Rey Lightsaber Guide - Forging the Blade

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When it comes to the world of Sc-fi, Superheroes, and fantasy, Elijah is a certified expert, and that extends to a galaxy, far, far away. Eli has been a starwars fans from as early as he could hold a broom and pretend it was a lightsaber. He's seen all the movies, adores the vast majority of the spin-offs, and even dabbles in the comics/graphic novels which enhance the lore. He's a Star Wars nerd, plain and simple!

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Rey has had two lightsabers. The first is the famed Skywalker Lightsaber. The lightsaber created by Anakin Skywalker passed to his son Luke before finally finding its way to her.

Her second lightsaber is constructed from parts of her metal staff and possibly two different colored Kyber crystals, as seen by the blue and green flashes visible right before the weapon ignites. The construction of a lightsaber is seen as a right of passage for the Jedi. Rey’s second lightsaber, made from part of her old staff, could be seen as symbolic of her growth from a deserted orphan without a name to a full-fledged Jedi and heir to the Skywalker name.

Furthermore, the yellow blade could tell of Rey’s Jedi path aligning with that of a Jedi sentinel who sought a balance between knowledge of the force and combat skills. This would make sense as Rey is, from what we know, the last Jedi, and she has to carry the Jedi’s teaching of the Force and combat.

Rey’s First Saber – The Excaliber of Lightsabers

Rey’s initial weapon of choice was her quarterstaff. A weapon that was constructed and reinforced with parts she salvaged in the Jakku desert. From the first time we see her, she seems highly skilled with this weapon, but Rey’s first lightsaber was the Skywalker Lightsaber. This was the lightsaber that was once used by Anakin Skywalker and briefly by Darth Vader to kill Younglings, but we don’t like to mention that.

This was Anakin’s second lightsaber after losing his first in the droid manufacturing plant on Geonosis. It was created by Anakin and designed to accommodate the use of his form V lightsaber style, specifically that of Djem So. As such, the saber’s hilt was ridged because Djem So required users to keep a firm grip on the handle to better perry attacks.

As Anakin Skywalker, the lightsaber was used to bring peace and stability to the galaxy while combating the Sith.

Forging Excaliber

The most important part of the lightsaber isn’t its mechanical components but rather the kyber crystal at its heart. Kyber crystals are living things that form emotional bonds with their Jedi because they’re naturally attuned to the Lightside of the Force. This bond meant that there was a little of Anakin in the crystal; possibly, the best parts of him existed within the crystal.

Lightsabers are extensions of the Jedi that use them. Anakin was the “Chosen One” meant to bring balance to the Force and defeat the Sith. This means that his lightsaber is intended to serve the same purpose, whether with Anakin or another person capable of bringing balance to the Force. The more actions that Anakin did that aligned with the Lightside of the Force, the stronger the bond between the crystal and Anakin became.

Anakin Using the Lightsaber

Anakin’s first lightsaber duel with the weapon was with Sith Acolyte and assassin Asajj Ventress in the Coruscant underbelly.
Anakin battles Ventress and her droid army to save Jabba the Hut’s, son.
Anakin kills a Separatist spy named Merrik, who is holding Dutchess Satine hostage. Merrik exclaims, “Who will strike first and brand themselves as a cold-blooded killer?” right before Anakin kills him.

Darth Vader using the Saber

Anakin kills a defenseless Count Dooku at the behest of emperor Palpatine.
To save Palpatine, Anakin attacks Mace Windu, cutting off Mace’s arm and giving Palpatine a chance to kill him.
Having killed a Jedi and driven by his obsession to save Padme, Anakin finally falls to the Darkside and becomes Darth Vader, and lays siege to the Jedi Temple.
Obi-Wan and Vader engage in a battle that takes them through the lava pits of Mustafar until finally ending when Obi-wan dismembers Vader by cutting off his arm and both his legs and watches as Vader burns to death. Obi-Wan grabs Anakin’s lightsaber and leaves.

Passing to Luke

Nineteen years later, Obi-wan would pass the saber to Anakin’s son, Luke. Luke would begin his Jedi training using the lightsaber, first by training briefly with Obi-Wan and then with Master Yoda before ultimately losing the saber in a battle with Darth Vader.

Luke’s first lightsaber battle came shortly after the battle of Yavin. Luke, Han, and Leia plan to destroy an Imperial weapons factory, but things go wrong, and they have to improvise. Darth Vader crashes Millenium Falcon, and Leia hijacks an AT-AT to escape while Luke tries to buy them time by holding off Darth Vader.

Luke escapes in the commotion caused by a stolen AT-AT piloted by Han Solo and Princess Leia.

Passing to Rey

Luke and Vader meet again in the underbelly of Cloud City. With more training under his belt, Luke puts up a bit of a fight against Vader and even lands a blow before Vader decides to send Luke’s hand on a vacation from the rest of his body, causing the saber and Lukes’s hand to fall to the depths below.

Maz Kanata would eventually come into possession of the lightsaber, but how and why is still apparently a “story for another time.”

Rey hears the Skywalker Lightsaber call to her through the Force and is given a vision where she hears the voice of Darth Vader, Luke, and Obi-Wan. Notably, the voices of Vader and Luke are screaming in agony. Vader, when Obi-Wan dismembered him on Mustafar, and Luke, when he finds out Vader is his father. She then sees a vision of Luke with his back turned, watching a Jedi temple burn. The vision ends as she hears Obi-wan tell her, “These are her first steps.”

These visions scare Rey; she initially rejects the lightsaber, swearing never to touch it again despite Maz telling her to embrace her destiny.

Battle aboard Starkiller Base

When Kylo Ren and Rey both use the Force to summon the Skywalker Lightsaber simultaneously, it “chooses” Rey over Kylo.

Kylo sees the lightsaber as his birthright, the saber that once belonged to Darth Vader but to Rey, it’s Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. Something she wants to return to him.

Kylo and Rey fight in the snow on the surface of Starkiller Base. Without formal lightsaber training, Rey’s lightsaber style is essentially waving her lightsaber around and hoping she hits something. But with her strong connection to the Force and Kylo’s emotional instability, Rey is able to best him. Starkiller Base starts to explode, causing a fissure in the ground form between Rey and Kylo, allowing Rey to escape.

Striking Down Snoke

Rey finds Luke, who is less than impressed that she came all that way to give him his old lightsaber. Maybe she should have brought the hand too.

Luke teaches Rey the ways of the Force as she continues her lightsaber training on her own.

Through a Force “dyad,” Kylo and Rey are connected through the Force. They can both hear each other and, to an extent, even interact with each other and their surrounding. However, neither have control over this new ability or know where it came from. At first, they both treat it like a nuisance. Like having a constant Zoom call with someone, you don’t like. But eventually, they grow closer to each other and start to care for one another.

Through the Force Dyad, Rey Touches Kylo and sees a vision of his future where she believes he turns to the Lightside. Convinced of the vision, Rey heads off to meet Kylo. Unfortunately, this is a trap set by Supreme Leader Snoke to force Rey into revealing Luke’s location.

Snoke forces Luke’s location out of Rey, but Kylo uses the Skywalker Lightsaber and kills him to save Rey and take his place as the Supreme Leader. Snoke’s guards spring into attack, and Rey and Kylo work together to defeat them.

Kylo and Rey again use the Force to fight over the Skywalker Lightsaber, but this time it ends with them ripping it in half. Rey would later learn how to construct her lightsaber, and she repairs the Skywalker Lightsaber.

Battle on the Second Death Star

Palpatine returns, and the resistance looks to launch a final attack to defeat him. Rey reads in Luke’s notes that a Sith Wayfinder can lead them to Palpatine’s location.

During an unrelated rescue mission to save Chewbacca, Rey finds a dagger that would lead them to the Wayfinder.

Kylo reactivates the Force dyad between them, and they have a lightsaber duel through the Force despite being in two separate locations. Though neither can see where the other is, their sabers connect and cut things in each other surroundings. For instance, Rey cuts a basket of seeds next to Kylo, and the seeds pour onto the floor next to Rey.

Rey, who is standing in Kylo’s meditation room, destroys a podium with Darth Vader’s helmet on it. The helmet falls on the ground in front of Kylo, and he realizes where she is. She escapes with the Dagger and Chewbacca, but not before Kylo arrives and tells her that Palpatine is her grandfather.

The dagger leads her to the remains of the second Death Star, where she finds the Wayfinder, but before she can leave, she’s confronted by Kylo.

They duel as Leia reaches out to Kylo through the Force. Kylo feels Leia dies, and it distracts him long enough for Rey to stab him with her saber. Mortally wounded, Kylo lies there dying but feeling guilty for her actions; Rey uses the Force to heal his wounds and takes his TIE-Fighter to escape.

Kylo is visited by the ghost of his father, Han Solo. They talk, and Solo succeeds in returning Kylo to the Lightside. Kylo tosses his red lightsaber into the water and reclaims the name, Ben Solo.

Battle of Exegol

Rey arrives on Exegol and finds Palpatine, who reveals his master plan is for Rey to kill him to complete a sith ritual so his spirit can pass into her.

Ben battles the knight of Ren by himself without a lightsaber. Rey sense he’s in danger and uses the dyad to give the Skywalker Lightsaber to him. Ben defeats the Knights of Ren as Rey uses Leia’s Lightsaber to battle and defeat Palpatine’s guards.

Palpatine soon realizes that he can regenerate his damaged body by draining the power from the dyad between them. So he drains life energy from both of them, restores his body, and attacks the Resistance fleet with Darkside lighting.

Rey hears the voices of the Jedi that came before her encouraging her to get up. Fueled by the Jedi that came before her, she attacks Palpatine by using the Skywalker Lightsaber and Leia’s lightsaber together to overwhelm Sidious with his own power, killing him.

Rey dies from exhaustion, and Ben saves her by putting his own life force into her. Rey is revived, And Ben dies after he and Rey share a kiss.

With The Skywalker Lightsaber doing its last great deed (For now), Rey laid it to rest with Leia’s lightsaber on Tatooine outside Luke’s old home. Rey then reveals the lightsaber she constructed for herself. A sing-bladed lightsaber that emits a yellow blade when ignited.

Rey Second Lightsaber

In the novel Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition, it’s revealed that Rey was going to make a double-bladed lightsaber until she is confronted by a dark vision of herself on the second Death Star. The novel, however, doesn’t explain why “Dark Rey” has vampire fangs.

Furthermore, I find the fact that Rey didn’t go with a dual-bladed lightsaber design to be sad, as I feel it suits her much better than the single-blade design. In fact, until researching this article, I mistakenly remembered her igniting a dual-bladed lightsaber at the end of Rise of Skywalker.

The lightsaber itself is comprised of parts from her old quarterstaff and one, possibly two kyber crystals. Where Rey got hers is unknown. However, it’s been speculated because when she ignites her lightsaber, you see a flash of blue and green, that she uses two different colored kyber crystals.

But it should be noted that it’s doubtful that its two crystals if it stays consistent with the lore, as too much power causes the blade to react sporadically, as seen with Kylo Ren’s lightsaber that emitted too much power because of the crack in it.

Speculation about Rey Lightsaber

Yellow lightsabers have mainly been used by Jedi sentinels, especially Jedi temple guardians. Blue lightsabers are typically used by a “Jedi Guardian,” someone who uses the Force to push themselves further on a physical level. Green is for “Jedi Consular,” a Jedi who sought to unravel the mysteries of the Force to combat the Darkside.

The intersection of these two schools of thought was the Jedi sentinel that practiced both. Sentinels used the Force to become great warriors to keep the peace while also seeking to unravel the mysteries of the Force to combat the Darkside. However, the Jedi temple guardians explicitly used the very rare yellow lightsaber the most.

All of this could very well be symbolic for Rey. As the last Jedi, she IS the Jedi temple and has to protect and carry on the Jedi’s way of the Force and combat.

And if Rey had gone through with the dual-blade design, her saber would’ve looked very similar to the dual-bladed lightsaber the Jedi Temple Guards used. So this could mean Rey is the lone sentinel protecting the way of the Jedi.

And if we go with the theory that she was planning to create a dual-blade lightsaber before her encounter with Dark/Vampire Rey, then it could be possible that she had two kyber crystals, one blue and the other green but instead decided to use them for her single blade. Or J.J Abrams fancied yellow because it made Rey stand out, and I’m reading too much into it.

Finally, of course, it could also be entirely possible that Rey found a yellow kyber crystal somewhere, and the flashes of blue and green were just an artistic choice. But who has ever heard of Star Wars fan reading too much into subtext?

Appearances of Rey Lightsaber

We see Rey’s yellow lightsaber briefly at the end of Rise of Skywalker.
We see the saber again in the non-canonical Lego Star Wars special.

Rey’s Lightsaber Appearance

I think Rey’s lightsaber has one of the most interesting lightsaber designs in the series. It’s made from her quarterstaff that’s made from salvage parts from wreckages on Jakku. Because of this, it has various cosmetic flaws. All the pieces look worn and maybe a bit rusty; it is bulkier and not as elegant as many of the other lightsabers we see.

In addition, it has tattered fabric wrapped around its handle where the saber is to be held. This area isn’t very big, as the saber is meant to be wielded with a single hand like a one-handed sword or rapier.

A ring wraps around the blade at the top of the handle. Twisting, it ignites the saber and emits the yellow blade.

FAQ

Question: Why Rey’s lightsaber is yellow?

Answer: It’s never fully explained. It Could be a yellow kyber crystal, a combination of a blue and green crystal.

Question: Does Rey have three lightsabers?

Answer: She has one, but she has used three different lightsabers. The Skywalker Lightsaber, Leia’s Lightsaber, and finally, the one she made for herself.

Question: Is Rey the only one with a yellow lightsaber?

Answer: No, others, mostly Jedi Sentinels, have used yellow lightsabers. The Guardians of the Jedi Temple used yellow lightsabers exclusively.

Conclusion

Rey’s first lightsaber was the Skywalker Lightsaber. A weapon that committed both excellent and horrible deeds. Rey made sure that the last act was defeating a great evil. Her next lightsaber is one she constructed, the legacy of which is yet unknown. I hope we’ll learn more about Rey’s adventure post-war with the First Order. There are still many stories to explore; after all, she has the entire Jedi Order to restore.

Looking for more interesting readings? Check out:

Rey Lightsaber Guide – Forging the Blade