Star Wars canon has secretly introduced a way to turn lightsabers into bombs

The modern Star Wars Cannon has a way of turning lightsabers into deadly explosives. Lightsabers are one of the most recognizable items in the franchise, and while most Star Wars Properties they have, they are relatively rare in the universe. Lightsabers are the signature weapons of the Jedi Knights and the Sith Lords, but some Force-using traditions—such as the Prophets of the Dark Side in the Legends continuity and the Knights of Ren in the modern canon—also use these weapons. In both continuities, lightsabers are powered by Force-imbued crystals.

In the original Legends continuity, lightsaber crystals came in a variety of colors, types, and variants, with a gem’s color determining the lightsaber’s blade color. Traditionally, Jedi used natural lightsaber crystals, like the blue and green Adegan crystals found on Illum. In the reimagining of the modern canon of lightsaber lore, Jedi continue to use natural lightsaber crystals—now called Kyber crystals—but the gems are initially clear before changing to a specific color upon bonding with a Jedi-in-training. Synthetic lightsaber crystals exist in both the modern canon and Legends continuities, but the two iterations are quite different.

Synthetic crystals turn lightsabers into bombs

In the modern canon, synthetic kyber crystals are extremely unstable, even more so than cracked kyber crystals, like the one found in Kylo Ren’s lightsaber. While the modern Star Wars Canon has yet to elaborate on how synthetic kyber crystals are made, which makes it clear that the gems are unfit for use in lights. A synthetic kyber crystal is highly susceptible to explodingMaking a lightsaber powered by one essentially a bomb.

In Legends, Luke’s lightsaber was powered by a synthetic crystal

In their original incarnation In the Legends continuity, however, synthetic lightsaber crystals are perfectly safe to use. Synthetic lightsaber crystals debuted in Steve Perry’s 1996 novel Shadows of the EmpireWith Luke Skywalker building his iconic green bladed lightsaber with one such gem. With natural sources of lightsaber crystals all but destroyed by the Empire, Luke has no choice but to create one, using instructions left for him by the late Obi-Wan Kenobi. Traditionally, the Sith Lords used synthetic crystals almost exclusively, and all Sith Lords in the original and prequel Star Wars Movies use red-bladed lightsabers powered by them.

Synthetic lightsaber crystals are created using a combination of machinery and the Force, although Sith, of course, use the dark side to create their crystals. Jedi are typically frozen on the creation of synthetic crystals (outside of emergencies), but with so few natural lightsaber crystals left by the end of the original trilogy era, they became much more widely used in times of need. in the Star Wars legends sequel, Nearly every lightsaber built and used by Luke Skywalker’s New Jedi Order is powered by synthetic lightsaber crystals.