With the release Clone Wars Season 7 Episode 11 SHATTERED yesterday, many of us asked the
question, why did Rex execute Order 66 on Ahsoka when she is not a Jedi?
On top of this Commander Rex also ordered the execution of Maul, who was obviously as
far from a Jedi as you can get, so why did he do it?
I’m going to break some very interesting potential reasons for Rex to turn on Ahsoka
and why Palpatine may have specifically targeted her.
So before we dive deep into it, remember to subscribe to the channel to be notified as
soon as I release my Clone Wars Season 7 Episode 12 predictions video tomorrow, which is coming
much sooner than usual because of the early release of the Clone Wars Season 7 Finale,
on May the 4th.
After Palpatine made the call to Commander Rex and the other Clone Troopers to execute
Order 66, he turned on Ahsoka and attempted to kill her.
After Ahsoka managed to escape the attempt on her life through a hole in the ceiling,
Rex explained to his men what the exact meaning of Order 66 was and what they must do to ensure
its success.
Rex stated that Order 66 was a directive given by the Supreme Chancellor that ordered the
immediate termination of all members of the Jedi leadership for treason against the republic.
Any clone that did not comply with this order would also be executed for treason.
Ahsoka however is neither a member of the Jedi leadership or a member of the Jedi order
at all by this point, so why did Order 66 include her?
It’s possible that Palpatine himself had specifically added Ahsoka to the list of Jedi
to be executed.
Because of her deep connection to Anakin Skywalker, the new apprentice of Palpatine, he may have
included her in the list to prevent Anakin from having any further contact with her.
It’s possible that Palpatine believed Ahsoka would be the only person (including Luke later
on) that could turn Anakin away from the dark side and back towards the light.
For this reason, he may have specifically placed Ahsoka on the Clone’s inhibitor chip
as a way to remove all potential allies of Anakin that could sway him.
As for why Maul was included in Order 66, it could potentially be for very similar reasons.
Maul of course was the former apprentice to Darth Sidious and knew much about his plans
to overthrow the Jedi and the Republic.
Although he didn’t directly know about Order 66, he did know that Palpatine’s true identity
was Darth Sidious and knew enough to uncover Sidious’ plan should he feel it was necessary.
Another potential solution for Rex ordering Maul’s execution could simply be that he
is a known enemy to the Republic.
Prior to the Phantom Menace, the Sith were believed to be completely eradicated from
the Galaxy, until the appearance of Darth Maul on Tatooine.
After he was confirmed to be one of the two potential Sith Lords of the current Rule of
Two, he was declared an enemy to the Republic by both the Jedi Order and the Republic senate.
It’s possible that Maul was not actually included in Order 66, but because Rex had
no way of keeping Maul’s capture secure without Ahsoka, he decided to execute him
for his own safety.
For a final possibility that covers both Ahsoka and Maul, it’s possible that Order 66 was
simply not fully explained by Rex.
Order 66 may just have been an order that did in fact target all force users except
those specifically protected by Palpatine, like Anakin.
This would make a lot of sense, and is also supported by some recent Canon Material.
In the 2018 Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith Comics, two inquisitors were killed by
purge troopers, when a Jedi survivor of the Great Purge was able to use the force to activate
order 66 inside of the Purge Troopers chip.
When the order was given to the troopers through the force, they begam firing on the inquisitors,
who clearly weren’t Jedi.
So because both Maul and Ahsoka are known by Rex to be force sensitive, it would make
perfect sense for him to target them both.
Those are some theories behind why Commander Rex ordered both Maul and Ahsoka to be executed,
despite them not being members of the Jedi leadership.
So let me know what you think the reasoning behind Rex’s turn on Ahsoka was in the comments
down below.
I’m sure we’ll get a whole lot more answers about this question in Clone Wars Season 7
Episode 12, so be sure to subscribe to the channel to be notified when my recap + explainer
is released.
Thanks again so much for watching, Cheers guys!