help I’m thinking about Ahsoka meeting the definition of a tragic hero
[loosely defined as a sympathetic but imperfect protagonist who suffers some kind of downfall because of a tragic flaw]
I think the brainworms haven’t latched onto this before just cuz it’s not my go-to lens for anyone happening to be standing next to Anakin Freaking Skywalker, but while her "downfall" is less intense than Anakin's I think she meets the bar as much as he does.
Out-of-universe she's literally destined to fail because any character added to Anakin's arc in the Year of Our Lord 2008 1) can't prevent him from falling and 2) can't redeem him and that's a pretty heckin tragic arc to give your 14-year-old character right off the bat.
The only ways to make that less tragic are to have them like each other less, or to have her realize he's on a tragic arc and choose to get away from him for that reason... and they quadruple down on exactly the opposite of that
Every single thing that happens to Ahsoka for three years teaches her that everyone will disappoint her and let her down EXCEPT ANAKIN, to the point where she makes him her one constant in the universe. That leads directly to the Maul confrontation scene (which strongly mirrors the scene with Anakin and Palpatine in Palpatine's office), where she's given a choice and chooses wrong because of her tragic flaw, which is loyalty to Anakin.
Except it's so much more batshit than that because it's also the same "join me and together we will defeat a greater evil" pitch that star wars fantasy does over and over and over but in this case and this case only SHE SHOULD HAVE TAKEN IT. But my the audience’s yelling-at-the-screen response to that is driven by the fact the TCW s7 came out a solid FORTY YEARS after we learned how all these choices turned out. So honestly her tragic hero-ness is 80% dramatic irony. Which is also very Star Wars.
But thinking about this has gotten me feral about Ahsoka and Luke again because the fact that Luke puts all his money on Vader is absolutely insane. Luke is betting EVERYTHING with no evidence that it's going to work out for him, and it pays off. He freaking WINS because of that. Meanwhile Ahsoka has so, so many reasons to bet everything on Anakin, and she does, and she loses everything.
your faith in your friends is yours
