Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Acolyte episode 8.

Summary

• The Acolyte has introduced several new parts of lightsaber lore to live-action, but its biggest was perfectly predicted years ago by one artist.
• The Acolyte established that lightsaber bleeding happens gradually, as the red slowly overtakes the blade's original color.
• The first live-action appearance of lightsaber bleeding actually serves as a bit of a retcon to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

One of the biggest lightsaber twists in type of lightsaber through the Stranger. Those weren't the only major developments The Acolyte had in store for lightsabers, though, but someone already predicted the show's biggest reveal.

In the finale of The Acolyte, kyber crystal bleeding, which has been a big part of Star Wars canon for a while. The Acolyte, however, introduced a new element to lightsaber bleeding: the fact that the red gradually overtakes the lightsaber's original color. It was a major reveal, but artist machodoodle perfectly predicted it in 2020.

When the art of Kylo Ren's lightsaber turning red was originally made, Star Wars had never actually shown the process of kyber crystal bleeding. The artist, with no reference to work on, perfectly predicted that the red color would take over the original blade gradually, just as it happened in The Acolyte. It was a stunningly accurate prediction of how lightsaber bleeding works, and it came four years before the first live-action depiction of the process.

This Is The First Time We've Seen A Lightsaber Bled In Live-Action

Lightsaber bleeding has been a fairly prominent part of Star Wars canon for years now, but it had never been done before in live-action. Before The Acolyte, the biggest sources of information about lightsaber bleeding were comic books, namely "Star Wars: Darth Vader (2017)" and "Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren." Lightsaber bleeding was also briefly shown in a video game, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, when Dagan Gera bled his kyber crystal. Since it had only been shown in comics and video game before, The Acolyte is the first time lightsaber bleeding has made it into live-action.

The Acolyte's depiction of lightsaber bleeding is the most in-depth portrayal in Star Wars so far, but it actually acted as a bit of a retcon. The comics didn't actually depict Darth Vader and Kylo Ren's blades turning red, only them bleeding the crystal and ending up with a red lightsaber. Jedi: Survivor was the only time a lightsaber turned red on-screen, and Dagan Gera's blade didn't gradually become red like Osha's, it simply ignited normally, albeit with a different color. It's a minor change, but since The Acolyte is live-action and more recent, its depiction of lightsaber bleeding supersedes Jedi: Survivor's.

Retcon aside, there's one more very important part of The Acolyte's depiction of lightsaber bleeding: it was incredibly cool. Sol's blade gradually turning from blue to red in Osha's hand had so much symbolic significance, and it perfectly encapsulated her fall to the dark side. It was also just an extremely neat visual effect, as a lightsaber has never changed color in live-action Star Wars before. The Acolyte's depiction of lightsaber bleeding was a pleasant surprise, even if one artist called it years prior.

Source: machodoodle