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?
It’s no secret that I’m no fan of “blue lightsabers = good, red lightsabers = bad”, is it? It didn’t bother me so much in the OT, as there were only three lightsaber wielders running about, but I’ve since found it incredibly trite and irksome after the PT made it universal. The status quo’s even more vexing now with the revelation that Lucas initially seriously considered the inverse.