“Around 4,000 BBY [4000 years Before the Battle of Yavin], lightsaber crystals were used to indicate a Jedi’s chosen class. Blue indicated a Jedi Guardian, a Jedi who used the Force on a more physical level. Green indicated a Jedi Consular, a Jedi who preferred to reflect on the mysteries of the Force and fight the dark side at its heart. Yellow indicated a Jedi Sentinel, a Jedi who honed their skills in a balance of combat and scholarly pursuits.”
I first saw that referenced in the first Knights of the Old Republic game for Xbox. Since it’s made it onto Wookiepedia, I’m not sure if it’s considered canon or not. Certainly Lucas never said (at least in anything I’ve seen or read), so take the above for what it’s worth.
Purple indicates the special class of Ba’ad Mofoh, a Jedi who has elected to use his understanding of the Force to just, you know, walk the earth, meet people… get into adventures… Like Caine from Kung Fu.
“This distinction fell out of practice in later years when most Jedi used blue or green crystals, based on the supply on the various source worlds. Purple, yellow, and orange crystals were still used by some Jedi until the the fall of the Jedi Order, but they were exceedingly rare, and often passed down through generations.[source?] The Galactic Empire banned trade and possession of all lightsaber crystals.[source?]”
In other words, it didn’t really mean anything. The color crystals were initially supposed to signify the Jedi’s class, but it soon became purely a cosmetic choice.
I saw an interview that Samuel L. Jackson did on (I want to say) Letterman, and he said that he specifically requested a purple lightsaber for two reasons. One was that purple is his favorite color. The second reason was that he wanted to be able to pick himself out in the battle scenes.
“Also, according to an interview on The Late Show with David Letterman on May 13, 2005, Windu’s purple lightsaber was a personal request from Jackson to Lucas as a quid pro quo for appearing in the films, as well as a way of making the character unique and easily distinguishable. Jackson, a huge Star Wars fan, especially wanted his own color so that his character could be easily spotted and recognizable in the final battle scene of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones amid all of the other Jedi.”
I think I remember reading in a Star Wars novel (one of the Timothy Zahns?) that dark Jedi had to get their lightsaber crystals on the sly, or synthetically or something like that, because the real Jedi had a monopoly on the real ones. This was before the Empire came about, presumably.
"Before placing the crystal in the lightsaber, the Jedi or Sith must imbue them with the Force. To do this, the Force-user must meditate on the crystals for many days. Luke Skywalker meditated on his crystal in Ben Kenobi’s home for many days with only R2-D2 to keep him company.[1]
While the Jedi used natural crystals, the Sith often used red-hued synthetic crystals. Sith-made synthetic crystals create a slightly more powerful blade when energized by the dark side of the Force, occasionally demonstrating the ability to “break” Jedi lightsaber blades, disrupting the energy circuit and shorting out the weapon. However, this rarely happened, and as synthetic crystals demonstrated a slightly lower amount of maneuverability, this advantage was very slim. Darth Sidious made Darth Maul use a special furnace to make his own crystals. Maul worked constantly for several days to make the four crystals needed for his double-bladed lightsaber. Their creation required intense concentration, as Darth Maul had to use the Force to make them the proper shape and to ensure that the crystals were free from impurities. He was particularly proud of this achievement and believed it to be an example of the Sith’s superiority over the Jedi.
However, it should be noted that Sidious did not make his subsequent apprentices—Tyranus and Vader—create their crystals in such a manner, instead supplying them himself.[2][3]"
Again, it’s up to you to decide if that’s canon or not. But the Sith definitely made their crystals synthetically.
The Jedi classes and lightsaber colour correspondances were made up on the spot by Bioware for KotOR, but AFAIK it’s now part of EU canon. It’s far from the silliest thing that’s wriggled its way into it :p. I wouldn’t read the movies’ saber colours using that as a guide though. I’m fairly confident the main considerations were a) will the colour contrast well with the background ? and b) does it look the shit ?
FWIW, the games also let you prance around with purple, silver, orange, teal and red sabers no matter what kind of Jedi you were.
Yeah, but there was a bug in the second one (other than the missing content that Lucas Arts caused by rushing the release date). Once you got to Telos, if you tried to get the cyan crystal as your original color (I tried this by saving and loading in the merchant’s room until I got that one), the game will lock up when you try to create your lightsaber. You have to create it with a different color, and then change it.