'The Acolyte' Features Some Yellow Lightsabers, but What Do They Mean?
Yellow lightsabers are said to be used by Jedi Sentinels, who were known for combining combat skills with academic learning.
By Joseph AllenJun. 5 2024, Published 9:37 a.m. ET
As is the case with almost everything in Star Wars, there's plenty of lore to support the history of lightsabers. In the movies that most of us are familiar with, blue and green lightsabers are wielded by the good guys (Jedi), and red lightsabers are wielded by the bad guys (Sith).
This simple dichotomy was enough for many Star Wars fans, but in The Acolyte, we get a look at some yellow lightsabers that further complicate that pretty simple formulation. Here's what we know about what those yellow lightsabers represent, and why some Jedi appear to be wielding them.
What does a yellow lightsaber mean?
There isn't a single canon meaning for yellow lightsabers, but they are said to be used by Jedi Sentinels, who were known for combining combat skills with academic learning to hone their skills in the Force. Sentinels are one of three different kinds of Jedi, and they act as a kind of middle ground between the Consulars and the Guardians.
In the High Republic era, which is when The Acolyte is set, the best-known Sentinels were those who guarded the Jedi Temple.
These guards used double-sided blades, to allow them to more successfully defend the temple. Because no lightsaber color has inherent meaning inside Star Wars canon, though, it's possible for characters outside of the Sentinels to also wield a yellow lightsaber. What's undeniably true, though, is that yellow lightsabers are far less common than their red, blue, or green counterparts.
How do yellow lightsabers fit into 'The Acolyte'?
Disney's latest Star Wars series is set thousands of years before the events of the Skywalker saga and tells the story of a young Jedi who investigates a series of mysterious murders.
While we've already seen several yellow lightsabers in the first few episodes of The Acolyte, the only significant character on the show who wields one is Yord, a Jedi Knight who takes his training and his role as a Jedi very seriously.
Yord seems to be a rule follower, which may be in keeping with the general persona you might apply to a Sentinel. While Yord is the only character on the show to use a yellow lightsaber, he isn't the first Star Wars character to have brandished one. Rey wields one at the end of Rise of Skywalker, and it appears to be a blade that she built herself.
Luke also wields a yellow blade, but only in the Star Wars comics. On-screen, he's known for fighting with either a green or blue blade. So, while yellow blades aren't unprecedented, they're certainly pretty rare, at least in the Star Wars timeline we've spent the most time in.
Thankfully, The Acolyte is set thousands of years before all that, which means that it can play by different rules than most Star Wars series. It also means that we don't always know exactly what's going to happen next, and that we're dealing with characters who are entirely unfamiliar to us.
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