I think in essence a lightsaber is the merging of the practical and the special. So I love the real glowing blades, but I do like a little bloom added over it.
I liked when they were basically white and just the edge glow was the color.
Now, with the practical blades and seemingly less rotoscoping/CGI/whatever, many lightsabers in recent SW content look like what they are... RGB LED arrays.
They have more "presence" now, and feel grounded in the world, but they also feel less special or magical to me, personally. I mean, I have a Master Replicas Luke ANH saber, and if I film myself in low light, it basically looks exactly like recent SW content, so that kind of sticks in the back of my mind and reminds me it's a prop... since it doesn't look like a magic plasma beam on screen as much these days.
I think you nailed it on the head. The previous films did the effects all in post giving it an unnatural otherworldly look, which meant the glow had no effect on surrounding lighting. In the D+ shows, they glow a solid color instead of having a white core, and they drown out every other color in the scene. Kenobi series was really bad at this in the darker scenes. It looked like he was holding a big blue glow stick in some episodes. Also him bouncing the lightsaber off that stormtrooper didn't help sell that illusion either.
> Kenobi series was really bad at this in the darker scenes
Seriously! I am not one of the haters that really shits on that show. I actually liked it quite a bit overall, but most of the lightsaber fights were in the dark and they looked like straight up cosplay. It was hard to put my finger on why, but it was super low budget feeling to me.
Corridor Digital actually talked about this in a VFX Artists React episode.
Essentially it has to do with the blue light itself and how it works different when shot digitally vs on physical film. It was SUPER interesting because they talk about how Blue LEDs were used in Watchman as a comparison but done way better due different techniques used to correct for the blue lighting effects of the overall color scheme of the shot. [Def recommend giving it a watch.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KitmA_NleAc)
I'm gonna make a real cynical guess here, but I suspect this is ultimately a good thing for Disney whether intentional or not, and they know it. It gives their parks sabers and other similar merchandise a more legit look, helping their popularity with that cosplay crowd.
I do enjoy the differing appearances of lightsabers in diff media (eg. Rebels thin blades). I agree that the inner white with a glow like the OT look best, and these Disney sabers look worse - I like the glow they give off, but it's much too bright usually.
This is almost definitely what it is IMO. Disney properties are hugely popular in cosplay circles and give an immense amount of free advertising. Basically everyone I know who cosplays has like made a lightsaber at the parks and everything (self included, I'll admit). Which is a shame because it makes it seem like Disney isn't interested in doing Star Wars as... well, [Star Wars.](https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/5f241ed9a65ddc00019e8b8d-image_b7c8a701.jpeg?region=0,0,1536,864)
Calling a bad show bad doesn’t make you a hater.
Compare the scene with the underground ‘railroad’ or whatever they were defending the asteroid base in Kenobi to the prison break action scene in Andor.
Night and day.
Night, and day.
Infact, compare *any* scene. The reason Kenobi feels low budget is because it had low talent behind the camera. Sure, she has credits on other shows. But clearly there was a case of ‘I did this’ and some good networking going on in order to land being showrunner.
Because unlike a crappy exec, when you work in the creative industries you wear your skills on your sleeve, and even the inquisitors talking amongst themselves felt like some low budget cartoon show from the late 90s.
Edit: this is my personal go to comparison for the finesse difference
[Andor](https://youtu.be/zJOoyrIbdHU)
[Kenobi (when the snowspeeders arrive)](https://youtu.be/c7YGwTyvd-g).
The point isn’t the action itself, it’s the set ups. The attention to detail as well as CGI and cinematographic differences. Even the music. Why does the most guarded fortress in the Empire scramble no fighters?
> Why does the most guarded fortress in the Empire scramble no fighters?
Nor anti-air turrets, nor security doors, nor tractor beams, nor planetary shields, etc, etc.
Exactly right? When people say the show sucks, it’s because the lack of effort and care was there far before we even got past the script stage.
Also, 4 people boarding a two man snowspeeder. We know they’re cramped as hell too. Just visualise how they must’ve had to sit.
The fight scenes reminded me of Bat in the Suns old youtube vs. series of fictional characters. Like Batman vs. Vader. High quality fan film. The sabers' light washes out every detail in every scene and makes the fights harder to follow.
They feel like shock sticks, not metal cutting blades of scorching plasma death held together with the power of the hilt, of which was so delicate as to be assembled using the force, but powerful enough to allow a skilled weilder to cut through blast doors.
I honestly thought light sabers only bounced off lightsabers, those energy sticks, and beskar. You helped me figure out what was bothering me with the Disney + stuff. It's "Safer" than the films. Any of them.
Damn I just realized they're different. In the PT and OT it *is* white with colored sides. In Kenobi it was still kinda white, but the blue glow is definitely overkill
I believe the lightsabers in the Disney Star Wars shows/movies don't look great due to the excessive brightness of the LED props and the overly saturated blue color. This ends up washing out scenes and diminishing the richness of the costumes and overall complexity.
I think it was done very well when anakin was fighting dooku in episode 2. The glow wasn't super bright and was a great way to show movement.
I want to add that i think it should be done tastefully. Lightsabers should not be used as stage lighting like they did in the obi wan series. Like the dark sets were a terrible idea, like most of the saber duel scenes were just solid blue.
On the flipside - from a marketing perspective, the licensed lightsaber replicas look exactly like what it does on screen, which is all the more reason to buy it. Which is the ultimate goal of all things disney - making profit off of merchandising.
I haven't seen the actual video, but from the screenshot you can see the moving green blade is a lot more green than it is white. I'd have to compare with the prequels and OT, but I'm guessing the moving blades don't lose their whiteness as much or don't have as much color saturation when moving.
Edit: Yeah, as you can see from the [Geonosis arena battle scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZnL4mcU5dg&t=25s), the moving blades are very much white with only the colored glow at far edges.
I believe they mean how it was in the original versions pre special editions where they weren't as bright and glowing like in the picture above. Like here: https://youtu.be/s2rGRQ4MPbw
Only thing I've noticed about lightsabers is that in Rebels, whenever the Inquisitors would spin their lightsabers the screen would get darker and kinda choppy? Only happens during those scenes, with the most prominent being that fight in the S2 finale.
That's for people who have epilepsy. The same thing happens with the Maul, Savage and Sidious fight in CW. They dim the strobing effect so that those people with epilepsy don't get seizures.
Is this why the contrast seems to dip down significantly whenever there are explosions in anime? I've tried to point this out to people for ages, but none of my friends see it.
Exactly. It's a great feature, they can even have it on by default, but it looks bad and messes with screen brightness, it would be nice to be able to turn it off.
lol reminds me when thr prequels came out and everyone was up in arms about how the lightsabers now had a “point” on the end
I’m the end they are all just cool. Even the Disney era ones (Kylos saber is magnificent in its effects)
I'll shit on the sequels all day long, but I've always said that my only problem with them was the story/plot/scripts. Visually and sonically they're absolutely incredible, and the actors all did phenomenal with what they were given. No hate from me for anything related to that.
This is my opinion as well. If the directors had been better and the writing hadn’t been so horrible (both the plot and the script) then I could’ve accepted it! They just messed up so bad in the few other areas that it makes what they did well seem minuscule.
I'll agree, but I'll add that they were SEVERELY lacking when it came to cool ship designs. We got... the Falcon again, a slightly revamped x-Wing and TIE Fighters, and maybe one cool new design in the fighter craft on Crait.
Ehhhh it’s personal preference but the new stormtroopers looked like they got their armor at the damn Apple Store, idk why but they always feel off to me.
I’m not discounting the quality, no doubts that the Mouse knows how to handle costuming. My irk is more vibes based with the “sleek” look. It’s Wars not Trek, needs more greeblys.
I definitely criticize because the original trilogy looks for sabers was due to technology limitations. In the prequels they looked absolutely perfect, but for the Disney Plus shows they cheap out and don't want to go into that much detail for each individual frame, because it's not a movie production and they're not going to financially treat it as such
Lightsabers have never really been consistent though. In ANH there’s a sparking/flashing type effect when they collide that we never see again. In the prequels, they’re noticeably more pointed. The blue lightsaber shade has also shifted slightly across each trilogy.
Blue is the bane of each VFX team.
For ROTJ, they went with the solution to make Luke's saber green.
For ROTS, to get the blue saber stand out in the red lava environment is its own challenge. Corridor Crew recently had the VFX legend explain the technical details of how they had to do it. Basically there's some trickery where most of the frames, it looks white, but you have a few where its blue, and your mind reads the whole swing as blue.
For Rise of Skywalker, the scene where Rey jumps over Kylo's TIE, people were complaining Rey's saber was white.
IIRC, the subject of color originally came up when Lucas wanted to show Luke had a new lightsaber. Someone else asks what color and Lucas spitballs green, and someone else points out that would work better against the sky. It was a factor in changing the color, but it wasn't "the reason," he got a green one.
They haven’t been consistent visually or in how they cut. For example, in ANH, the alien that loses his arm bleeds while Luke’s wound is instantly cauterized when he loses his hand in ESB.
I actually just said that the PT set the perfect example of what lightsabers should look like. George didn’t have the technology for the OT, but did have it for the PT.
I agree, prequel lightsabers were the best looking, at least imo. My main point was that they’ve never been consistent so OP’s complaint is just straight up not valid
Interesting. I always preferred the look of the OT lightsabers. They feel much more electric and chaotic. The PT lightsabers were too stable to feel all that dangerous.
I've always felt Disney did a really good job melding the more consistent look of the PT with the much more electric look of the OT.
Their stability is what made them “an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.” They weren’t supposed to come off as dangerous and scary because they were meant to be used for defensive purposes, which is why the Jedi used lightsabers instead of blasters
I like that take on it. It makes a lot of sense.
I still prefer the more chaotic look of it. For me part of the elegance to the weapon is learning to safely use something that is so clearly dangerous. And when I say dangerous, I don't mean as an offensive weapon, but simply as a device that holds a lot of raw energy that is only just harnessed. It implies a lot of control and understanding to be able to work with a weapon like that.
But as I said, I definitely appreciate your interpretation and I think it's a very good one.
It’s mostly Kylo Ren’s that has that damaged look and that’s on purpose because his Kyber crystal is cracked. I do really like the idea. I thought that brought something new to the table. However I still prefer the PT sabers.
I definitely like what they did with Kylo's!
If you watch though, even Rey's lightsaber seems to flicker a little more unstably than those of the PT. It's much more subtle than Kylo's, but it's definitely there. Definitely not quite as extreme as in the OT though.
> OT sabers are illegal, hidden objects, and the parts have to be maintained rather than replaced - so the blades are weightier and less powerful, less refined in their appearance.
How does this account for lightsabers that were built in the prequel era showing up in the OT? Like Anakin’s and Obi-Wan’s? The only ones we see that are actually constructed during the Empire era are Luke’s green bladed saber and maybe Vader’s.
There were several moments during The Mandalorian where it was obvious that the actors were holding back swinging the lightsabers or the dark saber, no doubt because if the actors took proper swings at each other the props would break.
All that because some very unimaginative directors want to be able to show red glows on the bad guys faces, and blue glows on the faces of the heroes, for the gazillionth time - it's starting to become the Disney Star Wars equivalent of film students having a shot of a fridge opening from the inside.
I think it was said in an interview that for the finale of Mando S2, Giancarlo broke so many darksaber props during his fight with Mando on the ship because he was so ferocious with it
The ST used those props too without nearly as much complaining. But they have much larger budgets than the D+ shows.
My guess is that the Disney+ shows don't have the budget to go back and fix all of those little "fake" looking moments with CG. But the movies (being some of the most expensive things ever done in Hollywood) definitely do.
But that's just a guess. I really don't know.
They absolutely don't have the budget. The shows have longer runtimes than the individual movies, but they either have funding just short above or close to them (unless its the Mandalorian of course), or as in the case of Obi-Wan Kenobi even less. For a franchise as packed with special effects as Star Wars, this can mean significant changes in production.
Hate it personally. Pretty sure a basic rule when filming is to control your light sources. And when you're fighting with overtuned glow sticks you just can't.
That and they dont fight as well. You see the blades bounce off eacother a lot more. And the fighting style has generally been worse since their introduction. I imagine they're trying not to break them rather than just replacing the rod.
I prefer them this way. They now can cast light on the actors and scenery in a believable way. Something that always was lacking from the older movies.
edit: clarity
It was the very early version of what they are doing now. They wanted to have practical lights on set but back then they were essentially non-stunt worthy. Probably fluorescent tubes that would have broken in 2002… So they could not hit them and instead reserved the effect for a pre-fight swing-around
Weird? I thought it was super cool and artistic. You are right there in the middle of the duel and all its intensity. You can barely see where the blades are, but you see movement of the light.
I hated the way Obi Wan's saber seemed to bounce off the stormtroopers in that scene on his show, but i loved the way it looked with him igniting the saber in the dark room.
This is actually a problem with Blue Sabers though. Natural blue light is problematic for all cameras. So it looks not realistic with the blue light. However red and green look pretty good.
Personally I wish they used the ones they are currently using, but made them look entirely CG like the prequel ones. Those are the best looking sabers we’ve had.
Sucks that they still do stuff like the “deep symbolic lighting” in the final Kenobi fight. Am I supposed to believe Darth Vader is waving his lightsaber around to get red light on his face whenever he says something evil?
Bro flew a tie fighter standing on top of it using the force to accomplish AND billowing his cape around.
If there is one thing I will ever believe it is that Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader will do that for dramatic effect, whatever "that" may be.
He'll that scene from clone wars where he just walks onto the bridge while everyone else is head-down behind cover. Or anytime he ditched any kind of normal plan for the one that let him be all grandiose speech guy in front of the enemy, or turning off all the lights in his suit just to step out of the darkness in rogue 1.
Dude was an Emo theater kid 100%
I know this is controversial but this is a thing I love about Kylo Ren too. He thinks Darth Vader was SO RAD for exactly these reasons, and he copies that stuff obsessively.
And I enjoy that Kylo Ren basically failed at it. Vader embodied fear, and the theatrics were how he got his kicks. Kylo did it to create fear and respect, when he frequently lacked both otherwise. Vader had no such problem, and it really highlights the differences between the characters.
I mean, you look at Anakin/Vader and he's a fictionalized case study in trauma and personality disorders that rise from it.
As Anakin, he clearly had borderline personality disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, more than a touch of narcissism, and clear abuse trauma.
As Vader, he's a deeply depressed, self loathing rageaholic with strong histrionic traits and his temper and personality issues turned into a sadist/cruel streak a mile wide.
Also if I’m not mistaken, a TIE’s ion engines don’t displace air like normal engines, meaning his cloak billowing while on his TIE was likely him moving it around with the Force as he stood there.
Bro literally turned his life support off in Rogue One to make a more dramatic entrance against some rebels he was certainly gonna kill.
It would be out of character if he DIDN’T do dramatic shit like that
That is some serious psychological warfare. Imagine hearing all the legends about this fucker, and then he sneaks up on you and starts that hooooo-haaaaaa in your ear.
Thanks for the laugh.
General comment to this specific case: as much hate as gets thrown around here, the ‘Anakin is Dramatic’ perspective from this subreddit has really added to my enjoyment of the material.
The guy who turns off his chest lights and holds his mechanical breath just to scare the shit out of a bunch of rebels is a drama queen? Naw, that's not believable one bit.
I‘m not quite sure if I‘m right with that, but the corridor crew mentioned it in one of their reacts. The reason the fight was completly in the dark was, bc they filmed the series with digital cameras. The blue light is too strong and would erase all the other colors.
They also compared it to Watchmen, were the filmcrew didn‘t had that problem, bc they were using analog film.
It has to do with filming on digital vs film. The Corridor Crew guys did a really good explaining how using the blue lightsaber in digital washes out the blue but on film it captures it better. Really worth a watch to explain how it happens
But they aren't though?
[Dooku vs Anakin in the dark](https://i.makeagif.com/media/12-10-2015/58lL8b.gif)
Take a shot from this gif and compare it to the photo above, you'll see the difference right away. I do have to say that despite this Disney Lucasfilm did a good job of not making the practical lightsabers look *too* dark, most of the time.
This looks way better than the newer stuff though. The new lightsaber glow is way too much, almost blinding. And in Kenobi especially, it just washes out everything and looks horrendous, particularly the blue because apparently they didn't do any test shoots? This gif, the blue and red are much more balanced instead of the blue just drowning everything else.
I miss them too a bit. The original lightsabers that didn't normally light up a room or character much. Especially A New Hope and Empire's
On consistency, they seem to be matching the new canon books, comics, and games.
/r/starwars is not a good place to discuss Star Wars.
It's nothing but whining and bitching and complaining and lamenting and crying and moaning and wailing and grumbling and bellyaching about anything and everything that comes out of the franchise since 1980.
It never fucking fails, nothing can ever be *good enough*.
* The prequels? "Dogshit."
* The sequels? "Dogshit."
* The Clone Wars? "Urgh it's a cartoon it's for *children*!!!"
* Rebels? "It's even worse than Clone Wars!!"
* Kenobi? "Dogshit"
* Mandalorian? "Merchandising and Mary Sue!"
* Boba Fett? "Dogshit. From a sick dog!"
* Bad Batch? "Clone Wars but more boring!"
* Solo? "No one asked for this!"
* Rogue One? "Only the Vader scene was good!"
The only thing that has come out in Star Wars in recent times that even remotely had overall good reception from all parts of the fandom is Andor, and even that had its own detractors complaining that it was slow and boring and too "adult" for Star Wars.
Truthfully, if you want a place where you can discuss Star Wars stuff without running into these people, /r/starwarscantina is a good place on reddit, the Starlight Beacon Discord is a good place on Discord, and outside of that, Star Wars Explained on YouTube is a pretty good source of Star Wars stuff free of the negativity.
“Hey, why did this thing happen in this movie or show that could instantly be explained if I did one Google search or realized it was written before the thing I think makes it weird now? Is this a plot hole?”
It's because the white glow in the middle is missing. Lightsabers are always white with an outward glow of a certain color. The issue becomes when the inside glow is no longer white.
So yeah I agree with you. It doesn't look right.
In all the films, when they spun or moved a lightsaber quick, the “trail” would be a white center with a whatever color lightsaber they had outer. This is not happening in the pic above so it looks odd.
They do have the white hot spots, what we are seeing here is the product of lenses and shutter speed on moving lights. Lights in motion appear dimmer because of this and the tip moves faster than the hilt so there is a gradient of brightness. This is a detail that is often forgotten when doing the painted on lightsaber effect, thus why it looks strange to some folks. This is how they should, theoretically, look if they were real so I don't see the issue personally.
I... somewhat agree with the guy. The Prequels might have not used physical **glowing** props, but the lightsabers in there have a consistent glow throughout their motion which was added in post production (EDIT: through a digital effect) that makes them brighter and more distinct from the environment.
Actual glowing props can blur into the environment and idk, it just makes the saber look less powerful. But listen, if this is cheaper and makes their show easier to produce I am ok with this.
Exactly. Look at the green lightsaber in this photo. White hot at the base (where the real life source of light is) and a very dimly lit green on the tip. They look different and it’s pretty obvious
That’s not why it’s brighter near the base. It’s because it’s currently swinging in an arc, so it moves over the course of a single frame of the recording, and the end moves farther then the base does, therefore the light it emits is dimmer because it’s spread out over more of the background.
The same thing would happen in reverse if someone with lightsaber-proof hands were to pick it up by the tip of the blade and swing the handle around.
It's actually very similar to the lightsaber replicas that are sold, when they use RGB instead of Xenopixel. If you own a pre-made, LGT lightsaber you know what I mean.
There’s definitely something off. When I watch episode 3 on my OLED the sabers POP and really give off a solid light. In these shows the sabers look so dull and lifeless. They look fake.
I mean check out how much better this looks: https://youtu.be/c2LuRgzvgtI
This whole comment section makes me feel like I live in a world of insane people.
It’s like people either are unwilling to see what’s being pointed out, or they’re complaining that someone pointed out a quality control issue that went through the cracks.
The tweet is correct. D+ shows don’t touch up the white core during fast spinning lightsaber movements.
OP brought it here and gave an opinion.
This doesn’t mean that Star Wars is garbage and it has nothing to do with anything else, only that from a visual aesthetic they decided to cut a corner on the CGI budget.
And I agree with OP, I think that cut corner was a mistake. George would never have allowed it. Even Disney doesn’t allow it in their own films. But because it’s a TV show they can cheap out?
Gtfo
That requires using actual logic and not reacting immediately to defend their beloved [insert favorite piece of recent SW media]. It was very telling in S2 finale of Mando— Luke’s saber compared to ROTJ… like c’mon. It’s clearly a lightsaber from like the Disney Store. It looked awful. Took me immediately out, then again in Kenobi. Disney is so cheap, I hate it
EXACTLY. I ALSO feel like I live in a world of insane people, especially on this subreddit with how much people seem to be enjoying what I see as clearly crappy content (example: Mandalorian S3, people saying, "It was okay," or with Kenobi and its cheap look, saying it was "Fine," or "I dig it"). Like seriously??? Do people really accept this crap from a multi-billion dollar company? I can't believe it.
I mean...it's Reddit, a large percentage of Redditers are degenerates, and that's why everyone is insane. Disney really does need to step up their quality because it's actually killing their streaming service.
My all time fave version of this is from the original/untouched A New Hope: Death Star docking bay scene, Vader kills Kenobi, Luke shouts and draws Vader's attention. Vader turns towards the blast and starts walking to the docking bay, but the blast doors close.
In those couple of frames you can see David Prowse is holding a silver bar that the effects team forgot to color in.
Yea I noticed it in obiwan. The sequel lightsabers all looked fine to me but something about the TV show sabers, especially obiwan, made it feel less like a "real" lightsaber and more like a lightsaber toy.
I... don't understand
Genuine, genuine, GENUINE question, what is the reclamation in the post? How can lightsabers do not look like blades? I don't know if it is a interpretation problem, because English is not my natural language, but i really am not getting the point of the tweet
I think the original dude was upset essentially because there's uneven lighting of the lightsaber, which is indicative of a light source in our world rather than a lightsaber which through various methods has been evenly lit across the entire blade of it.
Look at the blue saber evenly lit vs the green one where it has a brighter beam at the beginning of the blade, I think that's what the OOP was mad about. I think it looks fine.
Your English skills and comprehension seem fine to me though, I'm not entirely certain if I'm on the mark myself with the point.
In the original movie, they use a spinning rod with reflective tape, which didn't work out so much, so for the next movies they used aluminum rods and then (aside from the Anakin/Dooku fight in Episode II) carbon fiber rods in the prequels.
In the original trilogy, they add this effect: they put a film cell over each frame of film, then they paint the area where the blade is, and then they optically composite this so that the blade, no matter how still or blurry it is, is pure white with an optical fall-off in the color of the blade.
In the prequel trilogy, they emulate the same effect, but they do it digitally. In the sequel trilogy, they used lit props that they would then run computer tracking over and then emulate the earlier method but with 3D tracking for a slightly more dynamic effect. Again, the cores of the blade are white with the "color" being present in the fall-off glow.
*Rogue One* does the same. I feel like *The Mandalorian* Season 2 does the same. The cartoons all emulate this look, too. It's iconic to the series.
What they *appear* to be doing lately is only slightly enhancing the lit props instead of fully reproducing the white effect. Which is annoying to me. And apparently not just me.
They're referring to the lack of a white center. In all 9 Star Wars movies the blades are white with a coloured glow emanating around the edges.
In the TV shows they're essentially illuminated coloured props that, while they give off a coloured glow, don't have that bright white centre that the movies do.
Yeah they rely way too much on the practical blade. And those blades have gotten really impressive! But you still gotta do more VFX on it make it look like a lightsaber. Looked much better in the prequels.
Side note: that dude’s Twitter is toxic as hell *goddamn*
I've noticed it since the start. It's awful. Load up Revenge of the Sith and any live action D+ Lightsaber scene and the difference is PALPABLE. Movie blades are barely stable, have this angry, buzzing sound design mirrored in the flickering of the actual light, and just FEEL like it would easily slice you in half.
D+ blades look and feel like literal glowsticks and it really takes me out of it.
I've been saying it since the Luke Hallway fight first showed. It makes Star Wars look less than what it used to be. It looks like a fan made video rather than Star Wars to me because of the lightsaber design. That, to me, is what set it apart from other movies were the lightsabers design.
I get the lighting is more realistic but I hate it. They all look like youtube fan films.
Realism isn't always the best path. Lightsabers had a very particular visual style including the lighting and it's been kinda ripped away for me.
Happy most people like it though.
This is so valid. Ignore your haters. The prop makes great lighting fx, but the blade still needs to be edited. Drives me nuts. There are times it looks like they're just playing with toys.
I think in essence a lightsaber is the merging of the practical and the special. So I love the real glowing blades, but I do like a little bloom added over it.
I liked when they were basically white and just the edge glow was the color. Now, with the practical blades and seemingly less rotoscoping/CGI/whatever, many lightsabers in recent SW content look like what they are... RGB LED arrays. They have more "presence" now, and feel grounded in the world, but they also feel less special or magical to me, personally. I mean, I have a Master Replicas Luke ANH saber, and if I film myself in low light, it basically looks exactly like recent SW content, so that kind of sticks in the back of my mind and reminds me it's a prop... since it doesn't look like a magic plasma beam on screen as much these days.
I think you nailed it on the head. The previous films did the effects all in post giving it an unnatural otherworldly look, which meant the glow had no effect on surrounding lighting. In the D+ shows, they glow a solid color instead of having a white core, and they drown out every other color in the scene. Kenobi series was really bad at this in the darker scenes. It looked like he was holding a big blue glow stick in some episodes. Also him bouncing the lightsaber off that stormtrooper didn't help sell that illusion either.
> Kenobi series was really bad at this in the darker scenes Seriously! I am not one of the haters that really shits on that show. I actually liked it quite a bit overall, but most of the lightsaber fights were in the dark and they looked like straight up cosplay. It was hard to put my finger on why, but it was super low budget feeling to me.
Corridor Digital actually talked about this in a VFX Artists React episode. Essentially it has to do with the blue light itself and how it works different when shot digitally vs on physical film. It was SUPER interesting because they talk about how Blue LEDs were used in Watchman as a comparison but done way better due different techniques used to correct for the blue lighting effects of the overall color scheme of the shot. [Def recommend giving it a watch.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KitmA_NleAc)
Don’t make me dig out my Dr. Manhattan motion capture suit photos..!
Who do you think got blinded more, him or the other actors?
I'm gonna make a real cynical guess here, but I suspect this is ultimately a good thing for Disney whether intentional or not, and they know it. It gives their parks sabers and other similar merchandise a more legit look, helping their popularity with that cosplay crowd. I do enjoy the differing appearances of lightsabers in diff media (eg. Rebels thin blades). I agree that the inner white with a glow like the OT look best, and these Disney sabers look worse - I like the glow they give off, but it's much too bright usually.
> Rebels thin blades I hate that at first, in fact did not like a lot about the design direction of Rebels, but overtime some of it grew on me.
This is almost definitely what it is IMO. Disney properties are hugely popular in cosplay circles and give an immense amount of free advertising. Basically everyone I know who cosplays has like made a lightsaber at the parks and everything (self included, I'll admit). Which is a shame because it makes it seem like Disney isn't interested in doing Star Wars as... well, [Star Wars.](https://lumiere-a.akamaihd.net/v1/images/5f241ed9a65ddc00019e8b8d-image_b7c8a701.jpeg?region=0,0,1536,864)
Calling a bad show bad doesn’t make you a hater. Compare the scene with the underground ‘railroad’ or whatever they were defending the asteroid base in Kenobi to the prison break action scene in Andor. Night and day. Night, and day. Infact, compare *any* scene. The reason Kenobi feels low budget is because it had low talent behind the camera. Sure, she has credits on other shows. But clearly there was a case of ‘I did this’ and some good networking going on in order to land being showrunner. Because unlike a crappy exec, when you work in the creative industries you wear your skills on your sleeve, and even the inquisitors talking amongst themselves felt like some low budget cartoon show from the late 90s. Edit: this is my personal go to comparison for the finesse difference [Andor](https://youtu.be/zJOoyrIbdHU) [Kenobi (when the snowspeeders arrive)](https://youtu.be/c7YGwTyvd-g). The point isn’t the action itself, it’s the set ups. The attention to detail as well as CGI and cinematographic differences. Even the music. Why does the most guarded fortress in the Empire scramble no fighters?
> Why does the most guarded fortress in the Empire scramble no fighters? Nor anti-air turrets, nor security doors, nor tractor beams, nor planetary shields, etc, etc.
Exactly right? When people say the show sucks, it’s because the lack of effort and care was there far before we even got past the script stage. Also, 4 people boarding a two man snowspeeder. We know they’re cramped as hell too. Just visualise how they must’ve had to sit.
*Secret Invasion has entered the chat* *Secret Invasion has left the chat*
The fight scenes reminded me of Bat in the Suns old youtube vs. series of fictional characters. Like Batman vs. Vader. High quality fan film. The sabers' light washes out every detail in every scene and makes the fights harder to follow.
I think the red letter media episodes covering Kenobi explained those thoughts really well. The show just looked cheap at times.
And at $25 million per episode budget. It burrrrns.
Yeah that plastic bounce we’ve been seeing sucks.
They feel like shock sticks, not metal cutting blades of scorching plasma death held together with the power of the hilt, of which was so delicate as to be assembled using the force, but powerful enough to allow a skilled weilder to cut through blast doors. I honestly thought light sabers only bounced off lightsabers, those energy sticks, and beskar. You helped me figure out what was bothering me with the Disney + stuff. It's "Safer" than the films. Any of them.
Damn I just realized they're different. In the PT and OT it *is* white with colored sides. In Kenobi it was still kinda white, but the blue glow is definitely overkill
I believe the lightsabers in the Disney Star Wars shows/movies don't look great due to the excessive brightness of the LED props and the overly saturated blue color. This ends up washing out scenes and diminishing the richness of the costumes and overall complexity. I think it was done very well when anakin was fighting dooku in episode 2. The glow wasn't super bright and was a great way to show movement.
I want to add that i think it should be done tastefully. Lightsabers should not be used as stage lighting like they did in the obi wan series. Like the dark sets were a terrible idea, like most of the saber duel scenes were just solid blue.
On the flipside - from a marketing perspective, the licensed lightsaber replicas look exactly like what it does on screen, which is all the more reason to buy it. Which is the ultimate goal of all things disney - making profit off of merchandising.
It’s the ultimate goal of all things Star Wars, and has been since 1977.
Nah thats been Lucas's MO since day 1 aswell.
The blue saber in the picture is literally white with an outer blue glow…
I haven't seen the actual video, but from the screenshot you can see the moving green blade is a lot more green than it is white. I'd have to compare with the prequels and OT, but I'm guessing the moving blades don't lose their whiteness as much or don't have as much color saturation when moving. Edit: Yeah, as you can see from the [Geonosis arena battle scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZnL4mcU5dg&t=25s), the moving blades are very much white with only the colored glow at far edges.
I believe they mean how it was in the original versions pre special editions where they weren't as bright and glowing like in the picture above. Like here: https://youtu.be/s2rGRQ4MPbw
Only thing I've noticed about lightsabers is that in Rebels, whenever the Inquisitors would spin their lightsabers the screen would get darker and kinda choppy? Only happens during those scenes, with the most prominent being that fight in the S2 finale.
That's for people who have epilepsy. The same thing happens with the Maul, Savage and Sidious fight in CW. They dim the strobing effect so that those people with epilepsy don't get seizures.
Is this why the contrast seems to dip down significantly whenever there are explosions in anime? I've tried to point this out to people for ages, but none of my friends see it.
the physical releases of anime typically don't have that dimming, but the tv release is required to dim it.
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Wait really, this always annoyed me like the quality dropped for a sec. At least there's a reason.
Bc Pikachu went a little too hard in Japan one time
Holy shit I've wondered this for years you're a life saver man
That could be part of it. You see this all the time in anime
Safety reasons, to prevent seizures. I wish they'd let us disable this, it's really distracting.
Exactly. It's a great feature, they can even have it on by default, but it looks bad and messes with screen brightness, it would be nice to be able to turn it off.
You have to remember that these shows were released on TV. There’s not rly a way to turn it off.
Happens during the clone wars several times and I think in Ep 3 when Obi wan fights grievous.
It wasn't like that in the original broadcast version, it was a change made for Disney+
Yeah rebels (on disney+ at least, dunno about diffusion) have some laggy / low fps moments with red sabers
It's because they *are* actual, physical glowing props. I personally dig it.
I do agree that it’s great that the technology has improved. I’ve always been for that, but the OP does have a point about consistency.
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lol reminds me when thr prequels came out and everyone was up in arms about how the lightsabers now had a “point” on the end I’m the end they are all just cool. Even the Disney era ones (Kylos saber is magnificent in its effects)
If there is one thing that the Sequels did right, it was the designs. Of the characters, and the props, etc
Sound design too. The lightsabers sounded incredible.
Sound design was magical. That first scene with Kylo Ren stopping the bolter blast was jaw dropping in the theater.
That's cuz Ben Burtt is the GOAT of modern sound design. And yes, it was amazing.
The sound of kylos saber is my favourite. Dont love the crossbar design but do love the sound. It’s pure threatening.
Oh yeah definitely. You can hear and feel how unstable it is.
Same here but I absolutely do love his fiery crossguard design lol
If the writing could’ve just been a bit better, I think the Sequels could’ve been some of the best Star Wars media.
I'll shit on the sequels all day long, but I've always said that my only problem with them was the story/plot/scripts. Visually and sonically they're absolutely incredible, and the actors all did phenomenal with what they were given. No hate from me for anything related to that.
This is my opinion as well. If the directors had been better and the writing hadn’t been so horrible (both the plot and the script) then I could’ve accepted it! They just messed up so bad in the few other areas that it makes what they did well seem minuscule.
yup, visually they are awesome
I'll agree, but I'll add that they were SEVERELY lacking when it came to cool ship designs. We got... the Falcon again, a slightly revamped x-Wing and TIE Fighters, and maybe one cool new design in the fighter craft on Crait.
Ehhhh it’s personal preference but the new stormtroopers looked like they got their armor at the damn Apple Store, idk why but they always feel off to me.
The stormtroopers weren’t bad but they were a bit uninspired, huh?
Lol. Some storm troopers in the OT had stickers for the side vents. Don’t be too quick to discount disneys costuming. . Light years ahead of the OT
I’m not discounting the quality, no doubts that the Mouse knows how to handle costuming. My irk is more vibes based with the “sleek” look. It’s Wars not Trek, needs more greeblys.
The sequels have many flaws but they are damn beautiful. By far the prettiest of the franchise, as is proper with the advance of technology.
I definitely criticize because the original trilogy looks for sabers was due to technology limitations. In the prequels they looked absolutely perfect, but for the Disney Plus shows they cheap out and don't want to go into that much detail for each individual frame, because it's not a movie production and they're not going to financially treat it as such
Lightsabers have never really been consistent though. In ANH there’s a sparking/flashing type effect when they collide that we never see again. In the prequels, they’re noticeably more pointed. The blue lightsaber shade has also shifted slightly across each trilogy.
Blue is the bane of each VFX team. For ROTJ, they went with the solution to make Luke's saber green. For ROTS, to get the blue saber stand out in the red lava environment is its own challenge. Corridor Crew recently had the VFX legend explain the technical details of how they had to do it. Basically there's some trickery where most of the frames, it looks white, but you have a few where its blue, and your mind reads the whole swing as blue. For Rise of Skywalker, the scene where Rey jumps over Kylo's TIE, people were complaining Rey's saber was white.
IIRC, the subject of color originally came up when Lucas wanted to show Luke had a new lightsaber. Someone else asks what color and Lucas spitballs green, and someone else points out that would work better against the sky. It was a factor in changing the color, but it wasn't "the reason," he got a green one.
They haven’t been consistent visually or in how they cut. For example, in ANH, the alien that loses his arm bleeds while Luke’s wound is instantly cauterized when he loses his hand in ESB.
I actually just said that the PT set the perfect example of what lightsabers should look like. George didn’t have the technology for the OT, but did have it for the PT.
I agree, prequel lightsabers were the best looking, at least imo. My main point was that they’ve never been consistent so OP’s complaint is just straight up not valid
Interesting. I always preferred the look of the OT lightsabers. They feel much more electric and chaotic. The PT lightsabers were too stable to feel all that dangerous. I've always felt Disney did a really good job melding the more consistent look of the PT with the much more electric look of the OT.
Their stability is what made them “an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.” They weren’t supposed to come off as dangerous and scary because they were meant to be used for defensive purposes, which is why the Jedi used lightsabers instead of blasters
I like that take on it. It makes a lot of sense. I still prefer the more chaotic look of it. For me part of the elegance to the weapon is learning to safely use something that is so clearly dangerous. And when I say dangerous, I don't mean as an offensive weapon, but simply as a device that holds a lot of raw energy that is only just harnessed. It implies a lot of control and understanding to be able to work with a weapon like that. But as I said, I definitely appreciate your interpretation and I think it's a very good one.
It’s mostly Kylo Ren’s that has that damaged look and that’s on purpose because his Kyber crystal is cracked. I do really like the idea. I thought that brought something new to the table. However I still prefer the PT sabers.
I definitely like what they did with Kylo's! If you watch though, even Rey's lightsaber seems to flicker a little more unstably than those of the PT. It's much more subtle than Kylo's, but it's definitely there. Definitely not quite as extreme as in the OT though.
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> OT sabers are illegal, hidden objects, and the parts have to be maintained rather than replaced - so the blades are weightier and less powerful, less refined in their appearance. How does this account for lightsabers that were built in the prequel era showing up in the OT? Like Anakin’s and Obi-Wan’s? The only ones we see that are actually constructed during the Empire era are Luke’s green bladed saber and maybe Vader’s.
I mean even lore wise there's like hundreds if not thousands of different types of lightsabers
That would probably explain why they look so clunky when being used lately, this scene, for example, as well as what we've seen from Ahsoka.
There were several moments during The Mandalorian where it was obvious that the actors were holding back swinging the lightsabers or the dark saber, no doubt because if the actors took proper swings at each other the props would break. All that because some very unimaginative directors want to be able to show red glows on the bad guys faces, and blue glows on the faces of the heroes, for the gazillionth time - it's starting to become the Disney Star Wars equivalent of film students having a shot of a fridge opening from the inside.
I think it was said in an interview that for the finale of Mando S2, Giancarlo broke so many darksaber props during his fight with Mando on the ship because he was so ferocious with it
I read that as well, it was hilarious 😂
The ST used those props too without nearly as much complaining. But they have much larger budgets than the D+ shows. My guess is that the Disney+ shows don't have the budget to go back and fix all of those little "fake" looking moments with CG. But the movies (being some of the most expensive things ever done in Hollywood) definitely do. But that's just a guess. I really don't know.
They absolutely don't have the budget. The shows have longer runtimes than the individual movies, but they either have funding just short above or close to them (unless its the Mandalorian of course), or as in the case of Obi-Wan Kenobi even less. For a franchise as packed with special effects as Star Wars, this can mean significant changes in production.
Up until recently, the turnover on Disney shows has been pretty fast. Having less time to work on VFX has had a big impact.
Hate it personally. Pretty sure a basic rule when filming is to control your light sources. And when you're fighting with overtuned glow sticks you just can't. That and they dont fight as well. You see the blades bounce off eacother a lot more. And the fighting style has generally been worse since their introduction. I imagine they're trying not to break them rather than just replacing the rod.
I prefer them this way. They now can cast light on the actors and scenery in a believable way. Something that always was lacking from the older movies. edit: clarity
also, the actors can now realistically bonk each other with the sabers on, when not filming
The dream of any fan
*Cue Anakin and Dooku waving cgi glow-sticks at each other*
I thought it looked cool.
I think the concept is cool, but it’s edited in a way that makes it seem like each actor is on a recording set by themselves waving lights in the air
One of the single weirdest sequences in all 11 movies.
It was the very early version of what they are doing now. They wanted to have practical lights on set but back then they were essentially non-stunt worthy. Probably fluorescent tubes that would have broken in 2002… So they could not hit them and instead reserved the effect for a pre-fight swing-around
Weird? I thought it was super cool and artistic. You are right there in the middle of the duel and all its intensity. You can barely see where the blades are, but you see movement of the light.
Except they clearly aren’t fighting at all in that
I hated the way Obi Wan's saber seemed to bounce off the stormtroopers in that scene on his show, but i loved the way it looked with him igniting the saber in the dark room.
This is actually a problem with Blue Sabers though. Natural blue light is problematic for all cameras. So it looks not realistic with the blue light. However red and green look pretty good. Personally I wish they used the ones they are currently using, but made them look entirely CG like the prequel ones. Those are the best looking sabers we’ve had.
really early black and white film couldn't see the color blue.
You'd think it'd be pretty easy to just light the sabers white and color the blade in post.
Sucks that they still do stuff like the “deep symbolic lighting” in the final Kenobi fight. Am I supposed to believe Darth Vader is waving his lightsaber around to get red light on his face whenever he says something evil?
Bro flew a tie fighter standing on top of it using the force to accomplish AND billowing his cape around. If there is one thing I will ever believe it is that Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader will do that for dramatic effect, whatever "that" may be.
He'll that scene from clone wars where he just walks onto the bridge while everyone else is head-down behind cover. Or anytime he ditched any kind of normal plan for the one that let him be all grandiose speech guy in front of the enemy, or turning off all the lights in his suit just to step out of the darkness in rogue 1. Dude was an Emo theater kid 100%
I know this is controversial but this is a thing I love about Kylo Ren too. He thinks Darth Vader was SO RAD for exactly these reasons, and he copies that stuff obsessively.
And I enjoy that Kylo Ren basically failed at it. Vader embodied fear, and the theatrics were how he got his kicks. Kylo did it to create fear and respect, when he frequently lacked both otherwise. Vader had no such problem, and it really highlights the differences between the characters.
Well said!
I mean, you look at Anakin/Vader and he's a fictionalized case study in trauma and personality disorders that rise from it. As Anakin, he clearly had borderline personality disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, more than a touch of narcissism, and clear abuse trauma. As Vader, he's a deeply depressed, self loathing rageaholic with strong histrionic traits and his temper and personality issues turned into a sadist/cruel streak a mile wide.
Anakin always was a drama queen so yes
Anakin? Dramatic? Nooooo, certainly not Or *NooooOOOOooooo*, I suppose
I read this in Clayface’s voice lmao
The second you said that I could picture clear as fuckin day Anakin making sure the lighting is just right to match the mood on every word he says.
Hayden Christensen stares intensifies**
*Shines blue light on his face* “We’ll get through this, Snips.” *dramatically switches to red light* “One way or another.”
Cut to Rex holding up an LED panel
He practices in front of the mirror every morning.
“I know about your secret, Anakin.” “You know about how I practice setting up lighting for my monologues!?!” “No I meant Padme. You do what now?”
Dude used the force to ride on top of a TIE in Rebels, just for dramatic effect.
Also if I’m not mistaken, a TIE’s ion engines don’t displace air like normal engines, meaning his cloak billowing while on his TIE was likely him moving it around with the Force as he stood there.
The fact that he even wore a cloak/cape was hyperdramatic.
Bro literally turned his life support off in Rogue One to make a more dramatic entrance against some rebels he was certainly gonna kill. It would be out of character if he DIDN’T do dramatic shit like that
He did it again in Empire to ambush Luke. Dude is in an iron lung and he regularly pauses the automated breathing for dramatic effect.
That is some serious psychological warfare. Imagine hearing all the legends about this fucker, and then he sneaks up on you and starts that hooooo-haaaaaa in your ear.
[Vader is basically Megamind](https://youtu.be/dy2zB8bLSpk?t=10s)
Thanks for the laugh. General comment to this specific case: as much hate as gets thrown around here, the ‘Anakin is Dramatic’ perspective from this subreddit has really added to my enjoyment of the material.
The guy who turns off his chest lights and holds his mechanical breath just to scare the shit out of a bunch of rebels is a drama queen? Naw, that's not believable one bit.
Headcanon time. Vader knows it’s a production so deliberately holds his lightsaber at the perfect angle to get a dramatic red glow on every closeup.
It’s Anakin
You would have had a point, if you were talking about *anyone* else.
Vader was always king drama, that is very in character.
I‘m not quite sure if I‘m right with that, but the corridor crew mentioned it in one of their reacts. The reason the fight was completly in the dark was, bc they filmed the series with digital cameras. The blue light is too strong and would erase all the other colors. They also compared it to Watchmen, were the filmcrew didn‘t had that problem, bc they were using analog film.
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It has to do with filming on digital vs film. The Corridor Crew guys did a really good explaining how using the blue lightsaber in digital washes out the blue but on film it captures it better. Really worth a watch to explain how it happens
But they aren't though? [Dooku vs Anakin in the dark](https://i.makeagif.com/media/12-10-2015/58lL8b.gif) Take a shot from this gif and compare it to the photo above, you'll see the difference right away. I do have to say that despite this Disney Lucasfilm did a good job of not making the practical lightsabers look *too* dark, most of the time.
This looks way better than the newer stuff though. The new lightsaber glow is way too much, almost blinding. And in Kenobi especially, it just washes out everything and looks horrendous, particularly the blue because apparently they didn't do any test shoots? This gif, the blue and red are much more balanced instead of the blue just drowning everything else.
I miss them too a bit. The original lightsabers that didn't normally light up a room or character much. Especially A New Hope and Empire's On consistency, they seem to be matching the new canon books, comics, and games.
Oh my god. Star Wars fans will whine about literally anything.
Getting tired of the negativity.. almost every post I see on here is just somebody nitpicking at star wars..
/r/starwars is not a good place to discuss Star Wars. It's nothing but whining and bitching and complaining and lamenting and crying and moaning and wailing and grumbling and bellyaching about anything and everything that comes out of the franchise since 1980. It never fucking fails, nothing can ever be *good enough*. * The prequels? "Dogshit." * The sequels? "Dogshit." * The Clone Wars? "Urgh it's a cartoon it's for *children*!!!" * Rebels? "It's even worse than Clone Wars!!" * Kenobi? "Dogshit" * Mandalorian? "Merchandising and Mary Sue!" * Boba Fett? "Dogshit. From a sick dog!" * Bad Batch? "Clone Wars but more boring!" * Solo? "No one asked for this!" * Rogue One? "Only the Vader scene was good!" The only thing that has come out in Star Wars in recent times that even remotely had overall good reception from all parts of the fandom is Andor, and even that had its own detractors complaining that it was slow and boring and too "adult" for Star Wars. Truthfully, if you want a place where you can discuss Star Wars stuff without running into these people, /r/starwarscantina is a good place on reddit, the Starlight Beacon Discord is a good place on Discord, and outside of that, Star Wars Explained on YouTube is a pretty good source of Star Wars stuff free of the negativity.
>Mandalorian? "Merchandising and Mary Sue!" Who was the "mary sue" in mando?
“Hey, why did this thing happen in this movie or show that could instantly be explained if I did one Google search or realized it was written before the thing I think makes it weird now? Is this a plot hole?”
Things are a little more positive over on r/starwarscantina
Honestly I agree but this sounds more like an opinion than a complaint Not the post to say this imo
Having an opinion is whining apparently. Let people criticize things
And some fans can't accept any criticisms
They are also just not white in the center
It's because the white glow in the middle is missing. Lightsabers are always white with an outward glow of a certain color. The issue becomes when the inside glow is no longer white. So yeah I agree with you. It doesn't look right.
But the blue one literally has white in the middle, and so does the green one, you get more green when it’s in motion
In all the films, when they spun or moved a lightsaber quick, the “trail” would be a white center with a whatever color lightsaber they had outer. This is not happening in the pic above so it looks odd.
They do have the white hot spots, what we are seeing here is the product of lenses and shutter speed on moving lights. Lights in motion appear dimmer because of this and the tip moves faster than the hilt so there is a gradient of brightness. This is a detail that is often forgotten when doing the painted on lightsaber effect, thus why it looks strange to some folks. This is how they should, theoretically, look if they were real so I don't see the issue personally.
I... somewhat agree with the guy. The Prequels might have not used physical **glowing** props, but the lightsabers in there have a consistent glow throughout their motion which was added in post production (EDIT: through a digital effect) that makes them brighter and more distinct from the environment. Actual glowing props can blur into the environment and idk, it just makes the saber look less powerful. But listen, if this is cheaper and makes their show easier to produce I am ok with this.
Exactly. Look at the green lightsaber in this photo. White hot at the base (where the real life source of light is) and a very dimly lit green on the tip. They look different and it’s pretty obvious
That’s not why it’s brighter near the base. It’s because it’s currently swinging in an arc, so it moves over the course of a single frame of the recording, and the end moves farther then the base does, therefore the light it emits is dimmer because it’s spread out over more of the background. The same thing would happen in reverse if someone with lightsaber-proof hands were to pick it up by the tip of the blade and swing the handle around.
It's actually very similar to the lightsaber replicas that are sold, when they use RGB instead of Xenopixel. If you own a pre-made, LGT lightsaber you know what I mean.
There’s definitely something off. When I watch episode 3 on my OLED the sabers POP and really give off a solid light. In these shows the sabers look so dull and lifeless. They look fake. I mean check out how much better this looks: https://youtu.be/c2LuRgzvgtI
I'm gonna guess that no one mentions it because it's not a big issue.
i genuinely don't see what they're talking about, maybe i'm blind
This whole comment section makes me feel like I live in a world of insane people. It’s like people either are unwilling to see what’s being pointed out, or they’re complaining that someone pointed out a quality control issue that went through the cracks. The tweet is correct. D+ shows don’t touch up the white core during fast spinning lightsaber movements. OP brought it here and gave an opinion. This doesn’t mean that Star Wars is garbage and it has nothing to do with anything else, only that from a visual aesthetic they decided to cut a corner on the CGI budget. And I agree with OP, I think that cut corner was a mistake. George would never have allowed it. Even Disney doesn’t allow it in their own films. But because it’s a TV show they can cheap out? Gtfo
Thank you! It's driving me nuts how many people aren't getting this. Watch the damn movies people.
That requires using actual logic and not reacting immediately to defend their beloved [insert favorite piece of recent SW media]. It was very telling in S2 finale of Mando— Luke’s saber compared to ROTJ… like c’mon. It’s clearly a lightsaber from like the Disney Store. It looked awful. Took me immediately out, then again in Kenobi. Disney is so cheap, I hate it
EXACTLY. I ALSO feel like I live in a world of insane people, especially on this subreddit with how much people seem to be enjoying what I see as clearly crappy content (example: Mandalorian S3, people saying, "It was okay," or with Kenobi and its cheap look, saying it was "Fine," or "I dig it"). Like seriously??? Do people really accept this crap from a multi-billion dollar company? I can't believe it.
I mean...it's Reddit, a large percentage of Redditers are degenerates, and that's why everyone is insane. Disney really does need to step up their quality because it's actually killing their streaming service.
My all time fave version of this is from the original/untouched A New Hope: Death Star docking bay scene, Vader kills Kenobi, Luke shouts and draws Vader's attention. Vader turns towards the blast and starts walking to the docking bay, but the blast doors close. In those couple of frames you can see David Prowse is holding a silver bar that the effects team forgot to color in.
Yea I noticed it in obiwan. The sequel lightsabers all looked fine to me but something about the TV show sabers, especially obiwan, made it feel less like a "real" lightsaber and more like a lightsaber toy.
Its why kenobi didnt really hit for me. Everything looked cheap. Ahsoka looks much better, from costumes to lightsabers, it looks much better.
I... don't understand Genuine, genuine, GENUINE question, what is the reclamation in the post? How can lightsabers do not look like blades? I don't know if it is a interpretation problem, because English is not my natural language, but i really am not getting the point of the tweet
I think the original dude was upset essentially because there's uneven lighting of the lightsaber, which is indicative of a light source in our world rather than a lightsaber which through various methods has been evenly lit across the entire blade of it. Look at the blue saber evenly lit vs the green one where it has a brighter beam at the beginning of the blade, I think that's what the OOP was mad about. I think it looks fine. Your English skills and comprehension seem fine to me though, I'm not entirely certain if I'm on the mark myself with the point.
In the original movie, they use a spinning rod with reflective tape, which didn't work out so much, so for the next movies they used aluminum rods and then (aside from the Anakin/Dooku fight in Episode II) carbon fiber rods in the prequels. In the original trilogy, they add this effect: they put a film cell over each frame of film, then they paint the area where the blade is, and then they optically composite this so that the blade, no matter how still or blurry it is, is pure white with an optical fall-off in the color of the blade. In the prequel trilogy, they emulate the same effect, but they do it digitally. In the sequel trilogy, they used lit props that they would then run computer tracking over and then emulate the earlier method but with 3D tracking for a slightly more dynamic effect. Again, the cores of the blade are white with the "color" being present in the fall-off glow. *Rogue One* does the same. I feel like *The Mandalorian* Season 2 does the same. The cartoons all emulate this look, too. It's iconic to the series. What they *appear* to be doing lately is only slightly enhancing the lit props instead of fully reproducing the white effect. Which is annoying to me. And apparently not just me.
About as consistent with Force powers. As long as the story lines up, I have no problem different saber looks.
maybe im blind or just dont know what to look for but i dont see it. i would need a shitty MS paint outline of what it is im supposed to see
They're referring to the lack of a white center. In all 9 Star Wars movies the blades are white with a coloured glow emanating around the edges. In the TV shows they're essentially illuminated coloured props that, while they give off a coloured glow, don't have that bright white centre that the movies do.
The blurriness of older movies filled in the gaps between reality and the picture
Completely agree with you and I cannot stand it. Folks in here saying you are overreacting are scruffy lookin nerf herders
Sequel trilogy had the best sabers.
Idgaf, to be honest. Having the lightsabers actually emit light is worth it.
I gotta be the only person that doesn’t mind how they look. I swear bro some people are just way too fuckin nit-picky about the tiniest things.
Which show is that picture from?
Season 3 of the Mandalorian
They should use real lightsabers, but I can see why they don't. Thanks, Alec Baldwin.
Jfc I didn’t think people could find more nitpicky bs but to be upset about
They look like lightsaber toys. They also hit like baseball bats which just ads to this impression.
I always thought they look wrong as well. They look like glow tubes (which the props basically are) more than OG lightsabers.
What series is this?
Mandalorian Season 3
Yeah they rely way too much on the practical blade. And those blades have gotten really impressive! But you still gotta do more VFX on it make it look like a lightsaber. Looked much better in the prequels. Side note: that dude’s Twitter is toxic as hell *goddamn*
They are stupid short in Obi Wan also. They need to drop the FX brand lightsabers and go back to roto scoping!
I've noticed it since the start. It's awful. Load up Revenge of the Sith and any live action D+ Lightsaber scene and the difference is PALPABLE. Movie blades are barely stable, have this angry, buzzing sound design mirrored in the flickering of the actual light, and just FEEL like it would easily slice you in half. D+ blades look and feel like literal glowsticks and it really takes me out of it.
I've been saying it since the Luke Hallway fight first showed. It makes Star Wars look less than what it used to be. It looks like a fan made video rather than Star Wars to me because of the lightsaber design. That, to me, is what set it apart from other movies were the lightsabers design.
I prefer prequel sabers, but I’m not gonna complain. Star Wars is Star Wars.
I get the lighting is more realistic but I hate it. They all look like youtube fan films. Realism isn't always the best path. Lightsabers had a very particular visual style including the lighting and it's been kinda ripped away for me. Happy most people like it though.
THANK YOU!! I thought I was the only one that noticed it☹️ they look horrible. They really just look like the practical blades being swung around
That’s because on set they use lighted blades and less CGI look at the behind the scenes of the mando.
Wait I don't get the issue. This image looks absolutely perfect.
New minute detail to whine about just dropped! 🔥
People bothered by this need to go outside
Absolutely. Its the lack of white cores that gives them the fake look. I really don't like it either.
I genuinely don’t like it. It takes me out of the immersion when the sabers look like LED sticks as opposed to the movie counterparts.
They look like shit and that all the Jedi went shopping to get Force FX lightsabers. Bring back CG blades.
Quit fucking moaning about everything
This is so valid. Ignore your haters. The prop makes great lighting fx, but the blade still needs to be edited. Drives me nuts. There are times it looks like they're just playing with toys.