In the fifth episode of Ahsoka, her former master, Anakin Skywalker, returned to her to teach her one final lesson and help save her from death. Thanks to his instruction she chooses to live, returning to her friends with renewed trust and purpose.
The thought of Anakin, having long since become one with the Force, showing up to his padawan to teach her and help save her is incredibly heartwarming. But it wasn’t the only time he did something like that. For instance, before this encounter with Ahsoka, he appeared to a young rebel soldier named Lina Graf and her allies who were trapped in Vader’s Castle on Mustafar. They didn’t know who it was, but Anakin led them to safety. It seems Anakin made a bit of a habit at doing this, because many years later, he would appear at a pivotal moment to save the life of his son, Luke Skywalker. The story is told in Adam Christopher’s excellent novel Shadow of the Sith.
A little over a decade after the events of Ahsoka, in 21 ABY, Luke began to sense darkness lurking in the galaxy, a resurgent evil that he couldn’t quite place. Troubled over this, Luke began investigating it, and he ventured to the seeing stone on Tython, desperate to learn whether the Sith had returned. While there, he had a strange encounter in the Force and was transported to Exegol, the mysterious ancient Sith world. Luke didn’t know how he had gotten there, or how to get back, but nine enemies surrounded him wielding lightsabers. Just as they pressed in on him, however, another blade appeared, a blue blade, wielded by the Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker. He drove the wraiths away, then turned to Luke and brought him back to Tython.
On Tython, Anakin’s Force ghost flickered and faded. Anakin fought with all his strength to appear to Luke, but he was pained, troubled, frightened, by a disturbance in the Force. It took all that Anakin could give to bring Luke back from Exegol, but he had enough strength left to warn Luke that the shadow was growing. Yet, just before Anakin finally faded away from Luke, he told his son:
“Remember, my son, no matter how dark the night may grow, you are never alone. You will know what to do, my son. Let the Force guide you. Let it flow through you as it flows through me. Use that power, and your instincts, for they are one and the same.”
Then, Anakin was gone, and Luke was left to search for the shadow. It led him on a quest for Exegol alongside Lando Calrissian, one in which they were hot on the pursuit of a young girl named Rey and her family, who were being hunted by a Sith assassin named Ochi. Luke did confront and defeat a Sith Acolyte, and it seemed to quell the disturbance in the Force. But he never found Rey, never found Exegol, and never discovered the true source of the shadow: the hidden return of Emperor Palpatine.
I think it’s really cool how Anakin Skywalker, having become one with the Force, showed up to both Ahsoka Tano and Luke Skywalker at a moment of great need and helped to save their lives while imparting some further wisdom. There’s a poetry in all of this as well; Anakin’s fall to the dark side came in large part due to the deceitful promise that it would allow him to keep those he cared about from dying. But as Ben Solo showed us in The Rise of Skywalker, that power doesn’t come from embracing the dark side, but the light. Now, Anakin seems to be able to do it in a way he never could before, and he puts it into practice with both Ahsoka and Luke.
Star Wars Thoughts 