#just a little collection of gifs/images i’ve collected that give me particularly strong four walls alex vibes

[uhbasicallyjustmilex]

four walls: alex moodboard

(miles’s version)

[strad-214]

Sunday, 06/07/2020 Lightsaber:

The crystal is the heart of the blade.

The heart is the crystal of the Jedi.

The Jedi is the crystal of the Force.

The Force is the blade of the heart.

All are intertwined: the crystal, the blade, the Jedi.

We are one.

 My favorite subject concerning the Jedi Order: Lightsabers, the most iconic weapon in all of cinematic history. Every chance I got—and provided I had the funds—I purchased toy lightsabers, replicas, and unlicensed stunt weapons wherever they were available; I must have at least eight of those Ultimate Lightsabers you could build yourself in Disney World at the Star Tours Gift Shop, I built one every time I went. You could also buy the kits in toy stores once upon a time, then Disney bought them and you could only make them there after that. I have yet to visit the new Galaxy’s Edge, I haven’t been to Disney World in quite some time.

When anyone thinks of the Jedi, in universe or not, they first think of their weapon; the lightsaber is the closest thing to a possession that the Jedi have. It is a direct reflection of their personality, fighting style, and personal beliefs. The lightsaber itself is as much a piece of art as is the fighting styles the Jedi have developed to wield their weapons, and I am only too happy to describe them to anyone at any given moment. Once again, I will be drawing most of my discussion from Old Canon and a little bit from Legends, particularly from The Jedi Path and the rpg game of Knights of the Old Republic and the mmorpg, The Old Republic. I personally find that the New Canon removes some of the intimacy involved in creating a lightsaber, but it is part of the Universe, so I will give it its fair analysis too.

Across most versions of canon, there are four key components to building a lightsaber: the emitter matrix, the lens, a focusing crystal, and a power cell. The emitter matrix is usually made up of a lightsaber resistant material, usually the metal called phrik, and houses the lens. The lens is what the raw energy passes through to form the blade and can be made from various different things such as high yield glass or other crystalline material. The focusing crystal, in old canon, was a crystal compound that was of organic and inorganic matter, the root element of which was kyber. There were several types of kyber crystals, including adegan kyber crystals found on Ilum. In Jedi vs. Sith, The Essential Guide to the Force (JvSEss.), some lightsabers were made using other crystals instead of those that were kyber based such as emeralds and diamonds. There are also some accounts that say you could use more than one crystal, up to three crystals to be specific, in order to form durable and potent blades. The crystal(s) are placed into a housing constructed to conduct the appropriate amounts of energy into the crystal(s). The power cell of the lightsaber was to be installed empty, with no charge. This was because the Jedi building the lightsaber was supposed to use the Force to charge the power cell according to JvSEss. The rest of the lightsaber is up to interpretation, the switch assemble, the emitter housing, the hand grip, the pommel; all these other components are constructed to the Jedi’s specific designs, making their weapon unique to all the others.

image by Chris Trevas

In building the lightsaber, a Jedi would assemble the components and meditate on the mantra: “The crystal is the heart of the blade. The heart is the crystal of the Jedi. The Jedi is the crystal of the Force. The Force is the blade of the heart. All are intertwined: the crystal, the blade, the Jedi. We are one.” As they did this, they would use the Force to telekinetically assemble the lightsaber, fusing the individual components at the molecular level as they went so that their lightsaber would become one entity. They would charge their power cell, align their crystal to the Force, and influence the lightsaber to take shape before them. Now, with a complete lightsaber at hand, the Jedi Knight may dispense justice and protect citizens across the Galaxy. In Old Canon—and according to The Jedi Path—Padawans would come to Ilum with their Master about midway through their partnership to build their first lightsabers. The lightsabers they carried before these would either be training sabers or ones gifted to them by their Masters once they were paired to each other. Now, having had enough training in applying telekinetics and knowing their fighting style and themselves better, they can make their own unique weapon. The Master would leave their pupil in the caves to select a crystal they liked—blue, green, yellow, or purple, not all were available in every cavern— then to select components they liked from the stores on site or build their own components, and meditate on their new weapon. In New Canon, Younglings, not yet Padawans, would join in a ceremony called The Gathering, where a Jedi Master would take the Younglings to Ilum in order to build their first lightsabers. Younglings had a limited amount of time to gather their crystals, as the frozen door to the caverns would melt open from the sunlight and refreeze over time as time grew closer to night. The Younglings couldn’t select any crystal, the crystal had to select them, already being attuned to the Force and attuned to the Youngling. They had to hear their crystal calling to them and face a trial that would teach them something about themselves in order to obtain it. Once the crystal was obtained, the Younglings would return to the temple and ride the Jedi Vessel named The Crucible back to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Aboard this ship, a Mark IV Architect Droid named Professer Huyang taught the Younglings how to build their lightsabers and provided them with components. The crystal color would become evident once the Younglings attuned them to the Force.

gif by me, sourced from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq8N4EAusL4 

I personally favor the version of Old Canon for lightsaber construction; it feels as though it has a lot more room for variety, independence of choice, and application of experience. The Force is supposed to guide our choices, meaning, follow your gut instinct: even if you attract to the role of a Jedi Consular, if you saw a gleaming, deep blue kyber crystal in the caves of Ilum and loved the way it looked, you could take that one to be your lightsaber crystal. Now, Jedi Consulars are known to have green lightsaber blades, but that doesn’t have to be law and it is stated all over both versions of Canon that the color doesn’t define the role of the Jedi, it defines their personality: Blue for those who are active, valiant, and are swift to action in the face of danger. Green for the patient and scholarly, those Jedi who are able to navigate the political battle field as well as the physical one, if not better than. Yellow for the Jedi who walks a fine line between civilian and protector, they often are sent out, undercover to hunt down agents of the Dark Side and are strong enough in their foundations to guard the Jedi from even their selves. Purple is for the Jedi who walks the fine line between the light and the dark, being able to summon strength from both sides without falling to either one in order to fulfill their role as a Jedi Knight. There are many more, but these are the most common. Given this analysis, however, Jedi Master Jocasta Nu, historian and librarian in the Jedi Archives, should have a green lightsaber, but something either made her pick a blue crystal or her crystal became blue (depending on which version you prefer), and that speaks volumes about her character.

In our real world, lightsaber technology is quite beyond our reach. However, in a thesis written by one Thomas William Noel at the University of Washington in 2014, creating a blade of solid energy was demonstrated to be possible. His experiments were conducted to see how a trapped Barium ion would react when spontaneously exposed to a positively charged photon. The result is that the two become entangled and form something like a solid wall of energy. Now, photons are particles representing a spectrum of light or other electromagnetic radiation. A photon carries energy proportional to the specific band of light’s frequency but has zero mass. Yet, when exposed to a specific variety of Barium Ion, the photon acts as though it has mass, acts as though it is matter, conversion of energy into matter without losing its properties of energy, a lightsaber blade. Barium is our kyber and photons are our Force. There are so many more applications far more practical than this, but the science is there. Perhaps, one day… (Source: https://depts.washington.edu/qcomp/pdfs/tom_thesis.pdf )

In the mean time, we have these:

I purchased my current lightsaber from UltraSabers.com; it’s a combination of three different models. The main body is the “Shock LE” model, the emitter is from the “Archon v2.1” model and the pommel is from the “Manticore Model”, the low grade version. The color of the blade is their guardian blue option, the switch lights up blue when activated, and I originally had sound on it. The speaker inside has since broken off when I beat the ever living hell out of a BB-8 piñata with it. This was after a couple years of love and usage. She still lights up brilliantly though… if I didn’t lose the batteries and the charger in a recent move. Between these two deterants and the fact that I’ve been eyeing other lightsabers, I think it’s time I’ve retired her.

I just recently purchased many components from Saberforge.com to construct a new lightsaber with. They have an adaptive saber component collection and their parts look far more movie accurate.

I can’t wait for the components to come in, I already have the emitter from a sale I jumped on ages ago. I like to admire it and dream of a brilliant blue blade coming from the end of it. I ordered a couple different pommels and switches so I can see what I like more on the finished product, but I like the way this 3D rendering looks the most so far. I got extra parts though because it’s one thing to see an image of it, and something else entirely to see it in person. Saberforge has really great stuff, they just take awhile to ship for some reason. So, if you don’ mind the wait, they’re an excellent company to get sabers from. UltraSabers also has really great products, very sturdy and lots of basic looks that you wouldn’t mind it if they got banged up. Like, I love the concept of my new saber a lot, but I know I’m gonna freak out the second it has a pit in the metal because I dropped it or it got wacked by another blade the right way. Unfortunate fact of ownership; these things are meant to be used, they get beat up looking after awhile. If you look closely at my current one, the thing is covered in nicks, smudges, and pits from years of love. And yes, they are expensive. However, for the quality of use, they could be more expensive, and they certainly help you become closer to that Galaxy far, far away.

I hope you gained something from this. Enjoy the rest of Jedi June.

May the Force be with you.

@jedijune​