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The Star Wars saga’s iconic saberstaffs debuted in a Legends comic well before their famous onscreen debut in the prequels, and their origin is closely tied to the Sith Order. The most famous saberstaff is the lightsaber of Darth Maul, who famously dueled Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, but it was the ancient Sith Lord Exar Kun who first wielded such a weapon. Kun’s sinister intentions when crafter the double-bladed lightsaber highlight key differences between Jedi and Sith, despite both factions using the weapons.
Four years before The Phantom Menace, the saberstaff first appeared in issue 3 of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi – The Sith War, by Kevin J. Anderson and Dario Carrasco, Jr. Having fallen to the dark side and become a Sith Lord, Exar Kun dueled and defeated his former Jedi Master with his unconventional saberstaff, using its enhanced offensive and defensive capabilities to his advantage. While the saberstaff is a more offensively aggressive weapon than the classic single-bladed lightsaber, it is also less precise and often more vulnerable to damage, making it a fitting foul for the original lightsaber design just as the Sith Lords are to the Jedi Knights.
The Saberstaff’s Sith Ties Explained
Although Exar Kun was one of the most powerful and famous Dark Lords in the Sith Order’s history, he was also one of their most unconventional. Exar Kun never gave himself a Darth title nor did he change his blue-bladed former Jedi weapon to a red-bladed one (though he did imbue his weapon with the dark side), but he became a legendary figure in Sith history who left a lasting impression on galactic history. Exar Kun’s invention of the saberstaff is one such innovation, as the weapon was widely used by both Jedi and Sith after its invention.
The saberstaff design is rather simple, consisting of, essentially, two single-bladed lightsabers fused by the pommel, but its two blades allow quicker and more aggressive offensive strikes and a greater defensive screen against blaster bolts. Despite this, the weapon’s larger size made its hilt far more vulnerable than a single-bladed lightsaber. Saberstaffs are also often a more intimidating weapon than even a standard lightsaber, and this, combined with their Sith origin, led them to be referred to as “Sith Lightsabers” for a time.
Just as single-bladed lightsabers are a Jedi creation that the Sith adopted and modified, saberstaffs would go on to be crafted and wielded by Jedi, using lightsaber crystals uncorrupted by the dark side of the Force. The Sith created the saberstaff as a more aggressive lightsaber variant, but the Jedi soon adapted to the weapons, exploiting their weaknesses and building their own iterations to use against the Dark Lords.
Star Wars Legends demonstrates that the saberstaffs, like the Sith themselves, are perfect foils to their Jedi predecessors.
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