If there’s one thing Star Wars has taught me, it’s that blue means good, and red means evil. So what do you do when someone is just a bit evil? Well, judging by Ahsoka, you make their lightsaber orange, of course.
Dave Filoni loves Star Wars. He knows pretty much all there is to know about the various Star Wars characters, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s even watched the Star Wars movies in order more times than I have. But you don’t always have to be the smartest person in the galaxy to come up with great ideas.
See, when putting together the pieces for the Ahsoka Star Wars series, Filoni wanted to indicate that his new Star Wars villains, Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati, might not be quite what they seem. Speaking to Screenrant at Star Wars Celebration 2023, Filoni said: “I made [the lightsabers] a little bit more orange… That was very intentional. I didn’t make them just a stark red.”
“I remember as a kid that Vader’s lightsaber kind of fluctuated from visual effects to being a little bit more orange. I didn’t want to go straight up orange, but it’s identifying a little bit of something to kids that they might not straight up be what you think they are in the beginning… Nothing is accidental,” he added.
As we now know from watching Ahsoka, Baylan in particular was not quite a fully-fledged Sith. I’m not saying he was a good guy, but he wasn’t quite as deeply invested in the whole dark side thing as the likes of Palpatine and Vader. It makes sense, then, that his lightsaber color wasn’t quite as clear-cut as the standard bad guy.
As a former Jedi who survived Order 66, Baylan turned to a less savory way of life as a mercenary. However, there was a great conflict within Baylan throughout the show, and by the end of the series, we are left wondering quite where he stands in the great order of things. He dismisses the ways of the Jedi, but he also doesn’t quite agree with Thrawn’s plans to resurrect the Galactic Empire, either.
The fact that Baylan ends up standing among the Mortis Gods by the finale suggests he has his own plans and wants to tread his own path, which aligns with the fact his lightsaber does not glow with the more traditional colors, too. Seems obvious now we’ve pointed it out, doesn’t it?
As for his apprentice, Shin Hati, all she really knows is the ways of her Master, so it figures that she would also adopt the orange blade. Her motivations and emotions are pretty confused and unclear, and as we’ve seen from previous iterations of Star Wars, it’s not uncommon for those in the early stages of their connection with the Force to almost blindly follow the example of their superiors.
Perhaps we will get even more answers on those orange lightsabers if and when we get an Ahsoka season 2 release date. Until then, why not look ahead to all the new Star Wars movies in the pipeline, or learn about the main players in the Star Wars cast. Alternatively, if you’re done with Star Wars for now, you can think about new movies like Avatar 3 instead, which is equally as full of complex lore.