All dark side users usually have a lightsaber. We may think of Vader and Maul as prominent examples of Sith who possessed lightsabers. Even Palpatine had one, actually two. Yet, Snoke didn’t have one–why is that? The reasons boil down to his hatred of the Jedi and knowledge of the dark side.
Snoke Didn’t Have a Lightsaber Because of Hatred
According to this short video, Snoke didn’t have a lightsaber because he hated them. He thought of lightsabers as Jedi weapons and wanted nothing to do with them. Moreover, Snoke sought to “erase” the Jedi and didn’t want anything associated with them around him.
Where did this hatred of the Jedi and lightsaber stem from? It arose from Snoke’s artificial genetic origins as a proxy for Sidious and being created by the Sith eternal. Snoke was meant to manifest a mastery of the Force over using a weapon. He came to view the lightsaber as inferior, just as he believed the Jedi were.
We can think of Snoke’s hatred as being the driving force behind this character. As another video briefly explains, Snoke’s creation by the Sith eternal was designed to “groom” Kylo Ren for their dark side purposes. It also reminds us that Snoke was not a Sith, but a genetically engineered Force user who needed to be geared toward extreme hatred.
Between the intentions for Snoke and how he was created, Snoke had no need for a lightsaber. So, in a practical sense, he didn’t have one. Yet, it was mainly how he viewed this weapon that explains why he didn’t have one, to an extent.
If we press further, Snoke sought the dark side in its purity, not deluded by lightsabers. As expressed in this forum, Snoke fell into the category of dark side users who “had such vast knowledge about the Dark Side that a lightsaber seemed almost archaic” and reflective of a primitive period.
In that sense, Snoke was like the Emperor, who cast aside lightsabers once taking power. Snoke and the Emperor invested themselves in the Force. As an extension of Sidious, Snoke was all about harnessing the dark side to unwittingly serve his master’s ends.
Snoke operated in reverse of Obi-Wan, who preferred a lightsaber over a “clumsy” blaster. He ultimately craved the dark side, just as Obi-Wan sought the light. Snoke’s dark side powers, in turn, fueled his disinterest in lightsabers.
Snoke’s Dark Side Thinking
On one level, then, Snoke’s hatred of the Jedi coincided with the Sith’s, and that mutual hatred fueled his hatred for lightsabers. Yet, Snoke ran deeper than that.
He thought he was destined to rule the galaxy, being unaware of Palpatine’s behind-the-scenes designs. To properly rule the galaxy, Snoke believed he needed to imbibe dark side knowledge like no other. With The Force Awakens, audiences discovered a villain who seemed to be “far more calculating than the Emperor” and “focused on a long game” driven by the intricacies of the Force.
With the Age of Resistance – Supreme Leader Snoke 1 comic, we see a complex character emerge with seemingly “the limitless power of the dark side of the Force” to defeat the New Republic. On a mission to Dagobah with Kylo Ren, Snoke commented on how if he had Luke by his side, instead of Kylo, “the galaxy would have been mine a long time ago.”
Across these reference points, we can detect how Snoke’s dark side thinking and belief in himself guided his approach to ruling the galaxy. By extension, we can identify a deeper source of hatred for the Jedi and their weapons and for why he didn’t use a lightsaber.
Snoke Didn’t Want a Lightsaber
Snoke’s hatred for the Jedi and lightsabers underlined his decision not to use this weapon. Yet, his association with the dark side provides a deeper reason why he rejected lightsabers. Snoke, like the Emperor and perhaps more so, sought a pathway through the dark side and not inferior Jedi techniques.