Most lightsabers in Star Wars follow a familiar design. They look sleek, metallic, and unmistakably mechanical, built like precise Jedi weapons rather than something taken from the natural world. But Gungi’s lightsaber never gave off that same feeling. From the moment it appeared, it looked different from almost everything else the Jedi carried, and that difference was not there by accident. There was a very specific reason Gungi’s weapon stood out so much, and it says a lot about both the lightsaber itself and the Wookiee youngling who built it.
Gungi Carried A Very Different Kind Of Lightsaber
Gungi’s lightsaber did not feel unusual because of one small cosmetic detail. The whole idea behind it was different from the start. In The Clone Wars episode “A Test of Strength,” the younglings are already building their weapons when Huyang begins guiding them through the hilt choices. When he turns to Gungi and asks what he feels his lightsaber should be made from, Gungi gives a simple answer: wood.
Huyang does not reject the idea or treat it like a mistake. He immediately searches through his collection of parts and pulls out a handle made from the brylark tree. So Gungi’s lightsaber was never meant to look like the polished metal hilts most Jedi carried. From the beginning, it was shaped around a material that felt more natural, more personal, and much closer to Gungi himself.
Most Jedi sabers look engineered first and personal second, but Gungi’s goes in the opposite direction. He is one of the rare Wookiees in the Jedi Order, and Wookiees are often tied to the natural materials around them. So when Gungi chooses wood, the saber feels rooted in who he is, not just in Jedi tradition.
Official Star Wars material later explains that he made the weapon from brylark wood, and this was not a fragile or purely symbolic choice. Brylark bark was strong enough to be compared to metal. That is what makes the weapon so memorable. It looks different because it really is different, but it still works as a true Jedi lightsaber rather than some ceremonial variation.
The saber ends up carrying both sides of Gungi at once: a Jedi weapon built through ancient tradition, and a design that still feels tied to a Wookiee’s instincts and background.
The Secret Was The Brylark Tree
The reason Gungi’s lightsaber could look so different without feeling impractical comes down to the material Huyang chose for him.
In “A Test of Strength,” Gungi tells Huyang that he wants his lightsaber to be made from wood. Huyang responds by pulling out a handle made from the brylark tree. He does not treat the idea like a mistake or a childish choice. Huyang had spent generations teaching Jedi younglings how to build lightsabers, so if he accepted brylark for Gungi’s hilt, the material clearly had a real place in lightsaber construction.
Brylark was not ordinary wood. Official Star Wars material explains that while lightsaber hilts are usually made from metal, strong wood can also be used, and Gungi is specifically named as a Jedi who built his lightsaber from a brylark tree.
Another official feature adds that Gungi made the weapon from the bark of a brylark tree, a material described as being just as strong as metal. That is why the wooden hilt worked. It was not only unusual because it looked more natural than other sabers. It was strong enough to stand where metal usually would.