Fans of the Star Wars universe know that a rise of passage for every Jedi is when they make their own lightsaber. Luke Skywalker makes his own that he uses in Return of the Jedi, and it’s a tradition that eventually, every Jedi does the same.
At the end of The Rise of Skywalker, the culmination of the cinematic Skywalker saga, Rey Skywalker unveils her new yellow-bladed lightsaber.
Rey is representative of a new era of Jedi, which is why fans no doubt looked forward to seeing her reveal her own lightsaber at the end of the saga. But some fans were left underwhelmed by the reveal. Let’s take a closer look at exactly why some fans saw Rey’s lightsaber as lacking.
Which lightsaber does Rey use in the ‘Star Wars’ universe?
When we first meet Rey in The Force Awakens, she doesn’t use a lightsaber but instead uses a staff as her weapon of choice. Eventually, she realizes she is Force-sensitive and comes across the lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi who became Darth Vader.
This is the lightsaber Luke Skywalker used prior to Return of the Jedi. She uses this while dueling the evil Kylo Ren, and later in The Last Jedi as well.
Using Anakin’s lightsaber is significant — it represents something of a “passing of the torch.” Anakin used it during the prequel trilogy. Luke used it during the original trilogy. Now Rey, the primary character of the new, sequel trilogy, was using it.
Rey’s lightsaber in ‘The Rise of Skywalker’
In The Rise of Skywalker, the Force-ghost of Luke points Rey toward the lightsaber of his sister, Leia. She uses this one, as well as Anakin’s, when she’s aided by Ben Solo in their final battle against Emperor Palpatine.
After Palpatine is defeated, Rey returns to Tatooine. She buries Luke and Leia’s lightsabers in the desert sand before unveiling her own lightsaber she constructed herself.
What made Rey’s new lightsaber unique was that it was yellow. In the Skywalker saga films, no character had ever been depicted carrying a yellow lightsaber. In fact, every character with a lightsaber in the Star Wars films adhered to a strict color code:
- Blue or Green. This was the color of the Jedi’s lightsabers.
- Red. This color was reserved for the Sith.
- Purple. The actor who portrayed Jedi Master Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) was granted a purple lightsaber after he asked George Lucas if he could have a purple one.
Rey bucked the trend and had a new color never before seen by fans of the Star Wars movies. But not every fan was enamored with the new look lightsaber.
Why Star Wars fans were disappointed with Rey’s lightsaber
A Reddit thread dedicated to discussing Rey’s lightsaber revealed that some Star Wars fans were actually disappointed with it. One poster put it best:
“I think one of the things about Rise of Skywalker that annoyed me was that she didn’t actually end up with that cool foldable double-ended lightsaber. Given she used a staff for most of her life, i thought she’d end up with something like what Kazdan Paratus used.”
For the uninitiated, according to Wookieepedia, Kazdan Paratus was a fallen Jedi character from the game The Force Unleashed who used a “lightsaber pike” to wield his weapon. The pike was not unlike Rey’s staff.
It sounds like fans would have liked to see another style of lightsaber and a new combat style. It would have totally been in line with Rey’s character — she was handy with a staff, and the “Dark Side Rey” used a double-bladed lightsaber. Perhaps if she returns for future films or TV shows, she’ll make an adaptation to hers that will make it double-bladed or foldable.
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