With all of Rey’s mechanical skills, developed from years of scavenging in the deserts of Jakku, many fans of Star Wars have been left asking:
“Did Rey build her own lightsaber?”
Well, you have questions, and we have answers!
In this article, we’ll go through the lightsabers Rey has wielded throughout the Disney trilogy, and answer whether or not she built her most recent blade.
Table of Contents
First, which lightsaber are we talking about?
Rey has wielded three lightsabers over the course of the Star Wars films (not counting that one time she used Kylo Ren’s lightsaber):
The blue blade destroyed in The Last Jedi, Leia’s old lightsaber, and a new yellow-hued lightsaber, seen briefly at the end of The Rise of Skywalker.
These three lightsabers have wildly different origins, and thus the answer is different for each and every one of them.
But wait, what about that lightsaber in her Force vision?
Keen viewers may remember Rey’s vision of her turn to the dark side while searching through the ruins of the Death Star.
More specifically, they may remember the interesting blade she wielded:
A hinged, double-bladed red saber.
Unfortunately, as cool as this lightsaber may be, it was just a Force vision, and as far as we’re aware, there’s no actual model of it outside of that hallucination.
So, short answer, she didn’t build that one.
Only because it doesn’t exist.
Did Rey build her first blue lightsaber?
Definitely not.
Her first blade, acquired from Maz Kanata’s castle on Takodana, is none other than the Skywalker family lightsaber.
Anakin Skywalker originally constructed the lightsaber after his first was destroyed during the Battle of Geonosis.
We don’t know exactly when it was built; the best estimate is that it was between the Battle of Geonosis and the Battle of Christophsis, during the Clone Wars.
Later, Anakin lost this lightsaber in a freak accident involving molten lava, and it was in the possession of Obi-Wan Kenobi until handed down to Anakin’s son, Luke.
Luke then proceeded to lose it again (along with his hand).
From there, we have a 30 year period where we don’t know exactly what happens to the family lightsaber, until we rediscover it in Maz Kanata’s castle.
After a brief, amateur usage by Finn when fighting Kylo Ren, this blade finally found its way to Rey.
She didn’t take good care of it, though, given that within a month, she and Kylo Ren broke it in half.
With her scavenger know-how, Rey managed to fix it, and utilize it in defeating Darth Sideous by the time of The Rise of Skywalker.
After all that, she finally took it back to the Lars homestead on Tatooine, and buried it to honor the memory of her fallen mentor.
And, we haven’t heard from it since.
Quite the journey for a fancy glow-stick!
Did she build Leia’s?
Technically, we don’t know who built Leia’s lightsaber, or even how it was built.
However, it’s very unlikely that Rey built Leia’s lightsaber before she was even born.
However, we know that the lightsaber was handed to Luke after Leia sensed the death of her son through a Force vision, and refused to continue Jedi training.
Her brother then proceeded to bring it with him to Ahch-To, where it remained for over twenty years, collecting dust until Luke returned from exile, and died shortly afterwards.
His Force ghost gifted it to Rey, where she used it (along with the Skywalker family blade) to deflect Darth Sideous’ Force lightning back at him.
Its final destination came after Rei flatlined for a minute or two and became revived, where she traveled to Tatooine to bury the lightsabers of her former mentors (Luke and Leia).
There, she took up the Skywalker name, and the journey of Leia’s lightsaber finally ended.
What about her yellow lightsaber?
Short answer:
Yes!
Long answer:
We don’t know the specifics of how or when she made her yellow lightsaber, other than the fact that she worked on it before the Battle of Exegol, and completed it shortly after.
The design is made from salvaged bits and pieces of Rey’s quarterstaff, with a yellow kyber crystal and a little circle of blue-green light that rings around the emitter.
It was reportedly blocky, a bit unwieldy, but highly resistant to damage (as a good lightsaber should be, lest it break in half when two people try to Force-grab it at the same time).
An interesting bit about her lightsaber is the fact that its emitter is hidden until you ignite the blade.
If you look very closely, when Rey turns it on for the first time, a small bit extends from the hilt, and opens up to allow plasma to go through:
Pretty neat, huh?
Unlike the red lightsaber in her Force-vision, this new lightsaber is only single-bladed.
This was intentional by Rey, as to avoid leaning closer to the Dark Side with her blade—this is also why her blade isn’t hinged like the Sith one!
Conclusion
So, did Rey build her lightsabers?
Well, she built one of them.
Did you learn something new about the many lightsabers in Rey’s possession? Did we miss anything? Make sure to tell us your thoughts in the comments below, and share if you think your friends need a rey-fresher on lightsaber history.
Now, go on, and may the Force be with you!