Is The Ahsoka Novel Still Canon After Tales of the Jedi?

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi was a series that focused on the origins and lives of two different former Jedi that fans have always loved. One such Jedi is Ahsoka, whose life before and after the events of Order 66 was explored in the series. However, we do know that the Ahsoka novel, released in 2016, also details Ahsoka’s life after Order 66 but is quite different from episode 6 of Tales of the Jedi. So, is the Ahsoka novel still canon after Tales of the Jedi?

It is possible that the events of Tales of the Jedi were only a retelling of the Ahsoka novel and not an overhaul of what happened to Ahsoka. That’s because Dave Filoni claimed to have worked with EK Johnston, the author of the novel. As such, there is no telling if the series retconned the book or simply retold it.

At this point, we are yet to hear from Disney or Lucasfilm regarding whether or not the Ahsoka novel has been retconned and relegated to Legends by the release of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi. But the thing that we do know is that it is likely that Tales of the Jedi is the new canon if it actually overhauled the events of the Ahsoka novel. That said, let’s talk more about this issue.

How Different Is Tales Of The Jedi To The Ahsoka Novel?

While Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi focuses on two different former Jedi that have grown to have different views from the Jedi Order, one of the things that we do know is that Ahsoka Tano’s story didn’t lead her to the path of evil. We all know this as she became an important part of the early days of the Rebellion against the Empire. And Tales of the Jedi allowed us to see her early life as well as the days she spent after the events of Order 66.

But the thing about Tales of the Jedi is that Ahsoka’s story in the series is somewhat different from what has already been established about the character in the 2016 Ahsoka novel released by EK Johnston. In that regard, let’s look at how different they are from one another to get a better perspective.

Both stories happen to show that Ahsoka had become uninterested in the affairs of the world after the fall of the Jedi Order during the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. That’s why, in both the series and the book, she retreated to a simple life far from the center of the Empire, as she settled down as Ashla in a farming community on a planet that focuses on a rural kind of lifestyle.

But the thing is that, aside from that, there are a lot of differences between the events of the book and the ones we saw in the animated series. Still, it was clear that, for a while, she enjoyed a somewhat simple life that allowed her to focus more as a laborer while the Empire was out there searching for Jedi that may have survived the events of Order 66.

In the Ahsoka book, things got messy when the Empire started occupying the town she lived in. Ahsoka tried to work with the townspeople while ensuring that her identity was kept a secret. However, she eventually confessed that she was a Jedi when she used the Force to stop an incoming bolt from a blaster.

There is also a portion in the book where she saved a Force-sensitive child from getting captured by the Empire. In that regard, she felt that she needed to do more for the community around her when she rescued the child.

However, things were portrayed differently in Tales of the Jedi because Ahsoka needed to use the Force to save a friend from getting crushed by hay bales. She didn’t expose herself to everyone except for the girl that she saved and her brother. In fact, it was the brother that reported Ahsoka to the Empire in the hopes that he would get rewarded for telling them about the location of a Jedi.

Of course, both of these stories culminate when Ahsoka had to face one of the Inquisitors that the Empire sent to go looking for her. And this is where it gets interesting because the Inquisitor in the Ahsoka book differs from the one that we saw in the Tales of the Jedi series.

In the book, the Jedi hunter that we saw was the Sixth Brother, whose appearance has a concept art online. On the other hand, the one in the series not only looks different from the concept art of the Sixth Brother but was left unnamed. Still, it was clear that the one in the series is also an Inquisitor because he wields the same kind of spinning red lightsaber that the Inquisitors are known to wield.

The two stories are the same in the sense that Ahsoka needed to confront them in both stories. However, in the book, Ahsoka didn’t use a lightsaber to defeat the Inquisitor because she merely overloaded the Kyber crystal in the Sixth Brother’s lightsaber to kill him. Meanwhile, in Tales of the Jedi, Ahsoka evaded the Inquisitor’s attacks before disarming him with his own lightsaber and killing him.

Of course, in the Ahsoka novel, the former Jedi used the Inquisitor’s lightsaber to forge her own lightsaber, which emits a white color that has become synonymous with the character in Star Wars: Rebels and in The Mandalorian.

There is also the fact that, in the opening minutes of Tales of the Jedi, Ahsoka was at Padme’s funeral and was spotted by Bail Organa, who tried to convince her to fight alongside him. This was never in the book, as Bail never met Ahsoka in person until the final portion of the book, where the senator was surprised to see that she was still alive.

Is The Ahsoka Novel Still Canon?

At this point, it has been made clear that the events of Tales of the Jedi are different from the events that were detailed in the Ahsoka book, even though there are still some similarities between them. But the fact of the matter is that they are different. So, does that mean that the Ahsoka novel is no longer canon?

It is worth mentioning that Dave Filoni, who worked on Tales of the Jedi, actually worked with Ahsoka author EK Johnston to make sure that the series was consistent with his book. That means that there was a conscious effort on the part of Filoni to make sure that the events of Tales of the Jedi weren’t too far off from the events of the Ahsoka book.

In that regard, we can say that the events that happened to Ahsoka in Tales of the Jedi were simply retelling of the events that happened in the Ahsoka book. But Tales of the Jedi told the story in a different way, even though there were still similarities between them. This makes it questionable whether or not the events of the Ahsoka book had become retconned by the Ahsoka storyline in Tales of the Jedi.

Of course, at this point, it is not up to us to determine what is canon and what is not because that is up to the people over at Lucasfilm. But we do believe that both the Ahsoka book and Tales of the Jedi are canon. It is only that Tales of the Jedi told the Ahsoka storyline differently to give the entire episode more drama than what the events of the book could offer.

As such, it is only up to Lucasfilm to decide what is canon and what is not. That hasn’t happened yet as far as the Ahsoka novel and the events of Tales of the Jedi are concerned. That is why we believe that Tales of the Jedi simply retold the Ahsoka book in a different yet somewhat similar way.