ST How Luke lost light saber got to Maz Kanata?

ok.

 

It's so quick and hard to make out that it's hard to tell. For example, for years I assumed that it was Luke's blaster, because he was still using them in ESB. So it'd be easy enough for them to write it off as "no it wasn't the lightsaber that fell," especially since Luke spent almost five minutes chatting with Pappa Vader AFTER he lost his hand/the saber.

 

The possibility of Kylo searching out the lightsaber and finding it somewhere is strong: he seems quite tenacious about ferreting out Vader icons. He's got the remnants of Vader's helmet and rest of his head apparatus (probably with some residual Vader ashes inside).

What he cannot have is Vader's last lightsaber which preceded Palpatine down the high energy shaft. If indeed the blue lightsaber made some circuitous journey from Cloud City to another location and Kylo learned of that location, he would have gone after it. Once obtained, or nearly obtained, it slipped his grasp, probably by theft. That could have been either Maz herself, or someone Maz was familiar with.

He would have recognized it, and believed he had a valid claim on it.

 

Vader's Lightsaber apparently did survive that fall, because it was in the book Aftermath. (And yes, I know that in the book the characters don't really know for sure that they are dealing with the authentic lightsaber but IMHO it is made clear to the reader that it was legit).

 

The Acolytes of the Beyond are unsure. We have this thread with a lot of head scratching about Luke's saber and what happened after Luke lost it and his hand. As hard as it is to get our arms around that one, a semi-believable story about Vader's - after going down the shaft and blowing up with the Death Star - is a tough row to hoe. But, then again, this is Star Wars. As it is, Kylo gives us no indication he is hot for that one since obviously it is not readily available on Space e-Bay at the time of the film.

 

Time passed, and people would no doubt be high-tailing it out of the Death Star 2 with the battle going on given what happened to DS1. It falls down a shaft and ends up somewhere and someone on their way out sees it and knows they are sitting on a gold-mine if they get out alive.

Why do I suddenly feel like I'm in Clerks?

My thinking (as others have mentioned) has been that Snoke will be handing this over to him in Episode 8. The visual of Anakin's two sabers being wielded against one another is just too good to pass up on.

 

The TFA shooting schedule may also have some pointers on what happened to the saber.
http://millenniumfalcon.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=9790

EXT NIGHT - 01 - SPACE - SAVANNAH • A Sword tumbles through space, crashes toward ground

EXT DAY - 02 - SAVANNAH • Sword lands - dawn into day - a strange hand appears


EXT DAY - 192 - SAVANNAH • Reprise Hand takes sword, we reveal Naka

EXT NIGHT - 193 - SAVANNAH - PEASANT'S HOVEL • Peasant is using the sword as a firestarter

EXT DAY - 194 - SAVANNAH - PEASANT'S HOVEL • Local trader buys sword off of Naka

EXT NIGHT - 195 - SAVANNAH • Local trader already has sold the sword on

EXT NIGHT - 196 - BATTLEFIELD • A battle rages. The sword is being used.


INT DAY - 208 - CASTLE • Maz Kanata walks the group through the Castle interiour

EXT NIGHT - 209 - CASTLE • Kylo Ren and his Knights at campfire. Maz Kanata steals sword

INT DAY - 210 - CASTLE STAIRCASE • Walking down stairs, Maz Kanata reveals she stole it.

EXT NIGHT - 211 - MOUNTAIN SIDE • Reveal Maz Kanata on Speeder, she has the sword

 

I always believed this was a piece of the weathervane put on to dramatically show the audience the magnitude of Luke's situation. It's a long long way down.

 

Maybe Kylo didn't find it, but Maz / Leia did. Maybe Leia kept it inside her drawers and little Ben grew up watching it. "It's your grandad's/uncle Luke's lightsaber. Someday It'll be yours".

 

There were two scenarios laid out in the old EU. The first was in Marvel Comics, which showed that Luke had his blue lightsaber again, hinting that he probably went back for it right away. The second scenario was depicted in a short story written by West End Games, which tells you that the Ugnaughts on Cloud City had come across it in a junk pile, and that Vader later came looking for it. The Marvel Comic version implies (to me, that is) that Luke decided not to use his father's anymore, and in hoping to find his own identity as a soon to be Jedi had decided to fashion one of his own design. The second was stated in the Thrawn Trilogy that it was recovered by Vader and was taken to the Emperor as some sort of trophy, and that it was later discovered on Wayland and used by a Luke Skywalker clone.

Where the lightsaber ended up, one could surmise that in the Marvel scenario Luke kept it for safekeeping on Tatooine — probably in old Obi-Wan's desert adobe where look built his own. The Thrawn Trilogy tells us that Mara Jade ended up with it as a gift from Luke.

Now, if one were to take pieces of both scenarios, one could surmise that the lightsaber was never truly lost, and that a: Luke went back for it himself, or b: Vader did — the only other person who knew of it. I myself like to think that it was the former, since Luke knew it was really important that he did.

How Maz Kanata came to possess it isn't that hard to imagine, if you think about it. I'm guessing that Luke had given it to his "wife" (if there ever was one), and after she and his students were murdered by the Knights of Ren, Luke recovered it again from Kylo, after the latter had taken it from his aunt's body and lost possession of it to his uncle in battle. And as a stopover to finding the Jedi Temple, maybe Luke felt that his friend Maz Kanata should hold onto it for safekeeping since he himself had no use for it.

I'm guessing that the young Ben Solo coveted the lightsaber ever since he heard that it had once belonged to his grandfather, the legendary Darth Vader. Or perhaps Luke took it back from Ben Solo, when the boy had shown signs that he was losing his way to the dark side. Whatever the case, Kylo Ren recognized the lightsaber and thought that it belonged to him — that could only imply that at one time it might have, either literally or deservedly so.

 

Yes, yes! To DARTHVENGERDARTHSEAR you listen!