This blue-bladed lightsaber was Anakin Skywalker's second lightsaber he constructed and wielded as a Jedi Knight. Built as a replacement for Anakin's first lightsaber he lost on Geonosis, 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.
The schematics for Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber
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. 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. It was also later modified to allow it to operate underwater.
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.
Anakin Skywalker wielded a blue-bladed lightsaber during his career as a Jedi Knight.
After his first lightsaber was ruined on Geonosis, Anakin Skywalker set about building a new lightsaber. He carried the weapon during the Battle of Rendili, but it didn't taste first blood until he engaged in a lightsaber duel. The weapon was also used by Skywalker in other early battles such as the battle with Asajj Ventress. After the duel, in which Anakin was victorious, the weapon was wielded by Skywalker for the rest of the Clone Wars. Anakin used this lightsaber for many battles to come.
Anakin Skywalker wielded his lightsaber during the Battle of Teth, using it in a rematch with Asajj Ventress during the Republic's attempt to rescue the kidnapped Hutt child, Rotta, in order to curry favor with the child's parent, Jabba Desilijic Tiure. Escaping Teth alongside his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, with Rotta in tow, they made it to Tatooine, his home planet, where they were shot down by Count Dooku's MagnaGuard-piloted starfighters. Once landed, Skywalker sent Ahsoka to take an alternate route to Jabba's palace while he would serve as a decoy for Dooku personally overseeing the operation. Confronting Dooku in the Dune Sea, Skywalker wielded the saber against the Count in a rematch, before breaking off from battle when he learned that Ahsoka with the Huttlet had been ambushed by Dooku's guards.
Anakin Skywalker wields the lightsaber during his second rematch with Dooku.
Stealing Dooku's speeder bike, he raced across the desert to Jabba's palace and was met by Jabba's interpreter at the entrance. Demanding to know Ahsoka's location, Anakin followed the droid into the palace to meet with Jabba, on the condition that Anakin hand over his weapon. Skywalker did so, but when he met with the Hutt crime lord, he learned that Jabba believed Dooku's deception that the Republic had kidnapped his son. In desperation, Anakin reclaimed his lightsaber and held it to Jabba's throat. Before negotiations collapsed completely, Ahsoka Tano arrived with a still-living Rotta. Despite his joy at having his son back, Jabba ordered the Jedi be executed for perceived slights, only for him to be contacted by Senator Padmé Amidala, who revealed that Dooku had schemed with Jabba's uncle, Ziro Desilijic Tiure, to kidnap Rotta. Jabba spared the Jedi, and made a treaty with the Republic.
During the war, the Republic discovered Dooku's location aboard a Munificent-class space freighter. Anakin devised a plan to get aboard by getting himself caught, leaving his lightsaber with Obi-Wan Kenobi while wielding a replacement, allowing it to be destroyed to make his capture more convincing. Obi-Wan then infiltrated the frigate by entering one of the exterior hatches in a spacesuit. He rescued Anakin and returned the lightsaber, and the two went after Dooku. However, Dooku fled through an escape hatch built into the floor of his meditation chamber, with Anakin in swift pursuit. Dooku made it to the hangar and took off in his ship before Anakin could catch him. Kenobi and Skywalker gave chase.
However, the ships flown by both parties were damaged, and they crash-landed on Vanqor. As the Jedi hunted for Dooku, the Count ambushed them in a cave, telekinetically causing a cave-in. With the Jedi trapped, Dooku stole Anakin's lightsaber and returned to his ship. There he encountered a group of space pirates led by Hondo Ohnaka. The pirates agreed to give Dooku passage to the nearest planet, Florrum. However, en route, Anakin's lightsaber was quietly pick-pocketed from the Count, along with Dooku's own weapon. The Count was taken hostage, and the two lightsabers were kept by Ohnaka as trophies.
Anakin Skywalker holds Hondo Ohnaka hostage with his lightsaber.
Ohnaka ransomed Dooku to the Republic, and Kenobi and Skywalker were sent to confirm whether it was actually Dooku. However, Ohnaka then double-crossed the two and captured them as well, planning to squeeze more money out of the Republic. However, after several attempts, the Jedi and Dooku escaped, reclaiming their respective weapons. Kenobi and Skywalker initially used Ohnaka as a living shield, but when Dooku fled, they let him go, wanting no unnecessary hostilities from the pirates. However, they also warned Ohnaka that Dooku wouldn't be so forgiving.
Padmé Amidala returns Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber.
After the Battle of Ryloth, Anakin Skywalker was sent on leave for a "meditative retreat." Instead, he went to the Senate Office Building and tried convincing his wife, Padmé Amidala, to come with him so they could spend time together. Amidala refused, as she was too tied up with her work. As a last-ditch effort to sway her, Anakin entrusted the lightsaber to her. However, they were interrupted by Bail Organa calling Padmé for a Senate meeting. Amidala left before she could return the lightsaber.
A group of bounty hunters, led by the fearsome Cad Bane, attacked the Senate Office Building and took the Senators at the meeting hostage. While Bane commenced negotiations with Palpatine, Anakin attempted to rescue the hostages, but being unarmed, he was brought down. Bound and thrown in with the Senators, he retrieved his lightsaber from Padmé. As Bane and his posse left, Anakin saved all present by cutting a hole in the floor, allowing the Senators to escape just before Bane detonated the explosives surrounding them.
Anakin Skywalker prepares to use his lightsaber to execute Count Dooku during their final encounter.
Anakin Skywalker wielded the weapon during the Battle of Cato Neimoidia and the Battle of Coruscant, cutting down numerous battle-droids with the weapon. When Kenobi reminded Skywalker that they were on a rescue mission, and that rescuing the chancellor was more important than blowing up the ship by hand, Skywalker gripped the lightsaber with his mechanical arm so hard that its handgrip creaked in protest. Eventually, he wielded the weapon during his final battle against Count Dooku aboard the Invisible Hand. Giving into his rage, Skywalker viciously used the weapon to beat back Dooku and slice off both the Count's hands. Holding his lightsaber alongside Dooku's weapon at the Sith Lord's neck, Anakin executed the Count at Palpatine's behest.
Soon afterwards, Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were caught in a ray shield trap and were brought before General Grievous. The lightsaber briefly became part of Grievous' collection, with the General planning to execute him with it. However, thanks to careful timing with Kenobi and R2-D2, they broke free and Skywalker quickly reclaimed the weapon, destroying one of Grievous' IG-100 MagnaGuards before cutting down most of the droids on the cruisers bridge.
Several Jedi younglings were murdered by the lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi Knight who became Darth Vader.
Later, following the duel between Mace Windu and Darth Sidious, Anakin Skywalker used the weapon to remove Windu's right hand, ensuring the Jedi Master's death, and his own fall to the dark side of the Force. After his conversion into the dark side, Anakin continued to carry his Jedi weapon, though Tionne Solusar later theorized that he continued to wield the blue-bladed weapon to avoid alerting his eventual victims of his recent conversion.
Darth Vader carried the weapon during the march on the Jedi Temple, brutally cutting down hundreds of Jedi with the saber, with notables including the Temple swordmaster Cin Drallig after a brief duel. The weapon again saw use when Vader brought it with him to Mustafar and viciously executed the Separatist council. Its last usage in Vader's hands was in the Sith Lord's battle with his former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Vader wielded the saber aggressively, but was ultimately cut down by Kenobi's blade due to his own recklessness. While Vader survived, Kenobi took the lightsaber to Tatooine.
Luke Skywalker receives his father's lightsaber from Ben Kenobi.
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).
Skywalker's early training with the weapon consisted of Form I velocities on board the Millennium Falcon. Luke advanced remarkably fast, effectively deflecting blaster bolts after only a brief session.
Leia Organa briefly used the lightsaber to fight Darth Vader on Mimban.
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 improvised and self-taught, resulting in an instinctive though highly skilled practice of Form V lightsaber combat. On Mimban, Luke demonstrated 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 only briefly held her own against Vader, being brought down by several light though brutal slashes.
At that moment, Skywalker freed 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 relied on the spiritual assistance of Kenobi to take Vader. Skywalker and Kenobi's spirit both completely exhausted themselves against Vader, but not before amputating his right arm. However Vader, himself weary, stumbled into an ancient well before he could capture the Skywalker siblings.
Luke Skywalker wields the lightsaber in defense of Echo Base.
Shortly before the Battle of Hoth, Luke Skywalker used the lightsaber to escape from a wampa, and Han Solo used it shortly thereafter 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.
Luke Skywalker used the lightsaber to duel Darth Vader on Bespin.
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.
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.
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. Though he had other plans for the hand and the lightsaber in mind, Palpatine compelled Vader 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.
Luke Skywalker gave Mara Jade the lightsaber on Coruscant.
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. Upon the team's return to Coruscant, Luke presented her with the weapon as a gift.
Mara Jade Skywalker with the weapon shortly before her death
Mara Jade owned the weapon until her death at the hands of her fallen nephew Jacen Solo in 40 ABY, though she would often use her purple lightsaber. Most notably, she used the blue blade on Nirauan during the Caamas Document Crisis, on Chiss Ascendancy/Jedi/Empire of the Hand-joint mission to recover the Outbound Flight, during the Yuuzhan Vong War and also during the Second Corellian Insurrection.
Around 40 ABY, shortly before he became Darth Caedus, Jacen Solo dreamed of his mother Leia Organa Solo using Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber against him, as he was contemplating on whether or not to sacrifice her and his father so he could become a Sith.
Ben Skywalker with the lightsaber
During the time around the Second Corellian Crisis, the lightsaber seemed to have been taken from the possession of Skywalker survivors and ended up in the hands of a Dark Jedi.
Ben Skywalker tracked down the lightsaber, still in the possession of the Dark Jedi. The Dark Jedi was preparing to imbue the weapon with the power of the dark side, but Ben took it from him before he was able to do so. Though it is not known what happened in the ensuing battle, it can be assumed that Ben slew the Dark Jedi as well as the other dark-siders who were present and took his grandfather's weapon as his own.
After the death of his wife, Luke Skywalker retired the weapon, where it remained in the Jedi Temple.
Kol Skywalker's lightsaber, which had similar appearance to Anakin's second lightsaber
While its fate by the time of the Sith-Imperial War is ultimately unknown, Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber may have been used by other members of the Skywalker family following Mara's death. It was possibly taken from Ossus after the One Sith attacked in 130 ABY.
One of Anakin's descendants, Kol Skywalker had built a lightsaber that had a hilt that resembles to Anakin Skywalker's second lightsaber and shares the feature of a beveled blade emitter. Kol's lightsaber also had a blue blade until it was badly burnt in the battle against the Sith and was lost after Kol's death. Later it discovered by Yuuzhan Vong Master Shaper Nei Rin amongst the ruins and Rin had replaced the original focusing crystal with a lambent crystal of her own shaping, thus the blue blade was replaced with a green blade.
A Graflex flash similar to the one used for the lightsaber in the movies
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 The 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 The Empire Strikes Back, the switch plate was replaced with part of a circuit board.
Mara Jade Skywalker is depicted with the lightsaber on the cover of Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice.
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.
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.
The lightsaber prop traveled to space with shuttle Discovery in October 2007.
The prop for Luke's lightsaber was auctioned on December 11, 2008, for $240,000.
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