Anakin and his lightsabers...

[Jedi Guardian]

...I've been wondering for a while.

Anakin's AOTC lightsaber is basically the same design as his later lightsabers as Darth Vader, except for the coloring and all.

....why the sudden change of styles for ROTS, then?   It seems obvious that Anakin likes the hilt design of his AOTC one, since he builds another like it, right?

[WEDGE ANTILLES]

IIRC the original design for Vader's ANH saber back in 1976 called for the hilt to be all black. 
Lucas probably left the silver accents on Vader's otherwise "black" MPP to represent the hope for his redemption.

the saber in ATOC is anakin's first saber, and I suspect that it looks like the Vader MPP saber for a reason.
as you pointed out, its basically the same design, except for the color.
(more chrome = a lean to the "light side" ; more black = a lean to the "dark side")
I think that was done for symbollic reasons, more than anything else.

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as for the saber in ROTS,
it was always doomed to mirror the Graflex flashgun that was used to make Luke's saber :P

I have two possible "explanations" for why the design might have changed,  from anakin's POV:
1) there was a War going on at the time it was built.  LOL. and who has time to bother with the emitter shroud during a war?
other than that, its basically the same design (same length, same grips) so really there's not much difference.  its just missing some cosmetic detail.
that's perfectly understandable during a war.
look at Obiwan's.   his is (also) the same basic design that he used before, but its missing most of its 'coverings'. perfectly understandable during a War. :P
2)the mechanical hand.  the ATOC and ROTS sabers feel the same in the left habnd, where the grips are,
but on the forward hand (the right hand) its a different saber.   
Anakin might have changed his design to accomodate his mechanical hand.
---> his new hand in the suit as "Vader" was more "life-like" and he went back to his original design.

[Dark Skywalker]

Also Anakin's AOTC lightsaber was made that way to show a connection between the OT and the PT, to show he is like Vader, as the ROTS lightsaber it had to be the same as the one in ANH or else the movies wouldn't make sense.

[Nestea341]

Wow. I never knew the appearance of the hilt could mean a lot of things to the story.

[Wat-Gav Martra]

There is also the fact that when Anakin constructed his saber in the crystal cave on Ilum he had a dark side vision then woke up to find the hilt in his lap with no memory of constructing it.

[Knuckle01]

There is also the fact that when Anakin constructed his saber in the crystal cave on Ilum he had a dark side vision then woke up to find the hilt in his lap with no memory of constructing it.

which hilt....the AOTC or ROTS?

[PADME AMIDALA]

There is also the fact that when Anakin constructed his saber in the crystal cave on Ilum he had a dark side vision then woke up to find the hilt in his lap with no memory of constructing it.

which hilt....the AOTC or ROTS?

The ATOC hilt.
You can read about it in the Star Wars databank.

[benlurkin]

Don't forget the prop makers had to link the PT with the OT since the Anakin ROTS is the same saber as Luke ANH supposedly.  But how they are the same is beyond me (and yes I know the  Obi tinkering theory).  After all the plot holes Lucas created to link the trilogies together you'd think he'd just have used the graflex hilt again. And that's without going into the fact that he forgot to shoot the scene where Obi-wan picks up the saber and had to re-shoot it.

As for the Vader saber if you go back to the whole Anakin gives Sidious his saber/Sidious takes his saber to fight Mace scene sequece that was cut, afterwards Sidious was supposed to have given him the red saber.  Fits pretty well with the mysterious vision lightsaber actually, but misses the whole handed down saber idea so it was cut (plus Sid's saber is so cool so its an advantage there too).

[AAYLA SECURA]

I think Anakin's AOTC saber is meant to reflect Vader's, as several have pointed out. If not for the sake of linking the two trilogies, it shows that Anakin and Vader are the same person. It's a connection.

In ROTS it's different because it has to be the same one that Obi-Wan gave to Luke. That's the real reason, though I'd imagine that Anakin built his second one a little better than the first, since he'd lost it and damaged in on a couple occasions. The ROTS saber isn't as fancy, but sometimes building a better saber probably means parting with some of the flashiness. ;)

Of course, Anakin's ROTS saber does differ from the one Obi-Wan gives Luke. It's actually not so different from the ANH Luke saber, except for the control box and a slight change in the upper left button. Of course, this saber is completely reversed from both the Anakin ROTS and Luke ESB. That part is pretty hard to explain. :)

I consider Vader's ANH and ESB sabers to be the same saber. I imagine that Vader simply replaced the graflex in the period between ANH and ESB. I only wonder what happened with his ROTS Vader saber.

[Jedi Guardian]

Hey Aayla.

Were you speaking of the saber that actually isn't in ROTS, but they made a prop and some replicas for it anyway?  I believe that's his Sith Apprentice saber, and he never really uses it in any of the movies as far as I can tell.

I've always wondered what happens to his saber between ESB and ROTJ, since they're different.   He's Darth Vader....no other Jedi at the time, and Luke is still training during that year or so.   What, does he drop it down a reactor shaft by mistake or something?

...just to add on a little personal note, I actually like Anakin's AOTC saber.   I think the chrome looks good on that....maybe even looks better than the Vader ones with the black..

[AAYLA SECURA]

Hey Aayla.

Were you speaking of the saber that actually isn't in ROTS, but they made a prop and some replicas for it anyway?  I believe that's his Sith Apprentice saber, and he never really uses it in any of the movies as far as I can tell.

I've always wondered what happens to his saber between ESB and ROTJ, since they're different.   He's Darth Vader....no other Jedi at the time, and Luke is still training during that year or so.   What, does he drop it down a reactor shaft by mistake or something?

...just to add on a little personal note, I actually like Anakin's AOTC saber.   I think the chrome looks good on that....maybe even looks better than the Vader ones with the black..

Yes, I was referring to Vader's ROTS saber at the end of my post. It's my favorite of all hilts, actually. :)

From what I understand the Vader ANH and ESB props were lost, so the props department had to develop a new lightsaber for Vader in ROTJ. I don't know why they couldn't just replicate his ESB saber, because I totally dislike his ROTJ saber. :(

[Jedi Guardian]

You like his ROTS saber?    Funny that you like a saber they never used.... ;D      I guess it would have made sense if they had actually included it in the xxx film..

...what does his ROTJ hilt look like, again?  I remember it having more black than the others, but I forgot.   Does anyone have a good picture of the hilt?

[xwingband]

Hey Aayla.

Were you speaking of the saber that actually isn't in ROTS, but they made a prop and some replicas for it anyway?  I believe that's his Sith Apprentice saber, and he never really uses it in any of the movies as far as I can tell.

I've always wondered what happens to his saber between ESB and ROTJ, since they're different.   He's Darth Vader....no other Jedi at the time, and Luke is still training during that year or so.   What, does he drop it down a reactor shaft by mistake or something?

...just to add on a little personal note, I actually like Anakin's AOTC saber.   I think the chrome looks good on that....maybe even looks better than the Vader ones with the black..

Yes, I was referring to Vader's ROTS saber at the end of my post. It's my favorite of all hilts, actually. :)

From what I understand the Vader ANH and ESB props were lost, so the props department had to develop a new lightsaber for Vader in ROTJ. I don't know why they couldn't just replicate his ESB saber, because I totally dislike his ROTJ saber. :(

It was simple.  They didn't have any MPP flashes left but had plenty of Graflex's.  So they dressed it up.  It was used in dark scenes so for quite a while no one knew.

[benlurkin]

From partsofsw.com:



The ROTJ isn't great but its definitely better than the ROTS, I'm not sure if its the fact that it's never on screen or just more no-graflex backlash (from Anakin's ROTS saber) but never quite sat right with me.

Here is the ROTS to be compete:



(From MR)

[Jedi Guardian]

Thank you, Luke.

I've always wanted a closer look at that thing.    ...still, I wonder why Vader had to get a new saber between those two...  the real, in-character reason..