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We see that lightsabers can create considerable explosions when Luke's is Force-pulled in half in the throne room fight in The Last Jedi, but when Anakin's is chopped in half on the conveyor belt in the Battle Droid Foundry on Geonosis in Attack of the Clones, it just fizzles.

Is there a good reason to expect that these two actions would have different effects on lightsabers, or that these two lightsabers would respond differently to having their hilts split in half?

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    Note that both of these lightsabers were made by Anakin.
    – Robert Columbia
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 15:55
  • @RobertColumbia I believe that Luke's sabre that was destroyed in the throne room was actually made by Luke. The sabre Luke has in ANH and ESB that Obi-Wan passed down to him from Anakin was lost/destroyed on Bespin when Vader cut off Luke's hand and it fell along with his sabre into the clouds. In between ESB and RotJ Luke builds his own sabre under Yoda's guidance, which is then passed on to Rey and destroyed in the throne room. At least that's the best of my recollection.
    – airshanemode
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 15:59
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    What color lightsaber did Luke make? What color is the one destroyed in the throne room?
    – Robert Columbia
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 16:01
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    Good point - the saber that Luke inherited was blue, the one he made was green, and the one destroyed in the throne room was... blue. Does that mean that Luke's original (inherited from Anakin) saber was somehow recovered from the clouds on Bespin? I just checked and you're right, Maz Kanata says "That lightsaber was Luke's. And his father's before him," when Rey discovers the saber in The Force Awakens.
    – airshanemode
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 16:15
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    @RobertColumbia to follow up, I guess there's some legends material regarding it being recovered from Bespin and passed around, though all I can find in canon is that it somehow pops up again in Maz Kanata's possession years later without explanation. I suppose it's possible that Maz lies and it isn't Luke's original inherited saber, but seems like you're probably right. Either way it's not the one Luke built himself as I previously incorrectly believed.
    – airshanemode
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 16:30

1 Answer 1

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The lightsaber destroyed by Rey and Kylo had its 'kyber crystal' broken, releasing the power within.

Until, finally, the crystal sheared apart, its unleashed energy tearing the lightsaber’s housing in half and filling the throne room with a flash of brilliant, blinding white.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition

By comparison Anakin's lightsaber, assuming it was constructed in the same fashion as Luke's, was chopped in half by the cutter above the place where the kyber crystal is stored, across the field energisers. This evidently doesn't result in an explosion.

enter image description here
Images courtesy of Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

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  • The new lore hurts my brain so much... I know this is right as of now, but this sounds so wrong compared to the old lore.
    – Nyakouai
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 7:26
  • @Nyakouai I'm not sure what you mean by "new lore". Lightsaber Crystals have been around for around a decade before the Disney acquisition in the expanded universe (now Legends). I believe they were even referenced in the 1996 Shadows of the Empire novel.
    – Nzall
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 8:10
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    @Nzall Before, the cristal used to be the focus of the blade, the rest being a lense and a battery. (The main components are described in the "Young Jedis" serie where Luke teach the new generation of Jedis, including Jacen and Jaina Solo). They also mention the Kyber cristals as being excellent and highly sought focus, but it was not power source. First time I heard about a kyber crystal being a power source was in Rogue One, when they say it's the fuel of the Death Star's superlaser... which irks me, as it make less sense than just being ray focus.
    – Nyakouai
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 8:15
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    The Kyber crystals were really not brought up that much before the new stuff. That they have such power would have made them much more prevalent in the lore if you think about it, what with being able to be used for superweapons and stuff.
    – Lassi Kinnunen
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 9:12
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    From the cross-sectional diagram, it looks like long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, they used standard color-coded resistors developed by the Radio Manufacturer's Association in 1920 on Earth.
    – forest
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 9:43

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