Say Goodbye to Ahsoka Tano as You Know Her

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Ahsoka “Part Five: Shadow Warrior.”

The latest episode of the Disney+ Ahsoka series brought the eponymous ex-Jedi’s story full circle, marking the symbolic end of her training under Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). Not only did their reunion in the World Between Worlds give Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) the closure she needed to move on from her past, but it also helped her to reach her final evolution to “Ahsoka the White.”

Related: “I Can’t Stop Thinking About This Scene!” Fans Go Wild Over Major ‘Ahsoka’ Cameo

‘Star Wars’ Creators Pull Inspiration Their Literary Heroes

It’s no secret that great artists are influenced by those who came before them. Take George Lucas’ Star Wars, for example, which took heavy inspiration from Frank Herbert’s Dune. George R.R. Martin, the author of the wildly popular A Song of Ice and Fire, cites H.P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, and Robert E. Howard as being some of his early creative influences.

Obviously, Star Wars has come a long way since George Lucas’ space opera first hit theaters in 1977, with the Walt Disney Company purchasing Lucasfilm for a whopping $4.05 billion in 2012. And with these changes have come new writers and creators, all with unique styles and influences of their own.

Related: After Fifteen Years, ‘Star Wars’ Icon Finally Appears in Live-Action

Dave Filoni, who’s responsible for bringing animated series including Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels to life, was directly mentored by Lucas himself and is regarded today for being one of the sole creators keeping the spirit of the original Star Wars movies going into the Disney era.

‘Ahsoka’ Is Heavily Influenced by ‘Lord of the Rings’

Now, with Lucas out and Filoni all-in on expanding Lucasfilm’s roster of Disney+ originals, the latter is starting to embed his creative inspirations into recent projects like The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, particularly when it comes to his love of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels.

The fantasy epic heavily influences Filoni’s work, and he often adds references to the saga in Ahsoka. Allegedly, the working title of her Disney+ spinoff show was “Stormcrow”—as in the name “Stormcrow” that King Théoden gives to Gandalf.

Ahsoka Is Now “Ahsoka the White,” Episode 5 Ending Explained

But that’s far from the only nod to J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. During an August interview, star Rosario Dawson teased “a lot of Gandalf references” in Ahsoka. Filoni supposedly compared this older, wiser version of Ahsoka to Gandalf, who underwent a transformation from “Gandalf the Grey” to “Gandalf the White” after he dies in battle with a monstrous Balrog in the first Lord of the Rings novel.

As fans of the fantasy saga know, Gandalf is “resurrected” and returns 20 days later with increased power, confidence, and broader knowledge. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Ahsoka copied Gandalf’s transformation almost beat-for-beat in “Part Five: Shadow Warrior” after her initial reunion with her former master in the World Between Worlds in “Part Four: Fallen Jedi.”

In what might be one of the best pieces of modern-day Star Wars media, the fifth episode of Ahsoka follows our titular hero as Anakin sets out to complete her training with one not-so-simple lesson: “Live…or die.”

Using the mystical powers of the World Between Worlds, Ahsoka’s old mentor, now a Force ghost, takes her back in time to the early days of the Clone Wars, where Ariana Greenblatt plays her as a teenager. Along the way, there’s some truly chilling foreshadowing of Anakin’s future/past as Darth Vader, which forces Ahsoka to come to terms with the fact that her master embodies both the Light and Dark Sides of the Force—as all living beings do.

This final step in her training sees Ahsoka return from the World Between Worlds much changed after she’s rescued by Jacen (Evan Whitten) and Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and her new white robes mirror the evolution that’s taken place internally. Visually, Ahsoka has completed this transformation by the end of the episode, emerging from her starship in white robes that act as a not-so-subtle nod to Gandalf’s re-emergence as Gandalf the White in the Lord of the Rings books and movies.

What Does Ahsoka’s Transformation Mean?

So, what does this change signify? Ahsoka has undergone a similar transformation before following her first confrontation with the World Between Worlds in Rebels. But given that she was clearly not prepared to take Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) under her wing as her Padawan trainee, leading to their strained relationship in the Ahsoka show, she probably still had a bit of work to do before she fully adopted her “Ahsoka the White” persona.

For one, Ahsoka’s new white robes look much closer to the traditional Jedi robes donned by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) in the Prequel Trilogy. While this could just be an aesthetic choice, it could represent a new comfort with belonging, in some ways, to the Jedi Order she chose to leave all those years ago. It also speaks to the legacy of her lineage, with Anakin lecturing Ahsoka on the long line of Jedi that came before her, including Obi-Wan and his master, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson).

White also seems to represent a clean slate, with Ahsoka opting for white lightsabers in the latter seasons of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series, symbolizing her allegiance to no one after she was essentially shunned from the Jedi Order. This is a clever nod to one of Professor Huyang’s (David Tennant) lines: “Perhaps it is time to begin again.”

Ultimately, Ahsoka’s evolution to “Ahsoka the White” highlights that she’s taking another step along her journey, becoming still wiser and more powerful. We’ve already seen her learn new skills in the Force, like psychometry, which allowed her to feel impressions from the broken map that holds the key to Grand Admiral Thrawn’s (Lars Mikkelsen) location in the Unknown Regions.

Similar to how Jedi Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray/Eman Esfandi) communicated with the giant, hyperspace-traveling Purrgil in Rebels, Ahsoka also seems to have learned how to talk to the massive beasts, asking a pod to take her and Huyang to the mysterious second galaxy in the final minutes of Ahsoka Episode 5.

We still have yet to see if Anakin’s training will pay off, especially as Ahsoka and the crew gear up for their long-awaited fight with Thrawn, Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), and Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno). But in wearing white, Ahsoka has finally cemented who she is after years of serving the Jedi and the Republic.

Now, instead of blending in by wearing grey, Ahsoka is emerging from the shadows, leaving her years of running and hiding from her problems in the past to charge headfirst into an unknown galaxy to become the hero she is.

What do you think of “Ahsoka the White” coming into her own in the most recent episode? Let us know in the comments below.