Luke’s blue lightsaber appears in the second teaser for The Force Awakens. How it has been found again is a big mystery that we’re all anxious to learn, but at the moment I’m more concerned about the fate and implications of Luke’s other lightsaber: his green one.
We all remember that moment, the most heroic moment in Luke’s jorney towards redeeming his father and becoming a true Jedi; he throws his lightsaber away and refuses to fight The Emperor after he defeats his father aboard the second Death Star.
He threw his lightsaber away.
It’s the perfect display of defiance to The Emperor and shows that Luke is not like his father. Luke won’t embrace his anger or hatred towards Palpatine. He won’t give him what he wants. Luke would rather die than turn to the dark side.
Luke is a Jedi.
He threw his lightsaber away.
Let’s fast forward a few minutes into the film. Luke is carrying/dragging Anakin out into a hangar bay of the Death Star as it’s falling apart around them. He only has moments left to get to know his now redeemed father before he becomes one with the Force (at which point I assume they’ll have all sorts of time to catch up).
I can’t imagine that in the commotion and urgency of the moment Luke would have taken the time to go retreive the lightsaber he tossed away.
“Come on son, I’m dying here…”
“Just give me a sec, Dad! Gotta find my lightsaber. I think it rolled under that console over there.”
It seems odd to me that after that huge moment in his journey to becoming the ultimate Jedi, he would sort of take it back in a way. Especially when the act of tossing the lightsaber was, as far as I’m concerned, the most important moment for him in becoming a true Jedi. A new Jedi.
So the question is, did Luke retreive his lightsaber on the Death Star? Or did he leave it behind?
Did Luke give up on conflict and fighting all together? Or did he merely choose not to participate in a fight against The Emperor; a fight that could have sent him down a dark path from which he might not have recovered?
Did Luke gladly pick up his deadly weapon again once the threat of the Emperor had passed?
These questions have large implications not only into Luke’s character, but his potential future in a post-Return of the Jedi galaxy.
Luke abandoning his lightsaber carries drastically different implications for his character than if he had picked it back up before helping Anakin to the hanger.
On the one hand you have a Jedi who has given up on fighting and conflict, a Jedi who has realized that “Wars not make one great;” that there perhaps might be greater goodness to be achieved without a weapon.
On the other hand, he defied The Emperor and avoided a conflict that might have sent him down a dark path had he followed through with it and given into his anger, but afterwards picked up his weapon again with certainly a greater understanding of himself and what it means to be a Jedi, but not necessarily a different mindset when it comes to conflict and violence.
The Luke that picks up his lightsaber is the Luke that has no doubts about destroying a battlestation carrying millions of lives. The Luke that will kill people if he believes they deserve it. If it’s for the greater good.
So did Luke truly throw his lightsaber away?
Will he have his famous green blade in The Force Awakens?
If you watch the end of Return of the Jedi closely, there is in fact a scene where Luke is rejoining his friends for a feast of stormtrooper flesh prepared by their new furry friends and you see his lightsaber swinging from his belt.
Why did Luke choose to retrieve his lightsaber? What does that mean for his character if anything? Does that lessen the impact of the scene where he throws it away? What do you think?
Luke defied the Emperor. Luke did not act as his father did. Luke resisted the darkness inside himself.
Luke did not throw his lightsaber away.
Great Article! I would add to it, that even before the Death Star battle with Palpatine, Luke had the mindset to settle conflict without violence. I would point to the early part of RotJ where he goes to Jabba sans lightsaber. Sure he was prepared to fight to save his friends if necessary- maybe there was some foresight through the Force that Jabba would not willingly give up Han-by stowing his lightsaber with R2. “Well he had to hide it to get it into Jabba’s palace, right?” Wrong. He entered Jabba’s without a weapon search or scan. He could have easily carried his lightsaber with him. Did he force choke the gamoreans? Yes. Did he kill them? Who knows. Did he manipulate Bib Fortuna? Yes. Did he pull a balster to Threaten Jabba even? Yes. I’m not saying this was the prime example, but pointing to it as a point along his journey to becoming a Jedi with the Apex being refusing to fight the Emperor or kill Vader.
And remember this, Anakin himself was coerced to kill Dooku by Palpatine and when he did NOT drop his lightsabers. So there is extra emphasis on this action, that even through the Force Palpatine could not manipulate Luke to destroy Vader in similar fashion. Luke’s will was stronger.
So in my mind, even retrieving his lightsaber(which he could have done using the force without having to look for it) does not mean he is pro-violence, per se. The lightsaber is after all just as much used for defense as it is for offense. Defending the weak and oppressed, being a keeper of the peace strong enough to defend those in need but NOT through force.
And deciding to blow up a Death Star full of people was not his decision alone, or even in majority, to make. It was agreed upon by the entire Rebel council. I do not believe that Luke at least felt like all of those Imperial Military personnel DESERVED to be blown up, but that it was necessary to destroy the war machine that would encourage unspeakable evil against the entire galaxy. “For the greater good” to be sure. And whether that justifies it is a matter of opinion.
But as for lessening the impact of tossing away his lightsaber when facing the Emperor, I say no. That was his passing action, and reflected his true character and how much he had matured since trying to fight Vader in an attempt to avenge his father. He leaves the Death Star firmly entrenched in the Light side as a true Jedi. …
And then obviously drops the ball somewhere over the next 30 years as he failed to establish the New Jedi Order! 😉
Throwing it away had a deep symbolic meaning, but it doesn’t follow that retrieving it has the opposite meaning. It would be entirely in-character for a Jedi to view his lightsaber as a valuable tool, if not an irreplaceable one, and to call it back to him via the Force once the exigent moment had passed.
After all, it was a giant pain in the neck for him to build it in the first place!
He can use the force to retrieve it, one hand out and BAM lightsaber in his hand. Not much effort.
Having grown up poor on Tatooine it was probably second nature to make sure he didn’t forget it.
Plus, he probably needed it to get to the shuttle hanger to get off that space station.
Not to mention all the effort he put in to make the darn thing…
There’s a pretty cool deleted scene about it on the Blu-ray showing Luke constructing it. So the build up concerning the symbolism of the lightsaber was going to be even more clearly established.
Enjoy the new movie. 🙂