Was It Easy for Ashley Eckstein to Voice Ahsoka Tano Again in ‘The Clone Wars’ Season 7?
Ahsoka Tano has been a staple The Clone Wars character since 2008. Even though she didn’t exist when the prequel films were made, she became an essential part of Anakin Skywalker’s story throughout the animated movie and series. Now, she’s one of the most popular characters in all of Star Wars. The Clone Wars was canceled in 2013, so Ahsoka’s most recent appearances were an older version of her character on Star Wars Rebels and a brief cameo in The Rise of Skywalker. So how hard was it for the voice of Anakin’s former Padawan to get find a teenaged Ahsoka’s voice again?
It took some effort for Ashley Eckstein to get back into Ahsoka’s ‘Clone Wars’ voice
In the most recent “Clone Wars Download” video on Star Wars’ YouTube, Ashley Eckstein said that she first had to get over the disbelief that the show was coming back. Then, the original voice of Ahsoka Tano went into detail about how she transitioned back from doing an older Ahsoka to voicing a younger one.
“Even though I get to use my own voice for Ahsoka, I had been doing Rebels Ahsoka for so long, and she was so much older,” Eckstein said. “And truthfully, I spoke in a much lower register in my voice for Rebels. So I had to go back in time and remember, ‘Okay, how old is Ahsoka now?’”
Eckstein said she watched a lot of Season 5 episodes to prepare. “It definitely took a couple takes, a couple conversations with Dave Filoni. But eventually, we got there.”
To put it into perspective, Ahsoka is around 17 when she leaves the Jedi Order in Season 5, and Season 7 takes place before the year is up so Ahsoka is going on 18 in “Gone With a Trace.” Star Wars Rebels takes place 15 years later, so she’s roughly 32-years-old.
Ahsoka’s new ‘friends’ are much different than what she’s used to
In “Gone With a Trace,” Ahsoka stumbles on Trace Martez’s hangar and workshop. Trace is a little rough around the edges but definitely has a softer side, compared to her sister Rafa. Both are scrounging up ways to make ends meet in the Underworld of Coruscant. Supervising director Dave Filoni said their characters were a way to show viewers just how detached the citizens of the Republic are from the Jedi.
“Ahsoka’s taught that [the Jedi are] keepers of the peace and that they have this great job and that they police the galaxy,” he said. “But they’ve gotten so top-heavy that they don’t even realize that most of what they’re doing isn’t helping the average person. And that the average person has no contact with the Jedi Knight.”
He goes on to point out that these regular people don’t even know what a Jedi does, as we see when Trace said they started the Clone Wars. This does affect Ahsoka, in a major way.
Ahsoka’s views on the Jedi were tainted after Season 5, and they’re still changing
As we’ve pointed out time and again, Ahsoka Tano was betrayed by the Jedi Order. Fellow Padawan Barriss Offee framed Ahsoka for the bombing on the Jedi Temple, and the Council banned Ahsoka from the Order without a ton of evidence against her. They chose to expel her because having a non-Jedi on trial would be better for their image. It backfired since Barriss was the culprit, and Ahsoka left because she couldn’t trust the Order, or herself, anymore.
So, in Season 7, you can imagine Ahsoka has some sour opinions on the Jedi (minus Anakin). However, she still defends the Order when Trace badmouths them. However, Eckstein said that Ahsoka’s eyes are “truly opened” after meeting Trace and Rafa.
“To meet girls, her age, that have a completely different life experience from her, truthfully it kind of rocks her world,” she explained. “She has no idea how other people live their life. And that they look at Jedi a different way than she does. But, you know, Ahsoka was already questioning the Jedi. So to hear these other opinions, it’s really eye-opening to Ahsoka.”
Even though Barriss’ bombing was deadly and threw Ahsoka under the bus, she made some points that stuck with Ahsoka even a year after Order 66. “[Barriss] had a point about the Republic and the Jedi,” Ahsoka thinks in the novel, Ahsoka. “There was something wrong with them, and we were too locked into our traditions to see what it was.”
Ahsoka’s departure from the Jedi Order made her grow up even faster, after the war. And this time away from the Order will mature her opinions even further.
