Unlike the protagonists of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin’s former Jedi apprentice spends season 7 watching the decay of the Republic and the Jedi Order from the ground level. She not only meets those abandoned and victimized by the Jedi during the war but also watches clones die for nothing during Order 66. While Anakin and Obi-Wan are shouting about the morality of the Jedi on Mustafar, Ahsoka is actually in the thick of it, seeing firsthand the devastation caused by the Republic at the end of the war.
It’s not surprising that, by the final scene of the series, Ahsoka has decided to throw down her lightsaber and renounce the Jedi for good. While we know that she’ll eventually join the fight against the Empire in Rebels, at this moment, she’s done having faith in the perceived force for good. In the end, the Jedi and the Republic hurt the galaxy just as much as the Separatists did. It’s why so many people cheer as Palpatine establishes himself as Emperor of the galaxy in Revenge of the Sith. A tired and wartorn galaxy is ready to accept “peace” any way it can get it.
With The Clone Wars finale so closely connected to Revenge of the Sith, it should be pretty clear how the animated series fits into Star Wars canon, right? While Disney has indeed deemed The Clone Wars an official part of the saga’s canon that bridges the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, this can be a little confusing for those who started watching the animated series before Disney bought Lucasfilm and the rights to Star Wars in 2012.
You see The Clone Wars first debuted in 2008 and was created by George Lucas himself, with Dave Filoni taking on showrunner duties. Premiering four years before Disney took over and rebooted much of the Expanded Universe, The Clone Wars technically began existence as part of the original canon of Clone Wars stories before being grandfathered into the current Disney canon.
While the pre-Disney The Clone Wars didn’t really go out of its way to make direct connections with Clone Wars books like The Cestus Deception by Steven Barnes, Jedi Trial by David Sherman and Dan Cragg, and Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover; or comics like Dark Horse’s excellent Republic series; it did feature at least one element of the 2003 Clone Wars micro-series in dark side assassin Asajj Ventress. Even if we didn’t really see the events of fan-favorite stories like the MedStar books starring Jedi healer Barriss Offee unfold on the show, it was understood that The Clone Wars was still a part of this larger storyline.