Why Doesn’t Ezra Bridger Use a Lightsaber?

Ezra Bridger is one of the most popular Jedi characters in Star Wars, but he left fans baffled in Ahsoka when he refused to use a lightsaber. He was fighting alongside Sabine Wren as if no time had passed. She went to hand him the lightsaber he’d left with her at the end of Rebels. Then he just flat-out refused to use it.

Why would he do something like that? Sure, he gave it to her during the Battle of Lothal before sacrificing himself to get rid of Grand Admiral Thrawn. It still doesn’t explain why wouldn’t take it back when offered to him by an old friend during a critical moment.

Ezra’s Jedi Lineage

Ezra comes from a long line of legendary Jedi masters of Star Wars. He was trained by Kanan Jarrus (formerly known as Caleb Dume) who was trained by Depa Billaba who in turn was trained by Mace Windu. His skills in hand-to-hand combat (or should we say force-to-hand) certainly speak to his competence with or without a lightsaber.

Still, watching Ezra refuse to take his own lightsaber was confusing. Just because he can fight without it doesn’t mean he should. Then again, he’d lived and survived on this strange planet Peridea for long enough without it. Maybe he was used to fighting with other means. Or maybe he simply got a case of cold feet.

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Ezra’s Unique Lightsaber

A long time ago, in what feels like a galaxy far away, a wise master once explained that a lightsaber is a Jedi’s life. Ezra built his lightsaber just like any other padawan throughout Star Wars. He went to Ilum, faced his fears, and earned his kyber crystal.

But Ezra never does exactly what others expect of him. He built his iconic lightsaber with a blaster feature. In addition to being able to slice and dice, this gave the weapon the ability to shoot as well. It’s this same weapon that he gave to Sabine before disappearing with Thrawn in the mouth of a Purrgil (a.k.a. a space whale).

Ezra & Sabine Vs. Shin Hati

Hera Syndulla and Sabine were forced to move on after Ezra’s disappearance at the end of Star Wars: Rebels. Hera went on to become a general with the New Republic. Sabine discovered latent force sensitivity that qualified her to become the padawan of Ahsoka Tano. However, this didn’t stop her from wanting to find her friend.

While she made major sacrifices to do it, she eventually found Ezra on the desolate planet Peridea. Then episode 7 of Ahsoka had them standing side-by-side once more to fight a common enemy in Shin Hati. Naturally, Sabine tried to give Ezra his old lightsaber back so they could defeat Shin and Thrawn’s forces.

Instead of taking it back, though, he encouraged Sabine to fight with it since she’d been trained by Ahsoka to use his weapon. Ezra might eventually reclaim his lightsaber in the season finale of Ahsoka. Or he might do something altogether unexpected. He was – and still is – a Rebel, after all.