Why Purple Blasters Are So Rare In Star Wars

[@MichaelJaeYT]

Lmk if you enjoyed the long video! It took a full month but I had fun making it :) Hope everyone’s having a good Star Wars Day!! Feel free to share with your Star Wars friends 👉👈

[@Thejuicemerchant]

May the fourth be with you Micheal

[@mitchellcleveland6182]

You really should have put an epilepsy warning on this.

[@seth4x4]

After doing some research, the process of turning methane rich natural gas into hydrogen produces purple plasma. I thought you might like to know. Awesome video!

[@fangslore9988]

in the current canon all ships use Tabana gas as fuel not coolant and its used in turbo lasers, and tie fighter repeater blasters, its the gas that gives it a green colour, clone DC-15A tactical blaster rifle used a different gas, and currently blasters nolonger use crystals but instead have an excitement chamber and fires plasma rounds rather than particles rounds using an ionization chamber then the plasma round would be fired and it was the kinetic impact that did the damage not the heat

[@modernsolutions6631]

way to long. I had a concrete question and you went all over the place to answer it.

[@jessecorel1910]

Jackson's grin when George tells him he might get purple will never get old

[@cyqry]

Its like a little kid going with his mom to the shop, and being told he can pick out a sweet to buy

[@wiaf8937]

@@cyqry it literally is Jackson's inner little child coming through.

[@Jedi_With_Aesthetic]

From what I’ve heard purple is the most powerful but more expensive which would explain why not many armies use them but purple looks awesome as a blaster bolt color

[@THATfishguywithfish]

sounds goot to me, becaus it has the shorterst wavelenght of visible light. The rebell alliance/ the CIS have the opposit, becaus they use the longest wavelenght(red). I think I heard somewhere, that the geonosien starfighter was realy well made so that maby why they used purple.

[@robertharris6092]

​@@THATfishguywithfish why would wavelength of the light matter for a plasma bolt?

[@CryNhn]

@@robertharris6092 Because they emit light?

[@THATfishguywithfish]

@@robertharris6092 becaus in light a shorter wavelenght has more energy. That means, that a high energy bolt may give off a higher energy color

[@ShadowFall334]

I have also heard that the colors of the blaster bolts show the quality and strength. The CIS army has always depended on the mass of their droids, which is why they had to save on the quality of the blaster bolts. The Republic, on the other hand, has already equipped its clone soldiers better from the start. Green was of course the most expensive, which is why the Empire didn't skimp on it. The Resistance didn't have that much money so they also used the cheapest ammunition.

[@PKSE]

A 45 minute video about the color purple that is not boring, legendary!

[@JonKratz]

Ikr?! Well done!! 💯

[@brightlord-ov7cm]

Wait until he finds out about Prince.

[@carrotisthebestgaminggecko5168]

I didn't even realise how long it was untill I finished it.

[@TechnoMinarchist]

45 mins of mostly filler. This could've been done in 10 mins.

[@Killthefish]

​@@TechnoMinarchistthen do it?

[@StickNik]

27:42 - "Geonosians have always wanted to keep to themselves" - Host Separatist meeting - Have Death Star plans "Never took the fight to their enemy" - Make droid factories allied with CIS, the droids are the army they take to their enemy

[@KimDare75]

Not wanting to doesn't mean you can't get forced...

[@Darthdoodoo]

They were used by the dark side 😕

[@Ug-lordetheunmovable]

They were being manipulated by dooku/sidius, also weird tid bit, it's stated somewhere that geonosians if they have nothing to do, they will go to war with each other just cause they're bored so having them build shit was a must

[@Mug-Noodle]

Not sure if you want to have a deep dive into a Lego game. But in the Lego Star Wars saga the power orbs make your lightsaber purple and your blaster shots purple. Meaning they are straight up more powerful

[@Ostr0]

Yeah I remember that was awesome

[@aandafunlist2824]

For a second I thought you meant the Skywalker Saga and I was confused but I remember that part of the Complete Saga

[@TheMisterBerry]

This just makes me want a Ghost Recon-esque Star Wars game where you play as some ragtag mercenary group (or special forces group) and in addition to customizing your main character with clothes, outfits, species and more, modding your blaster is like a separate menu, where you choose what kind of blaster, then you start modding it out, like choosing the focal lens/crystal (blaster color), gas type (affects accuracy, damage, non-lethal options, affects droids or humanoids more, etc.), optics (for scopes and whatnot), heatsinks (efficiency of gas use), power cells (how many shots before it needs to be "reloaded"), metal color/paintjob, foregrips and stocks (for steadying while aiming), the option to add the half squeeze to aim with a laser before firing, Long nozzle mods to dim the blaster light and suppress the noise for stealth, just go absolutely HAM on customization for every blaster you can acquire in that game, and make it super detailed and one of the main features of the game. I think there'd be a subset of fans who would love this.

[@leemastro9904]

That would be incredibly cool, and for each mission, a smart player could reconfigure their weapon based on the mission parameters, and most likely opponents.

[@Ostr0]

Ah yes Star Wars Force Unleashed but with Blasters sounds fun

[@morgans.9842]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Republic_Commando

[@TheMisterBerry]

@morgans.9842 Republic Commando is a fantastic game - but it's overdue a newer game with mechanics like I mentioned above

[@Ug-lordetheunmovable]

I would love to play a SW game that let's you customize your gun like in The force unleashed, I will say that the color of the blaster isn't determined by the focal lens (if there is one to begin with) instead the color changes because of the gas being used, cheaper ones are red meanwhile purple be expensive, blue is for droids cause that's what the blue was made for, and green id say it's like a better version of the red but it doesn't beat purple, I guess in game you can make that happen, make the red version weaker and cheaper to buy and the purple one more powerful, more expensive and give it a small debuf like the gun heats up faster depending on which type is used

[@LIAM_PCK0L]

Imo, I think the reason the empire uses more good guy colours is they used to be the republic and thus had the good guy colours used all around and the rebels needed a way to distinguish between their shots and chose red.

[@KurticeYZreacts]

2:06 that scene shown if you watch the furthest tie fighters... you can see some litterally appear out of nowhere instead of emerge as a small point that get larger as they come into view.. they are not there... then there... i wish they'd fix that dang error. I cant unsee it ever now

[@oldylad]

Shit like this was common in the OT but mfers bitched about the updated version lmao, Disney won’t touch it

[@CodyHomes]

Stealth Tie Fighters?

[@KurticeYZreacts]

@@oldylad yeah i think theres another in 4 or 5 if you watch the tie fighter pass the screen it heads towards deathstar and if you keep watching it... it just disappears lol i guess they thought id look somewhere else by that point in time but nope... i was still watching the tie fighter and BLOOP ... VANISHED... (MOVIE MAGIC?😆)

[@THATfishguywithfish]

my headcanon is, that most of the colos differences come fom diffrent gases on the planets, and bigger armies just used gases, that where found all over the galaxy

[@humansvd3269]

That was my mindset too. The gas is what determines the color.

[@jeremyk.6456]

From all of the information I’ve got is that the difference between them is a variety of strength of each blaster bolt along with how much it costs per shot. The cost of each from cheapest to most expensive is red, blue, green, Mandalorian yellow, and then an exception being the weakest but probably expensive are the yellow/training bolts used by the clones on Tipoca City. The CIS/Rebels used red because they’re effective against living targets, while the Republic used blue because they’re more effective against droids, and the Empire used Green because they’re effective against everything and a bit stronger than red but to save resources for the Empires greater war machine.

[@raymurray3401]

Makes sense for the imperials to use something that’ll work against any material whilst being relatively cheap considering they’re not exactly the most accurate shots lol.

[@oldylad]

@@raymurray3401it’s plot shit dude, stop repeating this. Stormtroopers are amazing shots. If you NEED an explanation the plot armor is the will of the force and thus the heroes survive because the force wants them to

[@raymurray3401]

I know but it’s still kinda funny how the running joke about stormtroopers being bad shots lines up so well with them being given cheaper ammo lol. As for an in universe explanation you could argue their inaccuracy may be due to their use of cheaper materials since they are supplying weapons to an astronomical number of soldiers and as a result the weapons focusing crystals are prone to being knocked out of alignment reducing their accuracy.

[@aandafunlist2824]

@@oldylad Its called a running joke, bud

[@pharox9711]

Tbh blue,green ,yellow,purple blaster bolts are my favorite basically i like them all except for the red blaster bolts for some reason its just so tacky for me

[@acefalcongaming9711]

probably because we're used to seeing laser and "laser" weapons as red

[@brock6856]

Red is conventional

[@Ostr0]

Red is iconic now

[@RayHardman7567]

I've only ever heard that the color is determined by the refinement process, and how refined it is. So those other points were fairly interesting. And I've been playing the og battlefront II for a couple decades now, and I've never seen a purple blaster from something that has never had it. (Clones)

[@ThirdEye-47]

From when I remember playing as a kid if you get enough kills with a certain gun on your profile it will upgrade that gun making it do more damage, change the sound it makes, and the color of the laser.

[@RayHardman7567]

@@ThirdEye-47 I've only ever earned the special unit for that faction.

[@raymurray3401]

If memory serves you had to get something like 20 kills without dying and you had to not only land the killing blow with that weapon but that weapon also had to be responsible for the majority of the damage dealt to the target.

[@RayHardman7567]

@@raymurray3401 I only ever used the primary weapon of the standard class and it's grenades. If I wasn't in a vehicle the entire match.

[@lichlord9838]

"Wanted purple to stand out." Maybe that was part of the reason, but Jackson actually tries to sneak something purple into literally everything he appears in. IRL it's his favorite color.

[@bionodroid547]

head canon: purple bolts are to green bolts what blue bolts are to red bolts. ion charged shots, just from a different or more refined gas

[@nathund1]

Headcanon is that everything depends on everything. It just makes the most sense that every little detail could have an effect on blaster color. For example, the TIE says the blasts are green because of the frequency of the crystal, but maybe other green blasters are green just because of the power output, and others still are green because of gases used. This especially makes sense because all 3 could lead to changes in the efficiency of the blaster. So maybe the gas blaster takes less power per shot, or the power blaster takes less gas.

[@Thejuicemerchant]

Man your channel is criminally underrated

[@DraconiusDragora]

Want to know something that is funny. During the Clone Wars, all of the Clone Troopers, Standard Issue weapon, was the DC-15 Blaster Rifle, later the DC-15A. Which was in a sense modular, but always shot blaster bolts. Which makes no sense, since their main enemy would be Droids, and Mechanical enemies, thus an Ion Blaster would have been better. Also a fun note: Ion shots, usually is a cyan blue, but have been seen with yellow, white and pink bolts. Also Yellow bolts, has been seen used by Sandpeople from Tattooine, which is a fun little thing. So here is a little bit that most people forget. Slugthrowers, illegal by Republic and Galactic Empire law. Mostly seen on the fringe worlds and rimworlds of the Star Wars universe. The Sandpeople use the Cycler Rifle, which is seen to shoot Yellow Bolts, but in fact is a Solid mass of metal: I.o.w the Yellow bolt was also a sign of someone using a slugthrower. The reason why these weapons were or are illegal in the universe. They penetrate Armour like it was made out of cardboard. But they came with that they usually were unaccurate since most SW tech companies have forgotten the science of Rifling your Barrel. The very thing they don't need to do with the crystal and gas setup of a normal blaster rifle. Also historical fun fact: Any gun that was called a Rifle, was only called so because the Barrel had been Rifled. Meaning it had those grooves that twists and spin around the whole length of the barrel, for better accuracy. Which later became the standard name for any and all guns which was of a certain size and weight.

[@Average_Enclave_Soldier]

I’m pretty sure that the blue bolts were partially ionized, as clones didn’t only fight droids so having full ionization would be stupid and expensive

[@DraconiusDragora]

@@Average_Enclave_Soldier The way it works in Star Wars, by Legends, by Extended Universe, and by Canon. Blaster Bolts, is two things that combine: Energy from the energy Packs, which people call Ammo Packs in many cases, and Gas; These Gases are stored inside the gun, and has to be refilled from time to time but last for a very long time (For the DC-15 this could be up to 1000 shots with low energy, and a rough 600 shot with high energy). They are *never* Ionized. That require a Ion Rifle, Carbine or Pistol, which doesn't use Gas at all, but used Ionized Energy instead, which causes its Bluish colour in many cases. You don't have Half-Ionized, Semi-Ionized, it is either or. Also the Ionized Energy, doesn't work with the Gas, so it can't become a Blaster Bolt, however, there is Illegal modifications, which cause a electrical current to go with the blaster bolt, that practically ionized the air around it. But those are extremely rare, and as said illegal. And the DC-15, DC-15A and the later versions were only Blaster Rifles, well Heavy Blaster rifles to be exact. And the Clone Troopers did fight other things than only Droids, but their Main Enemy was Droids. Even before the Clone Troopers became an army for the Galactic Republic, they had Ion Rifles and Pistols to fight robotic enemies. It is just odd that the Clone Troopers were rarely if ever equipped with Ion weaponry when they were going to face Droids and not Biological beings, which Ion bolts still can harm very well, and high enough charges does kill them as well.

[@robertellis6853]

The blue and white TIE bolts in the the THX remaster I think were initially caused by failing to add the final green rotoscoping on top of the white core of the bolts, leaving just the white. The blue bolts could be an overdone color correction, you can see in the comparison shots that the star destroyers have noticably cooler hue to them the others. On top of the white bolts left by forgetting the green pass, the color correction could give that odd blue tint. Anyways, not an expert or anything, if anyone else has more or better detail on the specifics, Id be interested.

[@Loop_Kat]

Sounds about right. I don't remember the exact details, but there's a similar color error with the Rebel pilots' helmets, R2-D2, and I think some of the X-Wing markings during the original Death Star trench run which caused anything blue to show up as grey/black due to the fact that they used blue screens instead of green screens at the time (these color errors were fixed in later releases). The TIE lasers suddenly switching to blue only for that one sequence just means it's another error that nobody caught at the time rather than anything involving the laser's actual in-universe properties

[@bostonrailfan2427]

explains why there’s white showing in the middle of the bolts giving it a two-toned look never seen anywhere else, they didn’t add the yellow on top of the blue to make green or simply rushed through it and forgot to finish the shot

[@LoliFoxQueen]

just a little something you may not have noticed on the flechete shotgun in the origional BF2 is the rounds are yellow on the flechete

[@robertharris6092]

Theyre also flechettes. Not any sort of energy projectile.

[@soaringraven7194]

I think red must be the cheapest to produce because the CIS used red when they were the faction with the most guns there for spending the most and the republic with its near unlimited budget used the slightly more expensive blue stuff. same goes for the empire we see in bad batch that when starting the army the empire did use red and then when they began gaining more power and moving more money to the army they bought the expensive green stuff and obviously the broke rebels used the cheap red stuff. i cant think of anything sound for the last three films idk maybe the resistance was using the expensive stuff left over from the new republic idk.

[@robertharris6092]

Sommething solid is disney has always made fairytales that have no thought put into them and thus didint think about anything on even a surfece deep level when making the movies.

[@This_awesomeguy64]

Blue was an ion shot,and because of how the CIS was basically completely droid armies ion attacks would be the best against them whilst not wasting money

[@THATfishguywithfish]

20:15 The purple flack explosions may be from B2 arm rockets, if they existed in that battle they also look very similar to the eyplosions of the purple laserbolts from the geonosien starfighters

[@GavinMakesVideos-xm7dd]

I love how Star Wars explains its lasers and stuff with such declination and detail that it seems like it can be in the real world, and how you explained it was awesome. Subscribing for sure

[@beylethdirons2160]

Yellow Blaster bolts: 1st a thought that might explain it. Mandalorians also are known for fighting Jedi, and in the past even used slug throwing weapons to fight them. If they're keeping that tradition forward (and they seem to in The Manalorian), Mando weapons may have a more "physical" impact than standard blaster bolts. It also stands to reason that if Beskar can deflect standard blaster bolts, a blaster bolt that also hits similar to slug throwers to do physical impact as well wouldn't be out of pocket for them. Thus yellow (and possibly orange with even cheaper gas) training bolts may give impact but not damage similar to rubber/paint bullets from modern firearms. I can't find anything that specifically backs that up, so it's pure theory-craft. However, what I can back up is that it's also noted that the WESTAR-35 and GALAAR-15 have the "Accurate" qualifier in the Star Wars RPG, which feeds into the idea of sniper rifles having yellow shots in Clone Wars/Bad Batch. Many other non-yellow blasters also have this quality in the game as well, so big grain of salt there. Just some tangential thoughts, that yellow blaster bolts, similar to purple "electrical" weapons and then purple blasters, may have multiple reasons. So perhaps both of these are also reasons.

[@LightWolfEditz07]

It's also used by Hapes Consortium too!

[@weaponizedemoticon1131]

Tiny point of interest on the magna tri droid, in real life, lasers can be used to cause atmosphere to ionize, and therefore carry electrical charge. Perhaps the beam is just there to direct the electrical blast that actually does the damage.

[@spockamania]

Bread Circus shout out is fantastic. Goated YTer

[@needy3535]

dude you could've made this like 8 different videos like I am so impressed that you covered like EVERYTHING lmao

[@blooddiamond5396]

blue used to mean ion cannon in the games. 1995 was right around collector's edition games remaster too not just THX. they might have been trying to telegraph disabling shots since it really doesn't make sense to shoot the hostages with fatal ship to ship fire since you want to capture them. I like your explanation of white blasters. side note there were pink/purple missiles that were EMP in the TIE fighter game.

[@longtimeBrute1107]

I think you might have forgot one more purple blaster bolt source... In the 1996 Nintendo 64 game Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire, you can collect different munition type for your blaster and one of them is called Pulse cannon wich as purple projectiles. There where many more interesting weapons in the game including one called distruptor wich was pretty much a pocket death star/BFG9000. Fun fact, I think this game is still technically cannon too since your main character's ship is seen leaving Mos Eisley in Episode 4 in every version of the movie made after the game release. Thanks for the video, it was fun to watch. :)

[@DM-Sym]

Repeatedly using the clip of Jar Jar's face getting electrocuted. A man of culture, I see.

[@MADGAMERFAST]

Really thought this would be a 45-minute yap fest but no it is genuinely one of the most insightful Star Wars videos on KZbin it is a must-see for all Star Wars fans and definitely deserves way more love.

[@Opusss]

This is an insane deep dive in to blaster and blaster adjacent tech. You should consider adding something to the title to indicate that there is a lot more covered besides purple blasters.

[@dafoex]

Possible thought towards the "cosmetic" angle: invasion stripes. In WWII the allies would paint a striped pattern on the wings of aircraft whenever they planned a surprise attack so they wouldn't shoot their own pilots. These patterns were kept secret until the invasion was flown to prevent the enemy from trying to disguise themselves. Also in more modern times, secret police add a coloured band to their guns on the day of an operation for the same reason. Obviously for film reasons these colours rarely change, but it could be possible that they intentionally colour their fire for identification of friendlies on the battlefield.

[@alexander.tahtadjian]

I never thought I would ever be invested in this…but I am. I now want to see more purple blasters in Star Wars. This was definitely an amazing video and I can’t wait to see what you do next. Also Happy ‘belated’ Star Wars Day and May The 4th Be With You.

[@zaltaristhedragongod911]

Windu wasn’t the only Jedi with a purple lightsaber, there was a second purple lightsaber in the first battle of Geonosis.

[@Ploxtifs_OldAndDeadAccountXD]

21:32 my headcannon is that yellow is probably more accurate, and purple is extremely unstable and prone to explode mid-flight. This would explain why storm troopers are inaccurate(although “stormtrooper aim” is a retcon being directly due to fans getting the wrong message from a New hope and the Falcon escaping, seriously, why would the empire want to destroy the ship if they could use the planted tracker to find the rebel base?)because they were trained on and are used to a much more forgiving blaster and accurate blaster. It would also explain why purple is rare because it was so hard to properly control, and why it acts like a Flak round in AotC. It also lines up with the Electromagnetic Spectrum and how ultraviolet/purple light is the most energetic.

[@comatose3788]

Around 16:53 you talked about blue lasers as a difference for that version of the movie. As an effects editor, I would say that is actually the prototype laser. It probably wasn't colored for the final cut. That would make that version of the movie pretty rare.

[@AsbestosEnjoyer]

I always thought that green was the cheapest kind of gas and that the empire used it because they just had soo many ships that it was the best gas to get in bulk

[@This_awesomeguy64]

If you were gonna fire at ships,you would need the strongest choice

[@olliecrafter]

been putting off watching this for a while, but glad i finally did

[@erickraus1305]

42:51 something that got me confused here is that at no point was it said that the spin-sealed Tobana gas was specifically red. So, if we keep going by the color spectrum theory, that the higher the frequency, the more powerful the bolt would be, you could still say that the green bolts were a more refined version of the red ones (and the purple, the most refined). What would make sense to say the empire had more resources, and thus, more powerful weapons.

[@ijnkako5326]

I distinctly remember that Kyle Katarn's basic blaster pistol in the Jedi Outcast games was shooting orange bolts as well

[@THYDOOMWALKER]

Just a heads-up, the orange color isn’t always for training l. In the republic commando game, when you are on geonosis, the Geonosian elite beam weapon was orange and BOY does it do a lot of damage. Also, the trandotion slavers use blue concussion rifles. They also used yellow in their heavy rotary machine guns, elite SMGs, and shotguns, which were powered by a yellow gas somewhere on the body. The transition elites had two large banisters on the back, and they never ran out of ammo.

[@matz1011]

Loved the MatPat ❤

[@andrewince8824]

Cool fact; the E-11 blaster was a British L3A1 Sterling smg with a shortened mag, the stock folded and a few bits bolted on. In 1977 they couldn't go crazy with effects. To get the muzzle flash in the original film they used blank-adapted Sterling, you can see spent cases near a troopers elbow as he fires prone. This means out there somewhere is an E-11 which could very easily be re-barreled to become an actual live firing smg.

[@thomaslongley7946]

At 42:23 you say Mace Windu had a purple blaster. 😂

[@rinothy]

I found your channel today via shorts, and this video has starting a very long binge watch 😂 love the detail in these videos

[@KanuckStreams]

A note about the Flechette Shotgun from the Battlefront game. Unless the name is a misnomer, the term "flechette" means "little arrow/dart", so does this mean that they have been swapped out for something like the Wookie Bowcaster that actually fires solid projectiles *sheathed* in blaster energy?

[@aidanguiness1853]

Fun fact from the Star Wars: X-Wing game and its sequels. Ion Blasts are blue as well and operate on machines the same as blue blaster stun bolts....

[@The_Lucent_Archangel]

I always took the THX version of the TESB sequence to be explained as the TIEs being equipped with ion cannons. It was a thing in the TIE Fighter games, and the sound effect for those blasts was consistent with the ion cannon / turbolaser effect. It's actually kind of unusual they didn't stick with that for the subsequent releases because it made more sense.

[@CSM-fz9qo]

FUNNY ENOUGH I HAVE THAT COLLECTORS EDITION THING YOU MENTIONED AT 16:09!!!!!!

[@ortoacademy1019]

Attack of the Clones and those tie fighters color errors in 1995 are not the first time blue blaster bolts are seen in a live action Star Wars movie. The first intentional instance of blue bolts in Star Wars was in 1983 in the Ewoks Battle for Endor movie. Mace has a sporting blaster that shoots Blue in the first scenes and later Noa's starship cannons shoot blue during the fight against the Mauraders. These were consistent, intentional colors, not color errors

[@PhilLegend91]

The Ion Canon on Hoth shoots blue, too. and Thats before the Millenium Falcon scene. But that's something different I guess? cool video, enjoyed it a lot!

[@lasercraft32]

The plasma bow things (I don't care what their official name is) feel pretty impractical. Like, why use a bow that requires you to draw back the arrow bolt, when blasters exist that can fire just a deadly projectiles with less of the effort? Meh, at least they look cool.

[@FantasyReader321]

Daamn I did not realize this was gonna be so long. I'm honestly really impressed. The *research*!

[@gusty7153]

if i remember correctly, the old tie fighter game had blue ion cannons as an option alongside standard green lasers and one can switch between both

[@jacearmor5274]

Heck yeah!! Purple fans rise up!

[@alexplaysgames_2]

So cool a Star Wars actor answered yiour call! 🤯 .

[@alexplaysgames_2]

I love how they give explanations in universe and not just for us the audience and the characters never address it.

[@8-7-styx94]

I grew up on the THX version and always thought I was imagining things when they were blue/white. Now I realize I wasn't hallucinating. Which is always a good thing.

[@drakemasta9655]

so basicly blasters color is mainly determined by a coloring system in the blasters but gass, focusing crystal, and manufacturer can also influence this. maybe the coloring system is initally set by the manufacturer to being off while these systems take more power to change the color of certain gasses.

[@someguycalledCh0wdah]

This video is a really good example of canon spurring on the growth of lore. Like the yellow blaster bolts, being depicted as powerful enough to pierce Beskar but also being used by imperial trainees, we don't know why that is but somebody's gonna have to write something that talks about it now!

[@MeepChangeling]

I only do minimal work on video, but I do a lot of work with photos. If you look at the scenes where the Ties are shooting blue and compare the other objects colors, it looks as if they tried to make the stars and star destroiers look more white by reducing how much yellow there was. That's all well and good, but it seems like they hue shifted the footage, then simply forgot to recolor the bolts green in that shot. Remember, green minus yellow = blue.

[@gallendugall8913]

Michael Jae is a blast -er expert

[@Leo-iq9or]

17:56 i wonder if the green blaster bolts appear blue due to the fact that the blaster bolts are pass so close to the screen view that they may have put a screen flash effect over it originaly then had to remove it later bleaching the green effect to blue?

[@famvirious]

37:00 this is because rockets irl work like that. They gain more speed the further they go so long as they have fuel. This can affect how much of the payload is detonated, what direction the payload goes, and the kinetic energy of the rocket on impact.

[@THATfishguywithfish]

i love the yoda reaction gifs you threw in there

[@kzm2284]

Speaking of the yellow mandolorian blasters being armor penetrating against beskar, in Jedi survivor you can hear a storm trooper talking about how “if you have your blaster tuned just right it will go right through mandolorian beskar”

[@smirk-in-progress4800]

"What? Mesa no have a blueball!" I lost it.

[@Carl_Johnson_1992_GSF]

It’s intresting that it is purple that’s one of the rarest colours also a fun fact is that purple is also one of the rarest colours on flags in real life

[@lichlord9838]

Purple is the color of empire IRL, at least in Europe. There was a time when only the Emperor of the Roman/Byzantium Empire was allowed to wear it, and the particular shade the Byzantium Emperors used was literally the rarest and most expensive product on Earth. How to make it was ultra secret, but today we know it's slime off a certain sea slug.

[@Carl_Johnson_1992_GSF]

Thanks for the info @@lichlord9838. But i already know this but still thanks tho

[@noteansylvan6051]

I'm personally a fan of the white blaster bolts. Disruptors are great.

[@Professor_MemesSquad]

My usual sentiment is "I'm not watching a 45 minute video about purple. He could give the presentation in 5 minutes". However, I have to run a carpet extractor all day so I'm glad to have something long to listen to

[@anonymousli4204]

19:29 That's like being shot with a bullet and a taser at the same time... I would definitely consider that effective.

[@pharox9711]

This a classic fr i love content like this

[@iamsushi1056]

My thought with the yellow is that it usually indicates some sort of suppressor modification-either to reduce intensity, or to narrow the beam and increase accuracy and range for a sniper shot. This is separate from the mandalorian weapons, which are probably using a local gas.

[@Ksawerytab2]

17:12 they were shooting ionised projectiles that are way more effective on machines, that is also why clones were shooting blue, tie pilots most probably wanted them alive but not to let them fly away

[@slayerofdarknssdmt9697]

TL:DR; 2 types of bolts standard and ion Standard: orange to red to yellow, then theres the wildcard green shot. Ion: blue to purple. Electrostaffs scale from yellow to purple. Stun i feel is moreso a modified form of ion based weaponry but thats just my personal thoughts. Right so blaster hierarchy: A standard blasters color would be orange to red to yellow. Orange is likely used for trainig or civilian blasters that arent powerful enough to kill but are enough to sting a little and at worse sit someone down for a solid moment. Id wager thats why some "red" bolts appear more orange than other actual red shots. Genuine militaristic blasters will most definitely have red blaster bolts as theyre moreso desinged to kill or deeply injur the opposition. Id assume they do have a power scaling feature which allows them to switch from low powered to high powered rounds, most (like the imperial and rebel soldiers) keep it at a solid medium as to not damage the barrel of the blaster. As for why theres a distinct difference between clone wars and galactic civil wars blaster bolts is due to the refinement of the gas they use, less refined is a simplistic bland shot while the more refined gas is where you get that white bolt with the colored glow. When it comes to yellow shots (or in other words high powered rounds) its mostly in mercinary weapons as they are capable of disintegrating the target, alternatively it can be used for armor penetration when the need arises. As for why you mostly only see mandalorians use them is because high powered bolts produce more heat and can melt the barrels of blasters, mandalorians likely just have stronger blasters and require the high powered rounds to penatrate weaker beskar. (these are more than likely the blaster bolts that boil your entire body from the inside out) Green bolts are most definitely chambered (using that term loosely here) in a different way and are presumably stuck on a singular setting but have more damaging potential. Theyre mostly seen on capital ships in the form of turbo lazer cannons and can likely be more powerful than yellow/high powered bolts, its possible they have more of a bluntlike impact rather than a penetration but thats just a spitball. As for why the naboo guard uses it is because it was the most powerful shot they had at the time and while they could put that kind of bolt in a hand-held blaster; they never stopped to think if they should. You can assume this kind of bolt gave more recoil than the standard shot, theres also a possibility that this kind of blast was a more cooled shot than the standard and could be fired rapidly. It seems to me that green could generally be a wildcard kind of bolt with handheld blasters, its capable of managing heavy hitting shots like pulse cannon blasts and S-5 shots while also being capable of firing at immense speeds with the CR-2. Ionized blasts i feel are a different class entirely. In this you have 2, electro staffs and bolts. Electro blasts are likely scaled by yellow to purple and its possible to link this to force lightnings yellow, blue, purple, red, black idea but ill stick with the video. Yellow is less powerful and probably meant for stun, this is why its on the yellow magna guards when fighting anakin and why kallus has yellow. You may ask; why does kallus have yellow? And thats because his bo-staff isnt supposed to be lethal, its supposed to incapacitate and capture. Thats also why everything else from grievous' magna guards to the purge troopers and royal guards used these purple staffs. Its possible that the staffs can shut down nervous systems yes but they can definitely do more as stated in the video, through prolonged exposure you could get vaporized by the electro blast but isnt likely. These were made to combat jedi and force users alike so them having the distinct ability to snuff out nerves would definitely be favorable towards non force users. Its also possible to shut down circuitry with them as well, making them good for ionizing both ships and droids alike depending on how its used. Alternatively it can be used as a power source or a propulsion agent which makes them suitable for next to everything, so while devastating its useful as hell. When it comes to bolts more-or-less the same; blue to purple. Clones are very obviously known users of the classic blue ionizing bolt and while they probably arent as effective as standard; theyre still good enough to put someone down with a single shot. Its my belief that the stun feature is more of a modification than a function on the blaster itself but this can be easily argued against. The reason i say that is because a bolt meant for damage is meant for damage, not incapacitation and it just doesnt seem like it fits with the core concept of a standard shot (again thats just my belief) Its no surprise these would be used on ships cause it just seems right but i think they are less powerful than standard and thats why most ships use standard. Purple shot may be the most powerful shot type in the galaxy and probably even the best but just never typically put into a blaster cause of how unstable it can be. These bolts are just rare in general and definitely use a different method of construction (much like the green bolts) so it can be fired safely. Purple bolts hold a higher ionizing charge than the blue variants and explode on impact due to this, making them something that youd typically not fire close range. Theyre definitely more suited for vehicles and are probably extremely expensive to manufacture, thats why very little ships use this kind of blast. As for hand-helds maybe there is a way to tone down the intensity of the bolt and make it more suitable for close quarters and while you can shoot an explosive super shot out of the gun; you probably shouldnt.

[@bh24x]

This sounds like what color blasters output is a science in its own right.

[@clashingimages]

There is a reason I love SWG and how it handles colors. Basically just has to do with the type of elemental damage.

[@whiteraven1992]

When I was younger, I liked to imagine that "purple"-hued blaster shots are significantly more powerful, whatever the energy source happens to be; inherently more expensive to produce in the Star Wars galaxy. Even turbolasers that are only meant to be anti-air guns (but not full-on cruiser cannons) hit harder than they would otherwise. Granted, dubbed anime from the _Mobile Suit Gundam_ franchise were also a big part of my childhood in the early 2000's, a franchise which [arguably] puts more effort into explaining the science behind it's fictional weaponry. Let's just say that pinkish/violet hued "beam" weapons (whether fired or contained as a "saber" blade) _really_ grew on me back then. ^ ...Dude, imagine if the Minovsky "miracle" particle was also a thing in Star Wars. Imagine the horrific/incredible damage that "mega-particle" guns would inflict. Anyway, back strictly into Star Wars, I've also seen [from the KotOR video games] that certain magenta/purple-hued crystals like "lorrdian" or "hurrikaine" gems ...heck, even "corusca gems".... used for focusing/enhancing lightsaber blades. At least one of these has *disruptor* properties when focused as an energy source, and another makes it much easier to _deflect_ opposing blaster-fire. They sound fuckin' _awesome_ to me, especially the "hurrikaine" crystals that [in Legends] Mace Windu once used.

[@SunnyHathSpokenLies]

The first game we see purple blaster bolts is actualy in "Star Wars Trilogy: Aprentice Of The Force" wich was only on gameboy advance and was released in 2004. You could have these kind of power ups in certain levels wich where different types of blaster bolts with limmited amount of shots wich all had specific effects. If I remember correctly, blue woud be auto fire with higher capacity (20 shots or something like that) but did the same amount of dammage of the standard red basic bolts (wich you could fire indefinitely), green would one shot pretry much every enemy you'd face but had a very limmited amount of ammo (10 if I remember correctly), then there's purple, wich you can only find once or twice in the entire game, it was a one shot like the green bolts but you could charge your shots and it would put down up to 4 enemies with a single bolt. It also had more ammo than the green one

[@CrashCraftLabs]

in my head cannon the colors tell who they are meant to target, red for flesh, green for shields, purple for dense armor, yellow for light armor and blue for droids which is why the stun setting is blue, also the stun setting can cause brain damage if used multiple times

[@RRPL337]

Wow, amazing video! 45 minutes of full enjoyment! I love your content, hope to see more :))

[@sebastianmoore4494]

Im only a minute in and I love your energy, I can tell this is going to be a good watch. This is interesting to me cause the color of blaster bolts is something that I haven’t really thought about. I am color blind but its not the rare black and white. I have been told by optometrists that I have red and green color blindness. The name confuses me because I can see red fine. I have trouble distinguishing some greens and yellows and mostly purples and blues with some pinks. Its guess work sometimes, but Im fine. But because of this I cant fully appreciate the specialness of purple lightsabers or blaster bolts as you portray. I just realized that I know that Mace Windu’s lightsaber is purple from interview clips when I was young, but it never stood out to me and I never thought anything of it. I cant imagine how disappointed I would be If I asked for a purple lightsaber to stand out and couldn’t see it in the end.

[@WaterBottle1256]

Going off topic I think it’s so funny even the sepritist put a glass box for the droids to be in next to the giant ion cannon but the imperial troopers just got a little platform without any handrails 😂

[@darkAwesome100]

In the battlefront games, most missile and bomb weapons work the same way. The faster they're going the more damage they do, and they need tone to reach max speed.

[@mattjk5299]

In other sci fi settings like Stellaris and Eve and a few other more grounded ones, it tends to be the case that less energetic lasers are easier to manufacture and develop and more and more energetic wavelengths are increasingly superior in damage. Ending in high UV and eventually gamma rays, though of course even as it goes outside of the visible spectrum. It's interesting despite it very quicky goes beyond reality in most settings. There's a couple of settings that use hardcore realism in the design of spaceborne weapons using NASA documents. So armor uses ablative shielding to disperse heat to radiators from IR lasers, drones and missiles are the "true" long range over horizon orbital weapon systems, ships are very easy to detect at range and close quarters are a mix of lasers and magnetic accelerator guns. Though i believe most large ship actions would be pretty much over instantly by use of tactical nuclear weapons - as is the case in "Children of a Dead Earth".

[@wikikomoto]

quick thing, the "focusing lens" is the crystal. yes. its a lens made of crystal. but also, the blue lasers in the THX re-release is due to improper colour grading during the digital transfer, there are multiple other scenes that are either washed out, or have "grey black" its just due to a bad conversion of the film. in the footage you show, you can actually still see the blasters as green a little bit around the edges. its because conversion from film stock to digital was still in its infancy at the time, it was a new technology and nobody really had an "ideal" or industry standard way to do it yet

[@tigdamch.6321]

The Magnaguards weapon makes sense (kindaish?). There's been a few attempts at rocket powered side arms over the years, if I recall both the USA and Soviets made their own version for spaceborn warefare. The rocket initially fires but then boosts up after launch, the longer the reaction went on the faster the projectile went. It was slower/less physical damage the closer to a target, up close it wasn't as leathal since the projectile hadn't gotten upto speed.

[@Gioeli76]

Also don't forget the Purple lasers of the Dark Reaper in The Clone Wars video game in the early 2000s.

[@D1pl0macyMan1fest]

27:35 Well AT-TEs had a really bad set of weaknesses that were heavily exploited by the CIS. For starters, the ball turret design was weaker compared to other turret designs and a direct shot would ignite the tibanna gas lines and not to mention that the pilot was sitting right on top of the AT-TEs mass driver ammo storage system, that missile that hit at the timeframe penetrated the hull right into the ammo and caused the whole thing to blow. The accordion design that separated the front from the back was a massive weakness that was often exploited and would lead to troop casualties sitting in that compartment which also housed the generators that ran the whole thing. The fuel reserves were on the underbelly and quite a few exploded due to AT-TE legs being blown off and the whole unit falling forward. Hail-fire droids were a direct counter to AT-TEs.

[@Gilgwathir]

I love how much time and energy the Star Wars fandom puts into trying to theorycraft Star Wars into the well crafted and coherent universe they deserve, rather than the hot steaming mess it was turned into by corporate greed. At the same time, this is also the reason why Hamilton's or Sanderson's stuff isn't turned into movies: the author crafted the world they created very very carefully and would never let any studio or director just ride roughshod over it to for coolness, cutness, and other marketability factors.

[@LastGoatKnight]

As far as I know how the OG canon goes, not the Disney Canon, Purple blasters use more expensive gases as fuel, while slightly more powerful than the most powerful common blaster color, green. It's rare because economically unviable, of course hand blasters are meant for the rich and the Geonosian fighters use it because they have an abundant amount of this type of gas. And you might think, then why the battledroids don't use it? The answer is simple, the E-5 is THE cheapest blaster, made by a different company that meant to be easily replacable and discardable, unlike the Clone Army's. Thus, they used the cheapest, least powerful fuelsource for it

[@ThatMloishClam]

The white blasting tie fighters actually looks sick though

[@NathanielJamesProd]

This was very interesting to watch while I worked.

[@MisterRorschach90]

I theorize that we have the technology to create those stun blaster bolts. We have those toy vortex cannons. They have made extreme hydraulic vortex cannons that shoot rings of gas at extreme speeds. Something like this could be modified to ionize a special gas, and then use some kind of rail or coil gun type mechanism to speed it up before leaving the barrel. Depending on the size of the ring, you could have stunning level bolts, or condense them into a small bolt with more power concentration, and the ability to go faster. Though I doubt it could be put into a blaster or rifle size weapon. Could be mounted on a large aircraft or a naval ship though.

[@Arsanthania]

In a lot of legends lore (and maybe even in cannon?) disruptor projectiles are colored purple, a weapon so dangerous it was outlawed by many governments.

[@addictedtojet]

TLDW different gases give different colors to the blaster bolts. Lucas was inspired by World War II, where the Allies used red tracers and the Axis used green. Green seems to be the best made of higher quality gas.

[@yoschiannik8438]

Theory: The color is dependant on how much energy a bolt radiats in flight. This means that red bolts can be high power that is more efficent and not radiating or low power. Purpole on the other hand is very high power and radiats a lot. This woukd mean that purpole beats high power red in cqc but but its damage drops of quicker than red.

[@CityMountain05]

One reason why the purple blast of the magna tri droids is explosive could be that they have such hich power that they vaporize whatever thy hit and the resulting pressure causes the explosion, that would be within the explanation that purple blast simply have a higher energy desity