Let's Hope 'The Last Jedi' Gives Luke His Second Lightsaber Back

When Rey presents Luke Skywalker’s old lightsaber to him at the end of The Force Awakens, and (probably) the beginning of The Last Jedi, Luke shouldn’t really care. And that’s because he’s been over losing that lightsaber for a long, long time. So much so that he already replaced it two episodes ago. Luke’s second lightsaber, the one he made himself, the one with the green blade, is his true lightsaber because it never belonged to anyone but him. And for that reason, it would be rad to see him swing it again in The Last Jedi.

The following speculates on what could happen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, meaning, if any of the following comes to pass, everything below of this could be considered a very intuitive spoiler.

Calling the blue-bladed saber wielded by Finn and Rey in The Force Awakens “Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber,” is kind of a misnomer. Strictly speaking, that lightsaber was built by his dad, Anakin Skywalker, sometime in between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Obi-Wan gave the saber to Luke in A New Hope, but after Luke lost his hand in The Empire Strikes Back, the saber was lost to time. Maz Kanata slyly implies to Han Solo that there is a story “for another time” behind how she got the saber 30 years later, but the chances we’ll get that story in The Last Jedi feel pretty slim.

The story of Luke’s second lightsaber is a little shorter. At some point after Empire, he built a new one. For the most part, everyone agrees that this was accomplished by using spare parts in Obi-Wan’s old digs on Tatooine, which explains why the hilt of Luke’s saber looks more like Obi-Wan’s saber than it does his father’s. The fact that the saber’s blade is green instead of blue could be explained by the longstanding fan theory that Obi-Wan had parts of Qui-Gon’s old green lightsaber stashed away in his hut alongside whatever parts Luke raided to build his. There was even a deleted scene in Return of the Jedi that would have shown Luke fixing up saber from a secret hiding place near Jabba’s palace. As it stands, in that movie, Darth Vader simply says “I see you have constructed a new lightsaber. Your skills are now complete.”

Since the release of Return of the Jedi, canon Star Wars material (like The Clone Wars) has established that the only way to truly complete your Jedi training is to make your own lightsaber using your hands and the Force. Again, this means Luke’s true lightsaber is his second green one because he didn’t build his first one. It was a loner, kind of like those super generic lightsabers Obi-Wan and Anakin were tossed in Attack of the Clones. Remember that? Oh, here’s some super basic lightsabers, you guys are cool with these right?

The point is, the last time the “Skywalker saber” was used before being given to Luke was by Anakin, when Anakin murdered innocent children and tried to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi. When you remember that detail, it makes a lot more sense as to why Kylo Ren complained to Finn “that lightsaber, it belongs to me.” Kylo loves Darth Vader’s shit, and the last time Anakin used that saber, he was totally calling himself Darth Vader, even though he hadn’t switched outfits yet.

So, the blue-bladed Skywalker saber actually has a pretty scary and mixed history. And while it’s great and all that it flew into Rey’s hands to take down Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens, she’d probably be better off borrowing Luke’s green-bladed saber than this one.

Meanwhile, Luke’s green-bladed lightsaber was only every wielded by Luke Skywalker. As far as we know, Luke’s green saber was never used to hurt anyone innocent. Unless of course, you’re reading Mark Hamill’s secret fan fiction on the matter, at which point all bets about Luke igniting any lightsabers in The Last Jedi are totally off.

But for now, because the trailer for The Last Jedi seems so dour, and we know for a fact Luke will smile at least once in the movie, it would be great if he returned to swashbuckling fashion in the sweet green glow of his lucky saber.

The Last Jedi hits theaters everywhere on December 15. While you’re waiting for the movie to arrive, visit Inverse every day to check out more entries in our Last Jedi Wishlist Series right here.