The meaning of Ahsoka’s white robe in ‘Ahsoka’ episode 5, explained

The first few episodes of Ahsoka may have sparked mild outrage from fans of Star Wars: Rebels for retconning Ahsoka Tano’s white Jedi status, but there’s no denying the move has paid off. Episode 5 of Ahsoka finally addresses the questions about how the Jedi transformed into her truest self, and to say it was well worth exploring on the big screen (the episode was even shown in select theatres) would be an understatement. Her emergence as “Ahsoka the White” couldn’t have been more visually obvious, but what does the transformation mean for our favorite Togruda Jedi?

What do Ahsoka’s white robes mean?

While grey robes don’t necessarily mean a character is caught between who they are and who they are meant to be, the visual representation certainly makes the transformation dramatic. Similar to Gandalf the Grey’s transformation into Gandalf the White in The Lord of the Rings, Ahsoka’s new look is centered around her personal growth. Though both characters are good, strong, and kind, each has plenty of growing to do at the outset of their respective adventures. Though already paragons of justice, they both have self-doubt to eradicate and mentors to overcome.

Ahsoka’s history is soaked with blood, something that — as a Jedi keeper of the peace — she has a hard time reconciling with during her soldier training under Anakin. Long after her former master fell to the dark side, Ahsoka continued to push her training, and every time she reappeared, she was someone wiser, stronger, and more deserving of the Jedi title — even if she no longer wanted it.

Throughout her tenure on Rebels, Ahsoka makes hard decisions and sacrifices everything for those she loves. Even when she feels what’s left of Anakin trapped inside of Vader, she is still insistent on saving him, feeling that his goodness can be rekindled and unwilling to abandon her master but also unwilling to fight him. Vader kills Ahsoka during their first encounter but with Ezra Bridger’s help and the World Between Worlds, Ahsoka is given one more chance at life.

While her transformation from Grey to White really starts in Rebels, Dave Filloni’s new timeline has helped to make this metamorphosis complete. Just as Gandalf had to battle the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Ahsoka has to confront her own monster in the form of her late master after a near-death experience.  

Her struggle with Anakin is many-fold. She is at once happy to see him but also devastated at encountering his spirit and she struggles with the legacy her master has left for her. As they fight, Ahsoka yet again refuses to fully confront her master, even as he threatens her with death and reveals just how handicapped Vader truly was by his fight with Obi-Wan. It isn’t until Ahsoka accepts that her master’s legacy was not one of only death and that fighting does not only lead to destruction, that she is able to wake and leave the World Between Worlds. The legacy the Skywalker handed down to Ahsoka isn’t just his own, but those who came before him, and all who will come after Ahsoka. She isn’t required to be the master Anakin was, but she is meant to be a teacher.

Ahsoka Tano as a mentor

Ahsoka’s legacy is already littered with those she has influenced. During the Clone Wars, she teaches Lux Bonteri how to open his mind and see the threat the Separatists pose. She acts as a mentor to several Jedi younglings and Padawan who have given up hope while fighting for their lives, and then again to several more, helping them build their lightsabers alongside Huyang. She has trained Ezra Bridger, guided his master Kanan Jarrus, and now trains Sabine. With any luck, she will get the chance to train Jacen Syndulla, or at least help start his journey as a force wielder, and save him from his cursed name.

Ahsoka may have left the actual rebuilding of the Jedi order to Luke Skywalker during the events of The Mandalorian, but there is real potential for her to start something new. She may never claim the Jedi title, but there is no denying that she embodies the greatest aspects of what a Jedi can be.

Dave Filoni, The Lord of the Rings, and its influence on Ahsoka

Dave Filoni has been incredibly candid about his love for The Lord of the Rings and the influence Gandalf the Grey has had on Ahsoka’s journey. Rosario Dawson elaborated on this when she gushed to Entertainment Weekly about her character’s growth.

“Dave and I talked a lot about Gandalf the Gray and Gandalf the White — talking about that transition and how she’s someone very capable and excellent and looked up to as a leader, but she still has levels of development to go.”

In another interview, Dawson elaborated further on the transformation.

“Here is this idea of her becoming wiser, more settled in herself, and kind of exploring herself and developing in a way that I think is really remarkable for someone of that level of prowess and skill and aptitude – that there are still places to reach towards. There’s still more wisdom.”

Filoni himself has looked to Tolkien’s letters to help round out his presentation of Ahsoka. He told fans during a Rebels Q&A that the decision to introduce Ahsoka into the series came from the need for a protector. To introduce Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger to Darth Vader would mean certain death for the fledgling fighters, but Ahsoka could shield them. Ahsoka could stand against Vader where others could not, much like Gandalf could stand against his own mentor, Saruman. During Anakin’s fight with Ahsoka in the World Between Worlds he pushes her to see that his training kept her alive, and could be used in a way he never used it. When Gimli first sees Gandalf after the wizard’s return, they have this interaction:

“He laid his hand on Gimli’s head, and the Dwarf looked up and laughed suddenly. ‘Gandalf!’ he said. ‘But you are all in white!’ ‘Yes, I am white now,’ said Gandalf. ‘Indeed, I am Saruman, one might almost say, Saruman as he should have been.”

I’d speculate that just as Gandalf the White represents all that Saruman the White was meant to be, Ahsoka is meant to represent Anakin’s potential as a Jedi. Through guidance — like that offered to the Fellowship by Gandalf the White — rather than action, Ahsoka will be more equipped to be a keeper of the peace. Ahsoka is Anakin’s greatest success and his ultimate failure; she will be more than he ever was, not because of his lessons, but because she sees his failures. With her emergence as “Ahsoka the White” and her new lease on life, she has the potential to return the Jedi order to some semblance of what it was when she was a youngling should she ever choose it.