Ahsoka timeline: where does the Rebels epilogue really fit?

Ahsoka Tano arrived in live action on The Mandalorian (2019), the Disney Plus series starring Pedro Pascal, played by Rosario Dawson. Her timeline is confusing, and I'm laying it out in order: who she is, how she got from Clone Wars to Rebels to The Mandalorian, and how she could end up as a ghost voice in Rey's head.

She's one of the most important characters in the Star Wars universe, and she's all over the place. She appeared in Clone Wars, a show that already jumps around chronologically. She got her own novel. Her older self crossed over years later in Rebels. She cameoed as a ghost voice in The Rise of Skywalker, her younger self returned in the Clone Wars final season on Disney Plus, and now an older version is in live action. She's like the kid sister of a drunk time traveler.

In this Dave Filoni era of Star Wars, Ahsoka's story is the story of Star Wars. Her narrative redeems the prequel trilogy in many fans' eyes, and now, looking ahead to the period after Return of the Jedi, her hunt for Thrawn could possibly redeem the sequel trilogy as well. To make it even more confusing, after her return Filoni suggested the Rebels finale flash forward might not have been when we thought it was.

Ahsoka was born in 36 BBY, five years after Grogu and Anakin

Ahsoka was born in 36 BBY. That's five years after the birth year of both Anakin Skywalker and Grogu, who were born in 41 BBY. Yes, Ahsoka is five years younger than the child Grogu, but I guess she doesn't have whatever aging cream he's using.

When Ahsoka was three years old, in 33 BBY, she was discovered and recruited to the Jedi Order by Master Plo Koon. From there she was raised as a youngling in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. I joked that she was probably bullied by upperclassmen five years her senior, like Grogu, but I'm kidding. They never met.

Clone Wars introduces Ahsoka as Anakin Skywalker's Padawan at 14

We first met Ahsoka as the Clone Wars were breaking out, when she was 14 years old in 22 BBY. This was months after the First Battle of Geonosis in Attack of the Clones. On Christophsis she meets her new master, Anakin Skywalker, along with her future best friend, the clone trooper Rex.

Over the next two years she goes on a ton of great adventures that play out across Clone Wars seasons one through five. She helps Anakin rescue Jabba the Hutt's son, Rotta the Hutt. She takes a teaching gig on Mandalore and foils a coup. She runs into Grievous, Dooku, Asajj Ventress, Aurra Sing and Saw Gerrera. She gets to know Padmé, gets sick of politics and begins to think the Separatists aren't that evil. She also meets the Mandalorian Bo-Katan and the Death Watch on a mission on Carlac.

The craziest thing to happen is when Ahsoka, Anakin and Obi-Wan go to Mortis, an ethereal plane where a future version of Ahsoka warns her about Anakin. It's all a plot by the cosmic entity the Son, who represents the dark side of the Force. He corrupts Ahsoka with the Dagger of Mortis, which by the way was rumored to be the MacGuffin in an early draft of Episode IX. Ahsoka technically dies here, but the Daughter gives up her own life to resurrect her. It's crazy and awesome.

The Jedi Temple bombing drives Ahsoka away from the Order and Anakin

In 20 BBY the Jedi Temple gets bombed, and Ahsoka is falsely accused of it. This is a huge breaking point. Even after her name is cleared, she parts ways with the Jedi Order and with her friend Anakin.

That departure shakes even Anakin's own faith in the Jedi Order. Retroactively, it's now part of the reason he's able to part ways with them in Revenge of the Sith.

The Clone Wars final season runs alongside Revenge of the Sith and Order 66

After Clone Wars, Ahsoka's story was picked up by her own novel and by Rebels, but chronologically the Clone Wars final season comes next. After leaving the Jedi, Ahsoka spends time with the Martez sisters and then helps Bo-Katan retake Mandalore from Maul, in a great duel.

This arc coincides with the events of Revenge of the Sith and Order 66. Rex is able to avoid Order 66 because Ahsoka disables his inhibitor chip, the chip that turned the other clone troopers on the Jedi. The series concludes with Ahsoka burying her beloved clone troopers, despite them trying to kill her.

Then comes an amazing flash forward in which Vader finds what he thinks is her grave. Overhead a bird circles. This is Morai, the bird embodiment of the Daughter, which we learn more about in Ahsoka's arc in Rebels. It won't make sense if you watch Clone Wars all the way through without seeing Rebels, which is why I always say to watch this stuff in release order. That owl also showed up in this episode of The Mandalorian, which is very cool.

The 2016 Ahsoka novel covers her exile as Ashla and her turn as Fulcrum

Chronologically, next is the 2016 Ahsoka novel. It follows her exile after Order 66, going by the name Ashla on the rural Outer Rim planet Thabeska and then working as a mechanic on the moon Raada.

There she runs into the crime gang Black Sun. She eventually joins forces with Bail Organa to become a rebel Fulcrum agent.

Star Wars Rebels pits Ahsoka against Darth Vader

That's where we catch up with her in Star Wars Rebels. She now carries two white lightsabers that she got after fighting an Inquisitor, one of the former Jedi dragged to the dark side and tasked with hunting down runaway Jedi. Rebels is set starting in 5 BBY, getting closer to the Battle of Yavin, and Ahsoka meets the crew of the Ghost, including Hera Syndulla, Sabine Wren and the young Jedi Ezra Bridger.

During this time she runs into Vader and is shocked to realize her former master Anakin has become the Empire's deadliest enforcer. She has some nice moments. She reunites with Rex, has an awesome rematch with Maul, and fights Vader so Ezra can escape, but traps herself in with her former master.

Sometime later there's a crazy time travel plot in which Ezra ventures into the World Between Worlds. He witnesses that duel, helps Ahsoka fend off Vader, and they close that loop.

The Rebels epilogue sends Ahsoka looking for Ezra Bridger and Thrawn

Rebels ends with Ezra sacrificing himself in a battle with Thrawn on Lothal, his home world, using the purrgil, the hyperspace whales, to blast both of them to some unknown destination. We were told they both survived.

We don't know where Ahsoka was during the Battle of Yavin or the Galactic Civil War, when the original trilogy takes place. But the Rebels epilogue flashes forward to some point after the Galactic Civil War, after the Battle of Endor and Return of the Jedi. Sabine narrates how she stuck around to protect Lothal in case the Empire ever returned, but it didn't. Ahsoka appears, and Sabine realizes Ezra was counting on her to find him and bring him home.

That, we assume, is why Ahsoka wants to find Thrawn in The Mandalorian. She's still looking for Ezra, but Sabine isn't with her in this episode, which made us a little worried about what happened to Sabine.

Dave Filoni suggests the Rebels epilogue may come after The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian is set in 9 ABY, which is after where we assumed the Rebels epilogue sat, maybe four or five ABY. But Dave Filoni threw a curveball. In an interview about this Mandalorian episode, he was asked when that epilogue takes place, and he said: "That's not necessarily chronological. When you go back to look at the epilogue of Rebels, you don't really know how much time has passed, so it's possible the story I'm telling in The Mandalorian actually takes place prior to that."

Filoni hadn't confirmed it, but he was suggesting the Rebels epilogue could take place not around four or five ABY as we assumed, but after Ahsoka's arc on The Mandalorian, sometime after 9 ABY. That would mean the Ahsoka we saw in that Rebels moment had already met Mando and Grogu on Corvus, had already defeated Thrawn's ally Morgan, and her next words to Sabine were probably something like: I just found out where Thrawn is, get in.

That might be why Filoni was being so coy. At the time, I thought one of the upcoming Mandalorian episodes might follow Ahsoka and Sabine on that mission to rescue Ezra from Thrawn. For now, in 9 ABY, Ahsoka is going planet to planet trying to catch up with Thrawn and his probable plan to build his own fleet with Morgan Elsbeth.

Ahsoka's ghost voice in The Rise of Skywalker points to her death before 35 ABY

In an interview, Filoni and Rosario Dawson talked about how Ahsoka is in a third stage of her life, world weary and a bit like Gandalf.

From Ahsoka's ghost voice appearing in Rey's mind during the Jedi voices montage in The Rise of Skywalker, which is set in 35 ABY, we can conclude that Ahsoka must have died sometime between the time of The Mandalorian, 9 ABY, and 35 ABY. For what it's worth, she'd be around 71 during The Rise of Skywalker. That's not that old, but based on the lekku wrinkles already starting to show at age 45, maybe she's not born with it.

That's all unless Ahsoka was speaking to Rey from the World Between Worlds, and her voice echoed through time to that moment decades in the future. It is possible, and that's why you need to watch all of Clone Wars and Rebels. This stuff is canon, and Dave Filoni is going to keep plugging pieces of it into The Mandalorian to make us do the homework. But it's fun homework.