Anakin Skywalker Inadvertently Gave Ahsoka Everything She Needed To Survive Order 66
This post contains spoilers for "Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi."
Few Jedi survived the Palpatine's great purge of their order. His plan was insidious, separating the Jedi from their comrades and turning their own troops against them. Although the plan was long and circuitous, taking decades to pull off, none of the Jedi saw it coming and were swept up into its clutches. Of the Jedi who did survive, there were an important few. How did they make it? With Master Yoda, he might have been the most sensitive of all the Jedi and could feel the death of the Jedi across the galaxy and knew something was afoot. For Obi-Wan Kenobi, that might have been blind luck that he didn't die when his varactyl was shot down by Commander Cody. For Kanan Jarrus, it was the confusion created by the Bad Batch who didn't quite know what was going on, as well as the sacrifice of his master. For Ahsoka Tano, though, it came down to superior tactics and training. But where did she learn it?
"Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi" shows us in painstaking detail how Anakin Skywalker trained her specifically to survive against the attack of the clones.
The Jedi Who Knew Too Much
"This is about life and death, and as your master I'm responsible for you," Anakin Skywalker tells his apprentice in the fifth episode of the "Tales of the Jedi," titled "Practice Makes Perfect." He continues: "And the best way I can protect you is to teach you how to protect yourself. If you can hold off Rex and the boys, you'll be ready for anything in the battlefield."
Anakin drills Ahsoka relentlessly against the Clones of the 501st as they hit her with stun blasts over and over and over again. Eagle-eyed fans will recognize this tactic is the same one the Clones use against Ahsoka in the episode of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" called "The Jedi Who Knew Too Much." There, Ahsoka is accused of a crime she didn't commit and has to go on the run. She's able to use both of her lightsabers to deflect the blasts with the same moves Anakin taught her in this training exercise.
Order 66
Surviving that ordeal was only the first step for Ahsoka. She had to face off against "Rex and the boys" once Darth Sidious had declared Order 66. If you watch the moves she refines in the trials of "Practice Makes Perfect," you'll see that these are very much the same moves that she uses to defend herself from the Clones long enough to get the chip removed from Captain Rex's head and flee from their clutches.
In the final accounting, it really is the dedicated training of Anakin Skywalker that saves her in both of these situations and she's able to use this to her advantage. She's able to go into hiding and thwart her former master's Empire as Fulcrum in the growing Rebellion and is able to confront him personally on Malachor, as depicted in "Star Wars Rebels." He gave her all the tools she needed to survive the actions of his future self and his Dark Side allies.
All six episodes of "Tales of the Jedi" are now streaming on Disney+.