Lucas originally planned to make Luke’s lightsaber red and Vader’s blue, but Hirsch suggested switching them because of his knowledge of Christian iconography from the Renaissance era he’d studied in art history at Columbia University in the mid-‘60s.
from this article on Paul Hirsch’s new book
This dovetails with mention of the early lightsaber colors being swapped (and the tractor beam gauge also) in Paul Duncan’s SW Archives book.
I have given a name to my pain, and it is Paul Hirsch.
*shoots laptop*
Care to elaborate, or is this just more negative waves?
He’s paraphrasing Batman (1989). Other than that I guess he just really wished Luke had a red lightsaber?
Lucas originally planned to make Luke’s lightsaber red and Vader’s blue, but Hirsch suggested switching them because of his knowledge of Christian iconography from the Renaissance era he’d studied in art history at Columbia University in the mid-‘60s.
from this article on Paul Hirsch’s new book
This dovetails with mention of the early lightsaber colors being swapped (and the tractor beam gauge also) in Paul Duncan’s SW Archives book.
Anyway, weren’t all lightsabers originally red in the first draft? In the concept art they were usually just white (maybe they though colours would be hard to add at that point?). Kind of strange that Luke and Vader would be swapped as the colour symbolism we’re now used to, although a bit on the nose, makes more sense. Or at least its the more obvious choice. Maybe Lucas tried to subvert expectations, but then decided against it?