The second part of your sentence contradicts the first.
The Clone Wars animated series takes place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Ahsoka was still in the Jedi Temple during the events of Attack of the Clones; she wasn’t assigned to be Anakin’s Padawan until after that. She leaves the Jedi Order before the events of Revenge of the Sith. She didn’t “just manage to be off-screen in every single shot in the second two prequels”, she was waaay off-screen during the second two prequels, nowhere near the action depicted in them.
I presume @DigitalC meant to say “she wasn’t ON screen for any of it”, rather than OFF (my emphasis).
No, I’m pretty sure DigitalC meant what they wrote. They were responding to Darren_Garrison, who wrote:
As Anakin’s assigned trainee, Ahsoka was very often in the core of the actions of the highest ranks of the Jedi, and somehow just managed to be off-screen in every single shot in the second two prequels.
She wasn’t Anakin’s assigned trainee yet nor was she in the core of the actions of the highest ranks of the Jedi yet during Attack of the Clones, and she left the Jedi Order and entirely washed her hands of the Clone Wars before Revenge of the Sith, and so wasn’t Anakin’s assigned apprentice any more nor was she in the core of the actions of the highest ranks of the Jedi anymore. She wasn’t “off-screen” (in the area but not quite on camera), she just wasn’t anywhere near the action or interacting with any of the characters at all during the events of the live-action prequel movies.
H’m. Could be what he meant - and I certainly agree she wasn’t anywhere near any of the action in any of the prequel movies.
Anyway, checking Wookiepedia, it appears that Yoda trained all of the Jedi younglings prior to them being partnered with a master, so Ahsoka would have been familiar with him from there. Heck, he was the one who assigned her to Anakin. She also, IIRC, encountered him several times during the Clone Wars, as well as (in spirit) in Rebels.
This approach is a bit frustrating to be honest. Wouldn’t mind it so much if it was a longer season, but with short seasons made up of shorter than average episodes it starts to feel like a bit of a scam. There are hints of an interesting story there (whatever Moff Gideon up to, plus Bo-Katan and her crew’s quest to re-claim Mandalore and the Darksaber) but we’re already halfway through season 2 and they haven’t even followed up on the Boba Fett tease, Ahsoka is yet to make an appearance etc. Just feels like at this rate it will take them 5 years to get anywhere with all these dangling storylines.
There is a chance of course that her appearance here will serve mainly to set up a spin-off centred on Ahsoka (and possibly Bo-Katan or Sabine).
Bringing in characters from various animated series seems to thrill lots of established fans who know all that is canon. I’ll speak from the perspective of one who has never watched any of the cartoons and slept through the prequels. Don’t care about seeing a live action version of a cartoon character. The big SWU bores me. Season One grabbed me as something fun. Season Two has not. Fan service does not win new fans. I’ll give it another episode I guess but otherwise I’ll wait until I hear reviews after the season.
Well, it’s your loss. And seriously, the Clone Wars and Rebels are worth watching, so you may want to try them.
What?
Far left of the screen.
Might at some point. Did just watch so 1 of Clone Wars. Can’t say it grabbed me. But the point would still stand: Season One pulled in people like me who know little of the extended universe lore. It stood on its own as fun, as interesting. This one almost pushes us away. It is a show for those who are members of the club and not so enjoyable to those who have carried cards for years. By longtime fans for longtime fans of the whole SW shebang. Not a story or stories that pull in independent of that, not character development that does either.
I hope that by the end of season 2 they will have filled in enough blanks that casual fans won’t feel alienated.
It’s a tough balance to get right, pleasing both the mega-fans and non-fans, and occasionally they just have to shrug and choose a side, play it safe or go heavy into obscure lore. But I suspect that the season as a whole will work out better for you than assessing them one episode at a time (even though that’s all you can do right now).
I have spent far too long looking at 3 seconds of footage for evidence of 20th century legwear in a galaxy far, far away.
Oh good lord. . .I spent even more time looking, and when I blew it up to full-screen, slowed it way down, squinted past the laser blasts, in the last 8 frames or so there was a quarter of a crewmember hiding in the far left.
This was like trying to look at the magic eye pictures all over again. 
That is Blooj Eansgui, Imperial Phlebotomist.
I’m sure he has a backstory in the EU that is several novels deep, and legions of fanboys splooged at the sight of Blooj. Blooj the Imperial Phlebotomist likely discovered midi-chlorians, and directed all the Frankenstein-esque experiments at the facility.
I find myself enjoying the show. I don’t care if it’s a bit formulaic - Mando goes somewhere, Mando needs something, Mando does a quest. I just enjoy hanging out in this universe, watching Mando deal with Baby Yoda, and seeing what he gets up to. I don’t even care about advancing the main plot. I just wanna hang out in this world awhile.
Little late to the discussion here, but I think you’ve slightly misread that scene. Mando doesn’t know anything new about the Force. The reason he said “May the Force be with you” to the X-Wing pilots because he was parroting the line in a clumsy attempt to come across as normal and casual. It’s simply monkey see, monkey do.
Also, in the latest episode did I hear a reference over the radio to TK-421?
Did you know that midnight America time is 7pm Australia time? Aaaaanyway…
That was a very interesting episode. It dropped a few exciting tidbits for future storylines, revealed a few things, debuted a character we have all dreamed of seeing in live-action (and frequently fan-cast), and yet also left me with no real idea of what’s to come.
The pacing was oddly deliberate and slow, which didn’t always work for me, but I liked the adventure they had.
Next they go to another planet to do another mysterious thing that will inevitably be interrupted by a side-quest. This is, as has oft been said, very much like a video game.
Ahsoka Tano pretty much stole this episode. Not that I’m complaining. Her reluctance to train Grogu (which we finally know is Baby Yoda’s name) rings true given her life experience - she knows full well what happened to the last extremely Force-Sensitive child who didn’t learn to control his abilities early enough.
The Magistrate’s village has a very 19th Century China feel to it. It plays well in the difference between the two final battles; Ahsoka vs. the Magistrate is a sword duel with elements of kendo, while Din and the Magistrate’s western-looking mercenary captain are staring each other down with guns at the ready.
It’s now been established that Grand Admiral Thrawn is out there somewhere. He’s almost certainly connected to the Imperial Remnant, and probably to Snoke and the First Order as well.
Din and Grogu are now en route to Tython, yet another recovered bit of EU lore - in the The Old Republic MMO, Tython is the ancestral home of the Jedi, dating to about 25,000 years BBY.
Or, possibly, she’s still seeking Ezra Bridger, whom she and Sabine went looking for during the epilogue of Rebels, who was last known at that point to be with Thrawn.
Heck, this may even be a back-door to a new series - not quite a pilot, but a lead-in.