The following video contains spoilers for The Force Awakens
One of the biggest questions posed by The Force Awakens
Is how did the lightsaber of Anakin and Luke Skywalker wind up in Maz Kanata's castle?
I think the Lucasfilm Story Group already has an answer to this question thought out
Because when Han asks her how she got it she says it's a good question, for another time
So I think we're going to get our answer in episodes VIII or IX or a novel or a short story or something
But, since we're impatient Star Wars nutjobs
Let's speculate wildly on all the possibilities
Let's start with what we know for sure about the lightsaber
Of course it was last seen on Cloud City where it was lost along with Luke's hand
According to the Visual Dictionary
Someone salvaged it from the city's industrial depths
A major piece of this puzzle is finding out who that someone was
And that's where the speculation is going to start
I'm going to begin with the most simple explanation and cut out the middleman
What if that someone was Maz herself?
The Visual Dictionary has this to say about her
In her centuries of travel, Maz has collected countless trinkets and treasures, not to sell but to protect
We know that Maz was Force-sensitive although she was not a Jedi
She definitely recognized the call of the lightsaber to Rey
So maybe she had a similar calling in the past that led her to Cloud City
But that brings up a question of timing
If it was during the Galactic Civil War
There was an Imperial garrison left there after the duel between Vader and Luke
So I think that if she were to have traveled to Cloud City to pick up the lightsaber herself
It would have been after the Empire's defeat
The next possibility is that she didn't feel a call to the lightsaber at all
But that someone else brought it to her
Maz's castle is a safe haven
According to the short story, 'The Face if Evil'
All beings received one night of food, water and shelter for free
No questions asked
After that came heavy fees
So what if this someone we're searching for is just a random citizen of Cloud City
Trying to escape the Imperial garrison and make a new life for him or herself
They find the lightsaber and head to Maz's castle
Which, by the way, is not that far from Bespin
Thanks to the Star Wars comic and Grakkus the Hutt
We know that Jedi artifacts are valuable on the black market
In exchange for an extended stay at the castle
I could definitely see Maz accepting the lightsaber as payment
The next possibility is a combination of the previous two, and the one I think is most likely
That is that there were multiple someones
Someone at Cloud City found the lightsaber
and then it passed hands throughout the galaxy
probably in the black market
A friend of Maz's may have caught wind of this
And let her know, and then she set out to retrieve it
and keep it safe
And my last theory involves Luke himself
It's possible Luke went back to Cloud City for the lightsaber
and held on to it for a time
Rey receives a vision in the Force when she touches the lightsaber
And while it's totally possible that this was just a vision specifically about Rey
It reminded me a lot of Quinlan Vos's
canon Force ability known as psychometry
Vos was able to touch an object and see its history through the Force
So what if every piece of this vision
actually involves the lightsaber itself?
The vision starts in the hallway on Cloud City where Luke and Vader fought
So far so good
Then we shift to Luke and R2 by a fire
I'm guessing after the betrayal of his nephew
We also see the Knights of Ren killing a group of people
Maybe Luke was attempting to hide with his remaining students
And then the Knights of Ren found them all
And Luke was the sole survivor, fleeing with his lightsaber
Then it kind of starts to fall apart a little bit because the next piece of the vision is
Rey being left on Jakku
And I don't quite buy that Luke is the one that left her
But for the sake of this argument
Let's say that he did
He left Rey there and he had the lightsaber on him at the time
After that, he either throws the lightsaber away and goes into hiding
Or he takes it to Maz for safekeeping
And that would explain why she knows so much about the weapon's history
Rey's vision ends with a look into the future
Where she sees the forest where she's going to fight Kylo with the lightsaber
Of these possibilities I think that maz tracking down the lightsaber in the black market herself
Has the most support in text
We know she's a collector
And we know she has a story behind finding it
Which makes it less likely that someone just randomly gave it to her at her castle
I want to finish off this video by talking about when Maz actually got the lightsaber
She tells Han that she's had it locked away for ages
Which isn't really that descriptive
Especially when you consider that the maximum amount of time [she] could have had the lightsaber
Which is about 30 years
Is like nothing to a being of Maz's age, she's been alive for a thousand years
I think she probably got it after Luke disappeared
If she got it during the Galactic Civil War I could see her keeping it hidden for her own safety
But once Luke started his new Jedi Order
I would have thought that she would returned it to him
But it's totally possible that she maybe had a vision that prevented her from doing so or warned her against doing that
What do you guys think?
There's evidence that points to all of these options
And I'm sure there's some that I haven't even considered
So which do you think is most likely? Or do you have your own idea that I haven't talked about?
Let me know in the comments
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Thank you for watching, and May the Force be with you