Discussions Does blaster bolt color mean anything?

Here's a particularly interesting topic that's always overlooked: Does the color of blaster bolts matter? They seem to very much be associated with certain factions, or at least preferred by those factions. Red seems to be the most common and universal color, though particularly liked by the separatists. Blue used almost exclusively by the republic. Green is often associated with the Empire, but has also been seen in use by earlier sith empires and republic armies, as well as the royal Naboo. Purple appears to be used exclusively by the separatists. Yellow seems to be used mostly by the Rebel Alliance. Do these color choices mean anything, or is it as simple as the weapon supplier or the type of cartridge fuel most readily available?

 

Actually, Yellow is mostly used by the Mandalorians in TCW - the Rebels, at least in the movies, tend to use red or red-gold.

 

I didn't know that part about the mandalorians, but still. Do these factions make conscious choices to use these blaster bolt colors? Or is it just a matter of what's easiest based on what's most readily available?

 

There's no info on the subject. I would guess that the company mining and packaging the Tibanna gas might add some kind of "coloring agent" to it.

 

I was always under the impression that it was just an out of universe expression so you could tell who was shooting on screen. If that's not it, it probably has something to do with the preferences of whoever designed each weapon.

Evil.

 

It doesn't really explain though why the Empire would suddenly change from blue to predominant red and green, almost overnight it seems. Blue bolt color is pretty much exclusively republic, so maybe in that instance it was done to further separate their image from the old republic.

 

The empire seems to have quickly shifted from the DC-15 type blaster that was standard issue for clone troopers to the E-11 which became the standard issue for stormtroopers. Like I said before, this could certainly account for the change in color. The empire also quickly started doing everything as cheap as possible in an effort to save money and increase production speed.

I still think the out of universe explanation is best though. The different colors only exist so that you can tell who is shooting on screen, and that would explain the sudden change of color between the empire and the republic.

Evil.

 

I always figured it was the ammo the cartridge was filled with, and not the blaster, but that might account for it too.

 

No, I don't believe that's it. Several of the most common weapons for both sides use Tabanna Gas.

Evil.

 

The new stealth X-wing uses a special type of tabanna gas so i would guess that it would be the type/place where it was mined that determins the color,

 

If color were dependent on where the gas was mined, the empire would have been able to track down and cut off the rebel supplies based purely on what color laser they were currently using. Imperial intelligence was quite good at their job for the most part.

Evil.

 

But then why would the Empire suddenly switch from the blue gas, which appears to have been a stable dominant republic source for millennia? Again, is it the image? Did the Empire want to disassociate itself with the popular image of republic guns shooting blue bolts?

 

If you're looking for an in-universe answer, I'll do my best to explain a likely scenario.

The number one driving force behind the empire suddenly switching from blue, is simply cost. They just got out of a very long, very costly war. They no longer needed the more effective weapons and rounds with the new era of peace being ushered in. But they still needed the appearance of power that the new military force provided, so they switched to cheaper weapons and ammo. Even their Star Destroyers were swapped out for cheaper replacements. (Ex. Venator class destroyers cost 59 million credits, while the Victory-1 class that replaced it only costs 57 million.)

Evil.

 

I just looked at it as an identifying feature even in-universe. If your military uses a uniform color, then its easier to tell who's shooting who in a chaotic battlefield. Obviously that is the reason out of universe, but it works plenty well in-universe too I feel.

 

So, you're saying that blue bolts are more powerful than red and green, but also more expensive? That would help explain why, as the war waged on, the republic slowly started to move from using almost exclusively blue to green and red as well (mostly with starships). I would guess then that purple is most powerful (due to rare use and seemingly tied to elite weapons), followed by blue, green, red, and yellow as the weakest (due to rebel use in EU alongside red, but unsure since mandalorians also use it). Would also help contribute to, alongside inferior training, why stormtroopers are a lot less effective than clone troopers.

 

The Victory-class entered service before the Venator was phased out- but never became widespread. The Imperial-class was the real replacement for the Venator, and was much more expensive.

 

I always took the colors to be an additive used by various factions to better identify their own "tracer" fire with red being the default color for blasters/lasers. Of course why the Empire would bother "coloring" the Death Star's Super Laser is beyond me.

 

I like to believe it's done on purpose by a coloring agent too. It probably is done to distinguish who's firing, but it might attract connections with certain factions after a while as an unintended side effect. Imagine if all guns on Earth fired tracer rounds, and one nation decided to start coloring their tracers for ID purposes. Eventually, the public eye would come to associate a particular color of tracer with a nation's army, right? Same with the republic. I don't recall anyone else using blue rounds, and the republic uses blue more than any non-red color by any other main faction. This would fit both theories on why the empire changed this, actually. Not only to disassociate themselves with the old order, but perhaps coloring agents (especially blue) are expensive when used en mass, so they limited it to vehicles and ships, and green only in that case. Personal canon marked.

 

Actually most (all as far as I know) US/NATO tracer rounds use a reddish tracer color while the old USSR used tracer rounds that produced a green color. I assume many former COMBLOC nations not currently aligned with NATO still do use a green tracer color. So there is some real world precedent to the color of a tracer being associated with a specific nation. However it doesn't seem to have entered the mainstream consciousness and become common knowledge. Probably because tracers are used only in certain applications and not exclusively used for all small arms.

 

I was actually going to bring up that exact point...

But then, when it comes to military stuff I'm hardly the average person