Pretty much everyone who’s seen Star Wars knows that Mace Windu’s lightsaber is purple. The Jedi master brought fans wisdom and thrills throughout the prequel movies and did much of it with his trademark purple weapon in hand. It wasn’t always that color, however. And to make matters more interesting, the switch can be explained in more than one way.
It’s no mystery to Star Wars fans that Samuel L. Jackson asked George Lucas to change his saber color before Attack of the Clones. The legendary actor was simply concerned about his character getting lost in the vast blue and green lightsaber squabble that was the Battle of Geonosis. And honestly, can you blame him?.
Before that, however, Windu wielded a weapon of a different color, one that was blue. While the change from blue to purple can be sufficiently explained with the aforementioned story, another explanation can be found in the greater Star Wars universe. Or Legends, if you will.
In this world of all things Star Wars, there was a comic called Emissaries to Malastare, which showcased multiple Jedi taking part in an exercise where they swapped blades with each other. In this ritual, Mace Windu traded his purple lightsaber for a blue one, which explains why he carried that color weapon before Attack of the Clones.
So, as you can see, there’s more to this great Jedi’s saber preferences than one might know from simply experiencing the movies alone. Strangely enough, this is also an interesting example of the many bits of Star Wars lore that aren’t particularly well known to most casual fans. Nevertheless, that galaxy far, far away runs deep and there’s always more to discover in its depths.
