What Rey's New Lightsaber Really Means
Contains spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker
Rey has been using hand-me-downs since the first moment she touched a lightsaber in The Force Awakens, but with the ending of The Rise of Skywalker, she finally has one of her own.
In 2015's The Force Awakens, the fledgling Jedi Rey (Daisy Ridley) wielded Anakin Skywalker's — which was subsequently Luke Skywalker's — old lightsaber. Ever since, she has been utilizing the weapon as she's faced off against Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), various stormtroopers, and tons of dark-sided baddies she has encountered along the way to finally defeating the First Order. But just like Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) did in Return of the Jedi, Rey finally gets her own weapon in The Rise of Skywalker – albeit in the final scene of the saga-ending film.
With Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) finally defeated and Kylo Ren becoming one with the Force after turning back to the light side and sacrificing his life to save Rey, she returns to where fans' journey with Star Wars began 42 years ago: the Lars family's moisture farm on the planet Tattooine, where Luke grew up. Rey buries both Luke's famous lightsaber and the one Leia used when she was training to become a Jedi (Rey's given this blade during The Rise of Skywalker as well) in the vast desert near the farm, before pulling out a new lightsaber she has finally forged for herself.
Fortunately for fans, it's not the double-bladed red lightsaber seen in the trailers for The Rise of Skywalker. As it turns out, Dark Rey was only a vision that normal Rey has in the film after learning that she's the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. The lightsaber that Rey ends up with with is a yellow lightsaber, which are quite rare in the Star Wars universe.
Here's what Rey's new lightsaber really means.
Yellow lightsabers and the Sentinels
The yellow lightsaber has most often been seen in the galaxy far, far away in the hands of the Temple Guards on the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Their double-bladed pikes are quite unique not only in their color, but also in the shape of the lightsaber, which more closely resembles that of a sword blade.
So, what does this mean for Rey? Well, she's certainly not joining the Temple Guard, considering that the Jedi temple would be fairly empty given the lack of Jedi. As Collider points out, there's always the possibility of a symbolic Temple Guard, in that Rey will be the guardian of the Jedi Order going forward. Of course, there's plenty of other symbolism attached to the yellow lightsaber as well.
Star Wars lore dictates that yellow lightsabers are carried by the Sentinels, one of the major schools of thought within the old Jedi Order that tries to find balance between the Consulars (who typically bear green blades) and the Guardians (who normally wield blue lightsabers). As Screen Rant reports, with the Sith (apparently) destroyed by the end of The Rise of Skywalker, Rey has finally brought balance to the Force. Not only that, but she also appears to be the only Jedi left, and will have to carry the beliefs of them all into the future. That balance between Consular and Guardian will be necessary if Rey needs to train more Jedi to keep the peace, so it's appropriate that she'd carry a yellow lightsaber.
Rey's yellow lightsaber reflects her chosen identity
There's also the symbolic decision for Rey to deviate from what has come before her. Rey has had quite the journey: she was a poor scavenger girl abandoned on Jakku by her parents who spent most of her life waiting for them to come back to her — then discovered that she's Force-sensitive, began training as a Jedi under Luke Skywalker, joined the Resistance and fought against the First Order, found out she's a Palpatine, and ultimately decided to take the surname Skywalker as her own. She had plenty of options from which to choose in claiming her own lightsaber — she could have been blue or green like Luke and Leia, or red like her Sith grandfather. But in choosing to go a different way with her lightsaber, Rey chooses her own identity separate from her bloodline and her past.
The Sentinels also differed from other Jedi in that they believed it was important to have other real-world knowledge outside of the Force, recognizing that the use and manipulation of Midi-chlorians isn't necessarily the answer to everything. Given the way that Rey grew up — that is, scavenging as the only way survive in a desert wasteland — she knows firsthand how important knowledge outside of the Force can be to survival. All things considered, it makes perfect sense that she would choose to follow the school of thought embodied by the Sentinels in forging her own lightsaber.
Additionally, it was important for Rey to lay Luke and Leia's lightsabers to rest and forge one of her own. It's a critical part of the process to becoming a Jedi Master, and until she did so, would have rendered her journey incomplete. Star Wars lore also dictates that the kyber crystals used to create the light in a lightsaber are white, and only take on a color once they have bonded with a Jedi and their path becomes clear. The message here is an obvious one: Rey, the last of the Jedi Order, will embody all that the Jedi are. From the Consulars to the Guardians to learning real-life skills, Rey carries the entire future of the Jedi Order within her, and she must balance those teachings.
A piece of Rey's past in her future
There's another small detail to Rey's new lightsaber many may have missed. The handle of her saber is made from the staff she has been carrying around for years, since long before she ever left Jakku in the first place. It's yet another piece of symbolism — this one showing Rey finally leaving her old life behind her, this time for good.
Even in The Rise of Skywalker, we saw that Rey's education as a Jedi hadn't given her the confidence to rely on her strength in the Force just yet. On the training ground, she was unable to fight off the combat droid with a lightsaber, but the moment she picked up a stick and used it as she would her staff, she disposed of the robo-enemy quickly. Rey has always been comfortable with her staff — and staff-like weaponry — in her hand, so it makes perfect sense for her to bring that relic forward with her into her new life, without hanging on to any sentimentality of her past.
Will we see Rey's new yellow lightsaber on screen ever again?
It's understood that new Star Wars franchise films won't be telling the tale of the Skywalkers, of which Rey is now one by choice thanks to her final words in The Rise of Skywalker: she states her name as Rey Skywalker. Considering The Rise of Skywalker marked the end of the Skywalker saga, it's not likely Rey will be returning in any more movies. This ties in with one of the reasons the Sentinels don't appear in the nine films already in existence: those who practiced the beliefs of the Sentinels believed in concealing themselves and being inconspicuous, and avoided pulling out their lightsabers unless absolutely necessary.
With the galaxy seemingly safe at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, Rey shouldn't need to whip out her new weapon that often, and may even be able to fade into the background just like the Sentinels. But who knows? Maybe she'll teach a whole new order of Jedi in the future, and we'll meet her students in a future Star Wars movie.