It called to her on Takodana, she trains with it in the Last Jedi trailer, and now Lucasfilm confirms that Anakin’s blue lightsaber is Rey’s and Rey’s only.
Between the ending of The Force Awakens and the trailer for The Last Jedi, we can assume that Luke’s going to ask Rey to take her hand out of his face when we return to Ahch-To. From the moment it called to her at Maz Kanata’s castle to the moment it flew to her hand on Starkiller base, the lightsaber clearly chose its allegiance. The only person who could possibly stand between Rey and her fate would be Luke Skywalker. The lightsaber may have belonged to him first (and his father before him, etc.), but Lucasfilm confirms this won’t be the case.
To help promote the Star Wars Vanity Fair spread, Pablo Hidalgo spoke with the Star Wars show and at 2:57, you’ll see the fun part that io9 picked out.
Watch below:
Basically, Lucasfilm’s creative executive Pablo Hidalgo decided to remove a specific aspect from contention — who does the lightsaber belong to? For many of us, Pablo Hidalgo’s that guy on Twitter who mastered trolling and doubles as Lucasfilm’s official representative as to what is fact and what is fiction … or rather, non-canon.
So when he says something like:
"“Either way, the blade is no longer considered Anakin’s lightsaber by the Lucasfilm marketing department. It has now been officially dubbed ‘Rey’s’.”"
We can take it as the final say on the matter.
Of course, he specifically says this on behalf of the marketing department and we know that marketing can be misleading …
But Hidalgo also said:
"“In general, a lightsaber belongs to the person who constructed it. In The Force Awakens, Maz says that the saber is calling to Rey now. Whether or not it’s literally calling to her to become hers or it’s calling to her because she knows it will be taken back to Luke — we’ll see.”"
Again, the trailer and the Vanity Fair shoot showed that she’s going to be training with a lightsaber. Is it the same lightsaber she arrived with? Probably. It’s really not worth the hassle otherwise.
It’s Rey’s. The iconic blue lightsaber built by Anakin that cut off Count Dooku’s head, slaughtered padawans, was no match for the high ground and was kept safe by Obi-Wan Kenobi for more than a decade before being entrusted to Luke Skywalker, who then lost it in down an air shaft, now belongs to Rey.
Obviously, its history is tied into significant events pertaining to both the light and dark sides of the Force. So it’s the perfect weapon to usher Rey into the next chapter of her life. Plus, this “passing of the torch” solidifies the fact that Rey, as the heroine and lead of the film, is here to either save the Jedi or destroy it. The legacy lies with her, not Luke Skywalker. (Sorry, he had his chance and here we are.)
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Happy 40th Anniversary, Star Wars fans! Don’t forget: Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens in theaters on Dec. 15.