Random question, but I can recall, usually online, when the discussion of blade color comes up, some people seem to be unusually against the color blue. Like, ridiculous levels of hatred of it, a level of hatred on the internet that is usually reserved for things like Nickelback (which I also don't understand. They are hated for being an average band. Not for being terrible, but for being "just ok" *shrugs*)

Anyway, I'm rambling. But, why the hate? I mean I can appreciate the "I prefer *insert color of your choice* for my saber color" statement. But taking the time and energy to actually denigrate a color? I just, I don't get it. Perhaps they are being said in jest, ironically being angry at the color and all that, but I don't think it always is. So yeah, have any of you noticed this behavior on various forums and the like? Just seems weird to me, and I've got some free time, so I thought I'd toss it out there.

Don't ask me, I love blue Sabers. Blue and Green are the best. Purple is the unique cool kid and I actually love the new crystals for purple sabers, but I don't get what colors people want if they hate blue.
Alas, I have not noticed any hate for blue Sabers either.

I suspect that it is because they are so common. If I were to hazard a guess, your average player likes for their character to be special, and that includes a non-traditional saber color.

Just a guess..

1 minute ago, kaosoe said:

I suspect that it is because they are so common. If I were to hazard a guess, your average player likes for their character to be special, and that includes a non-traditional saber color.

Just a guess..

From what I've seen, both in RPGs and amongst a few different fan-art communities, it seems that a blue lightsaber is, as you said, much too common, and thus leading to people using alternate colors in an effort to make their characters stand out more. How much of it is the result of "special unique snowflake" syndrome and how much of it is due to artistic choice is very much a YMMV situation. Green and yellow aren't too glaring, since they've got some basis in the lore, though when one starts getting into fuschia and pastels, then you're pushing it...

That being said, majority of my PCs tend to rock the blue lightsaber, mostly as it's the classic color, though I might use different shades of blue every now and again, such as for my namesake d20 Jedi Guardian who had a cerulean blue lightsaber blade. I think the only other two PCs I've had that used a different color was one for an AoR game (green), and a PC in a short-lived D6 Sith Academy game who naturally used red as he was something of a traditionalist amidst the acolytes.

Statements of taste are often simultaneously statements of identity. That is, when someone declares loudly that they despise Nickelback, especially unsolicited, they're trying to say something about themselves, such as that their musical tastes are developed enough to find them boring and overrated.

Donovan's description of people trying to differentiate their characters explains why people choose a color other than blue for themselves, but when they express hatred of blue lightsabers in general, they're probably trying to demonstrate some independence from the common choice. Disliking blue is a way to claim superior taste and independent thinking (even if it is the superficial independence of the teenager shopping at Hot Topic). It might also be a way to flash your knowledge of the lore, i.e. that you know enough about the setting to know that other colors are possible and even which crystals produce alternate colors.

I usually default to a blue saber, myself. I think my first ever Jedi PC had a violet lightsaber...but she was pretty snowflakey

The last several PCs I've made, whether for myself or as pregens for new players, have all had blue or green lightsabers.

I haven't noticed the blue hatred, but that's probably just because I'm looking in the wrong places!

8 minutes ago, Kaigen said:

Statements of taste are often simultaneously statements of identity. That is, when someone declares loudly that they despise Nickelback, especially unsolicited, they're trying to say something about themselves, such as that their musical tastes are developed enough to find them boring and overrated.

See, my issue though, is the level of vitriol about Nickelback. I mean, if you want to just say "I don't like them, as I find their music boring and derivative" Ok fine, fair enough. That's an opinion and you are entitled to it. But I'm not talking about those reasoned and measured criticisms I'm talking about the "Nickelback is the festering arsehole of shite on the butt cheek of musical history, and all the band members deserve to die slowly in a fire!" Kind of comments. And when I directly asked people why Nickelback gets so much hate, the overwhelming answer was "Because they are mediocre." Which just...baffles me. I mean, they don't exert that much energy to decry bands that they would find to be worse than Nickelback, bands that they would say are actually BAD, not just "average". I just find it funny to hate something that isn't the worst, more than you hate the thing that is actually the worst.

12 minutes ago, Kaigen said:

Donovan's description of people trying to differentiate their characters explains why people choose a color other than blue for themselves, but when they express hatred of blue lightsabers in general, they're probably trying to demonstrate some independence from the common choice. Disliking blue is a way to claim superior taste and independent thinking (even if it is the superficial independence of the teenager shopping at Hot Topic). It might also be a way to flash your knowledge of the lore, i.e. that you know enough about the setting to know that other colors are possible and even which crystals produce alternate colors.

Yeah, I guess that probably is the most likely answer. I just never understood why it's such a big deal. I've always picked blue, simply because it's my favorite color. So I want a saber that is that color. If you like green, or whatever other color for your saber, rock on, you do you. Again it's the confusion about why someone would devote so much time/energy to something that is essentially cosmetic in nature, and dependent on individual preference anyway.

Sometimes I just find the internet very silly, and like to sound out the logic behind some of it's silliness, to see if anyone else finds it as puzzling as me.

When I was making my lightsaber hilt for my Jedi costume, I was going to have a blue blade. When toying around on the computer with the images, green just looked better with it.

6 minutes ago, KungFuFerret said:

Again it's the confusion about why someone would devote so much time/energy to something that is essentially cosmetic in nature, and dependent on individual preference anyway.

To them, it's not a matter of individual preference. Passionately hating this thing makes them a better person in relation to people of less refined or unexamined tastes. It's not a rational thing, but if you want to sound out the logic, it essentially boils down to: "People who like (or are merely ambivalent to) this thing are ignorantly going with the crowd or have poor tastes. I hate it, therefore I am not ignorant/unrefined." It's essentially virtue signalling, but focused on something entirely trivial.

Some people (I'm holding up my hand, though you can't see it) prefer the "special", even among special things. A lightsaber is an awesome concept, and a great weapon, in some minds, but a blue lightsaber is "just a lightsaber". Green was special because it was a different option, at the time, and then Yoda's saber color, while red was cool because it was the villain's saber, and purple was the first new color in over a decade, being "one of a kind", and sported by Darth Shaft, himself; Mace Windu. Many people, once the other novels were a thing, would've wanted a different color, so that, like Windu, they could stand out, even among a throng of Jedi (the "special" among people).

Blue is often a cool color, actually (not making the art reference, though I suppose it is a cool color, too), but more than half the lightsabers that ever existed were that color, whether because the majority of the compatible crystals had the right chemical makeup, or that new jazz about attuning the colorless crystal to your self, and most life, in the galaxy, lacking the emotional variety to make more than two colors; most of the other half are red, because either the Sith had a chemistry flaw in their synthetic crystal formation, or because the act of putting down a crystal, emotionally, makes it "bleed", turning red. It wasn't until the prequels, and after the turn of the millennium, that we saw green crystals were sort of common, among the Jedi.

If your lightsaber is "different", there might also be a cool story as to why. Windu's lightsaber is purple because Samuel L. Jackson insisted, but after that, the story goes that he helped a crystalline alien, on Hurrikan, and that being gave him a fragment of its body; the properties of that crystal made a unique saber for Windu. Compared to "I walked into a cave, and found one", or "my Master handed it to me", it's an interesting story. I like blue sabers, to be honest, but I often catch myself wondering if, for this game, I want something different.

As for hating it, I don't get that, either. I despise country music, on the whole, and most of rap, too, but I proclaim to have reasons, and they work for me; other people can tell me they are great, and it doesn't bother me that they think so, so long as I don't have to listen. Any color of sabers? Nope, that one makes less sense to me, though that might also simply be that, as I don't feel that way, I can't understand why someone else would.

1 hour ago, Kaigen said:

Statements of taste are often simultaneously statements of identity. That is, when someone declares loudly that they despise Nickelback, especially unsolicited, they're trying to say something about themselves, such as that their musical tastes are developed enough to find them boring and overrated.

Donovan's description of people trying to differentiate their characters explains why people choose a color other than blue for themselves, but when they express hatred of blue lightsabers in general, they're probably trying to demonstrate some independence from the common choice. Disliking blue is a way to claim superior taste and independent thinking (even if it is the superficial independence of the teenager shopping at Hot Topic). It might also be a way to flash your knowledge of the lore, i.e. that you know enough about the setting to know that other colors are possible and even which crystals produce alternate colors.

I think you might have nailed it … at least my conformation bias says so, because in reality I never have met someone who hate blue lightsabers ... or hate them enough to tell me about it.
And I have some odd sense that I could replace blue lightsabers/Nickelback with prequel trilogy and the paragraph would hold true still. ;-)

And the same time, I might have to confess that the above might hold true as well for my urge to tell people that I like the prequels. Damnit. but CW/TCW IS awesome.

I think blue is just regarded as 'entry level' by some, and they view green, red, violet, etc. as more advanced for their character. Never have seen much vitriolic hatred for it, though.

And even when I think a blue would be nice, I generally imagine a darker, deeper shade of blue than what we see in the movies, shows and art.

The shade of blue might have something to do with it, yeah.

It's also possible that this is a canon/edition hangover - people were being told "Blue or red and nothing else, you munchkin!" for a long time and once it became clear that this was *not* the case in canon...

I haven't had a blue lightsaber in character because I have never held a crystal that had the potential to be blue; Tobin's original was an inquisitor's lightsaber that he eventually "tamed" and rendered it purple, and his second was bright yellow having manufactured itself; a representation of his aviece and the immense ambition the Rodian had. Blue never came up as he wasn't a Jedi nor did he ever acquire a crystal in a traditional fashion, he is an alliance operative who hasn't adventured after Jedi artifacts because "they died for a reason."

I've never encountered this. I've seen lots of preference for other colors, but no particular animosity towards blue. What a bizarre concept.

Also, blue lightsabers are the prettiest lightsabers.

If your Saber isn't Red your not trying hard enough!

Like has been said it's probably because that's the default or vanilla colour. Green and blue are both boring to me for a character simply because the stereotypical Jedi is not interesting to me.

48 minutes ago, Richardbuxton said:

If your Saber isn't Red your not trying hard enough!

Like has been said it's probably because that's the default or vanilla colour. Green and blue are both boring to me for a character simply because the stereotypical Jedi is not interesting to me.

Sure, that kind of reason is fine. But I'm just referring to times I've seen people say things along the lines of "Blue is for pu**ies!" and other comments. Sure, sometimes I'm sure they are just being silly, but sometimes it was clearly heartfelt. Which just puzzled me, since it's only a color.

But it's probably the perception that lame Jedi use Blue Sabers that makes people's options. Not that I agree with that opinion but it seems plausible

Probably, I just find it really silly. I remember seeing it a lot when I was playing SWTOR, in general chat.

I like the idea of career class determining color... but the book only shows lightsabers for 4 class pictures... And green is in 3 of them...

Black, White, and Red appear to be story role-linked.

I've not asked, and my players seldom stated, a specific color..

I prefer just the "it's the color of the crystal I found that resonated with me and Force" but since that's no longer canon, I just adopt the "whatever color you want it to be" logic.

2 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

Probably, I just find it really silly. I remember seeing it a lot when I was playing SWTOR, in general chat.

Now you mention it, yeah, I remember having seen the same sentiment in the in-game SWTOR chat. People would actually take time out of playing their game to berate blue lightsaber wielders for their color choice, in game. I forget; did you have to earn other colors? Like, were they harder to get?

I dunno, to me, a blue lightsaber is like "pure Star Wars." Other colors are fine, of course.

12 minutes ago, awayputurwpn said:

Now you mention it, yeah, I remember having seen the same sentiment in the in-game SWTOR chat. People would actually take time out of playing their game to berate blue lightsaber wielders for their color choice, in game. I forget; did you have to earn other colors? Like, were they harder to get?

I dunno, to me, a blue lightsaber is like "pure Star Wars." Other colors are fine, of course.

The color was simply based on the crystal you put in the saber. You could craft/buy/find various colors all over the place (as far as I can remember when I last played). They were independent of the crystal that provided stat bonuses (I think, it's been a while). So you could change out the color all you wanted while keeping the same combat effectiveness.

For me personally, the color thing is just personal preference. I love blue, so blue is my preferred color. If given a choice, I will choose blue, but if I end up with another color I won't really be bothered by it. I mean, I'll be disappointed, but I'm not going to flip the gaming table or anything

I do find it interesting, the amount of fan inference about stuff simply based on choices the director and creative team made. Like the "Blue is beginners, green is advanced" mentality that people have mentioned in this thread. Which is simply based on the fact that Luke's later saber was green. Why people would think that "graduating" in the Jedi training means you go up to green, like it's some kind of karate belt coloring system, seems very silly to me. Seeing as that concept was never actually established by the creators, I lump it into the fan fiction category of ideas.

I mean, Obi-Wan was rocking a blue lightsaber his entire Jedi career . So to say "blue is for newbs" seems contrary to the actual canon. Seeing as many people hoist him up as the quintessential Jedi archetype, apparently blue is just fine, even for Knights and Masters

Hahaha, karate belt coloring system for lightsabers! Yeah, that makes no sense. Is Mace Windu the only one to have ever ranked up to purple? And do the Sith just have one rank? "You've graduated from red saber...to red saber!"

24 minutes ago, awayputurwpn said:

Hahaha, karate belt coloring system for lightsabers! Yeah, that makes no sense. Is Mace Windu the only one to have ever ranked up to purple? And do the Sith just have one rank? "You've graduated from red saber...to red saber!"

Well considering Mace is what, 1 of 3 people in the universe who know Vappad? Yeah I guess he is the only one that ranked up to purple. Or you know....Sam Jackson wanted to be able to spot himself in the massive battle scenes easier. But SURE! We'll go with awesomeness ability with saber is why he's purple. Makes as much sense as any other reason.