Chapter 2: Remember

Ahsoka Tano touching her head to Grogu’s head, when they meet on Corvus. Image from The Mandalorian, Season 2, Episode 5, The Jedi. Calendar from DateWorks.

Grogu didn’t think he was particularly forgettable. Most people remembered him once they met him. People like Peli Motto, who said things like: “Well, who is this little one?”, and “Thank the Force, he’s okay!”, and “I missed you, you little womp rat.” Or Greef Karga who  remembered that he could, “Do the magic hand thing!”. Although that really wasn’t why Grogu thought he should be remembered. Whatever. They remembered him. 

So why was Ahsoka Tano the person who forgot all about him? If he wanted any one to forget him, he wanted those blasted Imps to forget him, not a person who knew him from their time at the Jedi Temple.

That’s right. They were both at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant at the same time. He was only a few years older than her. Of course Togruta’s and his species age at different rates, but that just meant that his being older didn’t matter much. They had been in the creche at the same time. They had become younglings around the time. She just grew taller than him much, much sooner, but it wasn’t like the other masters wouldn’t let them play or learn together. So what happened?

When she touched her forehead to his, Grogu was overwhelmed with memories for a moment or two, but they weren’t his memories. They were hers. She’d gotten into all sorts of trouble and had traveled all over the galaxy since they’d last seen one another. She also seemed to think that he had been one of the many victims of the Clone attack on the Temple. 

That he could understand. Master Beq had been able to whisk him away just as everything was going wrong and that was, by no means, an easy task. They had managed to leave Coruscant and that had started a whole different phase of Grogu’s life. A phase that had been filled with danger, loss, and pain. He really didn’t need to share that with anyone. 

Even so, he hadn’t forgotten her. He knew her nickname was ‘Snips’. He knew that she had been Anakin Skywalker’s padawan. Personally, he was hoping to be Master Kenobi’s padawan, but a lot of things interfered with that hope. He knew that she had ended up being some sort of leader during the Clone Wars. The other younglings had heard about that from their masters and his friend Ian had thought that was pretty strange, given all the circumstances.

“Listen kid, I don’t know about you, but I’m only eleven years old, give or take. No way could you get me to sign up for being a general or anything else like that. I gotta be able to take care of myself first and let me tell ya, there are a lot of folk here who don’t think I’m capable of that. How the heck is Ahsoka, that little snip of a Togruta, gonna do that? It’s not like that master of her’s is some sort of notoriously cautious fellow. He ain’t, kid. He’s gonna get her in trouble and I’m not here for that.”

Ian had a point. Anakin was often scolded by the other Jedi Masters, including Master Kenobi, about the risks he took while on various missions. Ahsoka had a lot of skills at her disposal, but it wasn’t like Jedi wore Mandalorian armor. They didn’t. If they got hit by a blaster bolt it hurt. A lot. He knew that from having to heal Master Beq when they were on the run from the Clones. 

Of course, Master Kelleran Beq was a risk taker too and Grogu hadn’t minded that aspect of his friend and teacher at all. He supposed that Ahsoka may have considered that a feature of learning from Anakin and not a bug. After all, Master Kenobi was well known for saying that you learned less in a library than on the streets outside of it. 

Grogu didn’t actually believe that. But he understood what his friend meant. The risks you faced theoretically and the ones you faced in reality were rarely the same and a Jedi needed that real world experience if they were to prepare the next class of younglings for their role in the galaxy. Or to make sure there was a next class of younglings. 

Maybe that was why Ahsoka had forgotten him. It was pretty clear after the Clones attacked the Jedi Temple that there wouldn’t be a next class of younglings. They were all gone, one way or the other. It was too painful to believe after all that loss that someone could have survived. After all, he hadn’t thought that she had survived either. 

They had both had years to get used to the absence of other Force sensitive people and then conclude that there weren’t any, anymore. He didn’t count the ones controlled by the Emperor. They weren’t Jedi. They were just survivors. Which could be said about him and Ahsoka Tano. That was worth remembering.