“Path of a Lightsaber” Tracks the Journey of Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Weapon, From Anakin to ‘The Force Awakens’

The lightsaber that belonged to both Anakin and Luke Skywalker plays a major role in Star Wars: the Force Awakens, essentially making it one of the Star Wars saga’s most prominent characters. A new video chronicling how it went from point A to point B has arrived online and it’s a surprisingly compelling look at one of cinema’s most iconic items.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers occur in the first sentence of the next paragraph. Seriously, why haven’t you seen this yet?

Daisy Ridley‘s Rey meets Mark Hamill‘s Luke Skywalker in the final scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and they don’t even exchange words. She holds out a familiar lightsaber and the self-exiled Jedi master looks upon the weapon that was his thirty years ago (and his father’s thirty years before that) and his face runs a gamut of emotions: dread, melancholy, amazement and maybe even a little bit of fear can be seen in his expression. It’s a wonderful moment.

But what exactly was running through his mind? A new YouTube video, titled “Path of a Lightsaber,” does a fine job of illustrating why this particular lasersword would bring about so many mixed emotions.

Edited by Christopher Sherwood, the video begins where The Force Awakens ends, using Luke’s indefinable expression to launch into an extended flashback that tracks the journey of this particular lightsaber. Naturally, that means dipping a toe into the prequels, where we’re reminded that this lightsaber was wielded by a young Anakin Skywalker before he turned to the Dark Side and was then used to slaughter innocents after his transformation into Darth Vader. Obi-Wan Kenobi collects it after defeating his former BFF in a duel and, well, you know the rest.

There still remains one gigantic gap in this chronology though. After getting his ass handed to him by Darth Vader on Bespin, Luke loses his lightsaber as it tumbles into oblivion. The next time we see it, it’s part of Maz Kanata’s antique collection under her cantina on Takodana. How did it get there? Since The Force Awakens literally dodges that query (“A good question. For another time”), we can assume that Star Wars: Episode 8 will fill us in on the details, especially since it will take us right back to Rey’s first meeting with Luke. Maybe. Hopefully.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’d be totally down for an anthology series in the form of Robert Altman’s short-lived ABC series Gun (which told one-off stories of people united by the same pearl-handled pistol), where various people come into contact with Luke’s lightsaber during the thirty years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. I’m not kidding. Start with the Cloud City maintenance worker who discovers it while cleaning out some vents and go from there. Tell a bunch of unrelated stories set across the Star Wars universe, using the current location of Luke’s lightsaber as the fabric that binds it all together.

Until then, we can only imagine how that lightsaber managed to get to Rey. And based on Luke’s reaction, it’s clear that he has no idea how she got it either.

The post “Path of a Lightsaber” Tracks the Journey of Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Weapon, From Anakin to ‘The Force Awakens’ appeared first on /Film.

from /Film http://ift.tt/1WXABmB