Highlights
- Star Wars: Ahsoka episode 6 has clarified a confusing anecdote, with a Twitter user explaining the significance of Ahsoka's transformation and its similarity to Gandalf.
- Dave Filoni's choice to draw inspiration from Lord of the Rings for Ahsoka's character is commendable, as it adds depth to the fantasy elements of Star Wars.
- Rosario Dawson's portrayal of Ahsoka, inspired by Gandalf, has helped make the character iconic and has contributed to the show's growing reputation.
With the release of Star Wars: Ahsoka episode 6, one has used social media to give newer fans a clearer understanding of one of the show’s more confusing anecdotes.
Star Wars: Ahsoka is a spin-off of the live-action space western The Mandalorian, similarly set in the period after the fall of the first Galactic Empire and giving fans the first in-depth look at an older, more mature Ahsoka Tano, a character with origins in the animated continuity that began with 2008’s The Clone Wars animated feature. Dave Filoni, the creator of the character and overseer of much of the animated content that carried the franchise forward during the period between the prequel trilogy and the sequels, created and wrote the show for Disney Plus with Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka, reprising the role from her well-received stint on The Mandalorian.
While some fans were initially confused when Dawson revealed pre-premiere that her Ahsoka portrayal had a Lord of the Rings inspiration in the character Gandalf, one social media user has outlined the relationship perfectly, alongside a visual aid that fans will love. Taking to his Twitter account, user Nathan Messer made a three-tweet thread, with the first expressing his pleasure at seeing the journey leading up to Ahsoka's Gandalf-like white transformation, which was seen briefly at the end of Star Wars: Rebels and has now debuted in live action. Alongside it are two images comparing the Rebels and Ahsoka appearances. A third image showcases art by Filoni featuring Ahsoka and her unlikely muse, with Gandalf saying, “People thought I was dead, too. Look how that turned out.”
The next post in the thread explains the similarities that some casual viewers or fans unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings might have missed, reading, “Like Gandalf, Ahsoka overcomes the challenge laid before her, dies to one’s old self, & rises anew, with a new purpose. The White look symbolizing a pure heart with inner peace. A cleanse of the inner trauma she overcame.“ The message succinctly sums up what made Gandalf the ideal source of inspiration for Dawson's portrayal and the main reason many fans think that Ahsoka is the greatest Jedi ever. The final message contains the user’s admiration for FIloni injecting his love for Lord of the Rings into Star Wars.
Lord of the Rings is often (rightly) given a lot of the credit for shaping the fantasy genre and birthed everything from the idea of the RPG genre to best-sellers like Game of Thrones, making it a fitting source of inspiration for just about any fictional work. Filoni's choice is commendable, and not only because of the high quality and wealth of inspiring concepts in J.R.R. Tolkien's work that transcends genres but also because, at its heart, Star Wars is more a fantasy story than a science fiction one. This underlying convenience makes the inspiration taken for Ahsoka not just interesting and functional, but downright ideal.
There is no doubt that Dawson's Gandalf-inspired live-action take on the character has contributed to how the Ahsoka character has become so iconic in the mainstream despite her origins as an animated original. Now that the show has reunited its heroes with their lost comrades and introduced another danger to the New Republic, Ahsoka's reputation can seemingly only go up from here.
Ahsoka releases new episodes on Tuesdays on Disney Plus.
Source: Nathan Messer/Twitter