"I admit, Ahsoka's a little rough around the edges, but with a great deal of training… and patience… she might amount to something." ~ Anakin Skywalker

Age: 16

Height: 1.7 metres

Weight: 54 kilograms

Physicality: Ahsoka is in excellent physical condition for her age, but has yet to reach her physical prime – she also remained susceptible to physical attacks and explosions. Nonetheless she possessed excellent acrobatic ability and was highly flexible, which amplified the effectiveness of her Ataru form. She was also considerably agile, easily able to evade blaster fire, even at almost point-blank range, and rapid-fire lightsaber attacks.

As a Togruta she possessed advanced spatial awareness that allowed her to perceive her surroundings ultrasonically, improving her evasive abilities as well as her ability to manipulate the environment to her advantage.

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Melee Abilities

Ahsoka had impressive skill in lightsaber combat for her age, trained by Anakin Skywalker – widely regarded as one of best duellist within the order – primarily in the Djem So/Shien and Ataru styles which he himself preferred. However Ahsoka demonstrated a greater preference for Ataru than Form V and during the Clone Wars adopted Jar’Kai dual-blade fencing. Her abilities were refined, allowing her to hold off assaults from famed Jedi killers Asajj Ventress and Grievous. However as a Padawan her skills fell far from mastery, and couldn't stand on equal terms with them.

Lightsaber: Ahsoka’s primary weapon was a standard green lightsaber, and upon adopting Jar’Kai wielded this in conjunction with a yellowish-green shoto. The primary purpose of her off-hand weapon was to counter her enemies attacks while freeing up her primary blade for offense, a technique complemented by her Jar’Kai form that revolved around this tactic. Another advantage of the short blade was to allow for rapid, overpowering assaults.

Ataru: Most likely her primary style Ataru provides Ahsoka with powerful, kinetic and acrobatic assaults, complementing her own personal agility and spatial awareness – allowing her to better execute the acrobatic elements of the form, the former in terms of speed and the latter in terms of evasion. In particular, Ahsoka was quite accomplished at using its evasive elements to act as a defence, simply by dodging her opponent’s attacks.

Djem So: As a more defence-orientated style, while still placing an emphasis on powerful and overwhelming attacks, Djem So acted as an excellent companion to her Ataru. Shoring up her defences in terms of blocking, and theoretically assisting her in remounting an Ataru offense through Djem So’s defence followed by immediate counterattack technique - as well as making her all the more overpowering. Vice versa Djem So’s lack of mobility is eradicated as a weakness by her Ataru style, and her own remarkable personal agility.

Shien: The blast deflection aspect of Form V, Shien covers Ataru’s weakness against blast deflection, effectively an offensive variant of Soresu involving redirecting bolts to strike enemies. Her favoured reverse grip, especially with her shoto, would also increase the speed of her attacks, particularly in terms of bringing the blade back around for a reverse attack. And the ease of which the blades can be brought up also makes it effective at close range.

Jar’Kai: Ahsoka wielded the Ataru variant of Jar’Kai, which speaks of her ability in lightsaber combat as it was a difficult and advanced style to master. The main advantage of Jar’Kai was that wielding two weapons increased the speed of her attacks, improving ability to unleash an Ataru onslaught, as well as improving her defence. It also eliminates yet another hole in her armour, namely Ataru’s ineffectiveness against multiple opponents.

Ahsoka was also trained with a quarterstaff to prepare her saberstaff wielding opponents, training that paid off when after a long duel she was able to take down three MagnaGuards unaided in her early days as a Padawan.

Ahsoka was also highly skilled unarmed combatant, performing on a similar level to that of Asajj Ventress. And as an Ataru specialist she would often chain such attacks into her lightsaber sequence.

Force Abilities

While possessing impressive talent for her age Ahsoka’s skills with the Force where fairly rudimentary and not often used in combat, however they remained effective:

Telekinesis: Ahsoka’s primary ability lay in the use of Force pushes and the like which she could use to throw her opponents off-balance or otherwise stun them and prove effective even against powerful Force Users, though only in terms of temporarily stunning them.

Force Valor: As an Ataru specialist and skilled acrobat it is likely that Ahsoka employed this heavily in her fighting style, making her faster and stronger than her physical limitations and the average duelist, she was also highly skilled at the Force Jump which could be used to extricate herself from situations or otherwise easily move around the battlefield.

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Strengths

Ahsoka benefits from a refined and balanced style that has few stylistic weaknesses, featuring a strong offense backed up by a staunch defence that allows for a rapid counterattack. Speed in particular is one her greatest strengths, possessing incredible agility that provides both a fast offense geared towards rapid-fire attacks that can be used to overwhelm her opponents, and strong evasive capabilities that can be used to evade attacks from even the fastest of duellists, as well as allowing her to easily outmanoeuvre them and strike where they are vulnerable. This also works in terms of attrition, as she can simply dodge her opponent’s attacks until they tire or an opening presents itself, or at the very least hold out against superior adversaries simply by evading their blows. On top of that, her ability to chain TK and physical attacks into her lightsaber sequence gives her the added advantage of being able to stagger or stun her opponents, either leaving an opening or giving her time to recover, escape, prolong the duel etc.

Ahsoka’s preferred tactic seems to be the standard Djem So attack, defend, then counterattack, but with importance placed on the attack. And though we have seen little of her combat abilities in a fair fight, we can assume she’d also be highly skilled and staggering her opponents by attacking powerfully and quickly, from multiple interchanging heights and angles, all the while chaining pushes and kicks to further confound them until an opportunity to strike appears.

Weaknesses

Ahsoka’s lightsaber form is stylistically sound, she covers her weaknesses well and each element of her style complements another. However it has one glaring weaknesses: it is extremely taxing. Ataru is the most demanding form in terms of channelling Force energy, and Djem So is the most demanding form in terms of physical strength, Ahsoka uses both. Given that one would expect her not to be well suited towards protracted engagements and in such confrontations would tire and leave herself exposed.

Ahsoka’s attacks also lack force, given her reliance on speed as opposed to strength and the fact that she uses two lightsabers, dividing her strength between the two blades. And this hampers the effectiveness of her defence as well as the potency of her offense.

Ahsoka is also not particularly durable, physical attacks; blasts etc. will leave her exhausted and hamper her ability to perform a style that demands peak physical efficiency.

And finally she has grown to be overly dependent on her second blade, and when deprived of it, for example when attacked by Barriss Offee, she is unable to fight effectively.

Counter-Strengths

Ahsoka relies on speed as opposed to strength when using Ataru and Djem So, making the form less taxing in that respect, and she is conservative in her use of acrobatics as opposed to an individual such as Yoda, only using them when they can provide her with a strategic advantage. Essentially she is smart in the way she applies her form.

Her focus on speed also makes up for her lack of strength, preferring to slip through rather than batter her opponents defences, disorientating them in order to further create openings.

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Quotes, Clips and Scans:

Ahsoka using her Force-assisted acrobatic abilities to avoid capture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxup-q3bcnw

Ahsoka takes down over half a dozen clones, matching Ventress’ ability blow for blow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNvWb8eEwAA&t=0m36s

A demonstration of Ahsoka using Ataru to evade Grievous’ rapid attacks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e9kxU-13W0&t=1m57s

Ahsoka stuns Asajj Ventress with a Force Push:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH3v1n7uMjo&t=1m24s

Thoughts: Ahsoka is not a high caliber duelist, Force User or fighter at all, but she has great potential and in time with no doubt prove a deadly adversary, if she is not strong already.

If you've got any suggestions for future in-depths or any quotes, clips or scans to add feel free to post below. And as always thoughts and opinions are welcome!

Very nice and well done analysis.

This is will be my main argument for Ahsoka in the Underrated Force Users thread!

I've always thought in terms of physical combat prowess she is undeniably above the level of Padawan and at the level of Knight

Very nice and well done analysis.

 

This is will be my main argument for Ahsoka in the Underrated Force Users thread!

 

I've always thought in terms of physical combat prowess she is undeniably above the level of Padawan and at the level of Knight

Yeah I'd definitely say she's close to Anakin and Kenobi's level as Padawans.

Anyway glad you enjoyed it! I did too! I find that doing characters that are less well known/underrated combat wise is more rewarding, I'm doing another of what you might call "underrated" duelists next.

 

Yeah I'd definitely say she's close to Anakin and Kenobi's level as Padawans.

Ehh...I wouldn't go that far with her being close to Anakin when he was a Padawan....Obi-Wan I could see, but not Anakin.

I apologize if this question is a highjack of your thread, but has there ever been an explanation of what happened to her after TCW? It's seems unlikely she would be missing from the events of Ep III-VI if she were still alive.

Nothing has been said yet, so it's still up in the air on what happens to her.

I dont think she is primarily ataru I am almost certain she is primarily Shien reverse blade I dont think the show is ever a good indication of their lightsaber style prefrence as we see Anakin, a Primary Form V user, only use 1 hand for 90% of attacks which is not supposed to be what he does stylistically.

The movies seem much more accurate.

Nothing has been said yet, so it's still up in the air on what happens to her.

Thanks

I dont think she is primarily ataru I am almost certain she is primarily Shien reverse blade I dont think the show is ever a good indication of their lightsaber style prefrence as we see Anakin, a Primary Form V user, only use 1 hand for 90% of attacks which is not supposed to be what he does stylistically.

 

The movies seem much more accurate.

I prefer, if I have the luxury, to look at TCW as opposed to the movies, which aside from the OT just don't seem that pronounced, whereas the trademark moves and maneuvers and style in general and much more clear in the show.

Anyway I'll take a look at Ahsoka's stances, and see if it indicates anything.

EDIT: Looking again and I'm confident its still Ataru. We see her use both of Ataru's opening stances, namely this one specifically here. And she also uses this one such as here.

And then of course, Form IV is far more compatible with Jar'Kai than Form V which demands a two-handed grip.

Ahsoka fights with a taxing form that wears her out quickly? That means she fights like a Sith.

Its merely an attribute of the Ataru style, its designed to be quick and overpowering and therefore not good for prolonged engagements, your meant to finish your opponent quickly.

P.S. If you are looking for a Sith Form that would be Juyo.