In this video we will explore the journey of Darth Vader’s lightsabers, both the blue
and the red ones.
What most people won’t know, is that, Anakin actually built 2 blue lightsabers.
So let’s start with Anakins first lightsaber.
Anakin’s first lightsaber was built sometime between Episodes 1 and 2, and featured a blue
plasma blade, chunky controls, and thick ridges on the handle.
While fighting his way through Poggle the Lesser's battle droid foundries on Geonosis,
Skywalker had his lightsaber destroyed by a mechanical cutting arm.
Shortly thereafter, the Battle of Geonosis occurred, effectively starting the Clone Wars.
Sometime prior to the Battle of Christophsis, Anakin built himself a new lightsaber.
Incorporating many of the elements from his first weapon, Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber
was specifically designed to facilitate Form V lightsaber combat.
As per Form V weapon specifications, the lightsaber had a solid casing (either as a whole or in
multiple sections for maximum protection against power surge deterioration) and a heavily shrouded
blade emitter.
The bevelled emitter was designed to designate separate facets of the blade for either offensive
or defensive purposes.
The lightsaber hilt included a ridged hand grip, as ‘Djem So’ required its users
to maintain a solid grip on the hilt.
It was also later modified to allow it to operate underwater.
When he originally joined Palpatine, Anakin, now crowned ‘Darth Vader’ continued wielding
his second blue lightsaber.
During the next few days he slaughtered many people including those poor younglings with
it.
However, the lightsaber was taken from him by Obi-Wan Kenobi after his crushing defeat
on Mustafar.
Following the duel, Obi-Wan took the lightsaber to Tattooine, where it remained in his possession
for the following nineteen years.
Finally, Obi-Wan’s path crosses with Anakin’s son, Luke Skywalker, after which Luke is presented
with the weapon.
After receiving the gift, Luke uses the weapon during his Jedi training, most famously aboard
the Millennium Falcon, where he practices Form I velocities.
Luke’s advances remarkably fast, but after Obi-Wan is killed toward the end of A New
Hope, Luke is left to train on his own, where he continues to learn the ways of the Force.
In Empire Strikes Back, Luke uses the lightsaber to further his training under Yoda on Dagobah.
But following the capture of Han Solo, Chewie and Leia on Bespin, Luke decides to cut his
training short and rescue his friends.
This is where he and Vader finally cross paths, and engage in their first lightsaber duel.
The fight eventually takes them to the city’s central air shaft, where Vader’s skill in
the Force proves no match for Luke, whose hand is severed.
This is the moment the weapon is lost, seemingly forever, until it finally pops up in Maz Kanata’s
basement.
So how did it get there?
Clearly someone found it after it fell down the shaft.
Again, we’re not sure if Maz Kanata comes into possession of it by way of a third-party,
or if she came across it herself.
Judging by her seemingly reclusive nature, my guess is someone she knows found it, and
she has held onto it ever since after realizing its importance.
In the Expanded Universe, a maintenance drone wound up recovering the lightsaber in a lower
air shaft, where it was then deposited in Smelting Core D. Darth Vader eventually got
his hands on it, and it was later given to a clone of Luke, who was killed by Mara Jade.
Witnessing what she did, Luke Skywalker gave the lightsaber to Jade as a gift.
Later, the weapon was retired in a Jedi temple.
Anyway, back to the canon, When Rey recoils in horror in response to her visions, she
runs into the nearby forest, leaving Luke’s lightsaber behind.
As she disappears, the First Order arrive, and the saber winds up in Finn’s hands.
He wields it for a good portion of the movie, and is surprisingly adept during a few duels.
Finn continues to carry the lightsaber for the remainder of The Force Awakens, until
a climactic duel between him and Kylo Ren on the First Order’s Starkiller base.
Although Finn puts up a fight, he proves no match for Kylo Ren’s skills, and winds up
getting wounded by a lightsaber strike to the back.
Rey then takes the lightsaber using the Force, and she amazingly overpowers Kylo Ren.
Following their victory, a map to Luke Skywalker’s location is revealed, so Rey, Chewbacca and
R2-D2 travel to see the Jedi Master.
Rey finds Luke, and silently presents him with his father’s long-lost lightsaber,
almost imploring him to act.
That’s where The Force Awakens ends, leaving us with a major cliff-hanger.
It’s unclear where the lightsaber will go from here, but considering Luke built his
own lightsaber in Return of the Jedi, chances are he’ll agree to train Rey as his Jedi
apprentice, and allow her to keep the weapon as her own.
It’s worth noting that during Rey’s duel with Kylo Ren, he claimed that the lightsaber
belonged to him.
And seeing as Kylo Ren got a glimpse of Luke’s location while interrogating Rey on Starkiller
base, might we see him travel to that location and confront Luke and Rey?
I guess we’ll have to wait until Episode 8 later this year…
Now onto the red lightsaber.
Deprived of his weapon, Vader was forced to create a new one, most likely weeks after
he lost his second blue lightsaber.
Utilizing a synthetic lightsaber crystal supplied by his master, Sidious, Vader constructed
his new weapon in the shadow of the Death Star, sometime between Revenge of the Sith
and Rogue One.
Vader's red lightsaber was powered by a crimson synth-crystal with Sidious's second lightsaber
serving as a template.
However, Vader considered his master's weapon to be an antique, and sought to create a more
personalized weapon with more ballast.
Wishing to impress his Master, Vader attempted to create a novel design, but the resulting
weapon was little more than a black-alloy version of his first Jedi lightsaber.
This weapon featured a thick, ridged handgrip, a high-output diatium power cell, a dual-phase
focusing crystal, forward mounted adjustment knobs, and a beveled emitter shroud.
However, due to the size of his mechanical hands, Vader was forced to make the grip considerably
thicker and longer than his original lightsaber, resulting in a weapon that Vader believed
was inelegant to the point of being ungainly.
Vader would use this lightsaber for the rest of his time as a Sith Lord, and used the weapon
to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi and cut off the hand of his son, Luke.
During a second lightsaber duel between Vader and Luke, Luke temporarily succumbed to his
anger, and after attacking Vader viciously, he cut off Vader's cybernetic right hand,
causing the hand and the lightsaber to fall down the energy pit in which Sidious later
died.
But in the canon novel Aftermath, the following is mentioned:
On the planet Taris, three Acolytes of the Beyond, Sith worshippers, purchase a lightsaber
from a dealer who claims the lightsaber belonged to Darth Vader before his death.
They say they plan on destroying it, so that it can return to its master in death.
So we’re not entirely sure if this lightsaber is real or fake.
So that’s it, that’s a brief introduction to the journey of Vader’s lightsabers.
If I missed any information, please leave a comment below.
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So anyway, I hope you enjoyed the video and I’ll see you later…
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