Summary
- Luke Skywalker's character in the new canon of Star Wars has been controversial, deviating from his original trilogy trajectory and making questionable choices.
- The Legends timeline allowed Luke to continue growing and learning, with his defeats teaching him important lessons and his love for friends and family remaining constant.
- Ahsoka Tano fills the role of Luke Skywalker in the canon continuity quite well, embodying Anakin's legacy, valuing her loved ones over Jedi duties, and confronting threats like Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Luke Skywalker’s role in the Star Wars Legends continuity has been filled by the new canon’s Ahsoka Tano in a variety of ways. The canon timeline’s iteration of Luke Skywalker has been quite contentious among viewers, whether or not they are familiar with his Legends-era story. The characterization of the current canon’s Luke, unfortunately, arguably works against his original trilogy trajectory, having Luke rebuild the Jedi Order with its prequel-era flaws, consider murdering a beloved family member, and doom the galaxy to a new oppressive regime through inaction.
The Legends timeline by no means halted Luke’s character development, nor did it increase his wisdom and power without purpose. This once-canonical iteration of Luke continued to grow and learn about Jedi Knighthood, with his many defeats and mistakes proving as instructive as his victories. Fundamentally, Luke never loses one of his core traits from the original trilogy: his undying love for his friends and family members. Luke values his loved ones more than his duties and positions within the New Jedi Order, Rebellion, and New Republic, and the lessons he learned in the original trilogy have a strong influence on the philosophies of his generation of Jedi. While canon’s Luke does not live up to the Legends incarnation, Ahsoka Tano fills the role quite well.
Your browser does not support the video tag. 8 Ahsoka Takes The Role Of A Wandering Knight 
Ahsoka Tano fills a similar role to the Legends-era Luke Skywalker after the events of Return of the Jedi but before the establishment of the New Jedi Order. Luke Skywalker officially left the New Republic roughly a year after Return of the Jedi. For the next six years, he continued to assist the New Republic as needed in an unofficial capacity, in addition to simply helping those in need. While little is known about Ahsoka Tano's time between the events of Star Wars Rebels and The Mandalorian, she is shown to similarly act as a wandering knight, using her powers and Jedi training to help those in need.
7 Ahsoka Prefers To Redeem Her Enemies 
A defining moment in Luke Skywalker’s original trilogy story is his desire to redeem Darth Vader, a lofty goal that he achieves in Return of the Jedi. This sentiment would go on to define Luke in further Legends-era properties, with Luke preferring to redeem his enemies, from Imperials to dark side-users, rather than simply defeat them. The Luke of the Legends continuity disagreed with the idea that the dark side will forever dominate one’s destiny. Ahsoka Tano displays the same attitude, attempting to bring out the good side of Darth Vader and Darth Maul in her respective battles with them. Tano even figuratively redeemed a pair of dark-side-corrupted Kyber Crystals.
6 Ahsoka Is Seen As Anakin's Legacy 
The Ahsoka show has made it clear that Ahsoka, more than anybody else in the canon continuity, truly embodies the legacy of Anakin Skywalker. Indeed, Ahsoka’s unconventional tactics and tendency to bend or even break the rules of the prequel-era Jedi are reminiscent of Anakin Skywalker, but unlike her master, Ahsoka never fell to the dark side, nor did she feign falling to it as Luke did in Legends. The Legends continuity’s Luke is everything that Anakin could have been, had he remained a Jedi. Luke not only has Anakin’s legendary connection to the Force, but he also brings about a new and balanced iteration of the Jedi Order.
