Bichan's lightsaber

Bichan's lightsaber was wielded by the Sith Lord Bichan during a war between the Sith and the Jedi Order. He used the weapon, including the whip attached to its hilt, to kill at least eight Jedi during a duel, and he scarred the Jedi Padawan Toul's face with it. Later, Bichan dueled Toul with the lightsaber at the statues of prophecy on the planet Dolgarak. There, the Sith once again used his whip to immobilize the Jedi. However, Toul ultimately slew him.

Description

Bichan's lightsaber^[2] was a Sith lightsaber used by^[1] the Sith Lord Bichan.^[3] It had a red-colored blade and a dark hilt with brown and tan accents—including a two-pronged guard that extended for roughly a third of the hilt's length.^[1] Toward the blade end of the hilt was a red activation button.^[4] At the pommel of the lightsaber's hilt was attached a long whip composed of dark segments that could be telescopically extended and collapsed. The whip's rigidity could be varied, and its end featured a sharp tan blade with three glowing-red accents. In combat, Bichan used the lightsaber in both a single-handed and two-handed grip.^[1]

History

Defeating Jedi

Bichan wielded his lightsaber during a war waged between the Sith tradition of Force-users and the Jedi Order, their ideological antithesis,^[1] at some point by 1032 BBY.^[5] At one point, he was engaged in a duel with a group of at least nine Jedi and used the weapon to kill at least seven of them. Bichan then attempted to use an overhead strike with the lightsaber to kill the young Jedi Padawan Toul, but the latter's Jedi teacher intervened, parrying the Sith Lord's attack. Shortly thereafter, however, Bichan killed the older Jedi by impaling them in the back with the whip attached to his lightsaber.^[1]

After the Sith dropped the Jedi's body to the ground, Toul launched his own attack, but Bichan again used his whip, this time to disarm the Jedi apprentice and bind together his wrists. The Sith then immobilized Toul by briefly flinging him around in the air before lifting him up again. Intrigued by the rage displayed by Toul, Bichan invited the Jedi to search for him when he was ready to embrace the dark side of the Force and, further taunting him, used the tip of his lightsaber's blade to burn a scar at the right corner of Toul's mouth. Bichan then dropped the Padawan to the ground and, with his lightsaber still ignited, left the scene of the duel.^[1]

Final duel

Some time later, after Bichan had encountered Toul again^[1] at a marketplace asteroid,^[6] he followed the Jedi while he traveled on a mission to the planet Dolgarak. Bichan shot down the starship used by Toul and^[1] the mechanic^[7] Ara, but the pair exited the wreckage of their crashed craft aboard a speeder and caused Bichan's vessel to crash-land as well. Bichan, however, survived and leaped onto the top of the speeder, lightsaber ignited, as it began to climb a spiraling pathway leading up one of the planet's two statues of prophecy. With Toul also climbing atop the speeding vehicle, the pair engaged in a lightsaber duel that continued as Ara drove the speeder off the statue's hand and above the cloud cover obscuring the heads of the statues.^[1]

Bichan and Toul both leaped to the large stone ring connecting the heads and resumed their confrontation. At one point, the pair crashed into the cavern-like interior of the ring, where Bichan plunged his lightsaber's blade into a crystal pillar in order to slow his descent. The Sith and the Jedi continued their fight inside the ring, with their lightsaber strikes occasionally generating purple-colored energy discharges and Bichan at one point using the whip of his weapon to lash out at Toul.^[1]

Ultimately, the two combatants re-emerged atop the ring, where Bichan managed to disarm his opponent. He then wrapped his whip around Toul's neck and held him above the edge of the ring's surface, giving him the ultimatum of either joining him or perishing. At that point, however, Ara caused a distraction that allowed Toul to regain his own weapon and kill Bichan. The Sith Lord's body and lightsaber then both remained atop the stone ring while Toul fell toward the ground at the statues' base, followed by the parachute-wearing Ara with the aim of catching him mid-air.^[1]

Behind the scenes

Debut

Bichan's lightsaber was created for "Journey to the Dark Head,"^[1] the fifth episode of the second volume of the Star Wars: Visions non-canon animated anthology television series, which was produced by^[8] the South Korean^[9] Studio Mir and premiered on Disney+ on May 4, 2023.^[8] Prior to the episode's release, the weapon was first depicted in the April 10, 2023 official trailer for Visions' second volume,^[10] and it was named by the installment of the Star Wars: Visions Filmmaker Focus series of featurettes accompanying the episode.^[11]

Design

Concept art of Bichan's lightsaber was made by the artists Kim Hyun Min and Choi Ji Hyeon.^[12] The concept art pieces depicted the blade emitter of the lightsaber as being able to detach from its hilt while attached to an extendable, flexible tubular component similar to^[13] the whip attachment of the lightsaber seen in the episode; however, the finished work did not showcase this feature.^[1]

According to Studio Mir's Art Director Kang You Tae, while designing Bichan, giving him weapons such as a tonfa or a "trident lightsaber" was initially considered.^[11] The latter design, illustrated in a 2022 concept art piece by Kim Il Kwang, was a black-and-gray, long-handled weapon with three blade emitters that were mounted in parallel at the end of its handle. The emitters could be spread laterally away from each other, and the weapon had a number of embedded glowing elements. The illustration also depicted Bichan pointing the unignited weapon at the face of a captured individual.^[14] Another early design for the lightsaber depicted it with two blade emitters attached to cords that ran along the length of Bichan's arms, potentially hidden by the long sleeves of his attire.^[15]

Ultimately, however, the lines and characteristics of Bichan reminded the creative team of a snake, and consequently the design of his weapon morphed into the "snake-like"^[11] whip attached to the lightsaber^[1]—a weapon that, according to Kang, reflected Bichan's character. Attempts by sound supervisor Kim Suk Won—who used Korean musical instruments to design new lightsaber sound effects in "Journey to the Dark Head"—to enable the audience to distinguish between the good and evil characters in the episode by sound alone led to a human voice sample being used to create a "ghostly" sound for Bichan's weapon.^[11]

Appearances

• Star Wars: Visions — "Journey to the Dark Head" (First appearance)

Sources

• Star Wars Celebration LIVE! 2023 - DAY 4 on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link) (First pictured)
• Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 | Official Trailer | Disney+ on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link) (Posted on StarWars.com)
• Star Wars: Visions Filmmaker Focus — "A Global Vision" (Video clip only)
• Star Wars: Visions Filmmaker Focus — "Journey to the Dark Head" (First identified as Bichan's lightsaber)
• Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 - Featurette on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link) (Posted on StarWars.com) (Picture only)
• Topps NOW Star Wars: Visions Journey to the Dark Head Card: Toul & Bichan duel (backup link) (Picture only)
• Visions Revisited: 5 Highlights from "Journey to the Dark Head" on StarWars.com (backup link) (Picture only)
• "Journey to the Dark Head" Episode Guide | Star Wars Visions Volume 2 on StarWars.com (backup link)
• Star Wars: Card Trader Set: Year in Review - 2023, Card: Bichan (Picture only)
• Star Wars Celebration - DAY 1 Replay on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link) (livestream no longer available) (Picture only)
• Star Wars Celebration - DAY 3 Replay on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link) (livestream no longer available)

Notes and references