Star Wars fans are about to get the answer to what now qualifies as an ancient mystery: How does Ahsoka Tano survive the extermination of the Jedi?

The question has grown in importance along with the character herself—a short alien girl with blue and white “head-tails” who has become a towering figure in Star Wars mythology. Not only was she a central character in The Clone Wars and Rebels animated shows, but she is the star of her own Y.A. novel, as well as one of the ethereal voices who guided Rey from the beyond in finale of The Rise of Skywalker.

Ahsoka was the first lead female Jedi, although there is still debate about whether that term should apply to her. Before Rey in The Force Awakens—before Rogue One’s Jyn Erso, The Last Jedi’s Rose Tico, or The Mandalorian’s Cara Dune—there was Ahsoka Tano holding open the blast-door for a new generation of girls and women. Those viewers had Princess Leia and Padmé Amidala, but wanted more.

Ahsoka Tano brought it.

When viewers first met the young Force-wielder in the first episode of The Clone Wars in 2008, it wasn’t clear that she had much future. She was a Jedi in training, a padawan, learning from Anakin Skywalker, who would go on to become Darth Vader. Her chances of survival were grim at best. Even her creators—George Lucas and Dave Filoni—weren’t sure where she was headed.

Then The Clone Wars halted production following Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012, and it seemed as if the question might never be answered at all. When season five ended in 2013, Ahsoka was last seen walking away from the Jedi order. She didn’t turn up at all in season six, an abbreviated run of episodes that were too far along in production to scrap. A few years later, fans saw her reappear as an older figure in Rebels, uniting the Rebellion and facing down her old mentor, by then known as Darth Vader.

It took until now, six years later, to find out how she survived the purge that ended the other Jedi in Revenge of the Sith. The resurrected season seven of the The Clone Wars is finally telling that tale with its final episodes on Disney+, starting tonight with a showdown between Ahsoka and another looming Star Wars figure, the demonic dark-sider known as Maul.

Ahsoka’s journey is likely to continue soon, if rumors are to be believed. The character will reportedly turn up in the next season of The Mandalorian, which is set after the fall of Vader and the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. (Rosario Dawson has strongly implyied she’ll be playing the character in live-action.)

As this chapter of her story concludes, Vanity Fair spoke with some of Ahsoka’s creators and admirers about where she came from, where she’s going, and how she changed everything.

A Long Time Ago…

After finishing the prequel films, George Lucas wanted to make an animated series to tell the in-between story of “the Clone Wars,” which were first alluded to in 1977’s original Star Wars. The lead characters of the show would be Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, but also a youngling—never seen before.