Yellow Lightsabers

[julianthedragon]

More of a showerthought than a typical post here so delete if it's not allowed but I just realized that the rarity of lightsaber colors in the Star Wars universe roughly matches up to the availability of laser wavelengths. Yellow lightsabers are hard to come by, not even appearing in the main series, while red, green, and blue are the most common. Violet is an exception since only Mace Windu weilds a lightsaber of this color while it is fairly commonplace in handheld lasers, but the logic still kind of holds. The orange lightsaber is arguably the rarest, which matches up to lasers well. Somewhat interesting when you consider lightsabers are fantasy and could have been made into any color that the creator desired.

 

[bulukaki]

I think that's due to technical practicality and philosophical considerations.

Back in the 70's, they were using conventional films, and IIRC the way they did lightsabers was to use some sticks during filming then sort of overlay the special effects manually to the physical film later.

Colored film has red, green, and blue components. So adding effects with other colors that affect more than 1 color layer may need more time with less consistency or reduced precision. That's why they only got red, green, and blue. It's obvious which side gets red...

Hence, only recently with the use of digital media that other colors appeared. (IIRC Windu's purple lightsaber was specifically requested by the actor to look unique).

Anyway, that's only my thought, so don't quote me on this I'm sure there are many Star Wars fans who know better.

 

[Unown (WILD)]

I believe there is lore behind the color of light sabers. I know that the sith only use Red. Jedis in training use blue and masters use green. Not sure what yellow or other colors are used for but there is a reason for it. I remember hearing that the crystals the light sabers use determine their color as well and that with the red crystals they are extremely rare in nature so the sith use synthetic crystals for their lightsabers.

 

[Gabe]

By the way, there’s footage of Samuel Jackson asking for a purple lightsaber for the first time, what a legend

 

[harry81]

I love yellow saber. Even I bought last month from Neo Sabers on Lightsabers Sale.