This article contains spoiler for Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi episode 5.Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi episode 5 reveals another scene set during the events of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series finale. The Star Wars franchise has always been known for its habit of hopping around the timeline with impunity. George Lucas, after all, kicked things off with the original trilogy before jumping back to the prequels. This can be tremendously rewarding for viewers, in that it allows them to see patterns in the Star Wars timeline that would otherwise be much more difficult to spot. Lucasfilm's Tales of the Jedi animated shorts are a perfect example, even revealing new events set during the finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
The fifth episode of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi focuses on Ahsoka Tano's training as a Jedi Padawan under Anakin Skywalker. It reveals he encouraged her to train in battle against the clone troopers rather than against droids because he felt droids were easier to predict and thus required less skill. Ahsoka, therefore, learned to deal with large groups of clones all firing upon her simultaneously, and within a few years, she was able to last five minutes or more under these conditions. This ultimately allowed the former Jedi to survive Order 66, as seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7. The episode of Tales of the Jedi concludes with a shot set during the events of that finale, with Ahsoka and Rex preparing to face the clones. "Let's hope all that training pays off," Rex observes, darkly ironic.
Anakin Skywalker Was Responsible For Ahsoka's Order 66 Survival
Anakin Skywalker, it seems, was indirectly responsible for Ahsoka's survival of Order 66. According to Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, he encouraged Ahsoka to train against the clone troopers, meaning she would have become the only Jedi with a sense of how the clones would react when they were firing upon her. There's a deliberate parallel between Ahsoka's training regime and the initial clone trooper attack upon her in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars finale. There, as in the training, the clones surrounded her from all sides and blasted at her. Ahsoka used her two lightsabers to deflect all the shots, before making her escape. Anakin's training meant she had much more control at that moment of unexpected combat than any other Jedi would have.
Ahsoka's bond with Anakin Skywalker also meant she was forewarned and on edge. She sensed his fall to the dark side through their old Master-Padawan bond, and thus she was already aware something had gone badly wrong before the clones began to turn on her. This has rough parallels with some other Order 66 survivors; Master Yoda, for example, felt the deaths of countless Jedi echoing through the Force moments before clones tried to kill him.
Anakin Skywalker's Training Kept Ahsoka Tano Alive
Ahsoka had learned well from her Jedi Master, who had been determined to ensure she stayed alive no matter what happened. Though he did not know it, Anakin Skywalker's training had guarded against the moment when the Jedi Order itself would fall. Ahsoka outlived every one of her masters and mentors because Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi ends during the Dark Times of the Empire's reign, and she would still be active after the original trilogy.