Skip to main content

star wars - What are all the known lightsaber designs?


What are the different designs of lightsabers in the Star Wars canon? For example, Darth Maul with his double-bladed saber, and Kylo Ren with his cross-guard saber.



Answer



Canon




  • Vanilla lightsabers:



    enter image description here




  • Double-bladed lightsaber (see: Darth Maul, Pong Krell, Savage Oppress)


    enter image description here




    • While I hesitate to call this a completely different style, Master Krell's lightsabers are unique in at least one way: they fold up


      enter image description here


      This is no longer quite as unique as I thought; in the Star Wars: Rebels episode "Shroud of Darkness", Kanan duels with a Force Vision of a Jedi Temple Guard, who uses a folding saber.







  • Curved-hilt lightsabers, like Dooku's:


    enter image description here




  • Asajj Ventress' lightsaber(s)


    enter image description here



    Ventress wielded two curved-hilt lightsabers. In The Clone Wars animated film, she was able to combine them into a single, S-shaped double-bladed lightsaber:


    enter image description here


    However, Obi-Wan Kenobi possibly destroys the mechanism that allows this during his fight with Ventress in the film; he cuts her (connected) lightsaber in half, and we never see her use the technique in The Clone Wars show.




  • Lightsaber pike, used by the Jedi Temple Guards1:


    enter image description here


    We have a close encounter with a Temple Guard in "Shroud of Darkness", a Star Wars: Rebels episode, where Kanan has a duel with (a Force ghost of) one using a folding lightsaber. It's not apparent whether this is a standard Guard's saber or not, but there is the reasonable possibility that these sabers do fold.





  • Crossguard lightsaber, most famously used by Kylo Ren:


    enter image description here


    But also in use by ancient Jedi; Ezra Bridger finds a crossguard saber on the Sith world of Malachor, a relic of an ancient battle:


    enter image description here




  • Shoto (a shorter hilt, used by smaller Jedi like Yoda and Even Piell)


    enter image description here


    Shotos are also used by the rare dual-wielding Jedi as an off-hand lightsaber; in the below image from The Clone Wars, you can clearly see that one saber is dramatically shorter than the other:


    enter image description here



    I regret that I do not know what episode this image is from; I welcome input from anyone who does.




  • Sabercane (Cane/lightsaber combo), used by Master Tera Sinube:


    enter image description here




  • Lightsaber/blaster combo (invented by Ezra Bridger, apparently)


    enter image description here





  • Darksaber


    enter image description here




  • Inquisitor's lightsaber:


    enter image description here


    Not merely a double-bladed lightsaber with a funky grip, the saber style used by the Imperial Inquisitors spins around that central ring. The image above is of the Grand Inquisitor, from season 1 of Rebels, but we've seen the other inquisitors in season 2 using sabers of the same style





  • Debated whether or not to include this, but Kanan Jarrus' lightsaber exhibited a property we've never seen before:


    enter image description here


    It comes apart into two pieces. There a bunch of things we don't know about this lightsaber, including whether the pieces function without being connected, or if this is something all lightsabers can do but we've never seen before, but it's an otherwise unique property




Legends


Most of the above, plus:




  • Guard shoto (or Lightsaber tonfa)



    enter image description here




  • Long-handled lightsaber:


    enter image description here




  • One-bladed variant on the lightsaber pike:


    enter image description here





  • Whatever you call this thing:


    enter image description here


    Thunderforge, in comments, suggests three-bladed lightsaber because there of the third blade in the middle of the handle. Wookieepedia calls it the "War Dragon rider lightsaber", because its only appearance in any material is a "design an alien" contest in Star Wars Galaxy Magazine. The War Dragon Rider actually won the contest, no doubt because it looks like something a Space-metalhead would have airbrushed on the side of his spacevan.




  • Lightwhip


    enter image description here





  • Forked lightsaber


    enter image description here




  • I believe Ventress' lightsabers were also slightly more interesting in Legends; in addition to the weirdness stated above, I believe she could tie them together with cord and whirl them around like nunchaku; I can't recall seeing this in canon, but I'm happy to be corrected.




  • Protosaber/Retrosaber


    enter image description here


    The earliest true lightsabers are now typically called retrosabers; their distinguishing feature was an external powerpack, typically worn on the belt and connected to the hilt by a cord.



    After the Jedi went wireless, protosaber look-alikes were called "retrosabers," which also used the external power source, and continued to be used by Jedi hispters the galaxy over (the above image is from an RPG sourcebook set during the Clone Wars)




  • Forcesaber


    enter image description here


    The earliest iteration of the lightsaber was called the Forcesaber; it was used by the Force Hounds, Force-sensitive hunters used by the Rakatan Infinite Empire to find worlds with lots of Force-sensitive inhabitants (which the Rakatans would then invade and enslave). The main difference between the Forcesaber and a lightsaber is one of engineering: rather than requiring a battery, the Forcesaber is activated by channelling Dark Side energy through the hilt.





1 My first instinct was to classify these as double-bladed lightsabers, but they have their own entry in the Databank, so ho-hum



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

game of thrones - Is Syrio Forel dead?

In the episode 'The Pointy End' (Season 1 Episode 8) when Arya runs from the Lannister guards you hear the sound of a sword being dropped (around 4:56): [embedded content] After that neither Syrio or Ser Meryn Trant is never mentioned or seen in the show again, except when Arya mentions to the Hound that Ser Meryn Trant killed Syrio. Is there any mention in the books that Syrio actually dies?
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Difference between elves and dwarves blacksmithing in the Lord of the Rings

Both the elves and the dwarves were famous for their metal work in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but what is the difference between what they made, and which one had the better skill of making amours and swords? Answer James Christopher's answer sums up the second part of your question well, but as to the difference in what they made, a little more detail is needed. Once the Elves learned to forge with steel, the shape of the sword changed, now being able to take on the form of a great broadsword or a light and agile curved sword. Additionally, they took great pride in decorating their swords. As we see in the Lord of the Rings , some swords like Sting had magical properties such as glowing blue when orcs are near. As far as the use of Mithril, lotr.wikia has two contradictory passages: Thus, Elven blades became renowned as great weapons, capable of performing deeds beyond the skill of their handlers and were even more glorious when the use of Mithril was allowed to the Elves. ...
Post a Comment
Read more