
Shin told Lucasfilm that, because a lightsaber is made of light, the blade should look “a little shaky”, like a fluorescent tube, which is certainly the look they have in the first movies. Shin drew the lightsabers with a rotoscope, an animation superimposed onto the footage of the physical prop. In order to give the desired effect to the blades for the original trilogy, animator Nelson Shin was brought in and given live-action footage to work with. Of course, a big part of these differences is the resources the Star Wars crew had in each decade, and with that, the way lightsabers were brought to life. The lightsabers seen in the Star Wars prequel trilogy are a lot more stylized and polished, giving a better idea of laser swords rather than toy-like weapons, which is the case in various scenes in the original movies. In the original trilogy, lightsabers didn’t look as polished as in future versions, and thanks to the many changes that have been done to the Star Wars original movies, these have gone through really bad retouches and restorations – for example, the 2004 DVD re-release has lightsabers changing color or having no at all, a mistake that wasn’t fully fixed in subsequent versions.


As there are many years and thus many technological advances in between trilogies, the lightsabers are different in the original movies and the prequels. The original movies were released between 19, and fans were taken back to a galaxy far, far away between 19 with the prequel trilogy, which explored the backstory of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. Like most elements in the Star Wars universe, the lightsabers have changed throughout the history of it, but there are big differences between the original trilogy and the prequel one. Related: Star Wars: Every Canon Lightsaber Color and Meaning Using a lightsaber requires a combination of skill and training, and there is a variety of them, not only in terms of colors (as each one stands for something in particular) but also in shape and purpose, as there are some that are double-bladed (like Darth Maul’s) or are a crossguard with three blades. Lightsabers are made of a plasma blade that is powered by a kyber crystal (Force-attuned crystals very difficult to find), and which is emitted from a metal hilt and can be shut off at will.

Thanks to Ben Kenobi, A New Hope introduced the audience to the lightsaber, a weapon referred to by some as a laser sword that has a lot of history in this universe.
