We all know the line: General Grievous snatches Obi-Wan’s saber and says, “Your lightsabers will make a fine addition to my collection.” It’s become a meme, but under the joke there actually is a clear in-universe logic. Grievous isn’t just hoarding random trophies. He’s turning the Jedi’s own weapon into proof of his reputation and a tool to hurt the Order.
Trophies From Dead Jedi
On the surface level, the reason is simple. Grievous collects sabers because they belonged to Jedi he’s defeated.
Revenge of the Sith already shows this plainly. When he captures Obi-Wan and Anakin on the Invisible Hand, the first thing he does is take their weapons and add them to what he calls his “collection.”
And The Clone Wars makes the hobby literal. In “Lair of Grievous,” his home is introduced as a horror-show “display of trophies from murdered Jedi,” and Kit Fisto even examines a lightsaber in the lair that’s identified as belonging to Jedi Master Neebo, a quiet confirmation that these aren’t props or decorations, they’re the spoils of Jedi who never made it home.
Grievous claims sabers from fallen Jedi and keeps them, he keeps them as trophies and as extra weapons he can pull out when he wants. He isn’t a Sith, he doesn’t bleed his own kyber crystal, and he doesn’t forge a personal blade. Dooku trains him in lightsaber combat and literally hands him a stolen Jedi weapon to start with. From there, Grievous just keeps adding more.
Why He Targets Jedi and Their Sabers
If you want the deeper ‘why’ behind his obsession, most of that comes from Legends. That version of his story is what explains why it had to be Jedi lightsabers and not just any weapon.
Before the cybernetics, Grievous (Qymaen jai Sheelal) was a Kaleesh warlord in the Huk War, and that whole setup is spelled out in Abel G. Peña’s Legends backstory “Unknown Soldier: The Story of General Grievous”. When the Yam’rii started losing, they appealed to the Republic, and the Republic Judicial Department sent Jedi to adjudicate the conflict. The Jedi ruled against the Kaleesh and hit Kalee with sanctions and reparations, leaving the planet economically devastated. In that aftermath, the story is blunt: Grievous grows to hate not just the Republic, but “the Jedi who served it.”
And that hatred is exactly what his future handlers exploit. In Peña’s version, the shuttle “accident” is engineered, his broken body is recovered, and he’s rebuilt into the Separatists’ cyborg general. Count Dooku then shapes him into a Jedi-killer by training him in lightsaber combat, and once Grievous starts dropping Jedi, taking the saber becomes a ritual, not a joke.
Every time he kills another one, taking their saber is the obvious next step. It’s a habit that grows out of who he is. He hates the Jedi Order. He has been pointed at them and told they are the enemy. He has been trained with their weapon. Keeping those blades close is his way of carrying his vendetta on his hip.
He isn’t just stockpiling nice gear. He is hanging onto souvenirs from the people he blames for what happened to him and his species.
When Grievous Started Collecting Lightsabers
In the Legends backstory we’re using, the collection starts right after Grievous becomes a cyborg. He recovers for months, then gets thrown into the early Clone Wars fighting on Geonosis. In the catacombs, he helps the Separatist leadership escape by tearing through clone troopers and killing Jedi. That’s the point where he starts taking lightsabers and keeping them. It isn’t a later habit he picks up over time — it begins with his first “real” success as the new Grievous.
The same source also ties his first lightsaber to Dooku. After that first showing, Dooku starts training him seriously and gives him a Jedi’s lightsaber to use (Sifo-Dyas’). So from the start, Grievous’ whole thing is built around the same idea: he fights Jedi with their own weapon, and he keeps the proof.