10 Star Wars Answers Given YEARS Later

It wasn't too difficult to understand the real-life reasons for the colours of the weapons used by the Jedi and Sith during the original trilogy.

George Lucas wanted to make it clear who the good and bad guys were, so used the more positive colours of blue and green for the former, while the latter boasted a blood-red lightsaber.

But an actual in-universe reason for the differences in colour was something that wasn't offered up for quite some time.

In Legends, it was eventually explained that the Sith generally used red synthetic lightsaber crystals - instead of the Adegan crystals often used by Jedi - to create their laser swords, with these crystals first being mentioned in 1996's Shadows of the Empire novel and eventually being established as the ones used in Sith weapons in a 2002 edition of Star Wars Insider. 

This would also replace the belief that the weapons simply reflected the personality of the person who held it. 

Then, when Disney came along and established a new canon, another answer to the question of why a Sith's lightsaber was red was provided.

First appearing in 2017's Darth Vader comic series, it was revealed that a kyber crystal could actually be bled. After pouring all of the rage, fear, hate, and pain they could into said crystal via the dark side, a person would cause it to change and become the crimson weapon held by many a Sith Lord.

"Bleeding" was finally shown on-screen for the first time in the recent Disney+ The Acolyte show, too.

Even the earliest explanation of why a Sith's lightsaber was red, then, still only technically arrived over 20 years after the release of the first film. That's a long ol' time.