George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, originally intended lightsabers only to have three colors: blue and green for the good guys and red for the evil guys. Then, Samuel Jackson came along and may or may not have convinced Lucas at gunpoint to give a purple lightsaber to his character, Mace Windu. So now we have other lightsaber colors.
Why is this important? Because there’s now a white lightsaber in the live-action Star Wars canon, courtesy of Ahsoka and her very own Ahsoka series.
Ahsoka’s lightsabers are conspicuously white, making them stand out a lot more compared to the usual canon lightsaber colors from the good guys (and yes, she’s one of them). That begs the question, why are her lightsabers white? Why not purple, yellow, cyan, or the simpler blue and green as is the case for the usual Jedi selection?
Well, if we’re going by how Samuel Jackson handled his request for a more unique lightsaber, then the simplest explanation is that they wanted Ahsoka to be as unique as a character, especially in her own debut Ahsoka series. That’s it. She’s unique compared to other Jedi, despite looking like she weaponized two fluorescent tubes.
However, this is Star Wars. There’s usually a lore for everything, even ones made retroactively for initially unexplained stuff. So here’s the official explanation for the white Ahsoka Tano lightsabers.
They’re Purged Sith Lightsabers
To understand the lore behind the white Ahsoka Tano lightsabers, we first need to explain the mechanism behind lightsabers and how they work depending on the wielder.
All lightsabers in Star Wars are powered by the rare kyber crystals, which allow Force users to focus and channel energy through the handle and manifest it into a laser-like blade that can cut through almost anything. These crystals are also somewhat sentient and are attuned to the Force.
The color of the kyber crystals thus determines the color of the lightsaber’s blade; however, Jedi can’t be too picky with their colors and crystals.
It’s actually the other way around. It’s the kyber crystals that react to a specific Jedi or Force user. Basically, the kyber crystal picks its owner, regardless of its color.
It’s also worth noting that red is not a natural color for kyber crystals. These are the only known natural kyber crystal colors:
- Amethyst/Purple
- Black
- Blue
- Cyan
- Green
- Indigo
- Magenta
- Orange
- Yellow
You’ll notice that there’s no red or white kyber crystal, but there are plenty of Sith running around with red lightsabers like it’s their ID, and of course, there’s the white Ahsoka Tano lightsabers. Those are anomalies.
Red & White Lightsabers Aren’t for the Jedi
The Sith were able to turn their lightsabers red thanks to a dark ritual called “bleeding.”
Bleeding here isn’t literal, as in they pour their blood on the kyber crystals like in the name of fashion. No, bleeding is a more figurative ritualistic term for the Sith where they channel and pour into the kyber crystals their negative emotions like anger, hate, pain, rage, and their desire for dark eyeliner and black leather. Just kidding, it’s actually black robes, not leather.
This turns their once naturally-colored lightsabers red and, in turn, produces synthetic red kyber crystals.
As for the white Ahsoka Tano lightsabers, this happened during her exile from the Jedi Order. Ahsoka still upheld the duties of a Jedi and hunted down Sith while being an outcast.
During one of her fights, she faced and killed a Sith Inquisitor named the Sixth Brother. Due to her exile from the Jedi Order, Ahsoka had no lightsaber. So she took the Sixth Brother’s lightsaber and purified it of its corruption using the Force.
Once Ahsoka purged the Sixth Brother’s lightsaber of its bleeding and corruption, it turned white, creating a new type of kyber crystal and of course, a more distinct lightsaber color.
Consequently, this act made Ahsoka the only Force user or lightsaber wielder in Star Wars to have white lightsabers. At least, that’s the case for Star Wars canon lore. It would seem that she’s one of the few or only people in Star Wars to attempt to purify a Sith lightsaber, which was brave and impetuous, seeing as she could have caught something nasty by touching it.
The Symbolic Implication for White Ashoka Tano Lightsabers
As we said prior, it’s not just the lore that makes up the reason why Ahsoka’s lightsabers are white.
Apart from going the extra mile to make her look unique, one of the creative heads of Star Wars, namely Dave Filoni, stated that the white Ahsoka Tano lightsabers were a metaphor.
Ahsoka was exiled by the Jedi Order near the end of the Clone Wars due to a false accusation. She then became disillusioned but eventually decided to live on as some kind of ronin, a warrior with no lord or master. Ahsoka still fights against the Dark Side, however.
Her white lightsabers, for that matter, represent her neutrality and lack of affiliation with the Jedi or the Sith. She continued to be an independent Force user but away from the tethers of the Jedi and their rather rigid codes.
And the answer to whether she’s still a Jedi or a gray Jedi needn’t be complicated; she is what she is, it seems, and prefers to keep it that way. The more important thing is that she didn’t fall into the Dark Side, despite the lack of guidance from the Jedi Order.
You can find out more about that kind of gray area amid the typical black and white moral-scape of Star Wars by tuning in to the Ahsoka series which is set to be released on Disney+ on August 23, 2023.