Here’s Why Ahsoka’s Lightsabers Look Different in ‘The Clone Wars’ Season 7 and ‘Star Wars Rebels’
With The Mandalorian over for the season and The Rise of Skywalker finally out, the next big Star Wars release is the hit show, The Clone Wars. This time, the show already has a built-in audience, and it’s coming back after a nearly six-year gap. Needless to say, fans are hungry for it. Since its cancellation in 2014, Dave Filoni and other creators on the show have shared what they were already planning to put in the show, so fans already know what to expect, including Ahsoka’s return after she left the Jedi Order in Season 5.
While she’s not coming back to the Order, she is returning to lead some Clones into battle in the Siege of Mandalore. If you’ve seen the trailer for the final season already, you know that Ahsoka’s lightsabers look different from the ones she used up until she left, and the ones she has in Star Wars Rebels. Minor spoilers for The Clone Wars Season 7.
The former Jedi started using two blades in Season 3 of ‘The Clone Wars’
Ahsoka Tano was Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan, assigned to him by Master Yoda in the 2008 movie that started The Clone Wars series. She started with a green blade when first introduced, which is a common Jedi blade color. After the Jedi pick their kyber crystal to power the weapon, the blade takes its color. It’s associated with the Jedi’s spiritual alignment. Green blades can mean a range of things about the Jedi it belongs to but usually denotes harmony and goodwill.
In Season 3, Episode 10, “Heroes on Both Sides,” Ahsoka’s outfit changes, and she’s rocking two blades instead of one. Not like a Sith double-edged lightsaber, but a blade for each hand. They’re still green, and no one comments on the switch. In the Forces of Destiny episode, “Teach You, I Will,” you can see her train and get used to them.
The official Star Wars site says that Ahsoka uses two sabers because she’s such a “skilled duelist.” They write she “built a second green-bladed lightsaber with a shorter, shoto-style blade,” and she uses the shorter one to “complement her primary weapon.”
Season 7 reveals her new, blue lightsaber blades
Thanks to Barriss Offee framing Ahsoka, the Jedi Order loses faith in her. Tano goes on the run for a bit, before getting caught and almost charged with the crime of bombing a Jedi temple. Even though they try to welcome her back after Anakin helps clear her name, she doesn’t trust them — nor herself — anymore. She doesn’t see herself fit to be a Jedi and leaves the Order and her lightsabers.
When she comes back in Season 7, the trailers show that she gets her sabers back, but they’re blue this time around. Blue denotes bravery and righteousness, according to ScreenRant and is a color used by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin.
In the novel, Ahsoka, it says her blades are still green at this time, when Ahsoka leaves them after the Siege of Mandalore. But, we’re going to overlook that continuity error. It’s possible it’s a mistake in the trailer and could be fixed before it airs. Or the new color could also just be a retcon for whatever reason. Anakin does have them, and his saber color is blue, so they were possibly influenced by his aura alignment. Or, it’s possible that after leaving the Order and coming back, Ahsoka’s spirit shifted, hence her new color.
Ahsoka had to leave her lightsabers on Mandalore to throw the Empire off her trail
Regardless, we know that by the time she comes back in Star Wars Rebels, years after Anakin becomes Darth Vader, her lightsabers are white. That’s because she leaves her blue/green sabers after the Siege of Mandalore, as stated in Ahsoka. Again, this overlaps with Anakin turning to the Dark Side and the Republic becoming the Empire.
After losing Maul to save Rex, and after all the other Clone troopers turn on the Republic and Jedi, she has to flee. Rex removed his brain implant, so he doesn’t try to kill Ahsoka, but they still separate since it’s the best chance they have for survival. Ultimately, they fake their deaths.
A little over a year later, near the end of the novel, Ahsoka decides it’s time to fight back against the Empire. And even though she doesn’t see herself as a Jedi (and never really does again, from what we know), she makes two new lightsabers. She defeats an Inquisitor, takes his bleeding kyber crystals, and purifies them again.
Her alignment, this time, keeps the crystals white, which is attributed to the fact that she’s neither Jedi nor Sith. She’s genuinely independent at this point. Just like her own story, Ahsoka’s lightsabers have one of the best developments in Star Wars.