How is the Colour of a Lightsaber Determined?

But what exactly determines the colour of a lightsaber’s blade? Read on to find out how lightsabers get their colours and what the various lightsaber colour meanings are.

How Lightsaber Colours are Determined (Canon)

In the Star Wars canon, what determines the colour of a lightsaber is the kyber crystal used for its construction and its owner’s essence or relationship with the Force.

Kyber Crystals

Kyber crystals or lightsaber crystals are rare naturally occurring Force-imbued gems that are capable of amplifying and focusing energy. These crystals which are typically found in Force-rich planets like Ilum, Jedha and Lothal serve as the power source (heart) of lightsabers. They also determine what colours the plasma beams emitted by lightsabers will be.

To get kyber crystals, Jedi younglings would have to travel to these Force-rich planets (particularly the caves of Ilum) and find them. Once found, the younglings would need to attune them with the Force before they can be used in the lightsaber assembly process.

In their natural state, kyber crystals are colourless, but after a Force-user attunes to them and activates them, they take on a colour that reflects that Force user’s relationship with the Force. The lightsaber constructed with this attuned kyber crystal will have the same blade colour as the crystal.

For the Jedi, kyber crystals mostly turn blue or green, but there are rare occasions where they turn to other colours such as purple, yellow, orange, magenta, cyan or pink. It is also possible for the colour of a kyber crystal to change if it bonds with another Force-user. This can be seen in Clone Wars where Anakin Skywalker turned Ahsoka Tano’s green and green-yellow kyber crystals into blue like his own.

Sith Kyber Crystals: Bleeding

Unlike the Jedi, Kyber crystals don’t typically bond with dark-side users or individuals with negative intentions. So, in order to get these kybers crystals to work, the Sith will quite literally have to force and torture them through a ritual known as “bleeding”.

This bleeding ritual is a process where the Sith get kyber crystals to work by pouring all their negative emotions (rage, anger, hatred) and unnatural dark force power into them. This ultimately turns the kyber crystals red and gives Sith lightsaber blades their characteristic red hue. It is important to note that while the Sith can bleed any kyber crystal, they consider it customary to bleed kyber crystals forcefully taken from their enemies – the Jedi.

Also, the bleeding process of kyber crystals can be reversed, as shown by Ahsoka Tano, who purified and healed the bled kyber crystals of a fallen Inquisitor. This healing process turned the crystal pure white, which is why Ahsoka Tano’s lightsabers spot distinctive white blades.

Lightsaber Crystals (Star Wars Legends)

In the Star Wars canon, Kyber crystals are colourless and have to be attuned to the Force before they change colour. In the Legends continuity, however, lightsabers are powered by different types of Force-imbued crystals, such as the Adegan crystals (found on Ilum) popularly used by the Jedi.

In Legends, the different lightsaber crystals weren’t colourless but glowed in specific colours that the lightsaber blades would eventually take on. Adegan crystals were either green or blue, which explains why most Jedi had green or blue lightsabers. Mace Windu’s purple lightsaber colour was gotten from the unique purple crystals gifted to him on Hurikane.

Although very rare, red lightsaber crystals do exist in Star Wars legends. The Sith also had synthetic red lightsaber crystals (created using dark force and technology), which is what they mostly used for their lightsabers.

Lightsaber Colour Meanings

In the Star Wars universe, every lightsaber blade colour has meaning and symbolism. The colour blue, which symbolises justice, truth and loyalty, was associated with skilled Jedi warriors (Jedi Guardians) and individuals who have a strong sense of justice. Green which symbolises growth, wisdom, life force and nature, is mostly associated with strong Force users and wise Jedi who have achieved the highest level of understanding and mastery of the mysteries surrounding the Force. Purple symbolises power, complexity, transformation and moral ambiguity. It is associated with individuals like Mace Windu, who have had extensive experience with harnessing knowledge from both the light and the dark side. Red (the characteristic colour of Sith lightsabers) symbolises passion, greed, hatred and rage.

Other colours, like yellow, signify warmth, the power of the sun and hope. White signifies purity and peace.

Conclusion

The lightsabers wielded by the various characters of the Star Wars universe featured different blade colours, from the common blue, green and red to the rare purple, yellow, white, orange and black. There are a few explanations as to how the colours of lightsabers are determined. In the Star Wars canon, they are determined by kyber crystals and a Force user’s relationship with the Force, while in the Legends, they are determined by the different coloured lightsaber crystals found all over the galaxy.