How Ahsoka Survived Star Wars’ Order 66

As the Star Wars saga goes, Order 66 was one hell of a shocker. Jedi all around the galaxy were gunned down by their former Clone Trooper allies. But just how did Ahsoka Tano make it out of this slaughter alive? Here’s how Ahsoka survived Star Wars‘ Order 66.

How Ahsoka Survived Star Wars‘ Order 66

Could it be that, after leaving the order, Ahsoka Tano was nowhere near the Clones? No such luck. Despite not being a Jedi anymore, she found herself in the thick of it. But before I dive into how she survived, I’ll need to give you a little bit of backstory. Star Wars: The Clone Wars revealed that it wasn’t just the Clones’ choice to gun down the Jedi during Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. In fact, they had no say in the matter.

They’d had chips implanted inside of them, which meant they (mostly) couldn’t resist, so any personal connections they may have felt to their “commanders” went out of the window and into the cold vacuum of space. When Palpatine initiated Order 66, Ahsoka was taking Darth Maul back to the Jedi Council. He survived being sliced in two but that’s a whole other story. She still didn’t see herself as a Jedi but she’d still got wrapped up in the Clone Wars.

While aboard a Republic cruiser, she sensed Anakin falling to the Dark Side. And, shortly after, Order 66 was declared. The Clones attempted to kill her, so she fled, though being aboard a vessel meant there weren’t a whole lot of options for places to go.

Her friend Commander Rex resisted long enough to clue Ahsoka in to what’s going, and he was able to get the chip removed from his brain. The pair of them fought back, and it helped that Anakin had Ahsoka train against Clone Troopers, as seen in Tales of the Jedi. Thanks to this training she, more than any other Jedi, was capable of holding her own against them.

But, still facing overwhelming odds, the pair released Darth Maul hoping he’d be at best an ally or, at worse, a distraction. Maul destroyed the vessel’s hyperdrive, dropping out of hyperspace and giving them all a chance to escape. Predictably, Maul stole their escape shuttle but the pair found a Y-Wing and managed to escape before the cruiser crashed.

Anakin, now Darth Vader, later became aware of Ahsoka’s survival. But having escaped in the short term, Ahsoka and Rex headed off to parts unknown, to later turn up in Star Wars Rebels. And that’s why, unlike so many Jedi, Ahsoka Tano wasn’t a casualty of Order 66.

For more on Ahsoka’s backstory, read all about why she left the Jedi Order in the first place.