When Does Ahsoka Take Place in the Star Wars Timeline?

Ahsoka Tano’s new adventures have been met with a lot of fan acclaim, especially for lovers of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. And yet, for those unfamiliar with Ahsoka’s long story in Star Wars animation, and even for some who are familiar, there is still one important question the show doesn’t clearly answer: when does Ahsoka take place in the timeline? And though there’s no clear, definitive answer stated in the show’s dialogue, one can be extrapolated from the events of the show.

In a general sense, Ahsoka very obviously takes place after the fall of the Empire and before the rise of the First Order. That means after Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and way before Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Trying to narrow that down is where it gets a little tricky.

Where Ahsoka Is on the Star Wars Timeline Seems Straightforward

Fans of the stories happening in galaxy far, far away, tend to use the Battle of Yavin as the end and beginning of Star Wars chronology. That pivotal moment represents year zero, and dates are styled as BBY and ABY (Before/After Battle of Yavin). Star Wars: Return of the Jedi takes place 4 ABY. That’s where we’ll start.

If we go by the supplemental Star Wars books, The Mandalorian takes place nine years after Star Wars: A New Hope, or 9 ABY. Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau have given somewhat conflicting statements about how much time has actually passed in the show, so depending on which of them we want to take at their word, the third season of the show happens somewhere around 9 ABY and 12 ABY.

Considering Ahsoka’s appears in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, which happens right after, it would make sense for the show’s place in the timeline to be somewhere around Season 3 of The Mandalorian, aka 9-12 ABY. This was seemingly confirmed by Sabine Wren actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who said in an interview with SFX that Ahsoka runs concurrently in the timeline with The Mandalorian Season 3.

Related: How Ahsoka Survived Star Wars’ Order 66

Ahsoka’s Place on the Timeline Is Somewhat Confusing

However, the pesky mural dedication scene in Lothal makes everything much more complicated. The mural is originally seen in the Star Wars Rebels finale, as Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano wow to work together to find Ezra Bridger. That takes place in 5 ABY. The easy conclusion for Star Wars Rebels fans would be that the show just continues shortly after that scene.

That cannot be so, though, as we learn early on in Ahsoka that she and Sabine have developed a master-apprentice relationship off-screen, which implies enough time has passed for that bond to form and then deteriorate. It’s just very confusing to see the two of them stand before the mural once again without remarking on the repetition. Not to mention that Lothal sure took its sweet time dedicating that mural. Another possible explanation is then that the final scene of Star Wars Rebels actually takes place a few years after the rest of the animated show, in approximately 9 – 12ABY, and Ahsoka then re-hashes the ending in live-action.

Either way, the simple answer is that Ahsoka takes place around the same time as The Mandalorian Season 3, which is approximately between 9 and 12ABY. The galaxy far, far away has never been too good with exact dates, so why would Ahsoka be any different?