Rey (Daisy Ridley) debuts her very own lightsaber at the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, posing questions about how she’s able to build it and where she got the kyber crystal for it. There’s no explicit answer for this one, but the film may have left clues regarding the mysterious origin of her new weapon.
As one of the main characters introduced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it became quickly apparent that there was a lot more to Rey than we were first told. Her origin was kept under wraps for the most of the sequel trilogy - with The Force Awakens only revealing her to be a Jakku scavenger who was accidentally roped into the Resistance/First Order conflict, and thus effectively the Skywalker saga. In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we were led to believe that she’s a nobody who happens to be strong with the Force until it’s confirmed that not only is she a random person, she’s the secret granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).
Incidentally, she was also instrumental in the downfall of her grandfather, teaming up with fellow Freedom Fighters, Finn (John Boyega) and Poe (Oscar Isaac), as well as Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo’s (Harrison Ford) son, Ben Solo (Adam Driver) to defeat Darth Sidious. In the end, she refuted her Palpatine lineage and adapted the Skywalker last name. With that she unveiled a new, yellow lightsaber - and this might be how.
Rey Creates Her Own Yellow Lightsaber
Rey’s first encounter with a lightsaber was during her visit to Maz Kanata’s (Lupita Nyong’o) Takodana castle where Anakin & Luke Skywalker’s (Hayden Christensen and Mark Hamill, respectively) blue lightsaber called to her in The Force Awakens (although it’s not revealed how Maz got her hands on Luke’s lightsaber). Upon touching it, Rey heard voices of previous Jedis. Scared of what that meant, she shied away from taking it despite Maz’s insistence that she kept it. Later in the film, she’s reunited with the weapon during her intense battle with Kylo Ren on Starkiller Base. Rey held onto the lightsaber as she looked for Luke, who was in self-exile on Ahch-To - fully intending for the Jedi Master to wield the weapon again and take her in as a Padawan in The Last Jedi. However, Luke’s mistakes when it came to training Ben continued to haunt him. Luke did use his lightsaber during his Force-projection last stand against his nephew and the First Order, but still Rey was left the broken blue lightsaber after it was subjected to a Force tug-of-war between her and Kylo Ren.
By the time The Rise of Skywalker rolled around, Rey had fixed the lightsaber, and continued to use it during her training sessions with Leia. During her climactic battle with Palpatine, she used it in tandem with Leia’s secret lightsaber, which was handed to her by Force ghost Luke on Ahch-To. When the dust settled, Rey visited Tatooine to bury the Skywalker lightsaber alongside Leia’s, following with the reveal that she has built her very own lightsaber using a portion of her staff, giving it a more mechanical feel which totally fits her scavenger origins.
Where Did Rey Get The Kyber Crystal?
While we know that Rey’s lightsaber was created with the use of her staff, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker didn’t clarify where she got the kyber crystal for it. Also known as a lightsaber crystal or the living crystal, they are Force-attuned crystals that grow naturally in various planets around the galaxy. A kyber crystal is an integral part of a lightsaber’s construction. Younglings are typically sent to Ilum’s Crystal Caves to harvest their own crystals in order to build their personal weapons. They are initially colorless until it’s associated with a Jedi, this determines the color of the lightsaber blades. Typically, it results in a green or blue hue, making Rey’s yellow one quite unique.
That doesn’t mean, however, that we’ve not seen a yellow lightsaber in Star Wars. The prequels featured all sorts of lightsabers (including Mace Windu’s purple one), and other Jedi have wielded a similar weapon. They’re mostly associated with Jedi Sentinels - the third branch of the three schools of the Jedi Order (the other ones being Consulars and Guardians), although that part of the lore is no longer accepted as canon. We’ve also seen Jedi Temple Guards wield a double-bladed yellow lightsabers in the animated Star Wars offerings.
Given the rarity of yellow lightsabers in Star Wars in general, everyone is obviously interested to know where she’s able to get the crystal needed for her new lightsaber. There’s no mention of it whatsoever in The Rise of Skywalker, and it’s something that that the filmmakers have yet to address.
Theory: Rey Combined Luke & Leia’s Kyber Crystals
While the filmmakers behind The Rise of Skywalker and the film itself glossed over the process of Rey creating her own lightsaber, the movie may have left a hint with regard to where she got her kyber crystal. After burying Anakin/Luke and Leia’s lightsabers near the Lars homestead on Tatooine, she ignites her very own weapon and before it settled in the final setting that produced its distinctive yellow blade, we see a flicker of blue and green on the dial fitted on its hilt. That tiny detail could mean that Rey combined Luke and Leia’s kyber crystals to use.
Granted that Rey buried both blue lightsabers, with Luke’s green lightsaber essentially non-existent in the sequel trilogy (in fact, we didn’t see it except for the flashbacks from The Last Jedi), this doesn’t mean that Rey didn’t get her hands on the said weapon. While it was never shown on the big screen, the novelization for Rian Johnson’s film, written by Jason Fry, confirmed that it was left in Ahch-To under the care of the caretakers. And it’s not difficult to imagine that Rey went back to the island after her face-off with Emperor Palpatine. Admittedly, while it would’ve made sense for her to bring that green-blade lightsaber to Tatooine and bury it with his father and sister’s weapon, she may have decided to leave it in Ahch-To since that’s where he spent his final years.
The movie didn’t show it, but given its build, there’s a chance that Rey’s weapon could actually be dual-bladed. In EK Johnson’s Ahsoka novel, Anakin Skywalker’s former Padawan collected two mystical crystals from her defeated Inquisitor’s dual-bladed lightsaber, which means the the rare weapon design need a pair of kybers to work. Assuming this is the case, Rey would’ve needed to use two crystals to create her supposed dual blade saber, backing up this theory. Thematically, it also makes sense as combining the kybers from the lightsabers of her two Jedi Masters
Given the cool design of Rey’s lightsaber, it would’ve been great if we saw it for much longer in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - perhaps with her actually using it. But with so much interest in the unique lightsaber, it’s safe to say that more detail about it, including its origins will be provided to the public eventually.
More: Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’s Ending Explained (& What Happens Next)
