Saga General Theory of Lightsaber Color

The era is irrelevant. When we're talking about how a certain thing works, you can't use time as justification for a change. Lightsaber colors appear when the user connects with the crystal through the Force. It's not tied to rank, behaviour or anything else. While at the time we didn't know that, it still went against what we saw onscreen. Like I said, it was a gameplay gimmick, just like swords holding their own against lightsabers. It's fine as a gameplay element in the context of the game itself, but let's not use it as an argument outside of it. It doesn't work.

 

That's pretty much how it always was, once Lucas decided that blue equals Jedi and red equals Sith. What the EU did was not his fault. As he himself said, "They try to make their universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions."

An era that Lucas had no involvement in establishing, nor approving. That's why the films and TCW didn't include them.

 

So, lightsabers have always been "glorified mood rings", because red has always belonged to the Sith and blue and green always for the Jedi.
And now we know that kyber crystals only get a color for their blade at the moment that their user connects with it through the Force.
Then how are we to say that there would be a difference between getting Red and Blue/Green regarding the user's relationship with the Force, but that there wouldn't be any difference between getting Blue and Green regarding the user's relationship with the Force as well?
Are we REALLY to believe that whenever the kyber crystal connects with a lightside user through the Force it just rolls some dices to decide wheter they'll get Green or Blue? What are we to think about Yellow and Purple sabers? You just get them if you're lucky enough? What are we to think about Ahsoka's yellow-green saber, Sinube's light-blue saber and the Darksaber? Are they just "improbable colors" that kyber crystals picked from random quantum fluctuation? I don't think that's how kyber crystals work.
Canon has already explained how White and Red sabers come to be - completely disregarding the 'chance argument'. Are we just going to keep pushing this chance argument for every not-yet-explained color until they're all contemplated? Wouldn't that be too much like a God of the Gaps fallacy? I'm obviously talking in-universe here, so don't even throw that Samuel L. Jackson tale everybody already knows.
If kyber crystals can read the user's relationship with the Force and they work opposing Red to Green and Blue, then it obviously works opposing Green to Blue too. To think otherwise is to think that the only possible nuance of the Force is of the light and dark sides. Now wouldn't that be a too narrow view of the Force, which is always portraited as a complex, living and almost conscious thing? The concept of the Force has plenty of room to accomodate for more articulated explanations.
I get that it might not make sense to tie green and blue lightsabers to Jedi ranks or behavior of some sort. But if it's about the user's relationship with the Force, then, the way I see it, green and blue will definitely be tied to the user's state of mind or understanding of the Force. Now, what could fit into that concept is the real challenge, but I believe it makes sense, and is much easier too, to account for all 9 canon-observed lightsaber colors if we just understand that some of them can be a blend of other, more basic ones. That's the actual underline of my General Theory, it just needs a real and concise answer for how the green and blue sabers come to be - that is, what they actually mean in contrast to other colors and each other.

 

No, not really. They don't change with mood or anything else. Jedi get blue or green. Sith get red.

 

Ahsoka newcanon novel - it explains that the process of attuning a kyber crystal to a dark-side force-user causes that crystal to "bleed" and the saber the crystal generates, becoming red.

Ahsoka "cleanses" an Inquisitor's saber crystals - and the sabers the crystals generate, are now white.

 

The idea of "bleeding crystals when attuned" explains how you can have darksiders with non-red sabers - they simply haven't "re-attuned" the crystals of the sabers to themselves between turning dark, and the time we see them use their sabers. Anakin in ROTS is an obvious example.

 

It doesn't need an explanation. Once the crystal gets its color, it stays that way. It doesn't change depending on who's using it. They aren't mood rings, as someone wrongly tried to describe them.

 

In a sense, it does - if a re-attunement process is undergone first. Ahsoka's sabers were once red Inquisitor sabers. Now they're white, yet have the same crystals - because she re-attuned them to herself.

Similarly, if Vader had bothered to re-attune his own saber - it would have been red not blue when he fought Obi-Wan.

 

Yes, but that requires one to delve into it. One doesn't need to know how Grievous' lightsabers are green and blue or how Anakin's is blue after he fell. They got their colors when they were made. Lightsaber colors don't change based on the users' mood, deeds or connection to the Force when in use.

 

The "color reflects aspects of personality, depth of knowledge, etc" theory might explain why Ahsoka's second saber is a slightly different shade from her first - because she's changed, and so when she creates a new one, it's a little different as well.

Ezra's first was blue, but his second was green.

 

It only reveals that crystals become red when the individual uses the dark side to connect with the crystal and that there's a way to "heal" the crystal from such oppression. That's it. Crystals don't change color based on mood, behaviour or whoever is using the lightsaber.

Many characters change and the lightsaber colors remain the same. Ahsoka's second saber was given a lime green hue (but still green) out of Filoni's preference. It's not meant to (and doesn't) represent a change in character. He finally got to introduce yellow without Lucas' contestation with the Temple guards (which were supposed to have green lightsabers).

 

Pretty much.

Ditto.

As Alexrd said, they're still green and blue, just a different shade of it. The dark saber blade is a different matter. It was constructed using a different crystal and through different means. Hence it is unique in this regard.

 

Why can't I post my comments anymore? I'm trying to reply stuff but it's not posting, what is happening?

 

I'm using Chrome and I've written a reply text quoting darth-sinister and Alexrd, but the "Post Reply" button isn't working, it loads, but never posts.
I have posted replies and quotes before without any issue and I can post normally here and on other threads, but the particular text I've written quoting Alexrd and darth-sinister is just not posting.
The Preview and More Options buttons don't work with this particular text either.

 

Tried with Firefox, nothing's working on it. Not even this comment here.

 

That just means they haven't bothered to re-attune their crystals. Why would a Jedi, who is taught to let go of their attachments and feelings such as vanity, bother to re-attune their crystals just so they can keep you in check of their change in character? They wouldn't, unless they have to craft a new one.

I believe it was Filoni's preference to give Ahsoka a yellow-green saber exactly because he wanted to represent a change in her character, even though not a profound one. Her body and outfit rework along with her new lightsaber is even more evidence of that, because growing up does change your character. Changing her fightstyle, her lightsaber, her outfit, her age, all at once, but not changing her character? That doesn't make sense. And that wasn't even the only time he did that, as her new white sabers (along with having grown up a bit again) also represent a change in her character (her resentment of the Jedi Order, improved maturity and non-affiliation with the Jedi). Now, wouldn't it change someone's character to be expelled from the Jedi Order the way she was?
Also, Barris Offee says she thinks Ventress' red lightsabers "fit her better" when Anakin confronts her. Doesn't that represent Offee's awareness of her own change of character when she immediattely associates that with her lightsaber color? And she isn't even a Sith to begin with, as she explain her real motives when brought to court.

What did you agree with, exactly? Do you think Jedi get Blue or Green out of sheer chance or do you think kyber crystals actually have a reason to grant either of these colors?

They're "still green and blue" because we choose to call them that using categories, but in reality they are different colors - they're either an electromagnetic wave with a different frequency or a different combination and/or concentration of electromagnetic waves with different frequencies. "Shades" don't exist in a real sense, they're just sub-categories so we don't have to come up with new names for every million of colors we can distinguish among - so we made around 7 categories and call the rest shades of those.
Then the question remains. Do the kyber crystals have a different reason to grant each different color or does that only apply to White, Red (both confirmed to have a reason) and the group of Green/Blue/Yellow/Purple/LightBlue/YellowGreen (confirmed to have a reason too (affiliation with the Jedi), but not a reason for differentiation among them)?
Are the rules governing that group of not-yet-explained colors based on sheer chance or can they still be explained like the White and Red lightsabers have?

Is there canon material that explains that? Where is that from?

 

No, it means they got the same colors again because colors don't change based on character or mood.

You connect with the crystal through the Force to get the color (green, blue). If the connection is made by enforcing one's will through the dark side, you get red. Red crystals can be "healed" from such procedure which results in white (according to the new EU).

No, it wasn't. Lightsaber colors don't change based on character (or anything else for that matter) the same way there was no change in Anakin's lightsaber color from TPM to the Clone Wars or Obi-Wan in each movie.

Not the lightsaber color, no. Everything else was done to imply the passing of time, same for the remaining characters.

Again, but not the lightsaber color.

 

Sure it does. There's like a year or so difference between the events season one and the film, to when we see Ahsoka during the rest of the show's run. Those aspects that changed quickly are just quick alterations that only represent the surface level. Her inner core still has a ways to go because she has not completed her training. It takes Obi-wan another ten years to go from dismissing Jar Jar and Anakin as pathetic lifeforms, to hugging it out with a pathetic lifeform.

That's about twenty years later in "Rebels". She already made peace with her decision to leave and what happened when she was put on trial before Order 66 happened. The change in blades there is more to have her not be a Jedi, but still have their traits.

No, but she's aware of her change in persona. She's acknowledging that she is no longer a Jedi, but like Ventress, is not a Sith. Anakin was aware of his change in persona after turning and killing everyone. That's why he's crying when the deed is done and before reporting to Palpatine. He would have changed his blade once he was back on Coruscant. That's why after he's recovered from his injuries and builds his new saber, the blade comes out red. The blades don't just turn, but it is a process of refinement that results in the change. Hence seeing Vader holding Luke's saber and the blade being green, Pong Krell still having Jedi colored blades and Barriss and Anakin having a Jedi colored blade.

It's sheer chance that the blades come out blue, green, purple and yellow.

More likely sheer chance.

It's apparent that it is through different means. The construction does not match the standard Lightsaber, the curved hand grips that Dooku and Ventress used, the double bladed sabers and the cross hilt sabers. The hand grip is of a different design, the blade is black which suggests a different type of focusing crystal and the blade having it's own shape and the difficulty in using one, all add up to it being quite different from the norm.

 

In that case, why does every temple guard seen, have exactly the same colour of lightsaber (yellow) when chance would suggest some variety (Pong Krell has two double-ended lightsabers, each different colours)?

At one point we see no less than 4: all with sabers exactly the same shade:

Maybe those are not personal sabers, but created by someone else (Jedi temple armorer?) to give the Temple Guard extra uniformity?

Similar logic could be applied to any colour - not just black - that has a degree of uniqueness. In the newcanon, no-one other than Mace has a purple saber, no-one other than the Temple Guards has a saber that yellow, and so forth. Admittedly there's other differences besides the colour in the case of the Darksaber.