Booster's Workshop

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[jerryb2]

The Importance of the Lightsaber

What follows is a series of excerpts from the novel I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole:

The lightsaber, while an elegant and deadly weapon, was not that complex. Getting the parts to put one together was not difficult at all. To serve as the hilt, for example, I salvaged the throttle assembly and handlebar tube from a junked speeder bike. 

(...) I got the dimetris circuitry for the activation loop from an old capital-ship-grade ion cannon fire initiation controller (...) The recharger port and wiring came from a comlink. A milled down Tri-fighter laser flashback suppressor became the parabolic, high-energy flux aperture to stabilize the blade and I pulled the dynoric laser feed line from the same broken laser cannon to act as the superconductor for energy transference from the power cell to the blade. 

Buttons and switches were easy to find, and dear old Admiral Tavira, with her gift of the brandy decanter and snifters, provided me all the jewels I needed to make half a dozen lightsabers.

(...) Before I could figure out how to put Tavira off for another month, Elegos decoded an annotation to the instructions for constructing lightsabers. It turned out that during the Clone Wars, Jedi Masters developed a way to create a lightsaber in two days. Nejaa included this method, noting it was to be used only in times of pressing need, but not in haste. I read it over and felt a certain peace settle upon me. I knew the words had not been written for me, but they sank deep into my core. Urgency without panic, action without thoughtlessness.

(...) I sat in the middle of the floor, with the parts for the blade laid out in a semicircle around me. I studied each one and used the Force to enfold it and take a sense of it into myself. My hands would fit the pieces together, but I wanted the parts to mesh as if they had been grown together. The lightsaber would be more than just a jumble of hardware, and to make it I had to see the parts as belonging together.

I fitted the activation button into its place on the handlebar shaft and snapped the connectors into the right spots on the dimetris circuit board. 

I worked that into the shaft itself, then inserted a strip of shielding to protect it from even the slightest leakage from the superconductor. Next I snapped into place the gemstones I was using to focus and define the blade. At the center, to work as my continuous energy lens, I used the Durindfire. That same stone gave my grandfather’s blade its distinctive silver sheen. 

I used a diamond and an emerald in the other two slots. I wasn’t certain what I would get in the way of color tints from the emerald, and with the diamond I hoped for a coruscation effect.

Onto the end of the hilt where the blade would appear I screwed the high-energy flux aperture. It would carry a negative charge which would stabilize the positively charged blade and provide it a solid base without allowing it to eat its way back through to my hands. 

(...)  I clipped the discharged energy cell in place, then connected the leads to the recharging socket. 

I screwed the recharging socket into the bottom of the hilt, but didn’t fasten on the handlebar’s original butt cap that would protect it because I needed to charge the power cell for the very first time. 

In what amounts to just a handful of pages in a singular book, Stackpole so vividly describes not only the physical process of constructing a lightsaber, but the spiritual essence of what it means to be a Jedi, in its purest form: 

(...) With my finger poised on the transformer button that would start the energy flowing, I drew in a deep breath and lowered myself into a trance. I knew that manipulating matter sufficiently to meld the part and forge the weapon would have been all but impossible for anyone but a Jedi Master like Yoda, but doing just that as part of the construction of a lightsaber had been studied and ritualized so even a student could manage it. It was very much a lost art, a link to a past that had been all but wiped out, and by performing it I completed my inheritance of my Jedi legacy. 

I hit the button, allowing the slow trickle of energy to fill the battery. I opened myself to the Force and with the hand I had touching the lightsaber’s hilt, I bathed the lightsaber with the Force. As I did so subtle transformations took place in the weapon. Elemental bonds shifted allowing more and more energy to flow into the cell and throughout the weapon. I was not certain how the changes were being made, but I knew that at the same time as they were being made in the lightsaber, they were being made in me as well. 

In becoming a conduit for the Force for this purpose, the final integration of the people I’d been occurred. The fusion became the person I would be forever after. I was still a pilot: a little bit arrogant, with a healthy ego and a willingness to tackle difficult missions. I was still CorSec: an investigator and a buffer between the innocents in the galaxy and the slime that would consume them.

And I was Jedi. I was heir to a tradition that extended back tens of thousands of years. Jedi had been the foundation of stability in the galaxy. They had always opposed those who reveled in evil and sought power for the sake of power. People like Exar Kun and Palpatine, Darth Vader and Thrawn, Isard and Tavira; these were the plagues on society that the Jedi cured. In the absence of Jedi, evil thrived. 

In the presence of just one Jedi, evil evaporated. 

Just as with the lightsaber, the changes being made in me were not without cost. What the Force allowed me to do also conferred upon me great burdens. To act without forethought and due deliberation was no longer possible. I had to be very certain of what I was doing, for a single misstep could be a disaster. While I knew I would make mistakes, I had to do everything I could to minimize their impact. It was not enough to do the greatest good for the greatest number, I had to do the best for everyone. 

There was no walking away from the new responsibility I accepted. Like my grandfather I might well choose when and where to reveal who and what I was, but there was no forgetting, no leaving that responsibility and the office. My commitment to others had to be total and complete. I was an agent of life every day, every hour, every second; for as long as I lived, and then some.

(...) I nodded and brandished the lightsaber. I punched the button under my thumb, giving birth to the silver blade 133 centimeters in length. 

“A lightsaber and robes. Looks like a little justice has arrived on Courkrus, and it’s about time.”

This is what almost everybody gets wrong about the Jedi - never mind the Prequels, the Sequels, or the vast majority of EU novels - the Jedi are an absolute good. They are life. They bring order to chaos. Every moment of their lives is spent, their spirits grappling against the disorder of a universe torn between Dark and Light.

If you haven’t read I, Jedi, you might consider picking it up.

As I’m sure many of you have already deduced, the accompanying images are of my own personal Corran Horn lightsaber. I’ve just recently finished a complete overhaul and rebuild of it, and I just had to show it off. I’ll be posting more info & pics about it soon, but I want to address one key aspect of saber building here, as it pertains directly to my own personal journey and growth.

This portion of the book holds incredible significance for me; it allows me to imagine, however briefly, that I’m undertaking a similar spiritual ritual, imbuing my own sabers with the same energy that Stackpole so flawlessly describes here. It’s so rare to feel so seen and be so moved by a piece of fiction. For the discerning Sabersmith, it’s very much like Corran says: 

I knew the words had not been written for me, but they sank deep into my core.

Thank you for this book, Michael. 🥂

[jerryb2]

I stumbled across this medium and found your but on Corran Horn and the like. I’ve been obsessed with the character and of course his lightsaber design for years. Yes, I’m aware of GCS/Madcow’s version that I see you have perfectly captured. My question is what is your solution to the black rubber emitter grill? I’ve made a few versions of that saber of my own but the dang grill I can’t source. I’ve ask Rob throughout the years and he buttons up. Could you share where you found yours?

Hello! Thanks for reaching out - you're actually my first ever ask! In answer to your question, I had the piece 3D Printed. I don't have a printer, so I approached a friend and had him print it in a couple of different iterations. Eventually we settled on the version you see now. It was printed in 2 pieces, with (if I remember correctly) 24 'teeth' so it would be simpler to cut in half, as it were. To give it that rubberized look, I just hit it with a couple coats of some Rustoleum truck bed liner. I actually did the same with the small plastic caps you see on the ends of the TCSS claw holder. It's not super durable, but I rarely hold the saber by the neck anyway.

I hope that helps! Cheers! :)

[jerryb2]

Corran Horn and the Nature of Dual-Phase Lightsabers

This is something of a follow-up/companion piece to my most recent post.

The core of the Jedi ritual for creating a lightsaber came down to charging the power cell that first time. My grandfather ridiculed the popular superstition that a Jedi channeled the Force through the lightsaber. He suggested that this was a misunderstanding of what it took to charge it initially and tie it to the rest of the weapon. The Jedi, carefully manipulating the Force, bound the components together - linking them on something more than a mechanical or material level, so they worked with unimagined efficiency. Without this careful seasoning and conditioning of the lightsaber, the blade would be flawed and would fail the Jedi.

- Star Wars: I, Jedi, by Michael A. Stackpole

That’s what we in the business call foreshadowing. 

In the interest of of providing some much-needed context for those who may not know: 

Corran Horn was a character created by Michael Stackpole for the X-Wing Series, premiering in 1996. Initially focusing on the reformed Rogue Squadron, Corran was ostensibly the main character for the first four novels in the series. Starting his life as a Corellian Security officer, Corran would go on to discover his burgeoning Force sensitivity and eventually become a venerated Jedi in his own right by the time of the Legacy Era.

A dual-phase lightsaber is essentially any lightsaber that contains more than one crystal, with the most common setup consisting of three. This permits the user more direct control over the properties of the blade, allowing adjustments to length and/or width and intensity, typically to catch an opponent off guard. They’re more complex than your bog standard lightsabers obviously, and though they are relatively obscure, several notable Jedi & Sith were known to use them, such as Corran Horn, but also Exar Kun, Darth Vader, Count Dooku & Gantoris, however briefly.

Whether intentional on the part of the various writers, the fact that those specific characters use dual-phase sabers, speaks volumes to their unique qualities. 

These characters were each of two minds, as it were; each with one foot on the path of the light - sometimes for decades - while the other walked a tightrope between light and dark. In many cases, the character fell from that razor’s edge, only to be consumed by their own internal darkness. Exar Kun was a powerful Jedi whose thirst for knowledge slowly morphed into a thirst for power, which inevitably led him to the dark side and the ultimate ruin of the galaxy. The same fate would, of course, ultimately befall the Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker so many generations later. Count Dooku was a respected Jedi, who even sat on the High Council in the twilight years of the Republic, before ultimately falling. Gantoris, though - Gantoris was different.

Much like Corran himself, Gantoris was a member of the inaugural class of students as Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Praxeum. On his native world of Eol Sha, Gantoris was a respected chieftain who used his precognitive abilities to help his people survive their harsh, geologically unstable home - but how? Gantoris followed Luke to Yavin IV under one condition - that the Jedi Master help him uncover the truth of the “Dark Man” who haunted his dreams. Gantoris’ position of leadership prior to arriving at the Academy often lead to him being headstrong and difficult, something which was only heightened once he began to properly hone his Force abilities. This would also lead him into a rivalry with Corran, who is deficient in some of the more common Force abilities, like telekinesis. 

As his training begins, Luke offers Gantoris the chance to find the answers he seeks, but it isn’t long before Gantoris hears someone else whispering to him - the dark spirit of Exar Kun himself, trapped within the very walls of the Massassi Temples of Yavin IV. With Kun’s help, Gantoris constructs a dual-phase lightsaber and challenges Luke to a duel, where the Master bests his misguided student. Realizing that he has become a pawn of the long-dead Sith, Gantoris refuses to accept Kun’s offer of power and knowledge - and pays the ultimate price. Kun kills Gantoris by immolating him from the inside out with the Force, reducing him to a blackened husk. 

This development initially led to further division within the group as Corran grew frustrated with Luke’s reluctance to properly investigate the death (remember, Corran was a CorSec officer & thus expected a certain degree of procedural adherence) and Luke himself questioning his ability to effectively teach his students. It was shortly after this that Kun sought out another pawn, this time an angry young man, named Kyp Durron. With Kyp’s help, Exar Kun was able to sideline Luke by suspending his spirit from his body. By removing the Jedi Master, Kun hoped to corrupt all of the Academy’s students. Though he did succeed in turning Kyp for a time, the remaining students banded together and defeated Exar Kun, banishing his spirit to the void.

By plying Gantoris with the advanced techniques required to build a dual-phase lightsaber, Kun was able to further stoke the embers of contention between Gantoris & Corran, which led directly to Corran building himself a dual-phase lightsaber right out of the gate as well. 

Here’s that handy little feature in action, in another excerpt from I, Jedi:

I rotated my right wrist, twisting the throttle up, and whipped the lightsaber around in a slash aimed to slice the deadHutt switch in two. With the twist I turned the lightsaber’s emerald out of the way and I brought the diamond into line with the Durindfire beam. This extended the blade from 133 centimeters to 300, narrowing it, but bringing the Hutt’s hand easily into striking range. Quick flick of the wrist, cleave the control in two, and the day would be saved. That would be the easy way.

(The blade looks blue here, but in person - and canonically speaking - it’s actually a shade of purple.)

Easy is not for a Jedi.

With a puff of smoke, the lightsaber’s blade sputtered and died.

See what I mean by foreshadowing? To be fair to Mr. Horn, the failure of the diamond wasn’t actually his fault - not entirely, anyway:

I screwed the high energy flux aperture back on the head of the lightsaber and pitched to Elegos the blackened, misshapen lump that had been the diamond I’d put into the weapon. “Gone. Completely gone.”

“It worked fine when you tested in initially.” He snatched the melted gemstone from the air, sniffed it, then rubbed a thumb across it. “Synthetic?”

I nodded. “Kubaz xurkonia. The crystalline lattice handled the energy while we tested it, but was probably ready to go down anytime. (...) Actually, serves me right for trying to make a complicated lightsaber my first time out.”

 Elegos frowned. “Why did you make one with variable lengths?”

I shrugged uneasily. “Well, I guess it was ego. Gantoris made one with two lengths and I wanted mine to be as good as his.”

“I thought you said he had a Sith Dark Lord instructing him at the time.”

“Sure, now you bring that point up.“

Okay, look, I really want to address one thing - even though it’s a completely pointless thing to talk about here - 133 cm for a standard blade is absolutely insane. Never mind the fact that you literally cannot buy blade material over 40 inches (101.6 cm) long, but swinging around a blade with that kind of reach would be so dangerous to yourself, let alone others, that no Jedi wouldn’t survive a single sparring session. 

In reality, lightsaber blades are typically 32 to 34 inches long. This makes them much more manageable to swing around without smacking them into the walls or ceiling of your house. The dual-phase feature is handy only for surprising people/causing a ton of collateral damage, if the situation calls for it. 300 cm is just under 10 feet, in case you were wondering. 

Moving swiftly along; I really love this little exchange between Corran & the eventual New Republic Senator, Elegos A’Kla. With the possible exception of his wife, Mirax Terrik, Corran’s relationship with Elegos is by far his most important. Elegos is a Caamasi, a race known for their compassionate & peace-loving nature, as well as their ability to share Memnii - essentially, extremely vivid memories - with other Caamasi & Force-sensitives. Elegos’ grandfather was also a Jedi & friend to Corran’s grandfather Nejaa Halcyon, even witnessing his death at the hands of Nikkos Tyris, founder of the Jedi Order splinter group, the Jensaarai. 

Throughout their relationship, Elegos would become a surrogate parental figure for Corran, and serve as a kind of spiritual guide, often sharing advice and insight through his memnii. 

The passage above illustrates that even though Corran has come into his own in accepting his Jedi destiny, he’s still the same character at heart - a smarmy, cocksure fighter pilot. And it further establishes the friendship & bond between the two characters - something that would go on to be very important just a few years later in the Dark Tide Duology, part of the New Jedi Order series. 

TL;DR - The Star Wars galaxy gets invaded by Warhammer 40K Rejects, AKA the Yuuzhan Vong and the Jedi are put on the back foot for the first half of the series.

Fortunately, Mike Stackpole wrote the Dark Tide novels, and they’re excellent. In the first novel, subtitled Onslaught, he gives us this scene, where we see Corran more effectively utilizing the dual-phase feature, this time with a true diamond in that third slot:

(...) Corran squared off with him, presenting his left flank for attack. He held the lightsaber’s hilt up near his right ear, with the blade pointing straight forward. He leveled it at the Vong’s eyes, then gave the alien a nod. “You want me, come get me.”

The Yuuzhan Vong took a step forward, and Corran cranked his right wrist around. The throttle assembly twisted, swapping an emerald for a diamond in the lightsaber’s interior assembly. The energy beam narrowed and went from silver to purple, then more than doubled in length. The blade’s tip stabbed deep through the younger Vong’s left eye socket.

The Yuuzhan Vong jerked and bounced as his limbs snapped straight. He fell back, slipping from the blade’s tip, with smoke rising from his skull. He clattered to the shell floor, his limp limbs rebounding from the hard surface, then he twitched once and lay still. 

And Ganner ridiculed me for having an old-style, dual-phase lightsaber.

(Quick aside: I will forever stan Ganner Rhysode aka “The Ganner” - Rest in Power, King - he damn well earned his redemption arc. ✊)

This action is relevant to Corran’s characterization and the ultimate fate of Elegos because the Vong that Corran kills in this very scene is a member of the Domain Shai, the same creche as the current leader of the Vong, Shedao Shai. When Shai learns of this, he would go on to murder the Caamasi out of vengeance, sending his body back to Corran in a sign of disrespect. Vowing vengeance himself, (not a very Jedi thing to do, if you haven’t been paying attention) Corran would go on to duel Shai in single combat, partially couching his motives as a fight for the fate of the planet Ithor. 

There are many, many layers of plot & intrigue beginning to interweave  themselves at this point in the story, but Ithor - being the source of a specific plant spore that the Yuuzhan Vong’s Vonduun Crab Armor is allergic to - serves a double meaning here. The Vong lay waste to everything they come into contact with, and by taking a stand on this vibrant, beautifully forested jewel of a world - essentially saying “Not One Step Back” - it serves as a narrative foil. 

Corran & Shai finally face-off at the tail-end of the second novel, subtitled Ruin:

He bore an amphistaff, which he stabbed tail-first into the ground. He raised a gauntletted hand, the dying sun glinting from his bracer, then pressed the hand back over his heart.

“I am Shedao Domain Shai. This is my subordinate, Deign Domain Lian. He will stand as witness to this combat.”

Corran remained seated. “I am Corran Horn, Late of the New Republic Armed Forces, a Jedi Knight. This is my Master, Luke Skywalker. He will stand as witness to this combat.”

(...) “You are the murderer of Neira Shai and Dranae Shai, my kinsmen.”

Corran stood, slowly and deliberately. Luke could feel the Force gathering in him, swirling around him. “And you murdered my friend, Elegos A’Kla. It is not over the past we fight, but to win the future.”

“You, perhaps.” The Yuuzhan Vong drew himself up tall and straight, then bowed his head toward Corran. “I fight for the honor of the Yuuzhan Vong and Domain Shai.”

The Corellian returned the nod. “So much risk for such a paltry gain.”

Amphistaff spun and lightsaber rose. A slash blocked high, a low cut burning grass but not leaping legs. Combatants slipping past each other, turning, striking, blocking. The amphistaff’s hiss rivaling that of the lightsaber. Weapons flashing forward, retreating, then reposting. 

(...) Corran closed and lunged at Shedao Shai’s upper chest. With two hands on the amphistaff, the Yuuzhan Vong parried the argent blade high, then ducked his head and whirled around in a circle. The amphistaff snapped straight against Shedao Shai’s right forearm, then he lunged.

Pain exploded from the Jedi as the amphistaff’s tail stabbed deep into his guts. (...) Corran curled around the holes in his right flank, drawing his knees up. His lightsaber lay smoking on the grass.

(...) Shedao Shai drew back several steps, then tugged off his mask and tossed it aside. He raised the gore-streaked amphistaff to his lips and harvested incarnadine fluid with his tongue. His lips closed for a moment, his eyes following, then he nodded.

“I vowed I would taste your blood as you die, and now I have done that.”

Corran coughed once, pain flaring through the Force, then rolled up to his knees. “Good for you, pal, glad you’re happy.” He winced as he scooped up his lightsaber and staggered to his feet. “Had I been in your boots, I would have vowed something else.”

“Oh?” The Yuuzhan Vong’s eyes opened a slit. “And what would that have been?”

“I’d have vowed to taste my blood after I was dead.” All sense of pain vanished from the Jedi as the Force again enshrouded him. Corran waved the invader forward with his bloody left hand. “So, is this inability to make a clean kill a Yuuzhan Vong thing, or just a Domain Shai thing? You’re so sloppy those bones won’t want to come home with you.”

Shedao Shai’s eyes snapped open. Though Luke could not read him through the Force, the fury and hatred coursing through the Yuuzhan Vong was unmistakable. The warrior darted forward, bringing the amphistaff up and around in a two-handed overhead blow. He smashed it down on Corran’s upraised lightsaber, driving the Jedi back a step.

(...) Shedao Shai towered over him, rising up on his tiptoes to deliver that final blow. The amphistaff rose and crashed down, set to bash the lightsaber back into its wielder, slaying the infidel with the blasphemous weapon he embraced.

With a flick of his thumb, Corran killed the blade and sagged forward.

Overbalanced because his weapon met no resistance, Shedao Shai buried his amphistaff deep in the ground and stumbled a half-step forward. The surprise registering on his face widened his eyes, then his lips peeled back in a feral grin as Corran pressed his lightsaber against the Yuuzhan Vong’s stomach. The lightsaber hissed. Argent light poured from Shedao Shai’s mouth a second before he vomited black blood and collapsed to the ground, his spine severed, his belly smoking.

(...) “Wait, just a second.” Corran pointed at the mask Shedao Shai had discarded. “I want that mask.”

“Why?”

Corran’s eyes closed for a moment as pain washed over him. “Elegos’s bones. They’re watching something. That mask will show him that the Vong are not invincible, and for Ithor at least, there will be peace.”

The best part of this confrontation is the fact that it doesn’t work. The Vong still destroy Ithor - further demoralizing the New Republic - and one of the most influential Jedi in the Order bears the full weight of the public outcry and is basically forced into self-imposed exile on Corellia. And Elegos is not avenged. In seeking out the fight with Shedao Shai, Corran allowed his personal feelings to cloud his thinking and color his motives. In so doing, he brought shame on Elegos’ memory, and he says as much afterward:

The Jedi sank back on his heels and looked up into the jeweled eyes of what had once been his friend. From inside his robe he drew the mask Shedao Shai had worn. He rubbed a sleeve over its black surface, erasing a smudge, then reverently set it in Elegos’ lap.

“Your murderer is dead.”

Corran wanted to say more, but his throat closed and the glowing image before him blurred. He covered his eyes with a hand, smearing tears against his cheeks, then swallowed hard. He wiped away more tears, then took a deep breath and set his shoulders.

“His death was supposed to save Ithor. It didn’t. I know you’d be horrified to think I killed for you. I didn’t. I did it for Ithor.”

The gold skeleton stared down at him, cold mercilessness glinting from the gems in its eye-sockets.

Never any fooling you, was there, my friend? Corran screwed his eyes shut against more tears, then opened them again. He looked away, unable to stand Elegos’ dead gaze. 

“That’s what I told myself. It was for Ithor. That’s what I told everyone. Managed to fool some of them - most of them, I think. Not Master Skywalker. I think he knew the truth, but the chance to save Ithor had to be taken.”

He glanced down at his right hand and could again feel the weight of his lightsaber in it. “I had myself convinced, I really did, until...there was a point in the fight. I’d turned my lightsaber off; Shedao Shai had overbalanced himself. His staff was buried in the turf. I shoved my lightsaber’s hilt against his stomach.”

A shudder quaked through Corran. “There was a moment there. A nanosecond. I hesitated. Not because I thought of life as sacred and that taking any life was horrible - the way you would have, my friend. No...no, I hesitated because I wanted Shedao Shai to know he was dead. I wanted him to know I knew he was dead. If he was going to see his life flash before his eyes, I wanted him to take a good look at it. I wanted him to have a nice long look at it. I wanted him to know it was all for nothing.”

(...) “In that one moment, Elegos, I dishonored your sacrifice. I betrayed you. I betrayed the Jedi. I betrayed myself.” Corran sighed. “In that one moment, I crossed the line. I walked on the dark side.”

He raised his head and met Elegos’ bejeweled stare. “You Caamasi had a saying: If the wind no longer calls to you, it is time to see if you have forgotten your name. The problem I have, my friend, is that I heard the dark side calling to me. Without your help, without your guidance, I’m not sure how I can deal with that.”

This admission is made all the more shocking, because this is the first time we truly see Corran brush with the dark side. Yes, he’d faced many difficult choices in the past - being tempted to “take the quick and easy path” to free his wife from captivity comes to mind - but this was different. It’s important to know, Corran is a forty-three year old man at this point. He’s not an impatient kid, or an old fool - he’s a flawed human being. And in this particular instance, it cost him - and the New Republic - dearly.

This is undoubtedly the most interesting aspect in the nature of dual-phase lightsabers for me; they're an allegory for the choices we all make everyday. They represent the capacity for both great good and great evil with such crystal-clear prose that it’s genuinely baffling to me how some people can claim Star Wars isn’t all that deep. If you look past the pop sci-fi trash of the Disney Canon and dig around in the old Expanded Universe, you can find some real gems. 

And this, boys & girls, is why Michael Stackpole is one of the top three EU writers - come at me. 

[jerryb2]

“I’m no Jedi. I’m just a guy with a lightsaber and a few questions.”

- Kyle Katarn, Star Wars: Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast

Sure, whatever you say, Kyle. 😘

It’s been a hot minute since I last posted - mostly general life stuff getting in the way - but also because I’ve been busy busting my ass, building sabers. 💪 More specifically, here we have the Katarn V3 by Warsabers. I’ve showcased this saber before, in conjunction with the LDM Katarn V2, only this time featuring the beautiful full-metal chassis designed by Maksim Tsvetkov aka Mentalion, the renowned Russian saber builder. 

Real talk here: This saber was a nightmare to build. The metal body of the chassis alone presented a whole host of unique challenges. The main body is 3D printed aluminum, so not only did I have to finish it out, but I had to do so while keeping in mind the tolerances of the hilt itself. If I took off too much material, it wouldn’t fit snug and would rattle around in the saber, causing false clashes & connectivity issues. On that note, all the electrical components had to be properly isolated, or else run the risk of shorting out or damaging the sound board and battery. And on top of that, the customer was very particular in terms of what he wanted out of the finished product. 🥴

All this amounted to one of the most stressful builds I’ve ever done - and also, one of my favorites. I have to admit, this thing is just *chef’s kiss*. To have it finally come alive with that remarkable snap-hiss, after weeks of work, was unbelievably rewarding. 

Getting back into the swing of things with this saber only seemed appropriate, what with the rumblings of select Legends characters being brought back into Canon, namely Kyle, Corran Horn and *sigh* Roganda Ismaren. *internal screaming*

I’m a bit Leia-warm on Obi-Wan Kenobi so far, but here’s hoping. 🍻

[jerryb2]

It’s Star Wars week, boys & girls!!! You know what that means:

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Head on over and have a look, won’t you? 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BoostersWorkshop

[superectojazzmage]

A Handy Summary Of The Star Wars Franchise:

The Phantom Menace: Two hours of political babble interspersed with cool fights and annoying CGI characters. Introduced the world to George Lucas’s… interesting dialogue. Not as bad as you remember.

Attack Of The Clones: The real worst movie of the Prequel Trilogy. Obi-Wan Kenobi IS Philip Marlowe while Natalie Portman makes an admirable effort to act like she’s turned on by child murder. Worse then you remember.

Revenge Of The Sith: Depression - The Movie. The bad guy wins, the good guys are dead or turned to evil, the Galaxy falls to darkness, and the asthmatic cyborg will never get to finish his lightsaber collection.

A New Hope: The one that started it all. The heartwarming story of a himbo farmboy who joins a radical terrorist movement at the urging of an old man who says he’s a wizard. Really more of a framework and jumping off point then a real story, so everybody says they love it but don’t have much of anything to really say about it.

The Empire Strikes Back: Aw yeah, now we’re talking! The best of the mainline movies. The Rebels come out swinging and get their shit kicked in while James Earl Jones and Mark Hamill have a touching father-son reunion and Boba Fett steals the show. Not as shocking as it used to be considered because everyone copied it.

Return Of The Jedi: The OT movie everyone has mixed feelings about. The epic conclusion to George Lucas’s personal story in the setting, dragged down by the addition of hideous funk singers from my nightmares and militant Care Bears. According to Disney, nothing that happened in this one mattered btw!

The Force Awakens: Brace yourself for disappointment. J. J. Abrams blows up the Star Wars universe to get everything back to the “Empire Vs Rebels” status quo and set up his mystery boxes. Tricked you into thinking the Sequel Trilogy would passable.

The Last Jedi: Subverted your expectations that it would be good. Rian Johnson tries to salvage what Abrams did to the Star Wars universe and do something edgy and new, to severely mixed results. Luke Skywalker drinking alien titty milk was kept in but him mourning his brother-in-law’s death was cut as “unnecessary”.

The Rise Of Skywalker: Disney tries to stick the landing and breaks their legs instead. J. J. Abrams throws a shitfit over what Johnson did with his mystery boxes and torches the Star Wars universe down even more. Somehow… this movie is not good. How is this possible? Dark business, corporatizing, secrets only the Mouse knew.

Rogue One: Everybody’s dead, Jim. The Dirty Dozen if it was set in the Star Wars universe. A giant continuity filler manages to be infinitely better then the entire Sequel Trilogy.

Solo: Now the story of the smuggler who lost everything and the acclaimed director who had to film his origin story. It’s Solo Development. The tragically underrated and unlucky one, guilty of nothing but being released at a bad time and quite good removed from that.

Droids/Ewoks: Ah, yes. “Droids and Ewoks”, the first two Star Wars television series made back in the 80s, of generally poor quality and so painfully divorced from the Star Wars aesthetic that nobody acknowledges their cursed existence. We have dismissed that claim.

Clone Wars Microseries: The real first Star Wars TV show. Genndy Tartakovsky makes one of the most kickass cartoons ever in one of the most limited time frames ever. General Grievous gave you nightmares as a kid.

The Clone Wars: “This is for kids?” - The Series. The sprawling, epic story of a failing decadent government’s final days, occasionally interjected with painfully out of place juvenile comic relief. One of the big reasons for the Prequel Trilogy’s salvaged reputation.

The Bad Batch: Immediately after the Clone Wars, a crack commando unit was persecuted by the Empire. These men promptly escaped to the galactic underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them... maybe you can hire The Bad Batch.

Rebels: The wacky, fanciful, fun-filled story of a terrorist cell waging guerrilla warfare on a tyrannical fascist government. Fights an uphill battle to meet the standard set by Clone Wars, and ultimately succeeds.

The Mandalorian: Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau show Abrams and Johnson how it’s done, God bless them. Pedro Pascal is sent on an epic quest to recreate “Lone Wolf and Cub” using a Yoda-themed Cabbage-Patch Kids doll. Meanwhile, the Mandalorians continue to uphold their most important cultural tradition; hating other Mandalorians.

The Book Of Boba Fett: They fucked with the wrong Māori! Boba Fett tries to become a crime lord but accidentally becomes a civic planner instead, while also going on drug trips and learning the ways of the proud “Native American Metaphor” people. Probably not what you expected it to be, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Kenobi: Ewan MacGregor’s sexy ass is back for your viewing pleasure! Live footage of Obi-Wan aging terribly due to the stress of his awful life.

Resistance: The crappy Sequel Trilogy equivalent of Clone Wars and Rebels. Shows great potential but is hobbled at every possible turn, fails utterly to mature, and ends with a whimper. At least the animation’s nice.

The Holiday Special: THIS DIDN’T HAPPEN.

Dawn Of The Jedi: The painfully obscure origin story of the Jedi Order and the chronologically earliest Star Wars story. Both more and less interesting then you would think.

Tales Of The Jedi: The awesome as fuck and woefully underrated comics that form the backbone of the whole Star Wars universe. Civil wars, tragic falls from grace, hot Sith-On-Sith action, crazy battle sequences, great characters, and a surprising amount of busting ghosts. What more could you want?

KOTOR Comic: John Jackson-Miller bridges the gap between Tales and Knights using the most pathetic failure of a Jedi ever and his quest to not get murdered for bad grades. None of the characters are who you think they’re supposed to be, except when they are.

Knights Of The Old Republic: You were Space Hitler all along and you didn’t even know! Now redeem yourself by completing side quests and beating up your disabled former friend… or screw that and use Force Persuade to bully people into giving you free stuff. BioWare makes the best Star Wars game ever and ever amen.

Knights Of The Old Republic II - The Sith Lords: Winner of both the “Unnecessarily Long Title” and the “Tragically Unfinished But Released Anyways” awards. Drew Karpyshan’s adventurous writing is replaced with Chris Avellone’s edgy nihilism. An annoying old shrew badgers you to question things while never letting you question her ever. APATHY IS DEATH.

The Old Republic: Post-EA BioWare begins their long and glorious history of shitting on their legacy by refusing to make KOTOR 3 and instead producing a Titantic-shaped MMO that inexplicably did NOT sink and die. Enjoy it for what it is, just don’t regard it as canon for your own sanity.

Knight Errant: A Jedi becomes a social activist in Sith Space. Kinda cool comics and books set between the Old Republic era and Darth Bane. Could’ve bloomed into something more interesting but Disney hates fun.

Darth Bane: A based and red-pilled Sith Lord decides the other Sith are doing it wrong and sets out to do it right. An entire novel trilogy built out of a character and backstory detail that didn’t even make the final script of Phantom Menace, and it’s awesome.

The High Republic: Novels and comics about the Jedi spending their glory days fighting evil plants and a bunch of a anarchist rednecks who know hyperspace magic. Still finding it’s feet but wins lots of points for creativity.

Darth Plagueis: A sweet old evil wizard gets backstabbed by his apprentice after getting shit-faced. Probably one of the most important novels.

Republic Comics: Quinlan Vos is a loose cannon Jedi who doesn’t play by the rules! Also, lots and lots of war crimes happen. One of the few EU works to be fully endorsed by Lucas himself but surprisingly (and undeservedly) obscure despite it.

Republic Commando: SWAT but way cooler because it’s Star Wars. Your tactics will confuse and frighten your men. There’s some supplementary novels too, if you feel like listening to Karen Traviss bitch about the Jedi and suck Mandalorian cock for several hours.

Battlefront: Call Of Duty but way cooler because it’s Star Wars. Watch out for those wrist rockets!!!!

Empire At War: StarCraft but way cooler because it’s Star Wars. Have fun making rancors eat people.

The Force Unleashed: God Of War but… well, it WISHES it was cooler because it’s Star Wars. Fun gameplay is held back by a completely ridiculous story resembling a terrible fanfic that is so embarrassing its barely considered canon, if it is all (it usually is not).

Dark Times: That title ain’t a fucking joke. A Jedi struggles to keep his morals in one of the darkest, bleakest, edgiest Star Wars comics ever written. Seriously, this will give you depression.

Jedi - Fallen Order: The Dark Souls of Star Wars. Cameron Monaghan gets his ass kicked by Oogdo Bogdo so you can get that new poncho.

Marvel’s Star Wars Comics: Comes in two flavors: batshit crazy 80s-era Marvel or bland and worthless 2010s-eras Marvel! At least they do great reprints.

Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye: A really really really weird early novel. Notable for being one of the first EU works and for the copious amounts of accidental incest-shipping.

Shadows Of The Empire: Is is a comic, a video game, a book, or a toyline? The answer is yes. Important mostly for how it helped establish how the Star Wars EU could actually function.

Luke Skywalker And The Shadows Of Mindor: The awesome novel everyone forgets. Matthew Stover fixes Star Wars continuity by pitting Luke Skywalker against his mightiest enemy yet; bad fanfiction.

The Thrawn Trilogy: The REAL Sequel Trilogy. We got military competence and clones all up in this joint! Timothy Zahn sets a standard that future Star Wars will constantly struggle to meet. You WILL root for Thrawn.

Dark Empire: Somehow… Palpatine has returned several decades before Disney did it. Generally viewed with withering contempt by everyone, which makes one wonder why Disney copied it so much over the rest of Legends. Surprisingly not the worst thing looking back.

Dark Forces Saga: KOTOR’s main competitor for title of “Best Star Wars Games”. Kyle Katarn and Jaden Korr spend four increasingly awesome video games torturing stormtroopers with the Force, solving frustrating puzzles, and busting ghosts.

The New Rebellion: Another awesome novel everyone forgets. Luke Skywalker fights one of his students turned evil. That, uh, happens a lot.

Young Jedi Knights: A fun little series of novels about the Skywalker kids becoming real Jedi, and also war crimes. Yet another example of what people WANTED the Sequel Trilogy to be.

Hand Of Thrawn: Weekend At Bernie’s, Star Wars edition, guest-starring psychic furries. Timothy Zahn sits down the EU writers class and shows them how writing for Star Wars is done.

New Jedi Order: The Star Wars universe is invaded by Warhammer 40K rejects in the epic novel series that breaks all the rules, for better or for worse. Of variable quality for large stretches but ultimately settles down on being pretty awesome, if overly dark at times.

Dark Nest Trilogy: The Jedi fight a bunch of evil bugs. It exists, and that’s about all it has going for it.

Legacy Of The Force: Jacen Solo’s No Good, Very Bad Fall To The Dark Side. Has WILDY varying quality and is mostly just the nightmarish location of a huge spat amongst some of Legends’s writers. Still not as bad as Dark Nest and has some cool bits sprinkled in here and there. But really, you’re better off just skipping to FOTJ.

Fate Of The Jedi: The Jedi and Republic battle corrupt politicians, Cthulhu, and the backwoods yokel version of the Sith in the real sequel to NJO. Things get back on track after the disaster that was LOTF. Deeply flawed in some respects, but ultimately pretty good and a fitting finale for the Post-OT era.

Legacy: The spectacular chronologically final story. Politics, war, redemption, and Cade Skywalker getting high off his ass on deathsticks in the grand final battle between the Jedi and Sith.

Visions: Star Wars finally achieves its lifelong goal of becoming a kawaii as fuck anime. It’s an anthology so quality is all over the place.

Infinities: What If… Star Wars had a terrible ripoff of Marvel’s “What If…?” comics?

Tag And Bink: Abbot And Costello Meet Darth Vader.

LEGO Star Wars: Your childhood comfort food. Spend countless hours of non-canon fun killing Lego Jar Jar and trying to find all the goddamn unlockables.

Legends Canon: The original continuity. Free and experimental but wildly inconsistent at times.

Disney Canon: The new continuity. Relatively consistent but often stifled, bland, and overly-safe.

Your Personal Canon: The only real continuity.

[the-lady-luck-3000]

Somehow… this is all true.

[jerryb2]

This accuracy fuckin’ killed me. 

[jerryb2]

Here we have what I’ve taken to calling the (Minor) Jedi Council Collection. From left to right:

Depa Billaba, Shaak Ti/Adi Gallia, Kit Fisto & Ki-Adi-Mundi

In years past, I wasn’t too hot on the Prequel hilts that used bar graph displays. Initially, I kind of wrote them off as extraneous, but after working with them a bit, I think I’ve finally come around. While not strictly necessary, it adds an extra bit of sci-fi-ness to the saber, and it makes me wish more Jedi incorporated them into their sabers. 

Having all four of these on-hand, I was reminded of this wonderful piece of art, associated with the OG Republic comics:

In fact, recently I’ve been reading some of the aforementioned Republic comics that initially I missed out on in years past. *gasp* Yeah, I know, I’m a fake fan & I hate Star Wars - c’mon, give me a break, I was five-years-old at the time. 

For those of you who don’t know, the Republic comics began publication in late 1998, roughly six months before The Phantom Menace dropped in theaters. It would go on to be one of the longest running publications in the history of the franchise, ultimately ending with the final issue of the Dark Times spin-off in 2014. 

In the early months of the series, it chronicled the adventures of everybody’s least favorite Ceran, Ki-Adi-Mundi, and was actually the official introduction of the character. The series would go on to chronicle the exploits of many members of the Jedi High Council, including Adi Gallia, Saesee Tiin, Eeth Koth, Even Piell, Yarael Poof, Plo Koon, Mace Windu, Depa Billaba, Yaddle and Oppo Rancisis, among others. 

This brief window of time in the history of Star Wars publishing is honestly one of my favorites, if only because of how sloppy and disorganized everything is. Comic book writers like Randy Strandley, Jan Strnad, Tim Truman & (the best one) John Ostrander were just throwing everything at the wall and hoping that something would stick. These writers were essentially operating one main directive; be true to the characterization of the Jedi in the Original Trilogy. That’s it. Everything else - the world building, lore, events & setting - were all secondary. 

This of course applies equally to something like the Tales of the Jedi comics, which were published years earlier, as well as many of the novels more contemporary to the Republic comics, particularly The Hand of Thrawn Duology & I, Jedi. This practice, coupled with the revolving door of writers, made for a very eclectic (if sometimes a bit underwhelming) Expanded Universe.

In stark contrast, when you turn a more critical eye toward Disney Star Wars, everything is just so bland. If, for example, you look back on the Tales of the Jedi, that series is straight-up bonkers. From Ulic Qel-Droma and the Beast Riders of Onderon (yes, that’s what it’s actually called) to the mutated Massassi trying to sacrifice Exar Kun to a giant Sith Worm (their exact words) on Yavin IV - by the standards of modern SW, the Tales comics are set in an entirely different universe. 

Some people may like the uniformity of the Disney Canon, and deride the EU of years past for perpetually not keeping its story straight - but not me. Because while the EU was a mess of conflicting stories, contrived character arcs & wildly varied writing styles - it was always about something. It was about something bigger and more important than the individual characters. It was about Good triumphing over Evil. It was about growing to accept your destiny, even if it ran counter to what you might want. Star Wars was fun. 

Now let me ask you - what the kriff is Disney Star Wars about???

[jerryb2]

“Anakin knew he wasn’t ready to be trained with a lightsaber yet, but this one held a special interest for him. Obi-Wan Kenobi had been Darth Vader’s Jedi teacher, and his Uncle Luke’s first teacher, too. Anakin ran a finger up the ridged handle and over the power stud, but did not press it.

(...)

Thunder boomed from the speakers hidden in the walls, but Anakin did not stop until he stood directly before Orloc. Then, pressing the switch on the handle of Kenobi’s blade, Anakin ignited the lightsaber. The blade hummed in his hand, a bright pure blue sending its light through the darkness.”

- Junior Jedi Knights: Vader’s Fortress & Kenobi’s Blade, by Rebecca Moesta

~~~~~~

As something of a follow-up to my most recent post, here we have what is perhaps the ultimate example of the “How it started vs. how it’s going,” meme. 

Growing up in what is arguably the Golden Era of Star Wars media, aka the mid-90′s to 00′s, both of these sabers exist as touchstones of their respective eras. Between having an electronic toy of the former (circa the year of our Lourd 2002), and watching ANH religiously, these sabers are etched into my mind with astonishing clarity. They also go on to further illustrate the dichotomy between the Prequel Era and the Original Trilogy, offering insight into the mind of George Lucas:

In an era when few people had the imagination to dream of a far-off land of action, adventure and daring-do in the face of an evil empire, we see Lucas borrowing from the older traditions of storytelling, upon which to hang the framework of his Space Opera. The 1970′s was a time of incredible cultural upheaval; the United States had just lost the war in Vietnam, and the nation was facing an identity crisis. This was an era when dower, heavy films like Taxi Driver and first two Godfather films came out - a far cry from the fairy-tale-like imagination which infuses the Star Wars saga. In those early years, Lucas sought to create a lived-in world, turning over his vision to talented production designers like Roger Christian to bring his world to life. The design of the actual props & sets are owed to Christian & concept artists like Ralph McQuarrie as much as Lucas himself. That’s not even to mention his collaboration with incredible screenwriters like Leigh Brackett & Lawrence Kasdan. 

In stark contrast, the Prequel Era was conceived in its entirety by Lucas and - some could argue - for Lucas. Unlike the collaborative art from adversity that characterizes the Original Trilogy, Lucas wrote, produced and directed each of the Prequel films. This much narrower, myopic view makes the Prequels feel so much cleaner & sterilized, when compared to the OT. It lost some of its humanity, as it were. Granted, this does serve as a pretty effective narrative thread; the Prequels present us with a Utopian vision (on the surface) of the Old Republic so often alluded to in the OT, where the Jedi are many and powerful, when all the while, it’s rotten to its very core. The OT gives us a world that’s almost dystopian; everything is old, rusted, greasy & oil-stained. This universe has seen better days, long long ago - but at its heart, the story and by extension the protagonists, are all morally good - and light triumphs in the end. 

With the benefit of nearly twenty years of hindsight - and seeing what others can do with Star Wars - this really is a wonderful idea. It’s just really hard to enjoy the Prequels because of literally everything else going on in them. From the questionable casting choices, stilted dialogue, CGI effects that have not exactly aged gracefully & Lucas’ strange desire to attribute the Force to Midichlorians or whatever that was, they’re just bad movies. 

But you know what? I’ll still take them over the Sequels. 100%.

At the very least, you can tell that there are ideas behind what Lucas was trying to do with the Prequels, despite the fact that he just forgot how to make movies. The sequels don’t have any trace of connecting tissue, aside from a handful of characters that all happen to share names across three tonally, completely different corporate vehicles. 

Circling back around to the relevant topic at hand; here, in a single pair of images, we have the entire philosophy & production design of the Star Wars Saga distilled to their most basic elements. Likewise, they tell the story of a young Jedi who became a great Master, only to witness everything he sought to protect and build up, torn down and destroyed. And while I have little faith in Kathleen Kennedy’s producer-ship (and the fact that she said early drafts of the Kenobi scripts were too bleak), I can’t help but be just a little excited to see Ewan McGregor play Obi-Wan Kenobi again. 

Here’s hoping. 

[jerryb2]

“You were right about one thing, Master. The negotiations were short.”

- Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

~~~~~~

Here we have the 89Sabers OWK1, featuring a removable chassis from Saber Bay, running a Proffieboard v2.2 with a removable battery & OLED screen. The saber also features an interchangeable pommel ring, so it can swap between the Episode I & II versions as you please.

In light of the new Obi-Wan Kenobi show premiering in just a few weeks, I thought I would share some shots of a recent commission. I have a few more pics saved up, alongside some glam shots of a Roman’s MK1, so be on the lookout for that in the next couple of days.

I’ve touched on this before, so I’ll just briefly mention it here; I grew up with the Prequels and because of it, I have a soft spot for them in spite of all their many problems. Especially after the Sequels. *gagging noises*

Moving swiftly along: It’s hard to imagine it nowadays, but there was a time that many people doubted Ewan McGregor’s ability to bring new life to a character like Obi-Wan Kenobi. Because the character was played with such effortless grace by the likes of Sir Alec Guinness, the young Scottish actor doubtless had a lot to live up to. Unsurprisingly (at least for those of us who had seen Trainspotting), he was more than up to the task - in fact, McGregor’s portrayal of the magnanimous Jedi Apprentice turned Master would go on to be celebrated as one of the greatest strengths of the entire Prequel saga. 

All that is to say, Obi-Wan’s lightsaber is a reflection of his character in both The Phantom Menace & Attack of the Clones. It’s simple, straight-forward and practical. It’s a fairly well-known story, how Ewan and costar Liam Neeson chose their respective lightsabers. Given only ten minutes to choose, they were required to make the decision based almost solely on their instincts. Whether intentional on the part of the actors or not, each chose a weapon that suited their characters quite well. 

...real quick though, can we talk about how weird it is that Obi-Wan wound up with virtually the same lightsaber in Episode II??? I get that he made a second one based on his first, but...like...c’mon. That thing got yeeted down a power reactor. Why wouldn’t you just give him his ANH lightsaber in the next film? Or better yet, give him his ROTS lightsaber in AOTC, so you can thereby build an in-universe reason as to why Obi’s Master lightsaber looks so different from one movie to the next?? 

Why yes, I will take the “First Person to Bitch About that Award”, thank you. 

[jerryb2]

“Ideally, a Jedi took many months to construct a single perfect weapon that he or she would keep and use for a lifetime. Once you build it, the lightsaber will become your constant companion, your tool, and a ready means of defense.

Luke held out the handle of his own lightsaber, sliding his palm over the smooth grip, then igniting it with a startling snap-hiss. The brilliant yellow-green blade drowned out even the bright sunlight in the room. 

(...) “I hope you’ll need to use your weapon only rarely...if ever.”

- The Young Jedi Knights: Lightsabers, by Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta

Say what you will about Kevin Anderson & the somewhat dubious writing style of The Jedi Academy Trilogy, but both he and his wife, Rebecca Moesta, understood the kriffing assignment when they wrote The Young Jedi Knights series, only a few years later. The fact that The New Jedi Order & the Legacy Era shit the bed immediately afterwards is almost okay, because these books are so damn good. 

Don’t go into them looking for Shakespeare, but they feature no pointless deaths, no character assassinations, no nonsensical plotting - only good characters, fun, exciting stories - they’re just pure Star Wars. And I love it so, so much.

Here we have some pics of my personal Rudy Pando Luke V3 lightsaber (it only seemed appropriate) sporting GOTH’s Master Chassis, with a dual crystal chamber reveal, all properly modified to run a Proffieboard v2.2 soundboard. Quite nice, if I do say so myself. This post is fulfilling something of an old promise; a while ago (like, over a year ago), I hinted that I would be reinstalling this saber for one final time, and now, here it is in all its glory. My tribute to a personal hero of mine from my youth, and in the spirit of excellent ensemble  stories like The Young Jedi Knights and character pieces, like Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. 

May they be preserved & enjoyed forever. 

Speaking of; having read Shatterpoint recently, I’m tempted to go back and read Shadows of Mindor again, if only because I’ll have a clearer idea of who Nick Rostu & Kar Vastor are, not to mention, uh, what TF is going on. It’s a great book, and it absolutely nails Luke’s character, but it’s really kriffing weird. 

Even though it’s not (in my opinion) Stover’s best work, it has a short little exchange between Luke & Kar Vastor that perfectly sums up Luke’s character, and more importantly, why he’s such a great character:

I have known Jedi. Many, many years ago. That knowing was not a gladness for me. I believed I would never know another, and I rejoiced in that belief.

But it is a gladness for me to be proven wrong.

I am happy to have known you, Jedi Luke Skywalker. You are more than they were.

“That’s -” Luke shook his head blankly, blinking against the darkness. “I mean, thanks, but I barely know anything.”

So you believe. But I say to you: you are greater than the Jedi of former days.

Luke could only frown, and shake his head again. “What makes you say that?”

Because unlike the Knights of old, Jedi Luke Skywalker...

You are not afraid of the dark.

~~~~~~

Stover truly is the GOAT of Star Wars writers. 

[jerryb2]

Here we have Solo’s Hold’s take on the eponymous Darksaber, the Darkstar. This particular saber is based specifically on the version we see in The Clone Wars animated series, with the harsh angles & obvious samurai inspirations being very apparent. At the request of the customer, I’ve aged & weathered this saber to more closely resemble the version we see in The Mandalorian - hence, the black grooves and heavy chemical aging.

Real talk here: I’ve had this saber sitting on my workbench for literally a full year, and the only reason that it’s been there that long is because I hate this kriffing thing.

Alright, that’s a little on the harsh side; it’s been a busy year, to say the least, and beyond that, the chassis is quite exceptional, with the actual install being surprisingly easy due to there being ample room for everything. Rather, it’s the design of the saber itself that I take issue with.

The saber was clearly designed with the mindset of, “It’s a Katana, and it’s so old, it defies modern lightsaber design.” That’s actually a really cool idea, and the blade itself never bothered me, but that’s really all they have to hang this goofy-looking design on. It looks like it was built out of Lego bricks, for fuck’s sake. 

I have this notion that Giancarlo Esposito saw the Darksaber prop that they made for The Mandalorian - like, they just made the TCW version, with its horrible angular design in tow - and said, “Yeah, I’m not holding that piece of shit.” Thus, we have a more user-friendly, live-action version of the Darksaber now. 

I’ll end off by saying that I will always be proud of, and stand firmly by my work, but this is far from one of my favorites.

[jerryb2]

“I should have gone closer to the edge. Released myself into the Force, become more unpredictable. More random.”

“That would have been dangerous. Not to your body, perhaps, but to your spirit.”

“It is the way of Form I.”

- Kit Fisto & Obi-Wan Kenobi on Shii-Cho

~~~~~~

As promised, here we have some detailed shots of ‘The Amphibian’ Kit Fisto hilt from Shen Sabers. While there have been a fair few over the years, this particular version of the Kit Fisto is easily the most screen accurate out there, and every single piece of this hilt is machined to absolute perfection. 

Beyond that, Shen Sabers also designed their own fully removable Master Chassis, equipped with an integrated ShtokCustomWorx NPXL PCB holder, crystal reveal, Bluetooth module support, as well as a removable battery. Excellent stuff.

Much like the Mace Windu before it, this saber really has given me a greater appreciation for Prequel Era Jedi weapons. This one won’t be sticking around for too long; this is just the latest in a series of sabers for a long-time customer. I must be doing something right. 

Cheers to you, Ron. 

[jerryb2]

Here we have a handful of shots that in all honesty, I just didn’t know what else to do with, so:

From left to right; Mace Windu, Depa Billaba, Shaak Ti/Adi Gallia & Kit Fisto, as well as a couple of comparison shots of the Shaak Ti & my own personal Obi Arena Saber, from Episode II. 

Side note: I’m still working on the Kit Fisto, but rest assured that I will post more when it’s finally ready. It’s an absolute work of art, and the chassis is really something special, so be on the lookout for that in the coming weeks. 

Shifting gears a bit, I’d like to share a couple of things that I’ve recently experienced, as a result of my work as a sabersmith. 

Right after I first started building sabers, my best friend and I decided to both go in on a Graflex for one of our old high school teachers. He was (and continues to be) a huge inspiration to both of us, so it only seemed appropriate to build him a lightsaber. Early last year, he approached me with it in need of some cosmetic repairs. As luck would have it, I happened to have a spare Proffieboard lying around, so I did a full reinstall as a kind of house warming present.

Cut to me surprising him with it and he was like a kid on Christmas morning. To bring someone such joy in any way is a real treat. To top the whole thing off, over the holidays he told me that he was really grateful for the saber because back when he first saw the OT, he initially got really depressed afterwards because he never thought he would own a lightsaber. 

He thanked me for making that dream a reality. *cries*

On a less personal level, the Mace Windu saber has likely found its way to the new owner. Specifically, a teacher at an underprivileged school, where it will be on display for the next month as a teaching tool for a group of kids, while they build their very own first lightsabers. 

In short, a group of kids will be using one of my sabers as inspiration for their own. How crazy is that? I’ve said it before about certain other things, but this really is the greatest kriffing pleasure. 

All this is to say that it made me realize that even though my job is essentially that of an up-jumped toy maker, it really does bring joy and positivity to the world, no matter how small. I’ve had a series of bad mental health days here recently, so I thought I would share just in case anyone else out there needs some positivity - future me, included. 

Cheers. 

[jerryb2]

A few years back, KR Sabers teamed up with OneReplicas to produce a series of “Clan Hilts”. As in, the hilts carried by some of the background characters in the Prequel films. 

(Because apparently a film with a budget of $50 million can only afford somewhere in the ballpark of 6 different lightsaber designs, and the prop department just said ‘fuck it’.)

Anyway, these hilts are exceedingly rare nowadays, mostly due to their initial limited availability and extremely high-quality.

This one in particular is the Shaak Ti/Adi Gallia/Barriss Offee (kind of) Clan Saber, with the others belonging to Ki-Adi Mundi, Plo Koon/Luminara Unduli & Kit Fisto. I was fortunate enough to come across one second hand and I knew I had to offer it up for sale on my shop. 

You guys might not realize this, but even though I’ve worked on dozens of sabers at this point, it can still be hard to let certain ones go. This hilt is beautiful up-close, and I highly doubt that I’ll ever have the opportunity to work on one of these ever again. 

Sad, yes, but at the very least, I know it’s going to a good home. 

[jerryb2]

“...he recognized it: its feel was as familiar as Yoda’s voice.

It was a lightsaber.

It was Depa’s lightsaber.

Instead of slapping it away, Mace drew it toward him - and through the Force he felt her, felt Depa as though she stood at his side and had taken his hand. Its grip smacked into his palm.

In the green flash of Depa’s blade, the situation looked different.”

- Shatterpoint, by Matthew Stover

This book is straight fire, my dudes. 

As promised, some shots of the aforementioned Depa Billaba saber, with some of my own (minor) modifications, paired with that of her Master, Mace Windu. The saber is based off of Depa’s appearance in the first episode of The Bad Batch television show and while I personally find that show to be ‘meh’ at best, her saber’s design is quite nice:

Whether intentional or not on the part of the designer, the muted color of the gun-metal gray/blue shrouds, contrasted with the mirrored electrum finish of the accents around the emitter, activation switches & covertec wheel is really beautiful. And it serves as a nice visual reference to Mace’s Bad Mother Fucker.

More specifically, this is the Korbanth V1 version (V2 is available now, if you’re curious) and while less accurate than something like the One Replicas version, I personally find it to be a much nicer-looking hilt. Which is a good thing, since it’s staying on my shelf.

As I’ve said before, one of the greatest pleasures of building lightsabers is keeping the odd one for yourself, every now and then. 

[jerryb2]

My first post of 2022 - let’s kick things off with a bang:

Here we have a Mace Windu hilt by 89Sabers, sporting GOTH’s Master Chassis, printed in Rhodium & 18K Gold-Plated Brass. While not (in my opinion) my finest work, I do think this is a strong contender for one of the nicest sabers I’ve ever built.

Only the best for the Korun Master of the Order and resident Bad Mother Fucker. 

And as it happened, when I was commissioned to build this saber, I was also reading Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover, for the first time. First off, the TL;DR version of my review for that book is that it’s legitimately brilliant, and people should talk about it more often. 

Secondly, I also have a Depa Billaba saber that I’ve been working away on for the last several weeks and I’m just about ready to show it to you guys. Keep an eye out for that in the next few days. 

[threadsketchier]

I Quit My Job to Do Podfic, & Other Shenanigans

…heyyyyyyyyyyyyy y’all.  (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞

A clickbait-y title for not-so-clickbait-y things: I really did resign from my remote job mid-November to be able to have time to not only podfic, but also completely revamp my apartment.  I’ve been speedrunning the latter so that I can get it over with ASAP and focus on the creative stuff, and I delayed making this post because I wanted something worthwhile to show, but it’s taken a bit longer than I thought, so…heck, it’s Dec. 1st, so yeet.

In all seriousness, the thought of podficcing means a lot to me - so much so that I’ve bitten off quite a mouthful and my first project is over 100,000 words LOL - but moreover, I was really struggling with the fact that between my mom passing away and getting a new job, I only had one month.  That was it.  And I didn’t spend it taking a break, it was spent getting her cremated and cleaning out all of her things for donation.  Almost literally to the day, from Feb. 21st to March 22nd, and within a few weeks my brain started spiraling that I was finally, truly on my own, no longer a caregiver or having to hide my fandom because we didn’t agree on it and faced with a home that wasn’t in a configuration I needed or suited me…but I didn’t have enough time and spoons around a full-time job to make any significant headway on changing my apartment or being able to record and edit what will likely be 15-20 hours of narration, not to mention wanting to make more art.  The home stuff alone is a lot for one person, even in a small 1-bedroom unit.  There’s areas in here that have been neglected for years because dealing with Mom’s health issues and my previous, much more murderous full-time job, and then COVID, eclipsed all that, and now it’s overwhelming.

Bless my boss, he’s the best I’ve ever had; he was cool with my situation after I explained how I felt and he told me mental health comes first, the company second.  Yeah, I felt like an idiot for only spending 7 months with them and giving up a remote job I didn’t have to commute for.  And I know I’ll have to crawl back to employment yet again in the next few months, because I don’t have millions of followers on a lucrative social media platform.  Truthfully, I don’t know how I’ll cope with corporate employment for the rest of my life, because working at something that doesn’t involve fandom or creativity fills me with a despair bordering on physical pain, but that’s a problem for near-future me.

In the meantime, I’m just going to put it out there that I will have to make some expenses to assist me in producing the best content I can manage, and I know more than likely nothing will come of it, but I’ll remind everyone I have a ko-fi page now, so if you’re able to and feel like it, yeeting a few bucks in there would be super duper greatly appreciated.  I’d like to make my recordings sound as decent as possible (for my non-existent knowledge on audio editing), and I’m tired of passing off shitty photographs of my artwork with details getting lost.  This is the lineup of what I’d like to procure first (and if anyone has suggestions for additional or more inexpensive tools, feel free to let me know):

REAPER license - $60

Nectar Elements plugin - $129 (my goal with this software, at bare minimum, is to reduce the “canned” quality my voice takes on with a raw recording)

Art/Document scanner (extra hi-res) - $249

Sponsoring even a fraction of these would be awesomesauce.  FEED THE MILLENNIAL MONEY RACCOON HERE.  ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ  ♪~ ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ

***(At a friend’s urging I did cave and install Venmo on my phone, for anyone who prefers that.  I guess you can send me a non-anon ask or DM if that’s your weapon of choice?)

Like I said, I’d love to have included some pics of my new setup or a range of voice samples or fresh artwork, etc. etc., to make this post feel like…I can earn what I’m asking for, lol?  But yeah, as soon as I can finish with furniture rearrangement/replacement, I’ll post before & after shots and finally get cracking on more fun stuff.

(Yes, I’ll probably reblog this a few times to get as many eyeballs as possible, apologies in advance.)

[jerryb2]

I don’t know how many people will realistically see this, since most (if not all) of my followers also follow her, but I’ll reblog it anyway.