‘Ahsoka’ is a tale of cyclical harm and the power of choice

Ahsoka

Created by Dave Filoni (Lucasfilm, 2023)

Storytelling and spirituality both have a rhythm. Patterns emerge. We find ourselves battling old demons but in new ways.

The Star Wars franchise is built on storytelling patterns. One Death Star becomes two, then becomes something new but the same: Starkiller Base. Laser sword-wielding space monks rise and fall, tempted to the darkness then brought back to the light.

“As you get older, look at history, you realize it’s all inevitable,” reflects the fallen former Jedi Baylon Skoll (Ray Stevenson) in the sixth episode of Ahsoka, the latest installment in Star Wars, now on Disney+. “The fall of the Jedi, rise of the empire. It repeats again and again.”

His apprentice, Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), wonders if that means it’s now their time for power.

“That sort of power is fleeting,” Baylon replies. “What I seek is the beginning so I may finally bring this cycle to an end.”

Ahsoka, as a series, cannot break the cycle. Sandwiched between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, we know that the cycle of empire grinds on: the Imperial Remnant becomes the First Order.

But the story this series tells seeks to break a different kind of cyclical harm. The titular hero, Ahsoka Tano, descends into the depths of herself and discovers that she’s more than a violent warrior or a failed student. She isn’t limited by the choices she made or the choices her own master, Anakin Skywalker, made.

Ahsoka can chart her own course, can train her own apprentice, without fear of past shame and guilt. She has to.

The spiritual lesson of Ahsoka isn’t that we should break these cycles in which we inevitably find ourselves. The lesson is to learn from them, make new choices, and keep going.