After losing his hand in a climactic duel with Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker didn’t seem to miss a step when he stormed Jabba the Hutt’s Palace wielding a new, green lightsaber to close out the original Star Wars trilogy in Return of the Jedi. But in a very on-brand move — we’re talking about a franchise that explained how Han Solo got his last name — the latest Star Wars series from Marvel Comics will explore how the young Jedi coped with the loss of his blue lightsaber, what happened to it in the aftermath of his first fight with Vader, and in the biggest surprise of them all, what he used in the interim before building his now iconic green blade.
Luke Skywalker lost his lightsaber when he faced Darth Vader in Cloud City.
In "Star Wars" #6, he ignites a new one: https://t.co/MQ1FbJBeDC pic.twitter.com/3358FvRsuz
— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) February 18, 2020
Having Luke wield a yellow lightsaber ties the character even more closely to Rey, who not only took on his family name at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, but fired up a yellow saber of her own just before the credits rolled. However, this connection has angered some Star Wars fans who aren’t exactly thrilled that Rey may have become even more derivative of Luke and that by having her mimic his choice in lightsaber color, again, Rey is reduced to “Luke Skywalker 2.0.” Those are only a few examples.
Oh good I was worried that one small aspect of Rey's conclusion in Episode IX was not derivative of the original trilogy characters https://t.co/Kc4gSUjkRK
— Jenny Nicholson (@JennyENicholson) February 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/xoxoreyloxoxo/status/1229980941424173056
Not everyone agrees, as other tweets reveal.
https://twitter.com/the_prime_jedi/status/1230037468243689472
Just to clarify. It doesn’t matter that the JS had yellow lightsabers.
It doesn’t matter that Ventress and Bastila had yellow lightsabers.
What matters is that Luke had a yellow lightsaber before Rey.
She’s just a relic of an extinct family. https://t.co/SLYKaX2uMq— 🦋 Strega Perenne 🦋 (@realjeangenie) February 19, 2020
luke has a yellow lightsaber because he’s a ray of sunshine and the force knows it
— eli 🫐 (@skywalkerthrawn) February 20, 2020
https://twitter.com/rebclstano/status/1230299791814320128
Eagle-eyed fans know that yellow lightsabers have a rich history in Star Wars lore stretching all the way back to the Knights of the Old Republic video game. The yellow saber also made frequent appearances in the fan-favorite Clone Wars and Rebels animated series where they were often wielded by Jedi Temple Guards (both good and bad).
But at the end of the day, Marvel Comics writer Charles Soule had a simple explanation for the color choice, and it’s a very clever deep cut that any child of the ’80s will instantly recognize.
While some might have enjoyed learning this in the issue, hey, Christmas came early this year.
Why will Luke Skywalker have a yellow
lightsaber in the Star Wars run I’m writing, set between Empire and Jedi? Well, many reasons, but here’s a big one. https://t.co/31hZtpDsIg pic.twitter.com/j4L92qZ0A8— Charles Soule (@CharlesSoule) February 18, 2020
Hopefully, this one won’t get lost in the couch.
(Via Marvel, Wookieepedia)
