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Has a cross-guard lightsaber ever been fictionalized previously in the Star Wars universe of any canon? Or is this a new saber technology completely written for the new Star Wars film?

I'm unsure how Disney works the canon now in the Star Wars universe. I did find this article on the Star Wars wikia, but I'm not sure how canon that article is.

cross-guard lightsaber gif

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    @Jared - No such thing exists any more. "As of April 25, 2014, the only previously published materials that are considered canon are the six Star Wars films and the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series and film, while the Expanded Universe is no longer considered canon and was re-termed as the "Legends" brand."; starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Canon
    – Valorum
    Nov 30 '14 at 22:15
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    That thing looks like the perfect opportunity to stab or dismember yourself...
    – Mario
    Dec 1 '14 at 7:50
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    Surely the fact that it appears in an official movie is canon enough?
    – Moo
    Dec 1 '14 at 12:12
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    Fewer kids will get their knuckles skinned in lightsabre swordplay. Canon-wise, those sideways light-daggers look like a good way to chop off your own arm in a fight. Guards are supposed to guard, not endanger.
    – Wayfaring Stranger
    Dec 1 '14 at 13:35
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    @Moo - Well, it appears in the trailer for a movie. That's not to say that it'll actually appear in the movie; tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MissingTrailerScene
    – Valorum
    Dec 2 '14 at 15:34
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There are various mentions of forked or "cross-guard" lightsabers in the Expanded Universe comics but zero mentions in the properties now deemed as fully canon by Lucasfilms (e.g. the 6 feature films, the Clone Wars film and TV series and the Rebels TV series.).

In the comic Star Wars: Republic 61: Dead Ends we have a pretty good image of Jedi master Roblio Darté using a lightsaber with a single crosspiece:

enter image description here

seen again in Star Wars : Purge : Last Stand of the Jedi

enter image description here

And this image of an unnamed Jedi from the Jedi Academy Training Manual, again with a single guard.

enter image description here

Interestingly, the cross-guard was apparently (according to Lucasfilm's creative art manager, Phil Szostak) inspired by the original artwork for A New Hope.

Per twitter;

The lateral beams emanating from Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber in Tom Jung’s 1977 posters for the original Star Wars (aka Episode IV: A New Hope) inspired the crossguard design of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber for The Force Awakens.

enter image description here

enter image description here

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  • Is it shown in the comics, how this single guard was used? Because it has the same apparent design flaw that the lightsaber in the teaser has. If the material of the shaft is not made of something light saber resistent, it could be cut off and would not protect the user's hand, if it is made of something resistent, there would be no need to have the additional beam.
    – Axel
    Dec 2 '14 at 15:29
  • @Axel - In the words of Tina Turner, what you see is what you get.
    – Valorum
    Dec 2 '14 at 15:31
  • Okay, then we probably have to wait till next December for some clarification :)
    – Axel
    Dec 2 '14 at 15:45
  • That looks ridiculous. Then again, so does Sinya's lightsaber tonfa things.
    – Omegacron
    Feb 25 '15 at 21:17
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Adding an answer based on a new main canon Development.

In the mid-season 2 trailer for Star Wars: Rebels we see:

Ezra holding a green crossguard lightsaber. enter image description here

So, chronologically speaking, Kylo Ren is not the first one to use a true T cross guard style lightsaber. So excited for Rebels now!

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    The saber that Ezra finds was apparently stable. This would seem to contradict the statement that the lateral vents were necessary to vent the cracked crystal's power.
    – Damien Lavizzo
    Apr 5 '16 at 20:40
  • @DamienLavizzo - The vents were needed to vent the power from Kylo Ren's Khyber crystal. Presumably the crystal in Ezra's saber isn't unstable.
    – Valorum
    Jul 1 '16 at 17:16
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In answer to your question on canon, Disney == canon now. Only the movies and their directly related media in terms of novelizations, comics and video games are now canon. Also included are Clone Wars and Rebels animated series and their related material. All previous EU material is now considered "Legend" and not strictly canon.

In regards to the cross-guard, if you mean specifically this design as opposed to cross-guards in general (which Richard covered):

This cross-guard is old and unique

From the wiki article:

The lightsaber was crudely assembled based on an ancient design dating back thousands of years to the Great Scourge of Malachor, and thus featured seldom-seen crossguard blades. A single cracked Kyber crystal, barely able to contain the weapon's power, necessitated the lateral vents which produced these crossguard quillons and gave the weapon's red plasma blades an unstable, serrated appearance.

So in terms of canon, this lightsaber has never been seen as it pre-dates the events of TPM by a millennia or so. Second, it's unique to even that design because of the jagged appearance of the blade itself which is specifically due to Kylo's crystal.

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