Sith lightsabers are carefully designed to make them the best duelists in Star Wars, but Ahsoka is trained to match and even beat them. There’s a sense in which the lightsaber is a strange tool for a Jedi to use, given they are supposed to be peacekeepers and not warriors. Still, as seen in Star Wars: The High Republic, there have been times when the mere sight of an activated lightsaber was enough to cause combatants to lay down their weapons.
There are actually many different types of lightsaber, ranging from the more basic designs used by prequel era Jedi to the crossguard lightsaber favored by Kylo Ren. Many lightsabers were designed to compensate for the limitations of their wielders; Yoda’s blade is a short shoto, for example, ideally suited to his small size. Other serve their users’ specific focus, designed for dueling. That is particularly true of the Sith, who customized their lightsabers for battle.
Sith lightsabers are undeniably the best for dueling. The dark side seeks to dominate, and Sith naturally view their lightsaber as a tool with which to achieve this. This leads the Sith to modify their lightsabers to give them an edge, and explains why some Sith have wielded unusual and distinctive lightsabers. Darth Maul’s double-bladed lightsaber was perfectly designed to take advantage of the fact few Jedi of the prequel era had really focused on dueling, and lightsaber forms that would allow them to counter a double-bladed weapon had long been out of fashion. Maul was a Sith assassin, and this was an assassin’s tool.
Count Dooku’s elegant lightsaber was, oddly enough, the first hint of the pride and vanity that would lead him to the dark side. Dooku was a practitioner of Form II, Makashi, which was designed for dueling; he prided himself on his skill, and he adapted that lightsaber even when he was a Jedi to help him dominate. As Palpatine himself noted, “The lightsaber’s unusual curved hilt was perfectly balanced to complement his graceful fighting style and expertise as a duelist.”
Viewers can be forgiven for not realizing how unusual Darth Vader’s lightsaber was, though, because its exterior showed no sign of its true power. It was a dual-phase lightsaber, with two kyber crystals placed inside it; Darth Vader could press a switch to cycle the crystals, each of which produced a blade of a different length. This was a smart trick to give him an edge in combat, because Jedi he was fighting would settle into their defensive sequences against him – and then suddenly his blade would change its length, allowing Vader to move to an entirely different attack. It’s one of the major reasons Darth Vader was so good at killing Jedi.
Palpatine preferred demonstrating his power in the Force to lightsaber combat, but he was skilled at using dual lightsabers – an unusual method known as Jar’Kai. His lightsabers were surprisingly basic, albeit crafted out of expensive materials, but he depended on his aggressive combat forms to take opponents by surprise. Jar’Kai in particular was rare in the prequel era, meaning this technique gave Darth Sidious an edge.
Ahsoka Was Trained To Battle Other Lightsaber-Wielders
Ahsoka Tano was one of the few Jedi trained to take on other lightsaber-wielders. Her master, Anakin Skywalker, understood that the Clone Wars could bring her into combat with General Grievous, Asajj Ventress, and potentially even Count Dooku himself. To that end, he trained Ahsoka in Djem So, a lightsaber form perfect for dueling. Ahsoka learned to use two blades in battle – a normal weapon and a shorter shoto, allowing her to effortlessly control the flow of a duel. It’s telling that Ahsoka proved able to defeat Darth Maul during the Siege of Mandalore, given the former Sith Apprentice had matched the more experienced Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi several times.
