ST The Lightsaber Discussion Thread

i definitely think that lightsaber wants nothing to do with kylo ren. hahaha

i actually really think it's possible rey's staff is made up of at least one lightsaber in disguise. maybe it was left with her since the beginning. also it would make her identifiable to whoever she belongs with later.

"try not to lose it. this staff is your life." lol

regarding darth vader's lightsaber, do we actually know it fell into the shaft with the emperor??? how do we know luke didn't take it when he helped vader out? nvm, it did. i got it now.

except there's a problem:

sniffles.

 

Or her staff could be the Cryo Staff which is a Sith artifact.

Many possibilities.

Also the Acolytes of the Beyond were believed to have purchased Vader's red saber from a merchant.

They intended to destroy it in order to 'return' it to him in the afterlife.

 

idk, i may have to accept sometimes a staff is just a staff...

http://www.starwars.com/databank/reys-quarterstaff

 

It does make you think....

 

Proof that Rey is Maul's long lost relative.

 

The ST has given this saber some One Ring-like qualities related to path and destiny and former ownership.

In TFA the saber calls to Rey. Perhaps it's because she represented its best hope of getting back to Luke Skywalker, it's sole remaining Skywalker owner with significant history to it. Perhaps it's because it hadn't been used by a Dark Side user in a very long time. Perhaps it's because Kylo Ren hadn't fully reached the next stage of his connection to the Dark Side and Rey's connection with the light, based on all of her optimism and hope, was stronger. Perhaps it's all of these combined. However, when Rey and Kylo Ren first both try to pull it it in TFA it favors Rey and her path to Skywalker.

Luke discards and rejects it though and wants no part of it. And from his rejection on forward it seems the saber has become neutral again and, for lack of a better description, more conflicted on its own destiny and who to call out toward next. Rey continues to wield it but it's Kylo Ren who uses it for its most significant Dark Side kill in decades. And he wants it and is the last member of the Skywalker family who does.

When both of them repeat the same moment from TFA it's no longer calling out to Rey as it was before. It's conflicted and Johnson shows that conflict in a close up that leads to both Light and Dark side users, with varying degrees of history and bloodline ties to it, to split apart. It's connection to the light has been diminished perhaps by again being a weapon for the Dark as it had been in Anakin's hands. Kylo Ren could also be stronger with the Dark Side following his ambitious kill. Last but not least it could also be that he is the last in the Skywalker family that wants it that leads to the conflict.

The conflict is so intense that the saber literally splits in two. Rey ends up with both pieces but I really enjoy the personification given to the inanimate object in much the same way that the One Ring had an ethereal quality. The saber has been significant in the Skywalker saga and it's finally been broken by light and dark side conflict. Anyone else find the recall to TFA and the difference in outcome interesting?

 

Huh. Never really thought about it.

Perhaps with Luke closing himself off from the Force, the Force attempted to achieve balance through Rey, thus calling Rey to the saber, giving Rey visions of the past/future, leading her to Luke, and greatly empowering her, and so, the saber goes to Rey instead of Kylo.

And when Snoke dies, we only have one on the dark side and one on the light. The playing field is more or less even, and so it doesn't go either way.

 

Hmmm. That's another interesting way to think about things including the power creep in general.

 

I see the saber as highly, highly symbolic.

Reminds me of the opening TFA shot they had in mind.

 

Anakin's lightsaber seems to represent balance in he middle of Rey and Kylo. Kylo most definitely has a grip on it now where he didnt before.

Rather than the ring Id compare it to Narsil. What does its breakage represent? The broken balance and the broken Skywalker family. Its reforging should resolve those two issues.

Im not a fan of Rey keeping the lightsaber. It feels wrong to me. Creating a lightsaber means putting alot of the jedi into it, like the kyber resonates with the Jedi. Finding her own Kyber, making her own weapon is a right of passage she needs to do. She has seemingly no connection to Anakin. This weapon is framed as a family emblem, Luke imagines himself with it in his final moments, not greenie. So either it needs to be reforged Aragorn style when the Skywalkers find their feet again or it should fall into legend.

 

JJ left the film open for Rey Skywalker and Rian dropped the ball big time.

 

I get the idea of the saber as a powerful relic with a will of it's own, but I'm surprised no one mentioned it as an Excalibur-parallel. The Excalibur parallel has been specifically been mentioned by material covering the making of TFA. The scene where it's imbedded in the snow is that Sword in the Stone moment, the worthy One will be able to take it up and wield it. The OP has the right idea, but the wrong object. I think the Lord of the Rings connection doesn't have to be completely dismissed, as TLJ feels very much like a post-LotR Star Wars movie. The saber might also be looked at in comparison to Aragorn's sword, which lays dormant in shattered shards before being reforged. I agree that the tug-of-war between Kylo and Rey is important; the saber has taken on a life of it's own, and initially refused Kylo, and maybe Luke's rejection has an impact on it's sense of identity.

I disagree with the idea that Rian Johnson dropped the ball, because he didn't make Rey a Skywalker. I think the director did put some thought into the saber having an identity, and a role in it's own destiny. Any individual may not be happy with a decision about taking a character in a desired direction; doesn't mean that he dropped the ball.

Returning to the OP's ideas, I think there's some very good ideas here, but I want to reiterate my own personal resistance to the One Ring comparison. The One Ring was evil, and taints and corrupts, even through the "best of intentions." That's not The Lightsaber's jam, man. It's a weapon, or a tool. It can and has been used for good or evil. Maybe there's something to be said for the thematic critique of weaponizing in TLJ; the saber may have decided to let itself be pulled apart by the light and dark, as a function of giving up it's role as a weapon. Now it's two shards of a relic that was once a weapon, with the crystal heart exposed. Maybe the crystal is more important that the weapon itself, since it's the real heart, and it's nature may be fundamentally more vast than just being diminished as only an important component of a weapon.

 

I actually see it as the Force brought Rey and Kylo together to defeat Snoke. His defeat brings the Force closer to balance. The saber responds to Kylo better because it was being used by him for a better end.

 

Great call about Narsil.

Question to the folks that really understand lightsaber building. If it’s broken in 2 is it possible she could make a double sided saber of her own with the two pieces?

 

I doubt it she could strip the weapon down to parts and build another or repair the existing weapon but there isn't enough to make a saber staff

 

One big message is letting the burdens of the past die, but preserving what is good about said past.

The legacy saber...pulled with equal force by Rey and Kylo, is destroyed. But we learn at the end that Rey is now keeper of the kyber.

Now that’s what I call symbolism.

 

if the Kyber was broke in half yes,if not then just a one beam lightsaber.........or if the Kyper is cracked maybe one like Kylo's?

 

Given how long she’s had her staff it just feels right. Especially if the crystal is broken anyway. I would have to think the saber instructions would be in a book.

 

I clicked on this now-merged thread and skimmed through the first page (as that's where it took me).

I had forgotten all that stuff from the TFA shooting script about how it was originally the saber that held the clue to finding Luke, and the saber itself played a larger role in the story.

And it cleared up some stuff for me. The way it is in the finished film, the saber still feels like a Rey Skywalker hint (to me), as the primary role it plays now is calling to Rey to get her on the path to becoming a Jedi. And Maz's lines "that lightsaber belonged to Luke and his father before him. And now it calls to you!" feel unnecessarily misleading to me. I had been thinking that Luke's ROTJ saber could have served the same purpose without adding that father-to-child bit.

Now that I'm reminded of its original role, I can let that go. The stuff with the lightsaber probably wasn't written just to be intentionally misleading. It sounds like they shot all of that and then changed the saber's role via reshoots and editing.

I think that I would have been less likely to interpret the saber as a sure Rey Skywalker hint if they'd used the shooting script version, as it had a more defined role in the story.

 

So.....the lightsaber called to Rey because she was the first to touch it?

If Snoke linked Rey and Kylo but Snoke didn't know about Rey in TFA, then WHY did the saber call to Rey at all?

@JoJoPenelli DID Rey keep the crystal?

 

JJ didn't drop the ball, he punted it out of the stadium.

 

What I want to see in IX is Rey building a new weapon, using her staff and the pieces of the broken saber to make a saber pike. That's something we haven't seen, and it would suit Rey.

 

I wouldn't compare the Bespin Saber to the One Ring. I would say the aspect of Excaliber\Narsil is more in line.

The One Ring was made by Sauron himself a being of pure evil.

Anakin constucted the Bespin Saber and although conflicted not evil.

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"The Force really doesn't have anything to do with the lightsaber. Anybody can have a lightsaber. It's just a weapon like a pistol." George Lucas circa 1977/78
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I view it as the Force is at work here.

Rey is only beginning to understand and use the Force whereas Kylo is very strong at the use of the Force and almost over powered her when attempting to get the saber back.

Like Narsil, Rey will have to reconstruct the saber and take her "place in all this".

 

He probably forgot to tell Daisy she was a Skywalker when he told her she was Random.

Oh boy, this JJ guy...