The History Behind Ahsoka’s Rare New Force Ability

Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) has always been a powerful figure in the Star Wars universe. In addition to being one of the most skilled lightsaber duelists in the franchise and being particularly acrobatic, she also boasts a very powerful connection to the Force, but before Ahsoka’s debut on Disney+, it was much more difficult to determine just how powerful she was. This is because she disappeared for a bit in-universe during the Galactic Civil War. During the years in which she was absent, it’s believed she went on a spiritual journey through the World Between Worlds.

Evidence of her spiritual journey—and strengthened connection to the Force—was hinted at in the epilogue of Star Wars Rebels when she showed up briefly as Ahsoka the White. However, aside from a few glimpses in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, we haven’t actually seen a lot of this wiser and much more powerful version of Tano. Fortunately, Ahsoka has been remedying some of that for us, especially in “Part 5: Shadow Warrior.”

Ahsoka the White returns in the episode, and we see her perform some amazing feats, including fighting Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) in the World Between Worlds and even giving travel instructions to a Purgill. However, one feat bound to make viewers do a double take is when she uses some aspect of the Force to figure out where Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) went.

Keep in mind that neither Tano nor anyone in her company had known what happened to Wren and the Dark Jedi. Then, Tano just picks up a burnt piece of map they left behind and uses it to trace Sabine to another galaxy and find the pathway to Peridea like it’s no big deal. However, it is a big deal because we’ve rarely seen this Force ability used before.

So, how did Ahsoka do that?

The ability that Tano demonstrated in Ahsoka episode 5 was that of psychometry, also known as Sense Echo. What she did was find an object with a connection to Sabine. In this case, she chose the broken and burnt piece of the star map because it was one of the last things Sabine had touched. Then, she was able to see into the object’s past and learn what happened because Sabine had interacted with the map.

In this case, she was able to actually hear Sabine and Baylan Skoll’s (Ray Stevenson) past conversation to find the information she needed. Ahsoka has never used this ability before, making her sudden mastery of it shocking. Perhaps her latest trip to the World Between Worlds strengthened her bond with the Force. Still, seeing her use psychometry was surprising, given how rare it is.

Only a handful of other Jedi have exhibited the power of psychometry throughout Star Wars history. In Star Wars films and TV shows, Rey (Daisey Ridley) and Quinlan Vos (Al Rodrigo) are the only Jedi to display this unique ability. Meanwhile, in the canon video game Jedi: Fallen Order, Cal Kestis (Cameron Monaghan) also boasts the ability. Part of its rarity might be because we learned in Star Wars: The Clone Wars that the Jedi Order didn’t approve of its use. In all of these cases, though, it seemed like the skill was innate. Especially with Rey, Tano, and Kestis, the skill just showed up spontaneously, and it wasn’t something they trained for.

Tano’s new ability is one of the rarest Force abilities we’ve seen in the Star Wars universe, indicating that the full extent of her powers may still be unknown. After her multiple trips through the World Between Worlds and her enhanced connection with the Force, there may be further rare abilities she’s hiding that could show up in Ahsoka’s future.

(featured image: Disney+)