A new video explains how the visual effects team behind The Acolyte created the finale’s most visually stunning moment: when Osha Aniseya bled Sol’s lightsaber. During the finale of The Acolyte, Osha took Sol’s lightsaber and killed him with the Force. That then caused Sol’s lightsaber to turn from blue to red in a process known as lightsaber bleeding. That moment allowed The Acolyte to reveal what the inside of a lightsaber looks like, and it also opened the door to create a truly stunning visual effect for the first live-action appearance of lightsaber bleeding.

The video, which was shared by Star Wars, shows how Industrial Light & Magic, a visual effects company with a long history in the franchise, brought lightsaber bleeding into live-action. Two high-level visual effects supervisors for ILM, Charmaine Chan and Julian Foddy, talked about the creative choices they made while depicting Osha bleeding Sol’s kyber crystal.

the stunning visuals of #TheAcolyte finale. For more can’t-miss effects from Julian Foddy and @ilmvfx’s Charmaine Chan, watch The Acolyte streaming on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/Ut2NRXHOX7 — Star Wars (@starwars) July 30, 2024

As they mentioned in the video, Chan and Foddy both wanted to illustrate that lightsaber bleeding is a process quite like having actual blood drip through the kyber crystal. They were able to very effectively convey that, as it was quite clear in The Acolyte that Osha’s rage was dripping into the crystal. Chan and Foddy, along with the rest of ILM, did a great job of making lightsaber bleeding a dramatic moment, and their work was worthy of being the first live-action appearance of the concept.

This Is The First Time We’ve Seen A Lightsaber Bleeding In Live-Action

The concept of lightsaber bleeding has been a fairly well-established part of Star Wars canon for years, but The Acolyte was the first to show it in live-action. Lightsaber bleeding made its first appearance in the comic Star Wars: Darth Vader (2017), and it has since become quite popular. It also appeared in The Rise of Kylo Ren, another comic, and it was even shown in animation in the video game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. While lightsaber bleeding has a fairly significant history in canon, The Acolyte still had some room to get creative in its depiction of the event.

The Acolyte was the first live-action appearance of lightsaber bleeding, but it was also a bit of a retcon. Jedi: Survivor established that a lightsaber’s blade simply switches from its previous color to red after bleeding, yet The Acolyte showed that Sol’s blade was gradually overtaken by the red coloring. That was a fairly minor retcon – it didn’t even make it onto the list of The Acolyte‘s biggest changes to canon – and it also allowed the show to make lightsaber bleeding even more of a spectacle.

It was almost certainly for the best that lightsaber bleeding’s first live-action appearance changed from Jedi: Survivor. Both instances of bleeding were great and visually stunning moments, but The Acolyte‘s had a bit more significance to its plot and characters. Chan and Foddy’s visual effects, and their decision to introduce a minor retcon, made Osha’s fall to the dark side even more climactic and tragic. It really emphasized the violent nature of a person falling to the dark side, and it was far and away one of The Acolyte‘s coolest moments.