The story of Luke Skywalker’s sword is as long as it is the Star Wars saga itself. This makes sense, as Jedi Knights with electric swords are the essence of what Star Wars is all about (not specifically but you’re aware of what we mean).
We call it Luke’s saber But it was actually Anakin’s. Obi-Wan Kenobi took it before he went to leave Anakin for dead, having just defeated Anakin in their duel against Mustafar In Revenge of the Sith. He kept it for several years before giving it to Luke as part of A New Hope, so fans often refer to the blue sword as Luke’s.
But if the sword was originally the sword of Anakin, what was its history? You may recall in Attack of the Clones that Anakin lost his arm during the duel with Count Dooku and thus continued (or in the beginning!) the custom of characters to lose their limbs during Star Wars movies.
In the wake of losing his father, Anakin required a second saber. This is the saber where the real story is revealed. This is the saber Anakin used to become Darth Vader.
So, the saber mangled the Younglings in Revenge of the Sith. This is the saber he executed Dooku Dooku with. It was the saber which destroyed all the other people he saw in the Jedi Temple, and it is the saber that it was the weapon he used to defeat Obi-Wan.
So the blue saber had one of the most difficult beginnings in its life It was first used by one of the most promising Jedi ever used, but it later ended becoming the weapon of the Sith Lord. Talk about duality.
When it’s handed over to Luke, the sword has witnessed a number of blood stains and drained, including the blood of Jedi and younglings. It’s no wonder Kylo Ren wanted it so much.
This weapon has been a key element in some of the most significant events within Star Wars history, but in A New Hope, Luke doesn’t get to play swashbuckler; rather it is his turn to train with it on the Millennium Falcon. It wasn’t until the incidents during The Empire Strikes Back that the sword truly became part of Luke’s story.
In the film, Luke utilized it to free himself from the ice-trappings of the wampa, and the film also saw Han Solo to carve up his tauntaun so he could place Luke’s frozen body inside to protect him from the cold.
The next time it is employed is a dark period. Luke is training in conjunction with Yoda at the swampy plants of Degobah. It is at this point that Luke comes across an underground cave. Effectively warned not to take his weapon with him, Luke has a strange dream-like moment in which he must use his saber in order to defend himself from the approaching Darth Vader.
It is the first occasion we see Luke utilize the saber to defend himself. It is a dream incident of a different kind is not a detriment to the fact that Luke used the saber, believing that he was fighting Vader.
Naturally, Luke will eventually meet Vader in the Bespin’s Cloud City, where they will engage in a fierce battle and are able to measure each other – enough so that it’s a fight Luke cannot win, and loses his hand for his fault (just like his father had years before – twice! ).
In the present, it is the stuff of movie legend that Vader is revealed to be Luke’s father. Imagine that!
However, in all that excitement, Luke’s sword is lost down a shaft somewhere and that’s the end of that story.
The film, Return of the Jedi, Luke creates a saber of his own (while it’s not mentioned in the movie however, it’s an Jedi tradition to do this) He uses that saber when he destroys Jabba’s sailbarge. And, obviously in the fight against Vader on the Death Star, returning the favor by cutting off Darth Vader’s arm, an indignity he’s now suffered through three times!
What happened to that blue sword? This is where the saga of the saber starts to unfold more than any fan may have thought of.
30-odd years since it disappeared both in movie and real-world time, it came back time and again during The Force Awakens.
The sword was found to be found in Maz Kanata’s possession. Maz is a solitary being that appears sensitive to The Force or at the very least, has a the ability to comprehend it. She creates Rey up to search for it as she knows she is in the Force calls her there.
Why? We’re not sure However, Maz is aware that the sword needs to be able to find its way into the hands of Rey, so she gives the sword to Finn as an interim measure until Rey is at her best.
Finn gets to dance with a Stormtrooper with the sword and then fights for a time against the father-killing Kylo Ren and at that moment Rey takes hold of the sword and has an epic battle with Ren.
Ren, of course, is the great-grandson of Darth Vader, the man who owned the sword Rey battled him with. The sword has come full circle.
But Rey did not want to receive the sword of Maz in the first in the first place. The dream sequence spooked her so much that although she knew she had to track down Luke Skywalker, she still gave him the sword when they first met at the top of the “Jedi Steps” on the island where Luke had hidden away. It’s an emotional moment. Luke’s blue sword has been returned to him after all these years.
It is hard to imagine the thoughts going through Luke’s thoughts in that moment. The first time he saw it the father had removed his arms and exposed his own identity.
What happened to the saber that was in The Last Jedi?
Rey passed it on to Luke who threw it behind him down the cliff. Rey was then able to train with the Achto island. Kylo Ren then used it to kill Snoke and those who were Praetorian guards.
As Rey and Kylo are about to Force duel for possession the saber splits in half, putting an end to its history.
Then we’ll get to The Rise of Skywalker
Rey’s capabilities are fully developed and she’s repaired the split saber (or perhaps Leia is). Luke also shows Rey the location where Leia’s saber was hidden in Achto Island, and boom it is revealed that Rey has two sabers on her person when he confronts Palpatine.
The Force Dyad is now so powerful between Rey that she is able to pass Ben Skywalker Anakin’s saber to him, so that he can take on his Knights of Ren, who have reacted against Ben Skywalker and turned on him. It’s space magic, indeed.
However, it also means that the last Skywalker to hold the saber was the great-grandson of Anakin Skywalker. A long story for a tiny piece of metal.
The Reason Why Luke’s Lightsaber’s Color Changed from Green To Blue In “Return of the Jedi”
For A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back in both movies, lightsabers were shown as red or blue. Obi-Wan’s lightsaber featured a blue blade, which became synonymous with the Jedi as well as the one that he gave the character Luke Skywalker. Darth Vader, however, had a red lightsaber which was then forever linked in the Sith. All that changed in Return of the Jedi when Luke Skywalker had built himself his own lightsaber. The new lightsaber deviated from the established color standard that people had come to believe was the norm, being green. However most of the original posters and promotional material to promote Return of the Jedi had Luke Skywalker using the traditional blue-bladed lightsaber. Luke Skywalker’s blue lightsaber was used in the trailers. Based on this, imagine the surprise of the audience when the movie actually featured Luke Skywalker using a green-bladed lightsaber rather than one of blue.
What is the reason we have this drastic change in the color of lightsabers? Star Wars storytelling has covered this from an in-universe perspective in different layers of multimedia projects however, this was done in the aftermath. This opened up a new field of discussion about the color of lightsabers. The reason why Luke Skywalker walked away with a green-bladed lightsaber, rather than the blue he was expecting had nothing to do with story telling and had everything to do with the real-world practicality.
Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber went from green to blue when they were filming because it was difficult to discern. It was evident during act one of Return of the Jedi when the fight took place on Jabba the Hutt’s sailbarge was shot during the day. The blue Luke Skywalker lightsaber blended in with the blue skies that were clear. A bit of thought during the shoot led to a decision being made to change the color of Luke Skywalker’s new lightsaber from blue to green. Since then the fans of Star Wars lightsabers suddenly had their world wide open beyond a red and blue combination to include other colors besides blue, red, and green.
Though it did not make it into the official edition of the Return of the Jedi movie there is actually deleted scenes that show Luke Skywalker constructing his new lightsaber, using the green blade. The scene was included in an extra disc of content of the Blu-ray set, which was released under the title “Luke’s Lightsaber.” It makes sense that the scene was cut because it could have revealed too much, and took away some of the thrills which would occur later in the movie.
In the event of an introduction to a new Jedi lighting saber with the release of Return of the Jedi, the Star Wars franchise would have the potential of having more opportunities to use them in future projects. We have seen this now during the Prequel Trilogy, with blue purple, green and blue lightsabers used by the Jedi and red being used by the Sith. There are also yellow lightsabers utilized by the Jedi Temple guard on The Clone Wars animated series. Of course, the lightsaber that Rey Skywalker built at the close in The Rise of Skywalker was also yellow. Other notable individual entries include a black lightsaber from the Darksaber’s case, the white lightsaber of Ahsoka Tano and an orange lightsaber in the game Jedi: Fallen Order.
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