20

In The Force Awakens:

Maz Kanata tells Rey that the lightsaber she just picked up and had visions from belonged to Anakin and Luke and now it's hers.

The lightsaber that Luke got from Obi-Wan Kenobi in A New Hope was lost/destroyed when Luke fought Darth Vader in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

In Return of the Jedi Darth Vader compliments Luke on building a new lightsaber and tells Luke that his skills are now complete.

How could that possibly be the lightsaber that Anakin used originally, and that was then passed on to Luke, when that lightsaber no longer exists?

Writers notes, director's notes, interviews, cast interviews, etc. are welcome. Thanks.

Rey receiving lightsaber

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    You may want to spoiler tag your question and make the title more ambiguous.
    – Jeremy French
    Commented Dec 18, 2015 at 23:13
  • 1
    This is not a dupe. My question was not how did Maz acquire this weapon. My question is how does that lightsaber even exist. It was intact when he cuts luke's hand off, and falls down the shaft. But you see what happens when luke falls. It's going down a shaft that's at the bottom of a city in the clouds. It's cool though, dupe it, and I'll be back in a few months. :)
    – JMFB
    Commented Dec 18, 2015 at 23:23

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
30

It was lost not destroyed. We saw what happens to Luke but he was a fairly big foreign object picked up by the Cloud City filtering system. However the fate of the lightsaber might be different:

Legends says this

The lightsaber, still clutched by Luke Skywalker’s hand, had become lodged in one of Cloud City’s lower air shafts and eventually was recovered by a maintenance drone.

So it could have ended up anywhere.

Improve this answer
1
  • 6
    +1 Thanks for your answer. Where did you get that quote from?
    – JMFB
    Commented Dec 21, 2015 at 18:18
23

We do not know the answer yet:

Maz Kanata says in the film: 'a good question, for another time'

Improve this answer
13

The Force Awakens: Visual Dictionary explictly states that Luke's lightsaber was recovered from within Cloud city. Since the city is floating in mid-air above a gas giant planet, we can reasonably assume that instead of falling into the airducts and then being expelled from the bottom of the city (like Luke), it simply came to rest at the bottom of the main reactor shaft.

enter image description here

Quite how it ended up in Maz's possession is something that hasn't yet (and possibly won't ever be) explained.

Improve this answer
12

We don't officially know where Maz got the lightsaber yet, but we can guess.

We've officially established the following:

We don't know where Maz Kanata obtained Luke's old lightsaber.

Kylo Ren is using a lightsaber of ancient design, inexpertly crafted, in his service to Snoke.

About thirty years have passed since the lightsaber was lost.

Kylo Ren claims that the lightsaber is his in the movie.

There is a distinct possibility that Luke Skywalker had found his old lightsaber in the ~30 years since RotJ and Ben was trained with it. When Ben then killed off the new Jedi order, he could have discarded it (or it could have been taken from him). This would then put it closer to Maz's reach.

Interesting aside: this theory, if true, means that this lightsaber was used in the killing of two sets of young Jedi.

Improve this answer
9
  • 4
    I think Ren claims it as his merely by right of inheritance.
    – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
    Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 14:53
  • 3
    @Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That doesn't explain why he'd recognize it by sight.
    – user40790
    Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 16:20
  • 1
    Or the Force told him it was important, so he claimed it as his own.
    – user33616
    Commented Jan 4, 2016 at 19:49
  • 2
    @JanusBahsJacquet I'm not proposing that there is a strict, formal inheritance that leaves the sword in his hands, but rather that it is his family's sword and he sees himself as the most legitimate member of the family to lay claim to it.
    – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇
    Commented Feb 17, 2016 at 15:32
  • 2
    @LcSalazar Still not buying that he'd recognize the lightsaber on sight without ever having been exposed to it before. My money's still on him having used it in training.
    – user40790
    Commented Jun 7, 2016 at 14:51

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.