Disney+’s new anime anthology series, Star Wars: Visions, has introduced a fascinating new way for lightsabers to change color. Each of the show’s nine episodes features a unique visual style and tells a self-contained story set somewhere within George Lucas’ Star Wars universe. In Star Wars: Visions episode 5, “The Ninth Jedi,” a lightsaber craftsman named Zhima reveals a whole new way to temper kyber crystals to cause the colors of lightsabers to change.

In the modern Star Wars canon, kyber crystals – the heart of lightsabers that give them their power – are colorless until they are paired with a Jedi within a lightsaber. The persona and Force connection of the wielder affects the color of the crystal, and therefore the blade. In most cases, Jedi would create blue or green lightsabers, though other colors were possible as well. The iconic red blades of the Sith Lords were created by exerting dark Force control over the crystal, causing it to “bleed.”

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“The Ninth Jedi” changes things up a bit in terms of how lightsabers change color. The swordsmith of the episode, Zhima, tempers his lightsabers’ kyber crystals in such a way that they immediately respond to whoever holds them, not just the first person they bond with. For instance, when Zhima holds a lightsaber, it looks blue, and of an ordinary length, but when he gives the same saber to his daughter Kara, the blade changes in size and becomes a colorless gray. When she later begins to bond with it and develop her own Force connection, it turns green. Similarly, in a battle in the episode, when a lightsaber is taken from a dark side user by a Jedi, the blade switches instantly from red to green.

That kind of split-second change in a lightsaber is very different from the previous canon. Traditionally, if a Jedi were to use another Jedi’s lightsaber, the color and size wouldn’t change. The lightsaber would remain the appropriate size and color for its original wielder. But since “The Ninth Jedi” takes place in the far future of the Star Wars galaxy, it’s reasonable to assume that new methods of forging lightsabers could have emerged. The idea of a kyber crystal changing on the fly to fit whoever’s holding it is interesting, and it adds a fun new layer to the lore of Star Wars’ most famous weapon.

One thing that doesn’t make as much sense about the lightsabers in Star Wars: Visions, however, is how the tempering of the kyber crystals could make them turn red in the hands of Sith, even without any bleeding. Canonically, kyber crystals resist being used by the dark side of the Force, which is why Sith Lords must compel them to bleed in order to control them. With that in mind, it’s odd that the Sith in “The Ninth Jedi” can instantly turn their blades red. Still, the new lightsabers of Star Wars: Visions are a fun addition to the lore of the franchise, and their unique color-changing properties are a fascinating new twist.

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Rick Stevenson
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Rick Stevenson is a writer, editor and performer based in Brooklyn, NY. He’s written on TV, film and games for over six years, in addition to assorted stints in bookselling, carpentry, and TV production. Rick studied writing at the College of William & Mary and Oxford University, and can report with some authority that they are both old. He lives and dies for Avatar: The Last Airbender.

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