Anakin Skywalker's second lightsaber
- "Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old Obi-Wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade like your father did."
"What is it?"
"Your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age." - ―Ben Kenobi and Luke Skywalker
Anakin Skywalker's second lightsaber was the weapon constructed and wielded by Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. Built as a replacement for Anakin's first lightsaber, it was carried by its creator throughout the Clone Wars and after Anakin turned against the Jedi Order by joining the Sith Lord Darth Sidious.
In the hands of a Sith, the newly anointed Darth Vader, the lightsaber was used to cut down numerous Jedi, including Padawans and Jedi younglings during the attack on the Jedi Temple of Coruscant. It then was used to slaughter the leaders of the Confederacy of Independent Systems on Mustafar. Upon being confronted by his former master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vader used the lightsaber to duel Kenobi, but was defeated. Kenobi took the lightsaber and brought it with him to Tatooine, where he kept it for nearly two decades until he handed it down to Anakin's son, Luke Skywalker.
Luke carried his father's lightsaber during the Galactic Civil War, before losing the saber during a duel with Vader on Bespin. After the duel, Vader recovered the saber and brought it to Sidious, who placed it in his private storehouse, Mount Tantiss on Wayland. The lightsaber remained there until the Thrawn campaign, when the insane clone and Dark Jedi Joruus C'baoth, who had become the Guardian of Mount Tantiss, gave it to a clone of Luke he had created, Luuke Skywalker. During the Assault on Mount Tantiss, Luke and former Emperor's Hand Mara Jade faced off against C'baoth and Luuke, defeating them and recovering the lightsaber, which Luke subsequently gave to Mara. Possibly this weapon was used by other members of the Skywalker family and/or taken from Ossus by unknown persons after the One Sith attack.[7]
Specifications
Incorporating many of the elements from his first weapon, Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber was specifically designed to facilitate Skywalker's practice of Form V lightsaber combat. As per Form V weapon specifications, the lightsaber had a solid casing (either as a whole or in multiple sections for maximum protection against power surge deterioration) and a heavily shrouded blade emitter. The beveled emitter was designed to designate separate facets of the blade for either offensive or defensive purposes. The lightsaber hilt included a ridged hand grip, as Djem So required its users to maintain a solid grip on the hilt.[8] It was also later modified to allow it to operate underwater.[9]
Before being passed to Luke Skywalker, the weapon's hilt had been slightly altered so that the original belt fastener was changed into a ring.
History
Carried by Luke Skywalker (0–3 ABY)
Gift of a Jedi
The lightsaber remained in Ben Kenobi's possession for the following nineteen years, until he was presented with the opportunity to give the weapon to Luke Skywalker. After rescuing Luke from a Tusken Raider attack, Kenobi presented young Skywalker with his father's lightsaber and explained its previous owner's history (from a certain point of view).[2]
Skywalker's early training with the weapon consisted of Form I velocities onboard the Millennium Falcon.[10] Luke advanced remarkably fast, able to effectively deflect blaster bolts after only one brief session.[2]
Battle against Darth Vader
- "If we do catch up with Vader, and we must, you're going to need both your skill with the saber and the Force."
- ―Leia Organa, to Luke Skywalker
After Ben Kenobi's death at the hands of Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker continued to wield his father's weapon throughout his early Jedi career. Without Kenobi present to train him, Luke was forced to improvise and self-teach, resulting in an instinctive though highly skilled practice of Form V lightsaber combat.[11] On Mimban, Luke was forced to demonstrate this skill against Vader, though not before Leia Organa took up the weapon and stood against Vader while Luke was incapacitated. Despite her valiant efforts, Leia was only briefly able to hold her own against Vader, being brought down by several light though brutal slashes.[9]
At that moment, Skywalker was able to free himself, and he stood against Vader. However, despite his own skill with the weapon, it was nowhere near enough to stand against the lightsaber's former owner, and Luke was forced to rely on the spiritual assistance of Kenobi to take Vader. Skywalker and Kenobi's spirit both completely exhausted themselves against Vader, but not before managing to amputate his right arm. However Vader, himself weary, stumbled into an ancient well before he could capture the Skywalker siblings.[9]
Desperation and deprivation
Shortly before the Battle of Hoth, Luke Skywalker used the lightsaber to escape from a wampa, and it was used shortly thereafter by Han Solo to slice open a dead tauntaun to keep the young Jedi alive. During the battle itself, Skywalker used the weapon to cut open a hatch on the bottom of an Imperial walker prior to throwing in a grenade to destroy the enemy vehicle. He then carried and used the weapon during his training under Yoda on Dagobah.[12]
Shortly after this, Luke carried the weapon with him to the Cloud City on Bespin in a bid to rescue his friends from Darth Vader. Engaging the Sith Lord in a lightsaber duel, Luke demonstrated his vastly increased skill with the weapon, impressing its former wielder. Ultimately, however, Luke's lightsaber hand was sliced off by Vader and fell, along with the lightsaber it carried, into the depths of Cloud City.[12]
The Emperor's trophy (3–9 ABY)
- "You will give me the hand. And the lightsaber. Now."
- ―Darth Vader, to Groggin
The lightsaber, still clutched by Luke Skywalker's hand, had become lodged in one of Cloud City's lower air shafts and eventually was recovered by a maintenance drone. The drone deposited the hand and the lightsaber in Smelting Core D. There, it was discovered by Groggin, the Smelting Core's supervisor.[13]
Groggin had no use for the hand and decided to have it incinerated while he would keep the lightsaber, which he planned to melt down. However, the arrival of Darth Vader in the smelting facility prevented Groggin from taking such action. After a round of aggressive negotiations, Vader left the facility with the hand and the lightsaber in his possession.[13] Though he had other plans for the hand and the lightsaber in mind, Vader was compelled by Palpatine to bring the two items to the Mount Tantiss storehouse on Wayland. There, the Emperor made Vader turn Skywalker's hand and lightsaber over to him.
During the Thrawn Campaign
- "What's this?"
"It's my old lightsaber. The one I lost at Cloud City, and nearly got killed with at Wayland. I'd like you to have it."
"Me? Why?"
"Lots of reasons. Because you earned it. Because you're on your way to becoming a Jedi and you'll need it. Mostly, though, because I want you to have it." - ―Mara Jade and Luke Skywalker
Six years later, the mad Jedi clone Joruus C'baoth ordered that a clone of Luke be produced from the appendage, and that he be armed with Anakin's old weapon. When Skywalker arrived, leading a New Republic strike team to destroy the cloning tanks of Wayland, he was forced to fight the clone, which was being controlled by C'baoth. It was ultimately killed by Mara Jade who then used Anakin's old saber to kill C'baoth himself. Upon the team's return to Coruscant, Luke presented her with the weapon as a gift.[5]
Carried by Mara Jade (9–)
She used the blue blade on Nirauan during the Caamas Document Crisis.[14] though she would often use her purple lightsaber.[15]
Behind the scenes
Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith was machined to look like Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back as they're canonically one and the same.
The original hilt carried by Mark Hamill in A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back was made from the flash attachment of a Graflex 3 cell flash unit, a flash tube attachment used on forties-era press cameras, with the ridged grip made by gluing portions of hard plastic 'T' track used for the sliding doors of display cabinets (often mistaken for wiper blades) onto the bare cylinder, and the switch plate fashioned from the LED screen of a 1974 calculator (In ESB the switch plate was replaced with part of a circuit board).
In the 2004 digitally-remastered version of A New Hope, due to a color correction error, Luke's lightsaber appears green rather than blue in some scenes. This is later corrected in the Blu-ray release.
Current location
Anakin's lightsaber and Luke's hand are currently on display as part of the "Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame Exhibition" at MoPOP Museum of Pop Culture (Formerly EMP Museum) in Seattle, Washington.[1]
The lightsaber prop traveled to space with shuttle Discovery in October 2007 [2].
The prop for Luke's lightsaber was auctioned on December 11 of 2008 for $240,000.
