As Star Wars fans, we all understand how every character brings their own style to the way they wield a lightsaber. We’ve seen Count Dooku’s elegant one-handed fencing stance, Anakin’s aggressive and relentless strikes, and Obi-Wan’s careful, defensive form that wears opponents down.
But then there’s Starkiller from The Force Unleashed — and he’s on a completely different level. He didn’t just fight with a lightsaber. He turned his lightsaber into a weapon unlike anything else we’ve seen, supercharging it with the raw power of the Force itself.
Let’s dive into how Starkiller created one of the most insanely powerful lightsabers in Star Wars.
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Starkiller’s Story
From Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, released in 2008, we learn how Darth Vader secretly trained his own apprentice. After finding a Force-sensitive child on Kashyyyk, Vader raised and trained Starkiller in the shadows, molding him into a living weapon.
Right from the start of the game, we see Starkiller wielding a red lightsaber, just like any Sith apprentice would. As part of his brutal training, Vader handed him the red-bladed saber, a weapon built for one thing: destruction. This wasn’t a blade crafted for elegant dueling or careful defense. It was designed to channel Starkiller’s raw aggression, his growing connection to the dark side, and his role as Vader’s hidden assassin.
However, everything changed when Starkiller eventually turned against Vader. After his death at the end of The Force Unleashed, the clone of Starkiller who awakens in The Force Unleashed II is no longer an obedient servant of the Sith. Breaking free from Vader’s control, the clone forges his own path and builds his own lightsabers, no longer tied to the red blade that once symbolized his servitude. From that point on, his weapons reflect his independence, and the war raging inside him between the light and the dark.
Why Starkiller’s Lightsaber Is Powerful
As his mastery of the dark side grew, he developed a way to enhance his lightsaber attacks beyond anything the Jedi or Sith had ever seen. Drawing on the Force ability called Lightning Shield, Starkiller learned how to wrap his own body in crackling arcs of Force lightning. But instead of keeping the shield centered on himself as protection, he pushed it outward, channeling the lightning along the length of his lightsaber blade. This technique effectively supercharged his weapon, making every swing not just a physical strike, but an explosion of searing electricity.
We see this clearly during gameplay when Starkiller’s attacks leave enemies staggered, electrocuted, or even disintegrated after a few hits. Against droids and shielded enemies especially, the charged saber tore through defenses that would have easily stopped a normal lightsaber. This wasn’t Force lightning being thrown separately — it was merged into every movement, turning the blade into a living conduit of the Force. Starkiller’s fighting style became more brutal, more chaotic, and almost impossible to counter, because his lightsaber wasn’t just cutting anymore. It was burning, shocking, and breaking apart anything that got in his way.
Bonus: The Secrets Behind Starkiller’s Kyber Crystals
The crystals Starkiller used weren’t traditional Jedi crystals, nor were they relics passed down through some ancient ceremony. They were synthetic — built under intense pressure, designed purely for strength and destruction.
In The Force Unleashed II, we even see how Starkiller could swap between different crystals depending on what he needed in battle. Some boosted his Force powers, others made his saber strikes hit harder, and a few were so unstable they caused enemies to disintegrate on contact. His lightsabers weren’t just weapons — they were extensions of the chaos inside him, fueled by crystals that were never meant for balance, only for war.