Ahsoka Finale Debuts A Weapon Stronger Than A Lightsaber (But What Are The Others?)

Contains spoilers for "Ahsoka" Season 1, Episode 8 — "The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord"

A lightsaber can do bad things to a body, but that hasn't stopped the weapon from becoming one of the most iconic objects in the "Star Wars" franchise. Since its debut in "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope," its memorable design and iconic sound have enticed the minds of viewers and inspired countless playground pretend duels between combatants who can't help imitating that signature hum. In fact, even franchise veteran Ewan McGregor still does it during lightsaber fights.  

When you see Jedis and Siths use their lightsabers to block enemy fire and cut through nearly anything, the weapon can easily come across as invincible. Yet, this isn't the case, as Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) demonstrates in the "Ahsoka" Season 1 finale. When the Great Mothers (Jeryl Prescott, Claudia Black, and Jane Edwina Seymour) give her a Nightsister power upgrade, they also bestow her with a magical sword known as the Blade of Talzin, which seems to be a version of a classic weapon known as Talzin's Sword – or at least named after it. 

Ultimately, Morgan's not a match for Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), but that's not her weapon's fault. After all, the previous iteration of the blade has already proved its mettle in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," where the Nightsister matriarch Mother Talzin (Barbara Goodson) uses it to duel Mace Windu (Terrence 'T.C.' Carson). Interestingly, however, the blade's introduction in the live-action "Star Wars" universe is just the most recent example of canon weapons that can give lightsabers a run for their money — or even surpass them. Here's a look at some of the most interesting ones.

Morgan Elsbeth's Blade of Talzin is a robust-looking, ornamental sword that looks like a cross between a Japanese katana and a saber. The original Talzin's Sword has a similar design, though it has a clearly different hilt, and the green mist it emits is far more abundant.   

As mentioned, Talzin's Sword has something of a history in the "Star Wars" universe. Mother Talzin is an important antagonistic figure in "The Clone Wars," and she also proves to be a physical force to be reckoned with when she takes on Jedi Master Mace Windu. For this purpose, she conjures Talzin's Sword, an eerie-looking blade that radiates green magical ichor and proves to be on par with Windu's iconic purple lightsaber. 

The way Talzin can nigh-instantly summon a cool sword that's able to match a lightsaber means that she doesn't need to carry a weapon. Instead, she can simply create one when necessary, which makes it next to impossible to disarm her. What's more, Nightsisters can use their magical ichor to create all sorts of solid objects, which means that the Blade of Talzin in "Ahsoka" may refer to Talzin's technique of summoning a sword instead of the object itself — hence, its different appearance. 

A magic blade doesn't need to be carried around and there's no technology to maintain, which makes it far more useful than a lightsaber. If there's a drawback to this particular weapon, it seems to be fairly difficult to summon — what takes Talzin a mere moment clearly requires concentration from the three Great Mothers. Still, since "The Clone Wars" villain clearly has enough mystical juice to create a lightsaber-level weapon when the situation so requires, Talzin's Sword more than earns its place on this list.

The Blade of Talzin isn't the first weapon Morgan Elsbeth wields against Ahsoka Tano. Their first meeting in "The Mandalorian" Season 2, Episode 5 culminates in a big samurai-style showdown, during which Morgan wields a very nice-looking metal spear. As Ahsoka soon finds out, this weapon is made of high-quality beskar, the Mandalorian steel that's resistant to just about anything ... including lightsabers. 

Much like in "Ahsoka," Morgan's actual fighting skills are no match for her opponent, but again, it's not her weapon's fault. The beskar spear is able to match Ahsoka's lightsabers, and its weight and reach make Morgan's attacks seem extremely dangerous. She even manages to make Ahsoka drop one of her weapons. 

The scene makes it clear that a beskar weapon has the potential to be very dangerous to a lightsaber user. What's more, the metal can be used to make all sorts of things, so the spear is just one of the many, many possible beskar melee weapons. For instance, the Armorer (Emily Swallow) from "The Mandalorian" uses her beskar gravity hammer and tongs to deadly effect in combat, and the "Star Wars Legends" lore makes mention of a traditional, machete-style short sword known as beskad, which is often dual-wielded with a dagger called kal. 

Apart from its sheer versatility, pure beskar also has one additional advantage over the classic Jedi weapon. Lightsabers might be unable to damage beskar armor ... but good beskar weapons have no such problems.

"Star Wars" rarely presents masked troops as anything other than easily dispatched mooks, preferring instead to focus on ragtag groups and powerful individuals. The Elite Praetorian Guard is a notable exception to this rule. Known for guarding Supreme Leader Snoke's (Andy Serkis) throne room in "Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi." the imposing, red-armored First Order supersoldiers are clearly bad news even before you see their melee arsenal. 

They wield various exotic weapons that have been fitted with electro-plasma blades that enable them to withstand lightsaber strikes. These include a brutal-looking blade staff known as vibro-voulge, as well as a bisento spear, a nasty chain whip, and a vibro-arbir blade that can be used as two separate weapons or a single one with blades on both ends.    

The Elite Praetorian Guard is ultimately no match against the powerful duo of Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), but it's a far closer fight than most "Force users vs. regular warriors" battles in the "Star Wars" universe tend to be. A lot of this has to do with the villains' weapons, which they cleverly use on several occasions to make their opponents' lives extremely difficult. The chain whip, in particular, manages to temporarily incapacitate Rey's lightsaber in a way that could easily be fatal for her should any of the whip-wielding guard's colleagues be near enough to land a hit. 

The First Order-era Elite Praetorian Guard is an evolution of the Imperial Praetorian Guard, members of which have been known to wield similar custom weaponry. Judging by the fact that they take down noted Mandalorian warrior Paz Vizsla (Tait Fletcher) during the events of "The Mandalorian" Season 3, the franchise clearly wants fans to know that these guys are no pushovers, either.

When "Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens" brought the Skywalker saga back to the big screen, few people could have expected that one of the most glorious moments in the movie would come courtesy of a random, angry First Order stormtrooper. You remember the scene: Finn (John Boyega) is wielding a lightsaber and fighting his former comrades on Takodana. Suddenly, one of the stormtroopers loudly calls him a traitor, dramatically throws away his blaster and riot shield, and whips out a huge high-tech melee weapon. He then proceeds to fight Finn as the audience realizes that the weapon can actually withstand lightsaber blows — and nearly beats the protagonist before Han Solo (Harrison Ford) turns up and, inevitably, shoots first.  

The trooper in question is known as FN-2199 (Liang Yang, voiced by David Acord), and the weapon that cemented the fact that lightsabers aren't the be-all and end-all of "Star Wars" melee combat is a Z6 riot control baton. Amazingly, these non-lethal weapons are standard issue fare for First Order riot control stormtroopers, which explains why FN-2199 happened to be carrying a lightsaber-level baton around ... and also heavily implies that there are lots of others like him around. 

Sure, Finn's not exactly an expert lightsaber duelist at this point, and no one's saying that a well-trained Jedi couldn't hold his own against a baton-wielding stormtrooper. However, the fact that such low-level First Order grunts have ready access to this level of gear suggests that weapons like this are mass-produced fare — unlike lightsabers, which are notoriously few and far between. The combination of this weapon's comparatively wide availability and its proven combat-worthiness against lightsabers arguably makes the riot control baton the superior product.