Star Wars Characters Who Changed Their Lightsaber
The lightsaber was first described by Alec Guinness' Ben Kenobi as the weapon of a Jedi Knight: an elegant weapon for a more civilized age. In the era he refers to, Jedi would often tell their padawan learners that the weapon was their life. Despite this sage advice, plenty of great Jedi have gone on to lose their lightsabers, get new ones, or change them in some way. More "Star Wars" characters than you might realize have changed their lightsabers over the decades.
In the iconography of "Star Wars," a character is often defined by the weapon they use, down to the color of their lightsaber blade. What began as a binary between blue and red — good and evil — has expanded into a much more complicated world of two separate canons worth of lore. You don't need to dive headfirst into that just yet, though, since we've compiled a list of all the most important "Star Wars" characters who changed their lightsaber color or design. From movies to books and video games, we are taking the entire "Star Wars" story into consideration here to give a detailed brief on the weapons of the most powerful Force users in the galaxy.
Ahsoka Tano
Ahsoka Tano is one of the lightsaber users who's changed things up the most over the course of her journey. When she first appears as Anakin Skywalker's young padawan in the "Clone Wars" movie, Ahsoka wields a single-bladed green lightsaber. At some unseen point during Season 3 of "The Clone Wars," Ahsoka constructs a second, smaller, "shoto" lightsaber with a lighter yellow-green blade. At this time, she trains to become a master of the Shien variant of Form V, the name given to the lightsaber style she uses from that point forward.
After leaving the Jedi Order, Ahsoka returns to help the Republic one last time before Order 66. When she does, Anakin presents her with an improved version of her sabers that he'd kept and been tinkering with. When Ahsoka ignites them, she sees that they're now tinged blue. At the end of "The Clone Wars," after Anakin falls to the Dark Side, Ahsoka buries her lightsabers and leaves the Force behind.
Between the downfall of the Republic and her appearance in "Star Wars Rebels," Ahsoka changes her lightsaber color one more time to the shining white we see in "Ahsoka." Between the events of "The Clone Wars" and "Rebels," she builds herself new lightsabers with curved hilts and white blades. The white kyber crystals come from her purifying those of the Sixth Brother, one of Darth Vader's Imperial Inquisitors.
Anakin Skywalker
Even before his fall to the dark side, Anakin Skywalker was no stranger to replacing his lightsaber. After losing his first saber during the First Battle of Geonosis in "Attack of the Clones," he builds what goes on to become the legendary Skywalker lightsaber, a weapon passed down through generations. When Anakin is defeated on Mustafar, that lightsaber is taken from him by Obi-Wan, who holds on to it for years. Obi-Wan eventually gives it to Luke, who uses it during his early days as a Jedi. Only decades later does he hand it down to Rey in "The Last Jedi."
After taking the galaxy's biggest L to his master and fully committing to being Palpatine's servant, Anakin succumbs to the dark side and finally becomes Darth Vader. As any dedicated "Star Wars" fan knows, Vader's lightsaber has its own story. Ordered to track down a surviving Jedi and take his weapon, Vader kills Jedi Master Kirak Infil'a and steals his weapon. He then bleeds the kyber crystal to turn the blade red and uses Kirak's curved hilt for a short time before it's destroyed in a battle. Vader chooses to keep the crystal, but he crafts a new hilt, which is the one seen in the original "Star Wars" trilogy.
Luke Skywalker
Before anyone aside from George Lucas knew what kyber crystals were, Luke Skywalker changed his lightsaber color. In "Return of the Jedi," Luke appears in a darker outfit with improved Force attunement and a green lightsaber. At the time of the film's release, it was immediately clear that this was a sign of his ascension to the next level of Jedi. And while the simple symbolism of the green, blue, and red lightsabers became replaced by an ever-expanding universe, the effect of this change remains one of the most powerful "Star Wars" moments.
After losing his hand and the Skywalker lightsaber on Cloud City, Luke needs to find a new weapon. Partaking in Jedi tradition, he assembles his own lightsaber in the months between "The Empire Strikes Back" and its sequel.
In the no-longer-canon "Star Wars" Legends timeline, Palpatine orders all kyber crystals be destroyed so that any surviving Jedi cannot build lightsabers. Because of this, Luke is forced to create his own synthetic kyber crystal for his second saber.
Ezra Bridger
Ezra Bridger is the young protagonist of "Star Wars Rebels" and the MacGuffin of "Ahsoka," wherein Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren search for him and the lost Grand Admiral Thrawn. When he begins his journey as a ruffian on Lothal, Ezra meets Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus, who senses a strong proclivity for the Force in the young scoundrel. Soon, Ezra becomes a padawan in training and gains a lightsaber.
On his home planet, Ezra crafts a blaster-lightsaber hybrid that acts as both a close and long-range weapon. It has a blue blade. This saber is destroyed by Darth Vader on Malachor at the end of "Rebels" Season 2.
After his first lightsaber is destroyed, Ezra builds a second one with a green kyber crystal — a more traditional model that doesn't double as a blaster. The blade serves him well, but before he shoots off into hyperspace with Thrawn at the end of "Star Wars Rebels," he passes it on to Sabine.
Kylo Ren
On a visual design level, Kylo Ren is known for his iconic crossguard hilt lightsaber — so much so that this design was even put into "Star Wars: Jedi Survivor" as a fighting style option for the game's playable character, Cal Kestis. We know now, though, that Ben Solo wasn't always so villainous. At one point, the fallen Jedi used a blue lightsaber.
In the sequel trilogy, we learn that Ben once trained as a young Jedi under the tutelage of Luke Skywalker. In a moment of clouded judgment, Luke saw Ben's dark potential and considered killing him, which was the catalyst for Ben's turn to the dark side and the birth of Kylo Ren. In the flashback where we learn the full truth of why Luke's Jedi school was destroyed, we see that Ben's lightsaber was once blue and lacked the fiery crossguard associated with the character.
He doesn't get a new lightsaber, though, instead modifying his own already existing saber. After adopting the moniker of Kylo Ren, Ben modifies his weapon by bleeding the kyber crystal red, cracking it in the process and making it unstable. He adds the vents to the side to allow for the fiery exhaust to come out of the hilt.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Obi-Wan Kenobi spends a lot of his time in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy and "The Clone Wars" lecturing Anakin and Ahsoka about important Jedi rules like not losing your lightsaber. This proves to be typical Jedi hypocrisy, as Obi-Wan himself is guilty of the same crime. In fact, by the time the Clone Wars ended, Obi-Wan had already lost his lightsaber twice.
During his face-off with Darth Maul at the end of "The Phantom Menace," Obi-Wan loses his lightsaber to the suspicious giant pit in the middle of the arena. He almost falls down the thing himself before realizing he can kill Maul with Qui-Gon's lightsaber. Obi-Wan goes on to construct an exact replica before the events of "Attack of the Clones," where he loses it yet again on Geonosis.
Apparently, Obi-Wan thought he nailed the design the first time, as he keeps making exact replicas. The third time's the charm, though, and his final lightsaber lasts him until his fatal encounter with Darth Vader on the Death Star.
Rey
Rey doesn't make herself a lightsaber until the end of the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy. She does eventually walk the path all Jedi must, but for pretty much the entirety of the trilogy she uses lightsabers that once belonged to other Force users.
In "The Force Awakens," Maz Kanata finds Luke's old saber and gives it to Rey, which she uses for the next two movies. But at the end of "The Last Jedi," in Luke's final confrontation with Kylo Ren, the lightsaber is destroyed once and for all. It's only after her mentor's death that Rey is given another lightsaber — one that belonged to Leia.
This is the weapon that Rey wields during the events of "The Rise of Skywalker." It's only in the trilogy's final hour that Rey gets a new lightsaber of her own. After burying the Skywalker lightsabers on Tatooine, Rey ignites the Jedi weapon, and it shines a golden hue of yellow as the Skywalker Saga draws to a close.
Count Dooku
Back when new lightsaber designs were cool and novel in 2002, Count Dooku jumped onto the scene with his red saber's curved hilt in "Attack of the Clones." The villain was revealed to have once been a high-ranking member of the Jedi Order — an aspect of his character that has since been explored in canon material outside of the movies.
It wasn't until his arc of episodes in the animated series "Tales of the Jedi" that we saw Dooku's old lightsaber color. Using the same style of hilt, Dooku used to wield a blue blade when he was a light-side Jedi. Originally, this was introduced to the canon in the audiobook "Dooku: Jedi Lost," where the origins and downfall of the character are explained in depth. It wasn't until the Disney+ series, though, that we got to see Dooku shown at last with his original lightsaber color.
Asajj Ventress
Asajj Ventress is a "Clone Wars" villain known for her split lightsaber. Her dual sabers are immediately identifiable by their long curved hilts and red blades. Together, they can combine to make a double-bladed lightsaber. She gains these when entering into her apprenticeship with Dooku but keeps them long after she leaves.
In the final arc of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" Season 5, Jedi Barriss Offee incapacitates Ventress and takes her lightsabers. Ventress never recovers her stylish weapons, instead replacing them in due time.
The events of the canon novel "Star Wars: Dark Disciple" were meant to be the farewell arc for Ventress, adapted from "Clone Wars" episodes that never got made. In the book, Ventress uses a yellow-bladed lightsaber that she acquires on the black market. As a bounty hunter, she uses this lightsaber to track down and hunt targets before being recruited on a mission by the Jedi Quinlan Voss.
Cal Kestis
The hero of "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order" and its sequel "Jedi: Survivor" is a young human Jedi who survived the purge of Order 66. When his fight against the Empire begins after years of hiding, Cal Kestis is still using the double-bladed lightsaber of his fallen master, Jaro Tapal. As a feature of the game, you can customize the design and material of the lightsaber as well as the color of the blade. These features make Cal one of the few canonical Jedi who can just change those things at will. Still, it isn't until the young Force user constructs his own lightsaber that he unlocks his true potential as a craftsman.
After an incident on Ilum — the planet where Jedi younglings used to go to gather kyber crystals in the days of the Jedi Order — leaves Tapal's lightsaber broken, Cal is griefstricken. Using kyber crystals to combine the remains of his master's saber and parts of Cere Junda's lightsaber, Cal constructs his own unique weapon. His lightsaber has the ability to be wielded double-bladed as well as separately as two single lightsabers. In "Jedi: Survivor," Cal even figures out how to add a crossguard style to his bag of tricks.
Revan
If you want to play the remake of "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" unspoiled, we recommend scrolling on by this entry. It's impossible to explain Revan's history without spoiling the game's story and ending.
Darth Revan is one of the most confusing "Star Wars" characters in terms of how they fit into lore and canon. As it stands, the character is non-canonical, but that may change in the near future when the "Knights of the Old Republic" remake comes out. Revan is a Jedi who becomes a Sith Lord, only to then get brainwashed and turned into an amnesiac by the Jedi. You play as this character who doesn't remember his (or her, since you can choose the character's gender) past.
Eventually, when you get a lightsaber in "Knights of the Old Republic," you can customize Revan's weapon and, furthermore, take the character's conclusion to either a good or evil place. This leaves a lot of leeway for player choice to change Revan's lightsaber at will. Even if you don't modify the lightsaber, Revan loses the red-bladed saber they wielded as a Sith before the events of the game take place.
Galen Starkiller Marek
One thing we can be certain about is that Darth Vader's secret apprentice "Starkiller" is no longer canon. The player character of both of the "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" video games, Galen Marek was given a pseudonym based on the original last name for Luke Skywalker. In the Legends timeline that these titles now exist in, Vader's apprentice actually had two different lightsabers, even if the games themselves don't draw too much attention to it.
Loosely based on Vader's saber design, Starkiller's first lightsaber in "The Force Unleashed" has an exposed crystal chamber, a red blade, and is covered in harsh rusted metal, with no handgrips to speak of. At the end of the game, the lightsaber is destroyed when Vader stabs Starkiller with his own saber, killing his apprentice and sending his remains into the depths of space.
In "The Force Unleashed 2," you play as a clone of Starkiller who is awakened on Kamino. There, Darth Vader gives the new Starkiller two dual lightsabers that are originally colored red. Once he remembers what Vader did to the original Starkiller, the clone escapes and can find many new kyber crystals on his second adventure.
Kyle Katarn
Kyle Katarn didn't start as a Jedi. Far from it, the Legends character begins his journey as a mercenary taking jobs from the Rebel Alliance in the era of the Galactic Empire. As the player character of "Dark Forces" and its sequels in the "Star Wars: Jedi Knight" game series, Katarn grows into being a Force user and eventually a great Jedi in Luke Skywalker's new Jedi Order. Throughout his numerous appearances in video games and other Legends material, Katarn wields three lightsabers.
Like many Jedi after the fall of the Republic, Katarn doesn't begin by crafting a saber of his own. His first lightsaber is a green-bladed weapon passed down to him by his father Morgan Katarn. This is destroyed by Dark Jedi Boc Aseca in "Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2." In the moments after, when Boc is about to kill Katarn, his life is saved by the Dark Jedi Yun when he sees the error of his ways in his final moments. After Yun is killed, Kyle Katarn begins using his lightsaber. Players use this yellow-bladed saber for the rest of the game.
Before the events of the sequel, "Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast," Katarn constructs a new blue lightsaber, finally settling on a color that suits him.
Mara Jade
It feels like we're inevitably hurtling toward Mara Jade entering the Disney "Star Wars" canon. The Legends character wore many hats over the years, and with them, she also wielded several different lightsabers. However, Mara stayed true to her colors for the most part, wielding a magenta lightsaber in her comic book appearances and action figures from the 1990s.
In the Legends timeline, Mara is the Emperor's Hand, a secret apprentice, during the Vader years. In this role, she wields a lightsaber with a rare kyber crystal given to her by the Emperor that turns her blade magenta. Mara later loses this lightsaber in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor and the dissolution of the Empire.
It takes her years to turn sides and trust Luke Skywalker (and fall in love with him), but once she does, she reclaims her Force powers and joins the new Jedi Order. It's there that she builds a new lightsaber bearing a purple blade.