New Star Wars Story Changes Everything We Knew About Lightsabers, Finally Explaining the Last Force Awakens Mystery
After 49 years, Star Wars has just revealed the truth about lightsabers – and explained the last mystery from The Force Awakens. J.J. Abrams has always been known for his “Mystery Box” approach to storytelling, and The Force Awakens was no exception. One of the most intriguing scenes saw Rey apparently called to the Skywalker lightsaber at Maz Kanata’s castle; touching it granted her a series of visions (known as a “Forceback”). But the film itself never really explained this strange phenomenon.
Ashley Poston’s new Star Wars novel, “Eyes Like Stars,” subtly answers this question at last. It’s about a different Skywalker lightsaber, a yellow one from the High Republic Era briefly owned by Luke Skywalker, and it subtly confirms something we’ve long suspected about the kyber crystals in lightsabers; they really are sentient, with a sense of memory and belonging. At one point, a Force-sensitive reveals the lightsaber “wants to go home,” and discusses whether lightsabers have feelings. It’s a surprising twist, and it rewrites everything we know about lightsabers – including that scene.
The Skywalker Saber Really Was “Calling” to Rey in The Force Awakens
The script and novelization for The Force Awakens both suggested Rey was “called” to the lightsaber. Now, thanks to “Eyes Like Stars,” we know the kyber crystals inside lightsabers really should be seen as characters in their own right, with wills of their own and the ability to send out a summons through the Force. This further reframes the Forceback; it was presumably the moment the lightsaber itself chose to connect with Rey. Note that, through the lightsaber, Rey bonded to the people who used to wield it as well; that’s why she experienced some events where that blade wasn’t present, but Luke Skywalker was.
We’ve always known a Jedi bonds with their lightsaber; thus, to commune with the crystal of a fallen Jedi is, in a sense, to commune with the Jedi themselves. But if the crystal is a being in its own right, sharing itself back with its wielder, then we may well finally know why Rey was able to use the lightsaber so well during her duel with Kylo Ren later in the film. It had bonded to her, choosing to tie itself to her will. In contrast, Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, meanwhile, was powered by a fractured kyber crystal that he’d never truly bonded to.
What Happens When a Sith Turns a Kyber Crystal Red?
Kyber crystals are naturally attuned to the light side of the Force. A Sith changes that by “bleeding” them, aligning them to the dark side by forcing their own will upon the crystal; that’s when a kyber turns red, as seen in The Acolyte. But if the crystal is in fact sentient in some way, then the act of bleeding a kyber is horrific. It is literally a Sith enslaving a living being to their own will, binding it to the dark side. The red is not the color of the crystal; it represents their own inner evil, imposed or perhaps imprinted on the kyber.
That’s a shocking twist, and an incredibly dark one. It’s also, let’s be honest, perfectly in keeping for Sith Lords. Kylo Ren never quite pulled off the bleeding process; his crystal fractured when he tried to do so, presumably in part because the crystal’s resistance was stronger than his own commitment to the dark side. That hissing, crackling blade demonstrated the potential for Kylo Ren’s redemption every time he turned it on, and he likely never realized it.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
