The Jedi Temple Guards seen in The Clone Wars wield lightsaber pikes with twin yellow blades. These anonymous masked Jedi Knights protected the temple on Coruscant, but we know at least one of their number fell to the Dark Side and became the Grand Inquisitor. Lucasfilm
We first saw the Darksaber in the possession of Pre Vizsla in The Clone Wars season 2 episode The Mandalore Plot, but it later falls into Maul’s hands when he seizes control of the planet in season 5, in the years between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The majority of the Legends colors are just shades of the canon ones, but there are some exceptions.
The red blade makes Darth Vader a master of evil.
Mara Jade was one of the most popular Legends characters, having started out as the Emperor’s Hand, tasked with killing Luke and going on to marry her former target. As an Imperial, she used a magenta blade and would ultimately inherit Anakin’s blue lightsaber after becoming Luke’s ally.
In reality, actor Samuel L. Jackson asked Lucas if his character could have a purple blade so he’d stand out during the climactic arena battle in Attack of the Clones. Since Windu is “the second baddest Jedi in the universe next to Yoda,” his wish was granted, Jackson revealed in an interview. Lucasfilm
Darth Sidious uses a red blade, which requires that Dark Side users make kyber crystals “bleed.”
Other blue users we’ve seen in canon also include Ben Solo, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Cal Kestis, Shaak Ti, Agen Kolar, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Barriss Offee, Jocasta Nu, Aayla Secura, Plo Koon, Kai Justiss, Sora Bulq and Ferren Barr.
Blue
Lowbacca, Chewbacca’s nephew who joined Luke’s academy, uses a lightsaber with a bronze blade.
This blade was blue in the initial edit (and early posters), but it was changed to green so it would stand out against Tatooine’s blue sky in the final cut. The Star Wars YouTube channel’s description for the movie’s teaser trailer, in which the blue blade can be seen, confirms this. Lucasfilm/Screenshot by Sean Keane/CNET
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“I knew this lightsaber was the Excalibur of this film,” set decorator Roger Christian told Daniel Wallace for the recently release Star Wars: The Lightsaber Collection. “I knew it would be the iconic image.” Insight Editions
After obtaining a crystal, dark side Force users must make it “bleed” by channeling their pain and anger into it.
Ahsoka Tano and her white-bladed lightsabers made their live action debut in The Mandalorian. Lucasfilm
Green
Unusually, most of those we’ve seen wielding the blade (Pre Vizsla, Sabine, Bo-Katan, Gideon and Mando) aren’t Force users.
Villains we’ve seen using red lightsabers include Vader, Sidious, Darth Maul, Count Dooku, Savage Opress, Asajj Ventress, the Imperial Inquisitors and Rey in a vision seen during The Rise of Skywalker. Rey ignites her yellow-bladed lightsaber in the closing moments of The Rise of Skywalker. Now playing:Watch this: Inside a lightsaber combat lesson
In the third season of Rebels, which takes place between Solo and A New Hope, Sabine Wren obtains the Darksaber and proves herself worthy of wielding it through combat. She ultimately gives the blade to Bo-Katan Kryze, a former lieutenant of Pre Vizsla, who uses it to unite the Mandalorians against the Empire.
The Legends continuity might not be canon anymore, but we should acknowledge some of the lightsaber colors it gave us.
When Ahsoka makes her triumphant return in Rebels, she uses a pair of lightsabers with white blades. We also saw them in live action for the first time in season 2 of The Mandalorian.
The color of evil. Those who go down the dark path, mostly notably the Sith, can’t form the same relationship with kyber crystals as Jedi, so they must steal them or take them from slain followers of the light. Insight Editions
Purple
Rey wields Leia and Anakin’s blue lightsabers to deflect Palpatine’s Force Lightning in The Rise of Skywalker.
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During the production of each movie in George Lucas’ saga, the lightsabers’ blades were actually white. Effects wizards later gave them color using a technique called rotoscoping. And it was concept artist Ralph McQuarrie who decided to associate a blade’s color with a character’s moral standing. So let’s take a look at what the characters’ color choices say about them, and the history of some of their weapons.
Kyle Katarn wields an orange lightsaber in the game Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight, as do the Mandalorian Knights in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: War comic book miniseries. Keith Hamshere
Red
Only one person in canon wields a purple blade: the Jedi Council’s Mace Windu.
Vader’s quest to obtain his crystal and the subsequent bleeding of fallen Jedi Master Kirak Infil’a’s green one, during which he experiences haunting visions, can be seen in Marvel’s 2017 Darth Vader series by Charles Soule.
The notion of green as the choice of more-experienced Jedi was reinforced by the prequels, in which green blades were used by Qui-Gon Jinn (Obi-Wan’s master) and Yoda (the order’s grand master).
An experienced Luke Skywalker uses a green blade when he faces his father and the Emperor on the second Death Star.
“I tried to make the laser beam as bright as possible, and I changed the colors for the various swords — a color for the good guys and a color for the bad guys,” he said.
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Mara Jade wielded a magenta blade during her time with the Empire.
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The Darksaber resurfaces around five years after Return of the Jedi, in The Mandalorian’s season 1 finale, when Moff Gideon uses it to escape his crashed TIE fighter. Insight Editions
Black
He uses it to decapitate the deadly bounty hunter Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones and to deflect Darth Sidious’ Force Lightning with it — disfiguring his face — in Revenge of the Sith. It later falls to the streets of Coruscant after Windu is betrayed by Anakin. If you want to go further down this rabbit hole, here’s a list of 174 characters’ personal lightsabers across canon and Legends. Obi-Wan Kenobi knows his lightsaber isn’t as clumsy or random as a blaster.
Blue is the color of the very first lightsaber we see, and it’s by far the most common hue. Since Luke wields it, one might easily assume that blue corresponds with younger Jedi. However, Obi-Wan used a blue blade throughout his career, and Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber, which passed between the central characters of the saga (from Anakin to Luke to Rey, via Finn), was blue. Lucasfilm/Screenshot by Sean Keane/CNET
Luke can also be seen finishing off the construction of his new lightsaber in a deleted scene from the movie. This lightsaber’s fate is unknown — we see Luke using it in flashbacks during The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, but it likely remains hidden in his hut on Ahch-To.
The cross-guard design is necessary because the cracked crystal produces excess heat, resulting in the red blade’s serrated appearance and unique sound, according to The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary. The Darksaber’s blade is flat, unlike the cylindrical blade of a lightsaber, The Lightsaber Collection reference book notes.
In The Mandalorian’s season 2 finale, Mando defeats Gideon and takes the blade — making him the leader of his people. We’ll see how that plays out in season 3. Lucasfilm
White
In-universe, the color of a lightsaber’s blade is determined by the kyber crystal used in its construction. The Gathering, an episode from the fifth season of animated series The Clone Wars, revealed that the quest to acquire these force-attuned crystals is a Jedi rite of passage — the crystals presenting themselves to worthy owners.
Yellow
On the other hand, Ahsoka Tano, Anakin’s Padawan, swung a green lightsaber at the beginning of her career — adding a second, shorter green blade as she became more experienced during the Clone Wars.
Gideon was an Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) officer during this event, in which the Empire seemingly slaughtered Mandalorians and scattered the survivors across the galaxy, so he could’ve taken the Darksaber as a prize to assert dominance over a conquered culture. Lucasfilm/Screenshot by Sean Keane/CNET
Lightsabers are cinematic icons, having appeared in every Star Wars movie since 1977’s A New Hope, when Luke Skywalker first fired up the blue blade entrusted to him by Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The color blue wasn’t arbitrary. There’s a story behind all the lightsaber hues, from the red blades wielded by Darth Vader and Kylo Ren to the black and white ones seen in The Mandalorian.
The lost colors of Legends
Del Rey
We’ll look at all the different shades of lightsaber, and the characters who wield them. Be warned that great big Star Wars SPOILERS for the movies and shows follow.
In the decades since, we’ve seen a whole rainbow of colors — though many have been consigned to the noncanon Legends continuity of novels, comic books, video games, spinoff movies and TV series that came out before April 2014, when Disney took over. Leia’s lightsaber hilt was inspired by Luke’s second one, according to The Lightsaber Collection reference book.
Wielders in canon also include Quinlan Vos, Depa Billaba, Bultar Swan, Stass Allie, Luminara Unduli, Kit Fisto, Eeth Koth and Kirak Infil’a. Mando and Gideon battle, with the fate of Grogu and the Darksaber at stake.
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If you want to go further down this rabbit hole, here’s a list of 174 characters’ personal lightsabers across canon and Legends.
