Why Anakin's Lightsaber Didn't Turn From Blue To Red When He Became A Sith

Warning! This submit comprises spoilers for The Acolyte finale.

Abstract

Lightsabers do not mechanically flip crimson when one turns to the darkish facet.
Anakin by no means bled his kyber crystal within the prequels, explaining why his saber stayed blue.
Anakin’s lightsaber wanted to remain blue for continuity.

Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber stayed blue all through the Star Wars prequel trilogy even after he’d fallen to the darkish facet for one key motive, and The Acolyte simply made that fairly clear. The Acolyte finale included one of many coolest lightsaber pictures in all of Star Wars’ films and TV exhibits. Simply after killing her former grasp, Sol, Osha held his blue lightsaber because it turned crimson.

Alongside representing her transition to the darkish facet primarily based on lightsaber colours and their meanings, this second was a mirrored image of how lightsabers work. Particularly, Osha had executed one thing to Sol’s lightsaber that Anakin by no means did to his personal within the prequels, whilst he carried out a number of massacres in Star Wars: Episode II – Assault of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. This one distinction explains why Osha acquired a crimson saber a lot quicker than Anakin did.

Qimir in his mask wielding a red lightsaber to the left in a red hue and Master Sol wielding his blue lightsaber to the right in a blue hue

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There’s Extra To Turning A Lightsaber Purple Than Simply Holding It

Darth Vader bleeding a Kyber crystal in Marvel's Darth Vader comics.

Lightsabers do not mechanically flip crimson when the consumer joins the darkish facet of the Pressure; as an alternative, there’s a explicit course of by way of which a lightsaber turns into crimson. Particularly, it comes all the way down to the kyber crystal throughout the saber. Kyber crystals, along with making a lightsaber operate, give the lightsaber its coloration. Nevertheless, crimson kyber crystals aren’t naturally occurring.

Lightsabers do not mechanically flip crimson when the consumer joins the darkish facet of the Pressure.

For a kyber crystal of any naturally occurring coloration (blue, inexperienced, purple, and so forth) to grow to be crimson, a darkish facet Pressure-user should ‘bleed’ the crystal. This course of includes pouring one’s feelings—particularly anger and ache—into the crystal. That is exactly why Anakin’s saber was nonetheless blue all through Revenge of the Sith. He could have killed innumerable individuals in that film (and, notably, in Assault of the Clones as nicely), however he had but to correctly bleed his crystal. Till that occurred, regardless of how many individuals he killed, the colour would not change.

In The Acolyte, Osha’s scenario is completely different. Like Anakin, Osha merely killing somebody wasn’t sufficient to show the saber she was wielding to crimson. Fairly, Osha was in a position to flip Sol’s saber crimson as a result of the kyber crystal inside it was uncovered. As she was killing Sol, a person she had liked as a father determine, she was basically gripping the crystal, and feeling all of her anger, hate, and ache. That is why, earlier than the saber, the crystal itself might be seen altering coloration.

The Authentic Trilogy Actually Wanted Anakin’s Lightsaber To Keep Blue!

Luke holds Anakin's lightsaber in A New Hope with Obi-Wan looking on

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader

On a extra sensible degree, Anakin’s lightsaber could not change coloration within the prequel trilogy as a result of it wanted to be blue for continuity. Within the authentic trilogy, Luke will get his father’s blue lightsaber, and the prequels would have been hard-pressed to clarify that away. In the long run, Darth Vader’s crimson lightsaber needed to come alongside later, and that ended up occurring off-screen.

That story was finally instructed within the Star Wars comics, at which level Darth Vader went by way of the correct steps to ‘bleed’ a kyber crystal, creating his personal crimson lightsaber. Nevertheless, this Darth Vader story additionally revealed how troublesome the method of bleeding a kyber crystal might be. In Star Wars: Darth Vader #5 (2017), written by Charles Soule, Vader is lastly tasked with bleeding his personal kyber crystal, however the method practically pulls him again to the sunshine facet of the Pressure.

PURCHASE STAR WARS: DARTH VADER #5 (2017)

The truth is, this is among the most profound tales about Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader’s Star Wars journey in the entire franchise. When Vader makes an attempt to bleed the inexperienced kyber crystal that he gained in battle towards a Jedi (how the Sith generally purchase their crystals), he begins having visions of himself returning to the sunshine facet of the Pressure—a few of them even together with a reconnection together with his former Jedi grasp, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Whereas it is apparent that Darth Vader does not stroll away from the darkish facet at that time, he comes crushingly shut.

Not solely does this display Vader’s continued inner battle, however it additionally reveals how difficult bleeding a kyber crystal might be. After all, this was completely different from Osha’s expertise bleeding her personal kyber crystal, however these distinctions nonetheless make sense. Sure, Vader confronted a way more daunting activity, however he was additionally confronted with deep turmoil about his option to abandon everybody he liked and embrace the darkish facet. Osha didn’t have that very same battle; moderately, from every part proven in The Acolyte finale, she was absolutely prepared to affix the darkish facet.

Vader wanted to actively faucet into his anger, worry, and ache to bleed the crystal; Osha did not.

Furthermore, Vader wanted to actively faucet into his anger, worry, and ache to bleed the crystal; Osha did not. She naturally channeled that ache and hatred as she killed Sol, inadvertently bleeding the crystal whereas holding the damaged saber. It’s kind of of a disgrace that Vader’s crystal bleeding did not occur on-screen as a result of the method is so intriguing, however that is what made this second in The Acolyte so cool. Whereas Anakin Skywalker could not have had a crimson lightsaber within the prequel trilogy, Osha turning Sol’s blue lightsaber crimson in The Acolyte confirmed audiences what that course of appears like in real-time.

All episodes of The Acolyte at the moment are streaming on Disney+.