Why Does the Blinded Kanan Jarrus Wear a Mask?

Question

Kanan was blinded in a lightsaber battle against Maul on Malacore. The cartoon doesn't show you the gruesome details, and Kanan picks up on old mask and wears it after the fateful slash.

Later he is shown with a sort of bandage over his eyes.

Then he is shown with a mask the covers most of his face. It has markings to show where eyes would be.

But in one of the episodes after that, he is shown with the mask removed - and his eyes are just white. He does have a scar across the bridge of his nose, but his eyes look just fine although sightless.

Then he goes back to wearing the facemask again.

Why does he wear the facemask? You would think it is cumbersome and uncomfortable unless it offers some other practical benefit like some sort of magnetic sensor or proximity sensor.

Answer 1

I expect for some of the same reasons that some blind people here on Earth wear dark glasses, as laid out in this answer on Quora.

• He might want to decrease the likelihood of harassment or awkwardness from those uncomfortable with looking at his injured eyes.

• He doesn’t want to run into an obstacle and hurt his eyes. In addition, since he doesn’t need to see, it might be a benefit to have what’s basically a piece of armor protecting one of the more sensitive portions of his body.

• He might want to make sure other people know that he’s blind, so they can accommodate him accordingly.

I don’t think that the portion related to photosensitivity is relevant, since being hit by a lightsaber would probably remove one’s vision entirely. If it is though, it presents a fourth reason: that what little light does get through is bothersome, so Kanan would rather not see it.