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PT Random Lightsaber Question

Discussion in 'Prequel Trilogy' started by dan-yoda, Sep 14, 2011.

  1. dan-yoda

    dan-yoda Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 14, 2003
    I don't really see any type of "random question" thread in any of the movie-based boards, so I'll just ask this here.

    Are there any more lightsaber colors that can be seen on screen in the six live action films other than red, blue, green, and purple? Obviously in the OT there are only a handful of Jedi and they use the regular red-blue-green sabers, and in the EU there are several dozen different saber colors are used. Are there any random Jedi in the background/off to the side in the prequel films that have a lightsaber that is something other than red-blue-green-purple?
     
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  2. HevyDevy

    HevyDevy Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 13, 2011
    Nope. Red for Sith, green and blue for Jedi. As far as I know onscreen Mace is the only Jedi with another colour, of course purple. EU goes into meanings behind saber colours I'm told, but I'm not familiar with EU.
    Personally I find the green saber symbolic. It's used by Qui-Gon, Yoda, and Jedi-Luke. Obi-Wan kills Maul with his Master's green saber (a positive), Anakin kills Dooku with red and blue (negative). Luke Skywalker transcends both Jedi and Sith when he throws away his saber, which happens to be green. Also, an off-balance duel between brothers Obi-Wan and Anakin involves blue on blue.
    This is entirely just my opinion of course.

    EDIT:
    Also, Anakin loses a green saber in AOTC, then is dismembered fighting with blue. And before Luke is a Jedi he fights with his fallen fathers blue saber, quite symbolic to me.
     
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  3. Cryogenic

    Cryogenic Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 20, 2005
    Technically, the sabers are a whole range of colours, shades, tints, etc.

    But, of course, in general, red, blue and green sabers dominate the landscape (especially blue and green), with a brief showing of purple.

    The purple is most interesting, to me. Okay, so it's Sam Jackson's beloved colour, but it also represents a confounding variable. One of many in the saga. Here, I think it suggests, silently, but insistently, that the Jedi do use the Dark Side. Embrace it, even. Not usually. In fact, 99% of the time, not at all. Not willfully, anyway. But since purple is made by mixing blue and red, there's this potent indicator that Mace, himself, being unofficial "head" of the Jedi Order, with Yoda as his spiritual advisor, and by extension, patron of the Jedi, is "allowed" to dangerously mix different aspects of the Force and wield it accordingly. It's never said outright, of course, but that's a spanner AOTC throws in the works, when we see all those Jedi with their sabers lit, Mace included (indeed, his first act, after lighting it for the first time, is to sneak up on political leaders for the opposition, then hold it against one of their members' throats). It's sort of like Threepio's silver leg in the OT. It suggests a history. It's an affront to the manically-neat consistency of the saber colours. Purple is not "meant" to be part of the mix, but there it is, and it just happens to be wielded by the guy constantly dishing out orders (giving orders and bossing others around is another Dark Side trait), and threatening others with decapitation (and a little later, the threat is carried out).

    Mace's purple saber lends credence to everything Palpatine says or implies to Anakin about the Jedi. Again, it's never raised openly, but the idea that Mace, the head honcho, goes about things a different way, then tells everyone else to behave differently to him, is made literal (or boldly symbolic) with that red-blue fusion. It's haughty. Hypocritical. One Jedi can do it, just because he's the leader, and the rest have to fall in line? What kind of morality is this? What kind of system do you belong to, Anakin? Come join the Sith. You don't have to compromise yourself. Even Mace does. Blue-red fusion? PREPOSTEROUS! Embrace the Dark Side! Not some of the Dark Side, some of the time. ALL OF IT! Don't be clouded and confused. Be unbounded and free! Go beyond even the most "powerful" Jedi, who you've even said is Master Windu, and embrace your destiny. Don't labour under the endlessly repressive dogma of the Jedi any more. You see how it works? In fact, the Jedi have constant flirtations with the Dark Side. Mace has a purple saber. Anakin dresses in black. They promote their members based partly on killing and aggression. They hide their faces in hoods, sheath their weapons in robes. They rig bets and trick people to get their way. They raise children and train them in violence. These Jedi. Very dark. Not so light. The Sith are the Jedi minus the BS. Plus, red is the new purple, don't ya know?
     
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  4. dan-yoda

    dan-yoda Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 14, 2003
    Thanks for the info. Interesting insight on the lightsaber colors. I severely doubt that George put that much thought into the saber colors, but it's a cool idea to dwell on. It certainly makes all of Anakin's lightsaber changing in AOTC less weird and confusing.
     
  5. MrFantastic74

    MrFantastic74 Jedi Knight star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 4, 2010
    I agree. There were some interesting points brought up above me in this thread regarding the symbolic value of saber colors. However, I don't believe that much thought went into assigning saber colors for various characters or scenes.

    I remember George saying that he chose red to symbolize evil and blue for good (In the original version of ANH, however, Obi-Wan and Luke's lightsabers were more white with a slight blue tint).Originally, the Jedi were supposed to all use blue sabers and the Sith were to use red. Simple.

    Luke was the first to use a lightsaber other than blue or red in ROTJ. According to some "making of ROTJ" materials that I read years ago (or possibly "From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga" on VHS), Lucas et al decided to make Luke's saber green to contrast against the blue sky of Tatooine during the sail barge fight. They were originally going to stick with blue, but it did not show up properly on screen as it was washed out by the sky.

    I think that, in TPM, Qui-Gon's saber was green for the same exact reason. Visually, it needed to contrast against the blue sky of Tatooine during his fight with Darth Maul.

    Sam Jackson's saber was purple because he asked George for a unique color to stand out in a crowd of Jedi during battle. He chose purple, and George agreed. That's all.

    Yoda's sabre was green, IMO, because it seems to suit him better than blue. Yoda is green. He should use a little green sword. lol

    What I find interesting is the various shades of color that we see in the saga. For instance, Darth Maul uses a red saber, but it is not same red that Vader uses in the OT. Vader's blade core almost looks pink at times, but Maul's looks more orange. Whether the shades are supposed to be representative of any character traits or symbolic in any way, I couldn't say.
     
  6. Sabertrader

    Sabertrader Jedi Master star 1

    Registered:
    Jul 28, 2002
    Cool thread...I love lightsaber discussions of any kind :)

    It got me to thinking, I wonder if Vader recognized that Luke was using his (Anakin's) old lightsaber in ESB? Lots of irony there.

    I love Jackson's purple lightsaber, especially since the first shot it's seen is the tight close up of it's ignition at Jango's throat. Kind of a 'whoa, cool' moment in the theater :)
     
  7. Merlin_Ambrosius69

    Merlin_Ambrosius69 Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 4, 2008
    The one saber color I would have liked to see in the PT would be golden-yellow. This was the color of the saber on the Hildebrandt Star Wars poster I had when I was a kid, and was also the color of the Kenner Luke action figure's sabers in both the 1978 and 1980 (ESB) collections.

    Plus, yellow is the complementary color of purple, so it would have fit in with the color scheme established in the PT with Windu's saber ("the one that says 'BAD MUTHA ***' on it!").
     
  8. MrFantastic74

    MrFantastic74 Jedi Knight star 4

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    Oct 4, 2010
    I remember action-figure Luke's yellow lightsaber. Why on Earth did Kenner do that? lol. That drove me nuts as a kid. I seem to recall swapping it out for a blue one (Obi-Wan's, I think).

    But yes, I would have liked to see yellow ligtsabers in the PT too.
     
  9. DarthWuher

    DarthWuher Jedi Padawan star 1

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    Aug 15, 2010
    I like how the lightsaber "turn on" sounds (for the most part) are unique to certain lightsabers.

    The Sith have a slow sound for theirs while the Jedi's are the more common sound. But Luke's ROTJ saber has a very fast loud sound.
     
  10. Alexrd

    Alexrd Chosen One star 6

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    Jul 7, 2009
    Word is that Nick Gillard asked for a yellow lightsaber for his character, but George denied.
     
  11. Arawn_Fenn

    Arawn_Fenn Chosen One star 7

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    Jul 2, 2004
    For a while I thought I could see a yellow saber in the Jedi temple scene in ROTS. Later I realized it was more of a yellowish green.
     
  12. timmoishere

    timmoishere Force Ghost star 6

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    Jun 2, 2007
    During the arena battle on Geonosis, some of the lightsabers look yellowish.
     
  13. DARTH_DEEZY

    DARTH_DEEZY Jedi Knight star 1

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    Mar 4, 2011
    I thought Nick had a yellow saber on Geonosis?
     
  14. Alexrd

    Alexrd Chosen One star 6

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    Jul 7, 2009
    No. He wasn't there, either.
     
  15. Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn

    Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 23, 1999
    In the earliest drafts, they're all red. A little later, the bad guy has a blue one and the good guy has a red one. Then by postproduction obviously this is changed.

    In ROTJ, Luke was to have built a new blue saber (which can be seen in the trailer), but the contrast wasn't very good against the sky in the Tatooine scenes so they changed it to green.

    In the post-OT EU, saber color didn't seem to have any meaning - characters of any stripe had sabers of many colors. Actually, this lasted til after TPM. In AOTC so many Jedi were shown using blue and green sabers that their choices got winnowed down a bit afterwards, though.
     
  16. Arawn_Fenn

    Arawn_Fenn Chosen One star 7

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    Jul 2, 2004
    Red was consistently a color associated with Sith.
     
  17. Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn

    Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Sep 23, 1999
    A lot of the dark siders of the time weren't Sith, just dark Jedi. And I'm not saying red wasn't associated with the Sith/dark siders (it clearly was in some respects - Vader's saber, royal guards, some lighting) - just that it wasn't as rigidly defined in an exclusionary way as a "bad guy" color until the prequels, and especially, AOTC. Jedi characters in the EU had been given red or reddish lightsabers prior to that. And I remember some images of Sith from TOTJ with different colored sabers (though I might be misremembering here).

    I'd actually be interested to see if GL ever said anything on saber colors in the 70s/80s... maybe it's time to go back and check TMoSW again.
     
  18. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 3, 2002
    I flipped through the Jedi path today and thought it cool that the reason we do not see yellow lightsabers in the Saga is that the Jedi Sentinels are just that good at their job.
     
  19. b3gi

    b3gi Jedi Youngling

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    Apr 22, 2011
    why jedi dosent use red color
     
  20. DarthBoba

    DarthBoba Manager Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Jun 29, 2000
    Association with the bad guys.
     
  21. Scryer

    Scryer Jedi Padawan

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    Dec 26, 2012
    Leia didn't have a red-green-blue-purple lightsaber, and Yoda had a Yellow one before TPM but was destroyed. And I don't agree with the lightsaber color being assigned to a side of the force. In any game where the color and the force side is optional, I choose green with dark side, and red with light side.
     
  22. SlashMan

    SlashMan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 5, 2012
    That was for Revenge of the Sith, and he ended up with a green lightsaber. See, after The Phantom Menace, George really cracked down on lightsaber colors (see Lt.Cmdr.Thrawn's post). He wouldn't even let Nick Gillard have a yellow lightsaber in an extremely brief scene (it would be hard to make out the yellow anyways). Which only adds to the confusion of why there's one purple lightsaber.

    But yeah, I would have liked to see more lightsaber colors, but George has made it clear that there's only four in the movies. Adding more at this point would only be inconsistant with the prequels.
     
  23. Alexrd

    Alexrd Chosen One star 6

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    Jul 7, 2009
    I think he settled on which lightsaber colours exist ever since RotJ. In that movie he had defined a new lightsaber colour (green) due to visual constraints.

    The purple saber was a special request from Sam Jackson. I don't know why he didn't let Nick get a yellow saber, but I guess it was to not create a precedent.

    I truly hope we don't get a rainbow saber fest in the sequel trilogy.
     
  24. SlashMan

    SlashMan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 5, 2012
    In Return of the Jedi, we only saw one additional Jedi lightsaber, which was green, while the two previous ones were blue. With those odds, there could easily be others. With the Phantom Menace, we saw two new lightsabers, both green and blue, which makes more colors slightly more unlikely. By Attack of the Clones, we saw hundreds of different sabers, all of them blue or green (minus Mace). By then, it was set in stone.
     
  25. Alexrd

    Alexrd Chosen One star 6

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    Jul 7, 2009
    No. We only got green in RotJ because blue was hard to see against the sky on Tatooine scenes. Otherwise it would have been blue, as it was originally.