Retcons for PT era lightsaber colors? (Hear me out.)

I'm looking for retcons, friends. Hear me out.

Before posting this, I went to Wookieepedia because I figured they might have an explanation of some sort. I found this:

This is an incorrect corruption of a retcon. The Caves of Ilum were the reason for limited colors, not the solution. Jedi used to have to find their crystals wherever until the Ilum Caves, with their vast resources of blue and green crystals, were discovered and began to become the Jedi's exclusive source of lightsaber crystals. These caves were destroyed bit by bit towards the end of the Clone War and the beginning of the Empire, forcing NJO Jedi to search the galaxy for lightsaber crystals again. This retcon was made, of course, to explain why the Jedi of the PT use only blue and green blades, while EU Jedi use all sorts of colors.

Also, it is made very clear that red is associated with the Sith. The EU bring this up all the time. Even Dark Lord mentions that those non-Sith that carry red blades generally do so due to some association with the Sith. This become important later on in my post.

So Wookieepedia is wrong. Someone should fix that. But that's not why I'm here.

In the comics that came out before Episode II, as well as other media, Jedi had all sorts of color lightsabers. Plo Koon's was golden, Depa Billaba's and the Hetts' were red, Tyvokka's was orange, Yaddle's was purple, I believe, etc. Suddenly, Lucas makes his "blue and green for the good guys, red for the bad guys" statement, and all the Jedi quietly change their blade colors to compensate. As far as I know, no explanation is given to explain why Plo Koon's becomes blue and A'Sharad's become green. Adi-Gallia's changes from red to blue, Depa Billaba's from red to green. Are we merely supposed to forget that their sabers were ever another color? (The Mace Windu/Eeth Koth thing is different.) I would be interested to know if any explanations exist for the Jedi's sudden change in lightsaber color, especially those Jedi who chose red blades.

 

Yeah, there's Aayla too. In "Twilight" and "Darkness" she had a red blade, but from AOTC on (and starting in "Rite of Passage" in the comics) she had a blue blade.

 

And in Battlefront II, she's got a blue lgihtsaber paired with a green one. Take it for what you will.

 

I generally consider saber colors to be a small enough detail that I'm willing to overlook errors.

 

And if that's what we're meant to do, no biggie, but some people are really into lightsabers...remember that Dream Blade thread?

 

I still don't understand why people go "OMG! Lightsabr is red = teh Sith!" A color does not determine your standing, though it can be used to represent it.

Also, it needs to be mentioned that the red = evil mindset may not span across all cultures (especially in the GFFA, which has soooo many.) After all, white means death in some Asian countries, but black means death in the West.

 

But red means Sith to a Jedi. People bug out over red lightsabers because the Sith traditionally use red and the Jedi traditionally shy away from it because of that. That's what those colors mean to their cultures. Again, it's in the source material, so if you don't believe us...

 

Oh, I get it and accept it, but I don't like it when people bash on the EU because not everyone has the same old boring green and blue.

(Not that anyone here is doing it, but I've seen it happen before...)

 

Ha. I'm not bashin' on it, but I'd be interested to know if there's an explanation. I mean, I thought it'd be kinda funny if, once TPM happened and the Sith came back, everyone swiftly dumped their red crystals. But why use 'em in the first place, 'specially since according to most sources red crystals are synthetic?

Plus, I'm just as interested in the change from other colors to blue or green. Like I said, if we're just supposed to forget it ever happened, I'm cool with that, but I thought it'd make an interesting discussion.

 

I never got why it was important to add anyway; it was a minor cosmetic detail and we didn't need to hear how the lightsaber let off a viridian glow, unless of course the author wants to show off his array of adjectives for coloured light.

E_S

 

Better description? More complete imagery?

 

I was always under the impression that the Jedi had their "Ceremonial Blades" and their "Service Blades" Because of the relative rarity of the non-Ilum crystal blades, plus the fact that most Jedi probably don't have the desire or time to go out and search for other colors/crystals, the sabers that use colors other than blue or green started to become less common, and those that did exist were older, more coveted, more special, often passed down from generation to generation, perhaps made with more care and concern to detail, and so forth. The Jedi of the OJO kept these as status symbols, decorative items, and generally as trinkets and reminders of the earlier days of their order. In the last decades of the Old Jedi Order, the lightsabers and their crystals became valued enough that they were only really carried around the Temple or other highly-secure areas, where they would not likely be used (this, of course, wasn't always the case, as we see when the Yinchorri attack the Jedi Temple. The Jedi weren't expecting that attack, and so they were still carrying thir ceremonial blades, as depicted in the rainbow of blades in the comic)

When the Jedi went into the field, or at least further afield than usual, they preferred to carry the cheaper, more common, newer Ilum-crystal blades. Few Jedi would likely have been willing to carry their treasured ceremonial blades into a combat situation, or anywhere else where the treasure might be threatened. When the Jedi that we know had the ceremonial blades went into a combat-guaranteed situation, like at Geonosis, they stashed their prized sabers and took the mass-produced (relatively speaking) Ilum blades instead. As the Clone Wars heated up, and it was no longer safe to really even carry the ceremonial sabers around Coruscant, even to Palpatine's office or most of the Jedi Temple, the Jedi simply put their ceremonial sabers in safe keeping and proceeded to permanenly carry blue or green blades. This helps to explain why we only see blue and green blades at the time of Order 66.

It doesn't explain all the instances of Jedi carrying and using blades of differing colors, but it's a start.

 

I like the idea that they're prized, but the Jedi are pretty heavy on not placing too much emphasis on status and material things. We do see, however, that some Jedi, i.e. Mace Windu, are concerned with individuality and making their mark. It's consistent, then, to say that some Jedi bypass Ilum altogether. This is supported by the fact that every once in a while in the post-AotC comics, a weird saber color shows up. (Jango Fett - Open Seasons had a yellow bladed fellow.) So some Jedi have different colored sabers.

Also, a lot of Jedi use their different colored sabers on Malastare and Yinchorri, pretty combat-intensive missions.

But I like the direction you're going in...

 

That would purple and blue....
Not to be nitpicky...

 

The screenshots showed purple and blue, but, well, at least the PS2 version has her with a blue and green.

 

Thats what I was actually thinking, once more dark jedi start appearing the council votes for uniformity of the blades. being a council member though mace windu allows himself to be immune.

 

I never got the cyan colored lightsaber from KOTOR-2. What color is cyan? My dictionary dosen't have it. Is it like a bright blue or something like that?

 

Cyan.

 

I don't see why that's silly. That's the association. It's like if someone wore a swastika, everyone would say "OMG Nazi!" One of the characters points it out as a Sith blade, one of the others says that just because it's red doesn't mean he's a Sith, and the first responds that anyone with a red lightsaber is at least associated somehow with the Sith. Which, at the time of the CW was true.

 

You know what?

I just assumed it was a retcon. *shrug*

I much prefer the "red blade = synthetic = Sith" thing, though I think limiting the Jedi to blue and green (and purple) was a little shortsighted, and it played a large part in my dismissing the deaths of all the "vanilla Jedi" on Geonosis. Had they each seemed somewhat individual, I might have cared more.

 

Two possible explanations for Mace's blade

1) In the (great!) Insider article "Fight Saber," I think they mention that Mace's blade uses an electrum coating process that I thought they linked to the purple color of the blade. Perhaps this electrum process allowed more generic crystals to be used in a lightsaber (see Corran Horn in I, Jedi). If this method of blade making was just starting to come into service in the PT era, perhaps Luke found these blueprints when he was searchig for information on saber construction, thus hte colored blades of the NJO.

2)It is hypothesized that the Korun people are descended from ancient shipwrecked Jedi. We know that the Koruns still know of the crashed ship, as Vastor and his men use shields made of its hull. Perhaps an ancient purple crystal was taken from one of the lightsabers from the ship and sent along with Mace to the Temple. It would both mark him as differnet and visibly tie him to his homeworld.



3) Sam Jackson just really likes purple.

 

Ouch. But true, we are out there.

Didnt butlar swan have a Yellow blade in AOTC? During the battle of geonosis. About 3 Jedi did if i remember correctly...

EDIT: and what about Neeja? I know he was technically EU, but hes written in the Clone Wars era and he had A silver blade. Alternate colors can also be found amung his companions.

The best explanation is probably that many jedi went with blue or green do to availability. While others who desired another blade took the extra time to seek out usable crystals.

Still doesnt explain the retcon but..and explains the small percentage of devience from the green blue thing.

The history of maces saber is pretty well covered. wookiepedia is your friend. http://starwars.wikicities.com/wiki/Mace_Windu

 

Yeah, I was going to mention the Hurikane bit. The natives of Hurikane (ouch...what a bad planet name...reminds me of Despayre) are mineral based, and purple crystals appear to grow in their bodies. Cool, huh?

Bultur Swan's blade is blue. Some Jedi appeared to have yellow blades in some shots, but that appears to be a consequence of the background/lighting filtered through green blades. GL is pretty strict about this "blue/green good guys" thing.

Agreed. Nejaa isn't exactly a conformist.

 

Is that Opinion? Or did you read that somewhere? I believe u about swan of course, but as far as the blade color goes i find it hard to believe that if the rule is so strict that ILM wouldnt be able to create the proper colors in editing. Its just tooo big of a discrepency to miss in editing.

And didnt Sam just ask if he could get purple to break the rule? Couldnt be THAT strict.