The lightsaber is the weapon of a Jedi, who uses it to protect the weak of the Galaxy from evil… It’s color comes from the force affinity of a user at the moment they harvest their kyber crystal, but the design of the hilt is an expression of the Order’s creativity, needs and requirements of the time. This led to a huge variety of hilt designs across the years, each serving specific purposes. So let’s break down every single lightsaber type in Star Wars Canon, and what they mean!
**Number 1. The Standard Single Bladed Lightsaber.** This lightsaber was the most common across the Jedi Order and although was less common among Dark Side Orders, it was still widely used. The sabers produce a single blade of plasma, in the color of the kyber crystal inserted inside of it. Importantly though, these sabers can only operate at a single length, which is determined when it is constructed by it’s user… This will be important in some later variants.
**At number 2. we have the Standard Double Bladed Lightsaber**. This was a variant enjoyed mostly by Dark Side orders like the Sith, and they contained two kyber crystals inside. Both sides of the blade could emit two different colours, although this was pretty difficult to achieve because of how kyber crystal color is determined, through the traits and personality of the user when collecting it. The reason these blades were preferred by Dark Side orders were not only because they were more offensive in style, but also because they required two kyber crystals. This inherently requires greed when collecting your crystals, forcing more than one to align to you at once…
**For number 3. there is the flickerphase lightsaber.** This is an incredibly rare form of lightsaber which has been modified to allow it’s blade to ignite and extinguish at random times during a battle. As you can imagine, this makes using it extremely difficult, even for the most skilled of Jedi, but if it was mastered, it was one of the most deadly. Now in the Jedi order, turning off your saber in the middle of battle is considered extremely dishonorable, and for that reason, this saber was generally frowned up and you’d probably be bullied for crafting it as a young Padawan…
**Number 4. we have the lava crystal Lightsaber. These** sabers were created by inserting a type of Lava crystal into a regular lightsaber. These crystals were extremely rare, and only found on the hellish world of Mustafar, meaning nearly no Jedi used them. When ignited, it’s blade would become thick and generate extreme heat. Not to mention it would spew out huge chunks of flame and lava, sometimes hitting its user… Because of this, they were very rarely used.
**At number 5. is the Sickle-Bladed lightsaber.** This blade was used in ancient times by an extreme sect of the Sith, including Darth Noctyss, and was curved at it’s end. Over the years, no Jedi historian was ever able to figure out how this blade was crafted, but it was believed to be incredibly effective at taking the heads of opponents off due to it’s shape.
**Moving to number 6. we have the hinged double bladed lightsaber.** This variant is based off the standard double bladed weapon preferred by the Sith, but featured a hinge in the centre of the hilt. Both blades could be activated while the weapon was collapsed, which allowed it to trap the blade of an emey. The most prominent user of this weapon was Jedi General Pong Krell, which makes a ton of sense because of both his size and tendency towards the Dark Side. A white variant was also used by an Umbaran Jedi named Orla Jareni during the high republic, and Dark Rey used one too.
**After that at Number 7. is the Double Bladed Spinning Lightsaber used by the Inquisitors.** This weapon was crafted by Members of Darth Vader’s inquisitorious and it allowed the user to spin both blades at incredibly high speeds. It could also be used with only one blade, and could even detach if necessary, allowing it’s wielder to use Jar Kai, the Double bladed form. Finally, this blade could also be utilized as a helicopter, making it a great method of escape for Inqusitors… Although that is very controversial, so let me know in the comments, saber copters or no saber copters… Just don’t get too heated down there.