Picture of Yoda's Lightsaber Posted By Joshua on November 1, 1999
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Jedi Jim sends us this picture of the lightsaber comparisons found in the latest issue (December 99') of Airbrush Art and Action:
I just wanted to let every one know that the latest issue of Airbrush Art and Action has a good article on the art of The Phantom Menace. It also includes a photo of Yoda's lightsaber. And another thing that I noticed was how similar Mace Windu's lightsaber is to Darth Maul. Other then the double blade of course. I found that very interesting although it probably means nothing. But hey one can imagine, right?
Interesting similarities -- wouldn't it be great to see Yoda use his in SW2?
UPDATE #1 Joe Passmore was reading the caption at the bottom of the picture that shows the different lightsaber design including Yoda's, and what stuck in his head was the part about Padawans building a lightsaber that is similar to the master's as a sign of respect.
With this in mind, you can't help but think that Lucas has something planned since Windu's lightsaber is so similar to Maul's. Could this be a sign of something that will be revealed in SW2 or 3? Will we find out that Mace also lost an apprentice to the dark side, and that Maul carried on the tradition of Padawan/Master design? It can't be a coincidence since Windu's saber design was changed after publicity photos were already taken, and those photos altered to reflect the changes for subsequent publications.
Why would Lucas & Co. go through the trouble of changing photos for the sake of a saber re-design if not for some bigger reason?
Who knows? Visit the Jedicouncil for your speculation!!
UPDATE #2 Jedi2016 sheds some light on the issues of lightsabers:
A couple secrets I'll let you guys in on:
Lucas never authorized Yoda to have a lightsaber. That lightsaber seen in the Visual Dictionary (where all those saber pics were taken from), was made by a couple of guys several years before Episode I was even filmed. They have no relation whatsoever to Lucasfilm.
They are, however, friends of one Dr. David West-Reynolds, author/editor of the Visual Dictionary. He saw the saber and thought it would look pretty neat in the book. It was never seen on set, much less on screen, by Lucas or anybody at ILM.
That Mace Windu saber is not Mace Windu's saber. Yes, there's plenty of pictures of that saber floating around, including a couple of "publicity" shots, which were nothing more than doctored images to replace Samuel L. Jackson's lightsaber with this other one. You can see pics of the REAL Windu saber on this page. And yes, that lightsaber was on set, and is seen on screen: At the end celebration, the camera pans from Mace Windu down to Yoda and Even Piell. On it's way down, it passes Mace's lightsaber hanging from his belt.
You can plainly see that the lightsaber is the one shown on the page above, and NOT the one shown in the Visual Dictionary. The reason for the change is unknown, and we're not even sure if Lucas knew about the switch before the book was published.
Remember, any hints about the future of Mace Windu and any Maul connections were not thought out by Lucas at the time. And if he really wanted to change the saber, he would have changed it on screen, an easy job for ILM.