#lightsabers

Red Kyberr doesn't sing, it yells because it's bleeding.

✨🌙  ART LOG ->  @404ama

And like. The Jedi are a culture. They’re a religion.

You know that, right? You know that many cultures, including generally peaceful ones, have sacred weapons, right? You know that the bond between a Jedi and their crystal(s) is an extremely sacred thing that requires the consent of both parties and is integral to their way of life, right?

You know that lightsabers are not intended to be only for killing, right? That the first thing Luke learns to do with his lightsaber is to shield and defend? You know that a culture having sacred weapons doesn’t mean that they view killing as sacred, right?

Lightsabers, in the original trilogy and the prequels, are the weapon of a jedi knight. The Jedi Knight part is significant, because every time a lightsaber is used in a positive context the weapon part is actually the least important, or even detrimental. Luke gets his first lightsaber to signify the beginning of his training, and he loses it when he is stupid and rushes in to fight. His second symbolizes him becoming a Jedi Knight, and he throws it away when he realizes that violence is not the solution. He declares that he is a Jedi, and he doesn't need a weapon to prove it. In the Phantom Menace we see that the reason that lightsabers are worn at all is because it means people like Anakin can recognize a jedi and know them as a symbol of hope, not because the Jedi want or need to be armed.

In the prequels, the overt reliance of lightsabers as weapons are part of the Jedi's downfall - the slow shift towards violence and militarism that led them to their doom. Literally, the Clone Wars - the downfall of the Jedi Order - begins when a gang of them rush into battle lightsabers drawn. In Legends, there's a reason that Dawn of the Jedi had the earliest lightsabers be powered by the dark side - they're weapons, and weapons are fundamentally bad things.

Disney Star Wars ascribes this enormous religious significance to the things that I just don't agree with. The lightsaber isn't a mechanical tool that can be used for good or ill but whose significance is mostly in what they represent, no they're borderline magical holy relics that radiate with the power of the force. The crystals who used to be just focusing lenses are now sapient and with a special connection to the Force, and a special crystal will make your lightsaber special - some concept art even flirts with the idea that the crystal generates the blade somehow.

I feel the extreme spiritual significance given to lightsabers and kyber crystals ruins the point because it means that this weapon is a fundamental and important part of being a Jedi. Being a Jedi requires this spiritual connection to a weapon made for killing people. It's why Luke tosses Rey's lightsaber away when handed to him, he is disappointed that the girl has this belief that a weapon is an important part of being a Jedi. You'll notice that he never trains her in using a lightsaber because he doesn't want her to use one. And just like how Luke lost his first lightsaber when he ran ahead into a fight that he shouldn't have, Rey's lightsaber is destroyed when she and Kylo get into a pointless fight over it.

Obi-Wan finds this bit endlessly endearing

Mace and Rex wish they'd stop being so sappy right in front of their salads

Simply put, pure kyber crystals are red, so when they grow the crystal in a lab it comes out red. Natural kyber however is filled with impurities that change its color to blue or green or whatnot.

I feel like this makes more sense because of a few reasons. First of all I feel like the sith would much prefer to grow their own kyber crystal rather than go out to a jedi controlled planet and steal one, if only for self sufficiency purposes, but also because lab grown crystals are absolutely perfect and pure in ways that naturally grown ones can never match and the sith would be all over that.

Meanwhile the jedi would value where the crystal came from and the journey to get the crystal more than the perfection of the crystal itself because of spiritual reasons, so they get the fancy colors.