New posters for Ahsoka give us a closer look at Baylan Skoll’s orange lightsaber and the weapon has some details unlike anything we’ve seen in live-action Star Wars before.
Ever since Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati appeared in the very first teaser for Ahsoka, Star Wars fans have been eager to learn more about them, not least because their orange-tinted lightsabers hinted that they are something other than Sith. Now, a newly released poster for the Disney+ series suggests that Baylan’s lightsaber could be unlike anything we’ve seen in any of the live-action films or series so far.
Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati’s orange lightsabers catch the eye
When the first teaser trailer for Ahsoka dropped at Star Wars Celebration earlier in 2023, the internet went wild with theories about the series’ villains, Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati.
The master and apprentice duo instantly piqued the attention of eagle-eyed viewers as their apparently red lightsabers appeared to have a more orange hue.
Instead of being members of the Sith Order, this would likely make them Dark Jedi – not quite embracing the evil nature of the Sith but also straying from the light of the Jedi.
In the case of Baylan, he was once a member of the Jedi Order itself but strayed from the light side after surviving Order 66, turning his talents to violent mercenary work alongside his assassin apprentice.
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Why Baylan Skoll’s lightsaber is more interesting than first thought
With the arrival of Ahsoka now bearing down on us, a swathe of new posters have been released and the one featuring the late Ray Stevenson’s Baylan Skoll is particularly noteworthy.
The poster gives us a closer look at the Dark Jedi’s lightsaber and it’s clear that the design of the weapon – and Baylan’s armor for that matter – takes a great deal of inspiration from medieval or Arthurian knights.
Baylan’s lightsaber features a much longer hilt than many of the laser swords we’ve seen in Star Wars before, requiring him to wield it with a two-handed grip, making it resemble a longsword or a claymore sword.
We have seen lightsabers with longer hilts before, notably Darth Maul’s dual-bladed lightsaber as well as the crossguard lightsaber in the video game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
However, while there are some definite similarities between Baylan and Cal’s lightsabers and the way they wield the heavy weapons with two hands, Baylan’s claymore saber will be the first time such a weapon has appeared in live-action.
How the orange lightsabers could have got their color
Of course, the biggest talking point about the villain’s lightsaber is its color.
Traditionally, lightsabers are powered by kyber crystals which are naturally colorless before taking on the hue that best suits the Force user who finds it – and orange kyber-powered lightsabers do exist in Star Wars canon.
When a Jedi discovers a kyber crystal, it usually results in a blue or green lightsaber blade while a Sith who turns to the dark side will ‘bleed’ a kyber crystal so that it takes on its signature appearance.
Perhaps, Baylan and Shin’s blades became orange after they strayed from the ways of the Jedi but did not fully embrace the Sith?
However, there could be another reason for their lightsabers’ unusual color.
In the 2019 Star Wars novel Master & Apprentice, which follows Qui-Gon Jinn and a 17-year-old Obi-Wan Kenobi on a daring adventure, readers were introduced to another type of crystal called a kohlen crystal.
These new crystals were discovered on the moon of Pijal and while they may resemble kyber crystals on the surface, they are completely different on a microscopic level.
Despite this, they can still be used to power a lightsaber, albeit one with a weaker blade that is colored orange.
Beyond taking on the appearance of a medieval sword, could Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati’s lightsaber blades be powered by this alternative crystal? We’ll have to watch Ahsoka to find out for sure.
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Ahsoka is scheduled to arrive on Disney+ with its first two episodes on Wednesday, August 23, 2023.
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