Resolve (episode)

A former Jedi is faced with the truth that they cannot be something they are not.

On Naboo, crowds gather in Theed to mark the funeral of Senator Padmé Amidala. In the crowd, Senators Bail Organa and Mon Mothma, colleagues of the late Amidala, stand together. Bail catches sight of a familiar face in the crowd: Ahsoka Tano, former Padawan of Amidala's secret husband, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. But Ahsoka vanishes almost as soon as Bail notices her.

Bail follows Ahsoka into a colonnade of the royal palace, tells her that there was nothing she could've done for Anakin & Padmé, and asks her why she came given the danger. Ahsoka says that Padmé was her friend, and Bail responds that she couldn't have done anything for either of them. Noticing that a clone trooper patrol is approaching, Bail asks Ahsoka where her ship is, and she says it's by the river. Bail leads her away just before two Coruscant Guard shock troopers enter the colonnade.

At a balcony above the cliffs by the river, Bail gives Ahsoka a comlink in case she needs help, but she initially refuses it, saying she's tired of fighting. The clones approach, seeing Bail on the balcony, but the Senator turns back to find that Ahsoka has vanished, having leapt atop the roof. Bail offers his identification when the troopers demand it, and is told the area is out of bounds. The Senator agrees to be escorted back to the funeral procession, claiming the trying times have left him confused, but slips in some coded messages to Ahsoka offering his help, reminding her of duty, and suggesting that she indeed contact him. After Bail and the clones have gone, Ahsoka leaps below the balcony. She descends to the bottom of the canyon and returns to where a Y-wing starfighter is parked, with Rex and R7-A7 waiting for her, and they depart once everyone is onboard.

Some time later, workers at a small farm village work on the harvest, including a sister and brother pair and an old man who supervises. Ahsoka Tano is among them. The siblings argue over how many bales of the harvest should be put on a repulsorlift cart, as the sister believes her brother is having the droids load too much weight. As the group breaks for a meal, a droid adds another bale which proves to be too much, causing the load to collapse onto the sister. She avoids injury or death, and the others believe she was lucky, but the sister spots the Togruta she knows as "Ashla" in a particular stance and realizes she used telekinesis to save her life.

At the meal, the sister invites Ashla, who usually sits alone, to join the group. They discuss the Galactic Empire, which the old man is wary of while the brother insists the Emperor has brought peace to the galaxy, and that only rebels are in any danger from the government. Later that night, the sister talks to Ahsoka, making it clear she saw what she did but promising to keep her secret. Ahsoka denies everything, but the sister cheerfully says she'll see her in the morning for their trip to deliver the harvest to Mon-Hella. The brother, however, overheard everything while hiding behind a building. In the morning, the old man and the brother see the two young women off, and Ahsoka is momentarily suspicious when the brother says "May the Force be with you."

The brother contacts the Empire about a Jedi at his settlement, expecting to be rewarded. But the Inquisitor who is sent razes the settlement, leaving only the brother and the old man alive as his prisoners. The Inquisitor accuses the brother of lying to him. When Ahsoka and the sister return that night, they find the settlement in flames.

At first the Inquisitor does not recognize her, and attempts to "reward" the brother by executing him, but Ahsoka uses the Force to save him, revealing herself as a Jedi, causing the Inquisitor to realize who she is and claim that she "should be dead". Ahsoka quickly disarms the inquisitor of his double-bladed spinning lightsaber before decapitating him. Knowing the Empire would send reinforcements, Ahsoka tells the three survivors that they will have to leave, but as the sister tearfully tells her brother that she told him so, she asks where they could possibly go.

Ahsoka contacts Senator Organa, who arrives in the Tantive IV to pick everyone up. The old man and the siblings board the Alderaanian vessel with their belongings, and Bail tells Ahsoka he didn't think she was going to contact him after all. Ahsoka gives him back the comlink, and he tells her that things have only gotten worse in the wider galaxy, asking if she is ready to rejoin the fight. Ahsoka pauses, and nods determinedly.

"Resolve" was released as the sixth episode of the animated anthology television series Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi on October 26, 2022. Prior to its release, an official press kit announced the episode's title as "Coda."

"Resolve" follows the same basic outline as the 2016 novel Ahsoka, written by E. K. Johnston. In an interview with Nerdist, Dave Filoni, Ahsoka Tano's creator, said that the episode was based on the same outline that he had written for the novel, and that the two works thus told basically the same story. The general outline: Ahsoka Tano hides in a remote farming community after the rise of the Empire under the alias "Ashla". She befriends a human woman around her age who discovers her secret. The community is threatened by an Inquisitor after Tano's secret is revealed, but she quickly defeats her enemy with his own weapon despite being unarmed. She arranges for the evacuation of the community's survivors, and agrees to join Bail Organa's rebel movement.

However, the novel contains many characters and events which are not present in the episode. The farm village shown in "Resolve" is also noticeably different from Raada, which in the novel is a moon with only one settlement, as in the episode Tano and the sister are not present during the Inquisitor's attack because they are delivering the harvest to be sold elsewhere on the world they are on. The timing of Tano's first post-Order 66 contact with Bail Organa is also irreconcilable with the novel: in the book, Tano and Organa make contact over a year after the formation of the Empire in a reunion where R2-D2 plays a major role. Tano is surprised to hear that Organa is still alive despite being a known Jedi sympathizer, and Organa is also surprised on finding out that she is the person he sent agents after to try and recruit. In the episode, however, Tano and Organa's first contact is shortly after the formation of the Empire. The novel's Inquisitor is identified as the Sixth Brother, but the Inquisitor in the episode has yet to be identified.

Tano's voice actress, Ashley Eckstein, stated that the novel did not come into discussion while the episode was in production and that she never asked Filoni where it fell in relation to the book, such as whether "Resolve" came before or after its events. She regarded the episode as "an extension of the novel" and the beginning of "that chapter" of Tano's life. Despite noting the connections between the stories, she expressed a great appreciation for the characters of Kaeden and Miara Larte and even noted that she hoped to see them again in future stories.

The reference book Star Wars The Dark Side Pocket Expert, which includes information from the Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi series, lists Sixth Brother as only appearing in Ahsoka and Star Wars: Darth Vader (2017). The 2023 novel Inquisitor: Rise of the Red Blade would also describe the Sixth Brother in a fashion that matched his appearance in Ahsoka, not the Tales of the Jedi Inquisitor. Ultimately, canonical sources have therefore indicated that the Inquisitor who appears in "Resolve" is not the same character as the Sixth Brother. As such, the events of Ahsoka and "Resolve" must be separate incidents.