(Spoilers for The Mandalorian and Ahsoka Tano follow.)

In Chapter 11 of The Mandalorian, “The Heiress”, Bo-Katan tells Din Djarin where he can find, as Din says, “the Jedi,” Ahsoka Tano.

There’s just one problem.

Ahsoka no longer is a Jedi.

Ahsoka left the Jedi Order roughly 28 years earlier, in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

It was beautiful when Ahsoka left the Jedi Order. But that doesn’t mean she is still a Jedi.

Ahsoka
Rosario Dawson (left) will play Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars: The Mandalorian. In the show, “the Jedi” Din Djarin describes is Ahsoka. But Ahsoka left the Jedi Order. (photo credit: Shutterstock/Disney)

A Problem Besides Ahsoka

The Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau and his team already created a problem when they introduced the Empire into the show when according to canon, the Empire was decimated four years earlier. It’s too bad that it seems clear that they are going to create another problem.

I like The Mandalorian. I don’t see myself ditching the show. And I was thrilled to hear Bo-Katan say that Din needed to find Ahsoka — I replayed the clip a few times over. I also love Ahsoka and her pure-heartedness — a pure-heartedness rivaled in Star Wars only by Luke Skywalker.

But these issues (and too many standalone episodes) mean that I can only like the show. It means that I will take eight of the nine Skywalker saga films or Star Wars: The Clone Wars over The Mandalorian any day.

It was beautiful when Ahsoka left the Jedi Order because she was right to recognize that it had lost its way.

The Jedi Order had been a major part of the problem that was the Clone Wars. In their taking political sides and engaging in warfare, they blinded themselves to the obvious threat before them, Sheev Palpatine. That allowed Palpatine to rise to power, overthrow the Galactic Republic and build the evil Galactic Empire.

I’m not saying that the showrunners are going to backtrack on Ahsoka’s huge decision or say that Ahsoka came to believe that she was wrong in order to make Ahsoka a Jedi again. Nor should they. Ahsoka’s departure from the Jedi Order was powerful and it reflected incredible storytelling.

Other Heroes Were in the Offerings

The showrunners wouldn’t even have needed to create a storyline that differed from the one where Din seeks to take The Child to the Jedi. That Jedi could be Luke.

Luke Skywalker close to the time of The Mandalorian. “The Jedi” that Din Djarin must find could have been Luke — not Ahsoka Tano. (photo credit: Lucasfilm)

We are talking just five years after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi. Luke could be very much continuing to be a Jedi, even collecting Force-sensitive beings for his new Jedi Order that we know from the canon that he built, thanks to Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The Child, being so powerful in the Force, would probably be somebody that Luke would take in a heartbeat.

It could be tough for someone that isn’t Mark Hamill to play Luke, as Hamill has retired from the character.

But it could be done. And it may still be better than Dave Filoni, one of the showrunners of The Mandalorian, recycling characters from his The Clone Wars for a second time (Bo-Katan and Ahsoka were first recycled in Filoni’s Star Wars Rebels).

What do you think? Is there an issue that Ahsoka is considered a Jedi when she left the Jedi Order? Comment below!