Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Star Wars: The real reason dark side lightsabers are red

Turns out, the reasoning behind it all is just a tad more complicated than 'evil = red'

Clarisse Loughrey
Wednesday 19 October 2016 10:14 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Look, we all know the real reason the lightsabers are coloured the way they are in Star Wars: bad people get red lightsabers, and good people get blue or green - or purple if you're Samuel L. Jackson.

That was never going to satiate true Star Wars enthusiasts, though; not when this cinematic universe has expanded to a cult-like status of dedication, spawning entire studies of the galaxy's many histories and cultures.

Enter one of the many spin-off novels; this one specifically focusing on the popular Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels character Ahsoka Tano, simply titled Ahsoka and penned by E.K. Johnston.

We already know that lightsabers are created from the rare, force-attuned Kyber crystals, which are rumoured to play in important part in the plot of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story due to their usage in the building of the Death Star's superweapon; with previous explanations suggesting the red colour of dark side lightsabers came from artificial rather than naturally occurring kyber crystals.

However, the Ahsoka novel (via Screenrant) elaborates that the Kyber crystals choose Force users and present themselves especially to Jedis; those who sway to the dark side, however, cannot establish the same connection to the crystals, with their only source of obtaining them being either through stealing or plundering them from their enemies.

Having acquired a crystal, a Sith must then bend the crystal to their will in order to create a new lightsaber; producing a "bleeding" effect which causes the lightsaber to turn red.


Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits UK cinemas 16 December.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in