Why did Luke Skywalker’s saber change from blue to green in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi?

The color symbology of lightsabers was not defined at the time of the classic Star Wars trilogy. In A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi gives Luke Skywalker his father’s blue lightsaber. Later, in The Empire Strikes Back, the young Jedi loses the weapon after his encounter with Darth Vader when he discovers his true identity. The next time he uses the Jedi weapon, in Return of the Jedi, the color of his new saber is green, why?

The Jedi built a new lightsaber to make up for the loss of his father’s saber, which in current canon was later recovered and given to Maz Kanata, one of the characters in the prequel trilogy. The reason Luke chose green was not symbolic, as we will see below.

This is the reason why Luke’s lightsaber is green

The main reason for the change was that during the filming of Return of the Jedi, the crew realized that the blue saber did not look right during the battle with Jabba the Hutt. When shot in daylight, the blue would blend with the color of the sky, so George Lucas and his crew decided to make the change. As a result, a whole mythology was created around the kyber crystals and their colors.

The Sith Lords already carried their sabers in red, a crimson color obtained by “bleeding” the crystal. In other words, they corrupted the Jedi’s weapon to make it their own, as depicted in the Darth Vader comics. Over the years, the mythology of lightsaber colors has grown, and so has the spectrum of colors. To know all the colors a lightsaber has and what they mean, we recommend you read this article.

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. To celebrate, the movie is being re-released in some countries.

Source | Culture Slate