasn’t around for some of the most pivotal moments in Anakin’s life in the “Clone Wars” series. To their credit, the show’s writers had a knack for not only coming up with organic reasons for the two to be apart, but also ones that served to evolve Ahsoka as a character while affording some much-needed depth to Anakin. Not that fans ever stopped expecting the Sword of Damocles to come crashing down on Ahsoka’s head. As Eckstein told Vanity Fair:
“That movie threat has been with me from the beginning, because fans would say, ‘Okay, well, she’s not in ‘Episode II,’ and she’s not in ‘Episode III,’ so therefore she must die.’ I remember at convention after convention, fans would say, ‘Ahsoka is going to die.’ It wasn’t even a question. I always said, ‘How do you know she has to die? What if something else happens?'”
Even when Rey heard Eckstein’s voice as Ahsoka in “Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker,” this would-be triumphant moment for “Star Wars” animation fans instead had them taking this as confirmation that poor Snips had finally kicked the bucket by the time the film takes places. In fact, despite Filoni’s denials and her role in his New Republic storyline, it seems that so long as Ahsoka draws breath, people will predict her premature demise. Yet, just as she’s gone from being one of the most hated additions to the “Star Wars” franchise to one of its most beloved players, she keeps defying the odds like a YT-1300 light freighter navigating an asteroid field.
