Chat corner 35: Weapons

[annathecrow]

Welcome to this week’s chat corner!

Optional prompt

This week’s topic is “weapons”. Star Wars has a good amount of iconic weapons, from the personal to the planet-killing. Some of them are iconic even in general culture (“that’s no moon”), others… less so (the embarrassingly long list of “Death Star but bigger” from the SW books).

Do you have favorites? Or not-favorites?

Comments

[annathecrow]

ahaha same. They're just cool.

What are your thoughts on "mood ring" lightsabers? I'm extremely conflicted. On one hand, I'm always like "ugh, another lengthy passage about this" but at the same time, MC rebuilding their lightsaber as a sign of personal growth, yes please!

[extrapenguin]

My thoughts are that if someone's going to Ilum and getting a new crystal, then that crystal can be a new color. I think TCW sort of canonized personality detection lightsabers, in that Anakin played around with Ahsoka's (originally green) lightsabers so much that they turned blue like his lightsaber, but something that changes color based on the wielder's mood is lol. I'm also something of a color purist, in that I accept four lightsaber colors: blue, green, red (for the Sith), and white (for Sith crystals that have been healed), of which blue and green are found naturally. Purple is acceptable if you're Mace Windu. I guess yellow is also canon? But yeah. A character getting a new chunk of kyber and this is green instead of blue, or an ever so slightly different shade of blue, or something to that effect – that's acceptable. Inventing fancy new blade colors like pink or black or "viridian core with a purplish haze that has white flames flickering in it" just makes me roll my eyes.

[annathecrow]

By "mood ring" lightsabers I mostly meant those fancy colors beside the basic blue-green-yellow :D I haven't seen one that would actually change color depending on mood, I don't think. That would be... okay I'm a little shit so my instinctive reaction is to start thinking how to pull it off, but... no. I don't think I could.

In defense of very special lightsaber colors though, that's canon as well if you count the Darksaber! XD

So that "healed Sith crystals are white" thing is from canon? I've seen it in a fic or two, but didn't care enough to go canon-checking.

[extrapenguin]

Ah yeah, I wasn't sure how literal you were being with the mood ring lightsabers! I can see an actual mood ring lightsaber (and how to make it stop) being a cool plot for a comedy fic, but, uh, not for anything serious. And I the Darksaber is ... well, uh, I have some vague Dark Side post thoughts about how people keep trying to make the Mandalorians the most supremely coolest by giving them Jedi stuff, like a lightsaber, instead of having the ritual item of their leader be a helmet or something else more suitable. So I'm a color purist!

So that "healed Sith crystals are white" thing is from canon? I've seen it in a fic or two, but didn't care enough to go canon-checking.
Just for you, I went and checked Wookieepedia, and it's from the Ahsoka novel! She took an Inquisitor's crystals and healed them, turning them white.

[kittywhite]

The white crystals show up again in the new High Republic books again too which makes them feel a little bit less special now that 2 Jedi so far in the first few books have them.
I’m not fond on the red crystals equal bled, because I think that would mean Sith should start showing individual colour crystals (like how Exar Kun kept his Cyan one) if it’s just down to nature now. (Previously Red was synthetic so all Sith had them regardless)

[annathecrow]

So I might have written a thing. XD

I don't know if it's any good, but it IS a color-changing lightsaber used in a serious story! Well, of the "hahaha oh fuck" variety, but still, ha.

(Also, I'm keeping an eye for that Dark Side post about the Darksaber, that sounds intriguing.)

[extrapenguin]

I saw! And yes "hahaha oh fuck" is the perfect encapsulation.

My thoughts are vague and, well, vague, but I might put them up later this week.

[kittywhite]

Purple is now canon for other users due to the High Republic as is Yellow. (Yellow showed up for Temple Guards previously I think too)
High Republic also has variations of colour, Main Waifu Avar Kriss has a Sea Green colour one for example.
Magenta was an old canon colour so you could kind of have Pink.
(My Sith Sorcerer uses that one so I’m biased ;) )

[extrapenguin]

Ha, I am an immense purist so my Jedi use blue, my Sorc uses red, and my special snowflake Warrior (at max LS points) has purple. And yeah, the Temple Guards had yellow saberstaves in TCW. Whenever I come across a random Jedi (in text) with a lightsaber that's not blue or green I mentally recolor it, lol.