|
People on both sides of the Force carry lightsabers, "elegant" weapons, "for a more civilized age". Lightsabers carried by Jedi range in color, such as yellow, blue, green, and purple, while Sith and those that draw on the Dark Side carry red or scarlet blades. The color is determined by the color of crystal used in making the weapon, and is said to refelct the owner's soul. There are two type of crystals used, stabilizing and focusing. Stabilizing crystals generate the beam and the power setting (a power cell is also used for energy), and focusing crystals determine the length (by the size of the crystal) and color of the blade (by the color of the crystal). Some lightsabers are built with multiple focusing crystals, allowing the operator to change the length and color of the blade by rotating the crystals inside the hilt of the saber. Tubes and wires carry the energy from the power cell and the stabilizing crystal to the focusing crystals, which project the energy into a blade. The split bamboo pole used by practicers of Kendo (a Japanese martial art form), called the Shinai, resembles the lightsaber, and the swordsmanship used in the Star Wars movies resembles much of the classical Japanese. Just like with everything else (like the metric system, "centre", "metre", "litre"), virtually everyone in the world but the United States spell the word "lightsaBRE". Even in the US, the fencing sword is generally spelled "sabre". We probably draw our spelling from the curved cavalry sword in military history, but then again change most words that end in "re" to "er" ("centre"). The original A New Hope Novel used the spelling "lightsabre", and the credits of Empire Strikes Back credits ILM for the "sabre system" for the special effects associated with the swords, and the Episode 1 Visual Dictionary also uses "lightsabre". |
