When Rey faces off against Kylo Ren for the first time, it is a blue lightsaber blade that clashes against his red one. But is that blue lightsaber the same one wielded by Anakin Skywalker?
Yes, the lightsaber that Rey wields throughout her journey to becoming a Jedi is the same one that both Anakin, and later Luke, wielded. The lightsaber was rescued from Bespin after the events of the Empire Strikes Back and found its way to Maz Katana’s which is where Rey finds it when called by a force vision.
Table of Contents
When Does Anakin Lose His Lightsaber?
Anakin loses his lightsaber a few times during his training from Padawan to Jedi Knight. He is even memorably chastised by Obi-Wan about the need to keep better track of his lightsaber.
While Anakin built and rebuilt several lightsabers during his lifetime, the most notable lightsaber is the one he wields in Revenge of the Sith. He starts the movie using this lightsaber to cut down Count Dooku, then later uses the same blade to slaughter Jedi Younglings.
At the end of the movie, he wields this lightsaber in an epic battle against Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar. Obi-Wan ends up besting Anakin, and after cutting off a few limbs, leaves a broken, beaten Anakin/Darth Vader on Mustafar and takes Skywalker’s lightsaber with him.
Why Does Obi-Wan Take Anakin’s Lightsaber?
When Obi-Wan chooses to take Anakin’s lightsaber, he doesn’t do so out of spite or triumph.
The Jedi Order has a long-standing history of reclaiming lightsabers from fallen or slain Jedi.
When Ahsoka is accused of bombing the Jedi Temple hangar, she is exiled and the Jedi Order confiscates her weapons. Even after she is cleared, she chooses not to reclaim her weapons as doing so would mean rejoining the Jedi Order.
So why is it that the Jedi take back these lightsabers?
For slain Jedi, part of the reason is to honor the dead. Sometimes they merely hang on to the lightsaber like they are rumored to have done with Qui-Gon Jinn’s lightsaber. Or they memorialize the crystals as they did with the Kyber Arch.
For fallen or exiled Jedi, it is more about depriving them of the mark of the Jedi Order.
But the main reason that the Jedi keep a tight hold on all lightsabers is the value of the kyber crystal inside.
Kyber crystals are rare in the Star Wars universe, only naturally occurring in a handful of places. And their mysterious powers make them highly coveted for not only lightsabers but other powerful and destructive uses, i.e. the Death Star laser.
Does Luke Use Anakin’s Lightsaber?
After the Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan retreats to Tatooine to keep a watchful eye on young Luke. And he brings Anakin’s lightsaber with him.
It is not clear whether he did so to give the lightsaber to Luke, or whether he was simply trying to keep the weapon out of Darth Vader’s hands. But ultimately, it is this lightsaber that we see during the pivotal moment when Luke discovers his father was a Jedi.
As Luke begins to learn the ways of the Jedi, he wields his father’s blue lightsaber, both in training exercises with Yoda and against stormtroopers.
Luke continues to wield Anakin’s lightsaber up until his confrontation with Darth Vader when he finds out Anakin and Vader are one and the same. When Vader severs Luke’s hand at the wrist, this lightsaber is presumed lost forever.
When Luke reappears in Return of The Jedi, he wields a green lightsaber that he built himself.
Is Rey using Anakin’s Lightsaber?
Much like Luke, Rey doesn’t discover the ways of the force until later in life. During a visit to Maz Katana’s on Takodana, she is called by the Skywalker lightsaber. Initially, she wants nothing to do with it, and Finn actually wields it briefly.
Later, when she confronts Kylo Ren with the blade, the origins of the blade are confirmed. As it was Anakin’s, Kylo believes the blade belongs to him, but when he tries to pull it away from Rey using the force it flies to her instead. She uses it to defeat him despite being a novice.
Rey offers the blade to Luke when she finds him, but he refuses to take it. When she leaves, she takes the blade and uses it to help Kylo defeat Snoke. Again, Kylo tries to take the blade from her as he believes it is rightfully his, but instead it is split in half.
Rey repairs the blade and continues wielding it up until her confrontation with Palpatine when a redeemed Ben Solo wields his grandfather’s blue blade. After Ben’s death, Rey buries the lightsaber on Tatooine, presumably to never be wielded again.
How Did Anakin’s Lightsaber End Up on Takodana?
In The Force Awakens, we learn that the famed Skywalker blade is in Maz Katana’s possession. She claims that she is a friend of the family, and has been safeguarding it.
But where did this blade, presumed to have been lost during the events of The Empire Strikes back, come from?
When Han Solo asks Maz this, her answer is cryptic.
After Luke lost his hand and lightsaber on Cloud City when he faced Vader, he did return to Bespin to try to locate it as featured in the comic book story The Destiny Path Part IV.
He ends up enlisting the local Ugnaughts on his hunt for the weapon but cuts his search short when he senses that Leia is in trouble.
Later, after he leaves, the Ugnaughts do in fact find the lightsaber, which remains undamaged.
How it got from the Ugnaughts finding it on Bespin, to being in Maz Katana’s hands remains a mystery. Though we can guarantee that money likely exchanged hands at some point.
Why Does Rey Have Anakin’s Lightsaber?
Much of the reason Rey is wielding Anakin’s lightsaber has to do with the fact that it is the one available. With the Jedi near-extinct, there are not many lightsabers floating around for force-wielders like Rey to use. And the available ones are few and far between.
But availability isn’t the only reason Rey ends up using Anakin’s lightsaber. The lightsaber calls to Rey, and provides her with a force vision.
She is initially horrified by the visions and refuses the lightsaber when Maz encourages her to take it.
But like many things imbued with the force, it finds its way back to her. She instinctively and unintentionally calls it to herself multiple times.
It isn’t until the second time she fights Kylo, that she decides she wants the blade, if for no other reason than to keep it out of the hands of Kylo.
She only relinquishes the blade after she turns Kylo back to the light. When Ben Solo (formerly Kylo Ren) dies, she buries the weapon, as she no longer needs it. She has accomplished the final task in becoming a Jedi by constructing her own lightsaber. A distinctive yellow one.
Conclusion
Anakin’s lightsaber, otherwise known as the Skywalker Lightsaber, has a long and sordid history. It started out life being crafted by Anakin Skywalker and served him both while he was a Jedi Knight and during his fall to the dark side.
Obi-Wan then confiscated it and held onto it until presenting it to a young Luke Skywalker. Luke carries the blade until he loses it along with a hand in his confrontation with his father, now known as Darth Vader.
The blade is presumed lost forever.
Until it turns up on Takodana and calls to a young Rey. She wields it as she learns to become a Jedi, even using it against Kylo Ren, who is Anakin Skywalker’s grandson.
The Skywalker Lightsaber ends its life in the hands of Ben Solo and is used to defeat Palpatine. Rey finally buries the blade along with Leia’s lightsaber, next to Shmi Skywalker’s grave (Anakin’s mother).
Right before the final credit’s roll in The Rise of Skywalker, Rey introduces herself as Rey Skywalker. This forever cements the use of Anakin’s lightsaber as the lightsaber that served all the Skywalkers that came after him.
Perhaps one day, Rey’s children will reclaim it.