I know that, as part of their training, all Jedi were required to build their own lightsaber.
Did Yoda teach Luke on Dagobah before heading to Bespin?
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4Can you explain why it doesn't make sense to you?– R. Martinho FernandesCommented Apr 26, 2011 at 1:33
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2I was just wondering...What happened to Yoda's green light saber? Luke was the last person to see him alive then all of a sudden Luke has constructed a new green lightsabre! I reckon he stole it or at the very least he nicked some parts and modded it!– user59059Commented Jan 10, 2016 at 19:30
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2Uh... yeah, so about that...– Paul D. WaiteCommented Dec 1, 2020 at 4:29
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3 Answers
In the book Shadows of the Empire Luke goes to Obi-wan's old place on Tatooine and finds his lightsaber plans. Luke uses these plans to build his own lightsaber. If you compare Obi-wan's lightsaber and the one Luke made, there are some pretty major design similarities.
When Luke was training under Yoda, he already had a lightsaber, so it's not unreasonable that Yoda skipped the 'how to make your lightsaber' lesson.
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10Luke's first light saber was given to him by Obi-wan as an heirloom from his (presumed to be deceased) father. This is in one of the early scenes after Obi-wan rescues Luke, C3PO and R2D2 out in the desert on Tatooine. I think he loses that in the fight with Darth Vader, along with his hand. The next time they meet, Luke has turned himself in to Imperial forces and Darth Vader comments on his newly constructed light saber. Given the time lapses hinted at by the stories he could have learned the techniques at various points in his training. Commented Apr 26, 2011 at 2:29
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2Yup, Anakin's old lightsaber was in Luke's hand when it was chopped off.– user1027Commented Apr 26, 2011 at 3:12
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6In the Return of the Jedi radio play, Luke also builds his lightsaber in Kenobi's house on Tattooine before the story proper starts. Commented Apr 26, 2011 at 5:01
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5@Sean: I can forgive that some, only because Vader never actually sees C3PO for any real length of time where he isn't in 10 pieces. And he is in the shape of any other droid of the same type. It would be somewhat like seeing a car of the same model and color drive down the street, you might not realize it is your car being stolen.– DampeS8NCommented Apr 26, 2011 at 13:55
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4@Sean: He may have built C3-P0, but that construction resulted in a droid that was virtually identical (externally) to a standard Protocol Droid. He's even been refinished a bit since Anakin saw him last. @Dampe: It's not like he didn't realize Luke was his son from the start. He knew Kenobi had his saber, he knew Kenobi was there with the boy, he knew the boy's name, he shouldn't have been surprised to see Luke holding his old saber.– JeffCommented Apr 26, 2011 at 14:03
There is a deleted scene from The Return of the Jedi where Luke completes his lightsaber on Tatooine.
This was also addressed on the old "Ask the Jedi Council" website.
While Force intuition did play a great role in the construction of Luke Skywalker's new blade, all the necessary technical information was contained in the place where he built it: Obi-Wan Kenobi's hut on Tatooine.
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1It's amazing how much more effective the final cut without this scene feels since we don't see Luke until he comes into Jabba's palace. Editing is super important. Commented Mar 11, 2017 at 16:20
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Am I the only one who hears 3PO's first pronunciation of the name as "captain Silly"? Commented Dec 1, 2020 at 12:53
Partly Obi-Wan and Yoda, but mainly the Force
Luke had some basic background on lightsaber building from Obi-Wan and Yoda, but he was mainly guided by his intuition, which of course was a product of the Force:
Luke’s teachers, Obi-Wan and Yoda, had told him only a little of the way a Jedi must use the Force to build a lightsaber.
And yet he seemed to know exactly what he needed to know. Reaching out with his mind, he found the right pieces—some easily purchased, some much harder to acquire.
After leaving Obi-Wan's hut, he knew he had at last collected everything he needed. While our other heroes bustled about preparing for the rescue, Luke retreated into the solitude of a desert cave and puzzled over the pieces... In the end it took not just physical tools but also the Force to put it all together and bring the crystal inside to life.
Beware the Power of the Dark Side!
Of course, intuitive mechanical aptitude is one of the markers of a strong Jedi. Anakin was able to build a fully sentient droid from spare parts, with little formal knowledge of droid design. Ahsoka, during her time hiding from the Empire on Raada, not only fixed a heavily broken machine, but rebuilt it with many of the required parts missing, and then used those parts to help build a new lightsaber. Being almost supernaturally good at mechanical stuff is what Jedi do. Undoubtedly one still needs some background knowledge, but Luke had whatever (probably considerable) general mechanical knowledge he had acquired in his childhood, and an outline of the general theory of lightsaber design from Obi-Wan and Yoda.
He also had many of the parts needed for lightsaber construction, which he found in Obi-Wan's hut:
There, in his master’s lonely hermit hut deep in the Juntland wastes, he found a few things Obi-Wan had left behind that were useful to him... including the missing parts he needed for the construction of his own lightsaber—the weapon of a true Jedi Knight.
Beware the Power of the Dark Side!
It might have been obvious how many of the essential parts fit together from their shape—even more so, with the aid of the Force.