The duel between Ahsoka and Anakin mirrored Darth Vader’s three most essential duels. All of this points to the importance of the Sith Lord in the Star Wars canon. Attention! This article contains SPOILERS for episode 5 of Ahsoka!

Episode 5 of Ahsoka is a significant exploration of the past, referencing Darth Vader’s three most important battles in the Star Wars canon. Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) is reunited with the ghost of his master, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), thanks to a vision (?) through the Force. As a Jedi, she relives key moments from her past as Anakin tries to teach her a critical new lesson. This version of Anakin, however, appears as Ahsoka remembers it in its entirety. Including Darth Vader.

Not only does Anakin duel his former student, but she must also relive the Battle of Ryloth and the Siege of Mandalore from the Clone Wars.

Ahsoka fears that Anakin’s war training has only made him a soldier. As he fears that as Darth Vader, he will become everything his master has become. To that end, when Ahsoka and Anakin meet in the World Between Worlds, three pivotal moments allude to Darth Vader’s greatest and most crucial duel in Star Wars: his duel with his apprentice, son, and master.

“Live or Die” recalls the duel between Ahsoka and Darth Vader in Star Wars Rebels

Anakin’s ghost wants to finish the training Ahsoka never completed after leaving the Jedi Order before the end of the Clone Wars. He declares that he has a new lesson for Ahsoka: “Live… or die”. Duelling with his former apprentice and visiting the past, Anakin shows Ahsoka that he is more than his training while motivating him to find his long-lost purpose.

Ultimately, Ahsoka chooses life before returning to the physical world, having been transformed by his newfound conviction as a Jedi.

This duel and lesson, however, evokes Ahsoka’s real-life duel with Darth Vader in the Sith world of Malachor. As we saw in Star Wars Rebels before the events of the original trilogy, Ahsoka refused to abandon Darth Vader after it was confirmed that he was indeed his master, Anakin Skywalker. However, Vader’s response to Ahsoka’s commitment was that he would die. All of this effectively reflects the beginning of the lesson Ahsoka taught his disciple in Episode 5.

“I won’t fight you”: Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi

Likewise, Ahsoka initially refuses to fight Anakin after he lights his lightsaber in a vision of the World Between Worlds. However, Anakin says he has heard this before. He then forces his former apprentice to defend himself against his plagues. He leaves him no choice. Anakin had indeed heard this phrase before when he was Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi. Faced with his son Luke.

Emperor Palpatine, who wanted to corrupt the young Jedi so that Luke could take Vader’s place, encouraged Vader’s son to surrender his hatred and strike down his father.

Though the dark side indeed tempted Luke, he ultimately refused to fight his father. He threw down his lightsaber, just as Ahsoka did at the end of his duel with Anakin in Ahsoka Episode 5. As a result, it’s an incredibly effective classic mirror image, in keeping with George Lucas’ philosophy that Star Wars is like poetry, where repeated lines rhyme effectively. The real victory in the duel of both Luke and Ahsoka is the victory over the dark side. His refusal to fight or kill Darth Vader in his anger.

“You lack conviction” continues Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Darth Vader Sound Trick

As Ahsoka 5 progresses, Anakin gradually becomes Darth Vader. This version of him eventually gets yellow Sith eyes, and his lightsaber changes from blue to red. Returning to the World Between Worlds to finish their duel, Anakin challenges Ahsoka and exposes his lack of conviction. However, his voice has changed significantly, and it is more robotic, unlike Darth Vader’s voice in the life support armour.

It’s certainly a dynamic way in which the Ahsoka show portrays all that Anakin was on both the light and dark sides of the Force, though it also hints at one of Vader’s most important duels with his master.

As we saw in the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi series, Kenobi and Vader confronted each other after Obi-Wan began to use the Force again as a Jedi. After his guilt and the events of Revenge of the Sith, he has been reclusive due to his years of exile on Tatooine. During their series-ending duel, part of Vader’s helmet was damaged, revealing the man beneath. In addition, Vader’s speaker was damaged, resulting in a dynamic blend of Anakin’s voice with Vader’s. As such, it’s a tragically brilliant sound trick that Ahsoka episode 5 harks back to.

Source: Wookieepedia