After years of anticipation, the padawan learner of Anakin Skywalker will lead her own live-action Disney+ series, Ahsoka. Fans hope the Jedi Master appears, either via flashback or Force Ghost. Those who love Star Wars: The Clone Wars are equally excited to perhaps hear Hayden Christensen's Anakin call Ahsoka "Snips" in live action. Originally created by George Lucas for The Clone Wars, Ahsoka Tano was shaped and further developed by future Stars Wars Rebels and Ahsoka showrunner Dave Filoni. Thus, it's appropriate that his first series as sole showrunner is about the Chosen One's Jedi legacy all grown up.
Luke Skywalker is defined by how good he is in spite of his father. Ahsoka is defined by how good his father was before his descent into Darth Vader. The Jedi Master and Padawan relationship isn't parental, after all. Obi-Wan called Anakin his "brother," making Ahsoka their little sister. Thanks to the relationship Anakin and Ahsoka shared during The Clone Wars, Christensen and series star Rosario Dawson can take a shortcut to eight years characterization with well-timed "Snips" and "Skyguy." The nicknames the two had for each other were born out of frustration with each other that slowly became one of the deepest friendships.
Where Does the Nickname 'Snips' Come From?
Despite being one of the most beloved characters in Star Wars today, it wasn't always like that. At the time of the show's airing, fan discourse about Ahsoka mirrored that for Rey or Reva, from Obi-Wan Kenobi. They called her "a Mary Sue," "a dumb girl," and gleefully imagined how the character would die. Since she wasn't in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, most fans thought her fate was sealed. Though, unlike modern characters, Lucas was baiting them with her. Ahsoka was brash, outspoken, overconfident, and excellent at almost everything. She was a deliberate self-insert character for kids who grow up with the series. She's every kid who wakes up one day with superpowers and a healthy dose of confidence.
Anakin, of course, doesn't want a padawan when the two first meet. In her second scene in The Clone Wars, Ahsoka snaps at Anakin after he calls her a "youngling" and says she's not his padawan. "You're stuck with me, Skyguy," she says. This gets under Anakin's skin, admonishing her to not "get snippy" with him. She continues using the nickname, and eventually Anakin starts to call her "snips" in return. The brash attitude which annoyed him at the start of the film becomes one of the reasons Ahsoka is Anakin's perfect pupil.
Anakin calls Ahsoka "snips" because she is willing to get snippy with her superiors. This is not because Lucas and Filoni wanted kids to be disrespectful. At least in those first stories, Ahsoka is almost always right. "Snips" becomes a reminder from Anakin for Ahsoka to hold on to her confidence, especially when "the adults" try to shake it. As the character grew up, many Star Wars fans did, too, finally seeing in Ahsoka what Anakin saw from the beginning.
Anakin and Ahsoka's Jedi/Padawan Relationship History, Explained
Ahsoka also had another strike against her from the beginng. The decision for Anakin to have (and lose) a padawan learner in between Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith was controversial. The way Jedi reveal who their masters were in those movies made Ahsoka's absence glaring. However, what the relationship adds to Anakin's character is worth the head-canon Olympics needed to justify every mention of Ahsoka being just off-screen. Some Star Wars fans used to see Anakin as a whiny, overly-emo young man who helped institute fascism after a tantrum over his job title. The Clone Wars brilliantly seeds the growing divide between him and the council.
Ahsoka and Anakin are both people of action who've been shaped fundamentally by conflict. Skyguy and Snips care about each other in ways the Jedi Order would not like. However, unlike his romantic relationship with Padmé, his sibling relationship with Ahsoka doesn't become possessive. Yes, he feared losing Ahsoka, and her walking away from the Jedi contributed to his fall. Only there had to be a small part of him that was happy she was out, because it meant she wouldn't die in the war. Anakin trained Ahsoka to be as powerful a Jedi as he was. He inadvertently drilled her in the exact circumstances needed to survive Order 66. Because she was a Jedi, Anakin didn't have to fear not being able to save her. He could teach her to save herself, and that's what he did.
Anakin and Ahsoka were two of the Jedi Order's greatest heroes. That the order turned on both at the first hint of suspicion shows Anakin's fall wasn't entirely his fault. The institutions meant to protect them were broken. Ahsoka only survived because Anakin prepared her for it. Ahsoka is who Skyguy might have been if he hadn't made the selfish choice in a moment of pain. Luke Skywalker is proof that Anakin's nature is ultimately good, but Snips shows that he wasn't so bad as a nurturer either.
Ahsoka debuts on Disney+ on August 30, 2023.