How ‘Book of Boba Fett’ Connected Luke and Ahoska
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The Book of Boba Fett episode 6 spoilers follow.
Whoa. If you're feeling a little overwhelmed after watching Book of Boba Fett episode 6, you’re not alone.
The latest episode in the Disney+ series was stuffed full of more Star Wars than most of the movies.
From the return of Marshal Cobb Vanth to that fateful showdown with the one and only Cad Bane (oh my god), not to mention a heartwarming homage to Episode V's iconic training montage featuring Luke and a (new) little green friend.
In fact, it might have all added up to a brew that was a little too strong for some tastes.
But among the flashier fan-service moments were two small lines that will have stood out to long-time Star Wars fans (especially those familiar with The Clone Wars)–and probably caused more than a little heartache.
Episode 6 of everyone's second-favorite bounty hunter's show sees the focus once more split across a few different settings, with the journey of Pedro Pascal's Din Djarin guiding the narrative.
Initially, we follow our beloved Mando as he attempts to reunite with Grogu by traveling to Luke Skywalker's secret Jedi training planet (we guess).
The first of those heart-wrenching lines we mentioned comes when Din bumps into our old friend Ahsoka Tano. After inquiring about what she's doing on the planet, the former Jedi (and Anakin's padawan) replies "I'm a friend of the family" (cries).
A similarly quiet, loaded moment comes later in the episode just before Ahsoka leaves Luke's training ground. After Mando has left and given that little teeny-tiny Beskar chainmail to Ahsoka so that she can hand it over to Luke, the pair discuss Skywalker's training technique.
Luke is full of doubt about Grogu's desires, and wonders whether the little guy's heart is really in Jedi training—to which Ahsoka replies "So much like your father," and the pair share an *extremely* loaded look.
Both of these lines are delivered in a subtle way, such that you might miss them the first time—unless you were rabidly eating up every minute HRH Ahsoka Tano was on screen that is.
To fully unpack why this single line was so loaded, let's do a quick Ahsoka recap. She was Anakin Skywalker's padawan during the events of the Clone Wars—retroactively joining the Skywalker/Kenobi team between the events of Episode II and III—and was with him until the very end of his Jedi journey.
This already makes her having scenes with Luke very cool. Clone Wars fans have been championing the character for more than a decade (TCW first aired back in 2008), and to have her interact with Star Wars' original Jedi on screen is pretty nuts.
Speaking of the end of Anakin's journey, the delayed Clone Wars season six saw Ahsoka witness the events of Order 66 first-hand and watch her former master betray the Jedi.
Later on in the follow-up series, Star Wars: Rebels, set just before the events of A New Hope, we met an older and wiser Ahsoka who—via some portal shenanigans—is able to achieve some sort of closure when she confronts Anakin/Darth Vader one last time.
Throughout The Clone Wars, viewers watched Ahsoka and Anakin become closer week after week and, alongside Padme and Obi-Wan, become about as close to family as it gets for our troubled 'chosen one'.
Their relationship sits on one side of the dark side/light side scale for Anakin, with the other side being strongly pushed on by one Mr. Sheev Palpatine.
Ultimately (or perhaps, in part, because of their personal attachment) Ahsoka is unable to save Anakin, and the sadness she feels as a result eventually manifests itself as a powerful grief/guilt combo she struggles to come to terms with.
While Obi-Wan attempts to redeem or atone for Anakin through training Luke in the original trilogy, and Padme dies, Ahsoka never really gets that catharsis (apart from the aforementioned brief moment in Rebels).
That's what makes this conversation in The Book of Boba Fett so gratifying for fans of these characters. Not only do we see Ahsoka acknowledge and talk about Anakin with Luke, but the ease and nonchalance with which she mentions him suggest they've had similar chats lots of times before.
It implies a relationship between the two that's allowed Ahsoka to grapple with her feelings of abandonment and subsequent guilt, but also—fundamentally—it's just nice to see Luke have someone else to talk to about his dear, departed dad.
Ever since the events of Return of the Jedi (roughly five years before Book of Boba Fett) Luke has known that, in the end, there was still good inside of Darth Vader. He watches him make the ultimate sacrifice, killing both Emperor Palpatine and himself—destroying both of his external and internal dark side influences.
But since Luke is the only one to witness this redemption first-hand, we doubt he's had many opportunities to talk through his complicated feelings. Enter Ahsoka.
In a world where characters don't often get to 'complete' their emotional journeys, it's good to see just a hint of this in The Book of Boba Fett. Of course, a lot of this is only implied and it would have been great to see a bit more expounded on screen.
What we do get, however, succeeds in both cementing Ahsoka's impact on the Skywalker legacy, and finally giving Luke a slightly less tragic connection to his family.
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