A slightly odd question about Lightsabers...

[Alex]

There's something I've been wondering. It's kinda random, and there's no point me asking, save for the fact that I'm wondering about it. But I'll ask anyway. What colour Lightsaber blades can a Jedi have?

I always assumed before that it was blue for a Padawan, and green for a Knight upwards, with red being used by the Sith/Dark Jedi. However, after Episode II and EU, it seems that a Jedi Knight can basically have whatever coloured blade he wants. I did wonder if green was the major colour because the Jedi Order gave the Knight-in-training the crystals, or at least gave them access to it. Those with different coloured blades may have changed them later, or have asked for different coloured crystals, or something like that. However, in Episode IV, Obi Wan had a blue lightsaber. Is this because he prefers blue? It doesn't seem to fit with the pattern...even if he'd built a new saber between Episodes II and III, it would presumably have been green, as he was part of the Order. However, it doesn't seem to have been...

I thought about Jedi Academy, where you can select the hilt and blade for your Lightsaber. You can have it whatever colour you want, even when you move on to two sabers, and double-bladed sabers. I usually go for red, because red is my favorite colour. However, I'm wondering if a Jedi would be allowed to do that.

Next, I thought about Count Dooku. He was a Jedi Knight, but broke away and became a Dark Jedi. He had a red-bladed saber. There are three general ways that could have come about. Either a) he always had a red blade, b) a red blade is a symbol that you are not of the Jedi Order, or c) he changed it when he became a member of the Sith (Sith being different to Dark Jedi). The third option, to me, seems dumb. For starters, as soon as he drew a red blade, it shows that he is in league with the Sith. Ok, so it was obvious by the time he duelled Obi, Ani and Yoda. But still...all it would have taken is for someone else to have seen Dooku use his saber, and for word to have filtered back to the Jedi that he was part of the Sith...so unless Dooku was careless, c can be ruled out. If red was disallowed by the Council, then having a red blade would show that you had broken away from the Jedi Order. Dooku may have changed his blade in order to show that. However, what is the point? Why bother? Why not keep the green blade that you had as a Jedi Knight? Ok, it didn't go with his wardrobe, and most would percieve any Jedi who had broken away from the Order as evil, but why actually expend the effort and resources to change your blade? The only logical explaination to have changed colour have been if your former blade had been damaged/lost, or if you were changing saber styles - Dooku's saber was quite clearly a 1-handed weapon, whereas the Jedi usually favour a 1 1/2 handed saber (for an example of a non-saber 1 1/2 sword, watch Lord of the Rings. Aragorn has one).

Another thing. In one of the early-ish EU books (close to Episode VI), one of the Jedi pupils on Yavin IV constructs a lightsaber, under the guidance of the spirit of Exar Kun. That weapon eventually falls into the hands of Kyp Durron. The blade is purple. If Exar Kun were guiding him to create this weapon, surely he'd have said it should have red crystals, if red did symbolise the Dark Jedi or Sith. The only explaination is that there were only purple crystals availiable...but I'm a little confused as to how you get the crystals anyway. They're found mainly on Ilum, in all kinds of colours. If they end up elsewhere...why only one colour?

The whole changing saber things though...it doesn't sit right with me. "This weapon is your life," Obi Wan said. If the Lightsaber is that important to a Jedi, they wouldn't want to go changing it too much.


Anyone else have any other theories? Is the differently-coloured saber reserved for Masters only? I think we've only seen masters with them. It's just one of those things I started wondering about..

Oh, and a slight aside...in Episode II, Anakin had the same saber as he "gave" to Luke in Episode IV. However, that saber got cut in half in the Geonosis droid factory. From the footage I've seen of them training, when Anakin duels Obi Wan, he has a red bladed saber, which would suggest that, during the course of the film, he changes weapon. Now, I don't doubt between Episode II and Episode III, Anakin would have made a new saber. However, I can't think of a reason that Obi would get hold of Anakin's old saber, unless Anakin gave it to Obi, or left it somewhere when he changed weapons.

Also, lastly...I'll need to check on the Episode III preview, and the making the game documentaries on the DVD to see, but if Anakin is fighting with a new, red-bladed lightsaber, shouldn't it have the same hilt as Vader's one? It can't possibly be to do with Vader building a new Lightsaber to complete his training, because he couldn't. I can't really see Vader building anything in that suit. So, unless someone else did it for him...


Any thoughts?

[James Prent]

Jedi padawans were not given their crystals, but they were taken to the planet where they could get them themselves, IIRC. Blade color probably has something to do with personal preference, the resonance in the Force as the Force is used to make the final connection between crystal and lens unit, and the actual crystal used.

Maybe when you start to use the Dark side it corrupts the lightsaber and turned the blade red. *shrug*

As far as Anakin using a new saber, he lost/almost lost two sabers in AotC, so it stands to reason he's making new ones nearly all the time. :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

I think green and blue crystals are simply more common than all of the others. At least, that's what I gathered from KOTOR- green, blue and yellow were the only colours the Council would actually give you (they supposedly stood for something, I can't remember exactly what), where as the others you had to hunt down. To me, it's always been more of a personal preference thing rather than an indication of your alignment or attitude.

As far as I can tell, it's not possible for the crystal colour to change without the saber being dismantled. I've never heard/read of someone's saber shifting colours because of a change in their Force alignment.

[Alex]

I guess Dooku must have made a new one, then. It just seems to me that, because of how saber-specific his fighting style was (its quite clearly a 1-handed design), he'd be more likely to keep using an old saber he was used to, rather than making a new one. Mind you, he must have broken away 7+ years ago (Lord Tiranus, his Sith alias, recruited Jango Fett), so that's probably long enough to get used to a weapon.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Like I say, you can dismantle and reassemble a saber, thereby allowing you to insert new crystals and change the colour (according to KOTOR).

[imported_Grev Drasen]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
At least, that's what I gathered from KOTOR- green, blue and yellow were the only colours the Council would actually give you (they supposedly stood for something, I can't remember exactly what), where as the others you had to hunt down.
They just corresponded with the different Jedi classes. Blue was for Guardian, yellow for Sentinel, and green for Consular. Other than that I don't think the colors have any real meaning to them.

[Christopher Munro]

Aren't Guardian and Sentinel types of lightsaber hilt? I think they were in JK:JA...

Didn't Obi Wan have a green one at the end of Episode II? Or was that Anakin who had green? I know one of them did, because Anakin had different blades at the end. I think Obi Wan had blue earlier on in the movie.

If it is connected with types of Jedi though, why would Qui Gon and Obi Wan have different coloured blades? They go on the same missions, so surely, they'd be the same class of Jedi...unless, of course, Guardian is like a junior class of Knight, and has the same blade as Padawan...but if that is the case...

I'm confused.

[Dasquian Belargic]

The three Jedi classes in KOTOR denoted what type of skills you focused on - offensive, defensive, etc. Here's what the deal was:


Jedi Guardian (Blue) -

This Jedi battles against the forces of evil and the dark side. They focus on combat training and masterful use of the lightsaber. The Gauardian class is the counterpart of the Soldier class.

Basic Class Attributes: 10 Vitality / level, 4 Force points / level, slow skill progression, fast feat progression.

Jedi Consular (Green) -

This Jedi seeks to bring balance to the universe. They focus less on physical combat and more on mental disciplines in order to augment their mastery of the force. The Consular class is the counterpart of the Scoundrel class.

Basic Class Attributes: 6 vitality / level, 8 Force points / level, slow skill progression, slow feat progression.

Jedi Sentinel (Yellow) -

This Jedi ferrets out deceit and injustice, bringing it to light. They strike a balance between the physical and mental disciplines of the Jedi Order. The Sentinel class is the counterpart of the Scout class.

Basic Class Attributes: 8 vitality / level, 6 Force points / level, average skill progression, slow feat progression.

Obi had blue as a padawan, and he was arguably more combat orientated than Qui Gon, sooo.

[Christopher Munro]

And Qui Gon was also very focused on the living Force...the now, the balance, etc. I get ya. It also fits with Yoda sort of...although Yoda is pretty darn skilled with a saber. If you analyse it, Yoda should be yellow...he has the balance between saber and powers...its just that he has so darn much of both that it confuses things. And wouldn't Luke have been either blue or yellow, not green? I guess he didn't know, though...

But what does purple stand for, other than the fact that Mr Jackson likes to be cool and different?

[Dasquian Belargic]

Weeell... I don't think it's viable to apply the saber scheme in KOTOR to all of SW, I was just giving an example that sabers can sometimes represent something - but then again, you were free to change your saber colour providing you had the right crystal. Even if you had started as a Guardian, for example, you could choose to change your saber to a green crystal somewhere down the line.

As far as I know, Mace has a purple saber because Jackson asked if he could have one, not for any special reason.

[Christopher Munro]

Yeah...I remember seeing an interview with that in. I just wondered if, anywhere down the line, in EU or KOTOR or something, they might have come up with a reason.

And I know you can't apply the KOTOR scheme to all SW...I remember reading in an EU book somewhere that one of the Jedi Masters had a yellow blade, and that was a rather unusual thing. I could be imagining things, though...

[imported_Grev Drasen]

Originally posted by Christopher Munro
And Qui Gon was also very focused on the living Force...the now, the balance, etc. I get ya. It also fits with Yoda sort of...although Yoda is pretty darn skilled with a saber. If you analyse it, Yoda should be yellow...he has the balance between saber and powers...its just that he has so darn much of both that it confuses things. And wouldn't Luke have been either blue or yellow, not green? I guess he didn't know, though...
I know the movies are the core of Star Wars, but you can't base too much off them when it comes to trivial things like this. I doubt Lucas even considered making the saber color have any real meaning, and just associated red with the antagonists to solidify that was the "bad guy". As for the blues, purples, and greens in the movies, I'm sure it's just because we're an American audience and we like pretty visuals.

I think you're reading a bit too much into it. It looks like Lucas put the different colors in there to help the audience, and nothing else.

[Alex]

Originally posted by Grev Drasen
I know the movies are the core of Star Wars, but you can't base too much off them when it comes to trivial things like this. I doubt Lucas even considered making the saber color have any real meaning, and just associated red with the antagonists to solidify that was the "bad guy". As for the blues, purples, and greens in the movies, I'm sure it's just because we're an American audience and we like pretty visuals.

I think you're reading a bit too much into it. It looks like Lucas put the different colors in there to help the audience, and nothing else.

Just as a heads-up...Dasq and I are both from the UK, so we're not an American audience. :p

I get what your saying about the films though...but seeing as they're the only real canon we have (ok, so EU can be counted as such too, but Lucas still does whatever he wants regardless), its nice to tie the movies into it somehow.



Originally posted by James Prent
As far as Anakin using a new saber, he lost/almost lost two sabers in AotC, so it stands to reason he's making new ones nearly all the time. :)

I know that they'd be making new sabers if they lost one (although Anakin would, I assume, have a standard training saber at that point), but I was just noting that the saber Obi Wan catches in the speeder chase (the one that gets cut in half) is the same as the one Obi Wan gives Luke in ANH. Constructing your own lightsaber is a final part of a Padawan's training. Maybe Anakin had done that by that point...Obi Wan had the same hilt as in Episode I, even though he lost it. I was just always under the impression that a Jedi crafted their lightsaber themselves, piece by piece, so each saber would be unique...however, there seem to be distinct styles of saber hilt, as the games and lightsaber prop buying places seem to imply.

I was just trying to show off how observant I am. ;)

[James Prent]

Well, here's a lesson in what you missed: Anakin's saber, that Obi-Wan catches in the speeder chase in the beginning of AOTC, is the same one he has at the end of AOTC in the droid factory, that gets destroyed.

The one he has at the end of the movie and battles Dooku with, is just one a Jedi threw him in the arena.