18 minutes ago, Inquisitor Tremayne said:

I wonder why she has not constructed her own lightsaber yet...

Given her background, why would she when she already has one that is in perfect working order?

55 minutes ago, micheldebruyn said:

Given her background, why would she when she already has one that is in perfect working order?

It's much the same as it was for Luke, who only bothered to build a new lightsaber of his own after losing Anakin's lightsaber.

With Rey, while she might have those ancient texts, that doesn't mean said texts have anything on lightsaber construction on them. Plus, while it was damaged, she did still have Anakin's old lightsaber, and quite likely the technical know-how to patch it back together, given it's much easier to reverse-engineer something than it is to build something new from scratch.

Wait, wasn't the lightsaber torn in half during their struggle? I seem to recall it being totally busted up in the final scene of TLJ. How would she not have had to build her own saber? Is there some shot in that trailer that I didn't notice, where it's shown to have a tear down the middle or something?

21 hours ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

It's much the same as it was for Luke, who only bothered to build a new lightsaber of his own after losing Anakin's lightsaber.

With Rey, while she might have those ancient texts, that doesn't mean said texts have anything on lightsaber construction on them. Plus, while it was damaged, she did still have Anakin's old lightsaber, and quite likely the technical know-how to patch it back together, given it's much easier to reverse-engineer something than it is to build something new from scratch.

Well I mean it can't be that hard to build one. Luke did it with zero education on the mechanics of the device, and having lost his original along with his hand. And Luke was never shown to have some mechanical aptitude beyond basic competency for that universe. So it can't be that much of an engineering feat to build one from scratch.

2 minutes ago, KungFuFerret said:

Wait, wasn't the lightsaber torn in half during their struggle? I seem to recall it being totally busted up in the final scene of TLJ. How would she not have had to build her own saber? Is there some shot in that trailer that I didn't notice, where it's shown to have a tear down the middle or something?

Well I mean it can't be that hard to build one. Luke did it with zero education on the mechanics of the device, and having lost his original along with his hand. And Luke was never shown to have some mechanical aptitude beyond basic competency for that universe. So it can't be that much of an engineering feat to build one from scratch.

She repairs Anakin's saber. You can see the activation switch is different.

5 minutes ago, StarkJunior said:

She repairs Anakin's saber. You can see the activation switch is different.

I'll take your word for it, I don't pay that much attention to details like that, that are ultimately pointless. Either way, it's never been established that saber construction is difficult, as I said before, a country bumpkin kid from a desert planet was able to build one from scratch without any schematics or training in the method of doing so. So clearly it's pretty straightforward.

29 minutes ago, KungFuFerret said:

I'll take your word for it, I don't pay that much attention to details like that, that are ultimately pointless. Either way, it's never been established that saber construction is difficult, as I said before, a country bumpkin kid from a desert planet was able to build one from scratch without any schematics or training in the method of doing so. So clearly it's pretty straightforward.

He had Ben's journal on the matter which provided instruction on how to construct a lightsaber.

One thing I find pretty hilarious is that JJ literally "fixed" what Rian Johnson broke. Kylo's helmet and Anakin's lightsaber both repaired in the trailer.

4 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

He had Ben's journal on the matter which provided instruction on how to construct a lightsaber.

....yeah, that was totally in the films, and wasn't retconned later by some writer, surrre.

Retcon and explanation are two different things. there is only so much you can put in a movie.

43 minutes ago, KungFuFerret said:

Wait, wasn't the lightsaber torn in half during their struggle? I seem to recall it being totally busted up in the final scene of TLJ. How would she not have had to build her own saber? Is there some shot in that trailer that I didn't notice, where it's shown to have a tear down the middle or something?

Well I mean it can't be that hard to build one. Luke did it with zero education on the mechanics of the device, and having lost his original along with his hand. And Luke was never shown to have some mechanical aptitude beyond basic competency for that universe. So it can't be that much of an engineering feat to build one from scratch.

Well, we've got canon in the form of The Clone Wars of building a brand new lightsaber isn't a simple process, what with a group of initiates being tutored in the process as they're doing it, and presumably have studied at least the fundamentals prior to undergoing their trial on Ilum. So it's certainly more complicated than "insert tab A into slot B."

As for Luke, it was never explained in the movies because it wasn't important to the plot. Luke needed a new lightsaber, so he got one (one of the perks of being the creator's self-insert OC). Legends explained it as Obi-Wan having set aside journals specifically for Luke detailing the process (including how to create a synthetic kyber crystal), so there it wasn't like Luke just instantly knew how to build a lightsaber. I guess one could make an assumption that Yoda taught him, but given how little else Luke seemed to have learned during his short time on Dagobah, that's quite a stretch.

Even at the end of TLJ, Leia reassures Rey that the lightsaber (and by extension the Resistance) can be rebuilt. Given Rey's established technical prowess due to salvager background, it probably wasn't all that hard to rebuild the hilt into something functional, on top of her having at least some length of time between the ending and opening of Episodes 8 and 9 for her to figure out how to fix the hilt.

Side note, it does bring up an interesting notion that perhaps Rey has opted to keep using that lightsaber, not simply because it was easier to repair than to build a new one, but for the symbolic value it has as having once been the lightsaber of the legendary Luke Skywalker, both to the Resistance and to herself.

10 minutes ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

I guess one could make an assumption that Yoda taught him, but given how little else Luke seemed to have learned during his short time on Dagobah, that's quite a stretch.

Official statement from Lucasfilm is that Luke was on Dagobah for 18 months. I don't know what you classify as a short stay, but 18 months is a decent amount of time. And what do you classify as "little"? He seemed to learn a decent amount about harnessing the force, as well as the nature of the force.

9 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Official statement from Lucasfilm is that Luke was on Dagobah for 18 months. I don't know what you classify as a short stay, but 18 months is a decent amount of time. And what do you classify as "little"? He seemed to learn a decent amount about harnessing the force, as well as the nature of the force.

You have a reliable source for that statement? Because this is the first I've heard of there being an official word on the length of the stay, a topic that's been debated pretty much since ESB came out.

Because if Yoda actually spent that long training Luke, then he's absolute garbage as an instructor, with Ben Kenobi doing a better job in only a few hours aboard the Falcon in ANH.

Even Wookieepedia mentions the time of the film being a matter of days from start to finish rather than the "months and months" you're claiming.

I looked into it more, and it was a quote taken out of context. The full bit said that Lucasfilm's statement at the time was 18 months total between 5 and 6, but that doesn't hold water once I looked into it further. Part of their statement was that he spent 6 months on Dagobah between the events of Episode 5 and the beginning of Episode 6.

37 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Official statement from Lucasfilm is that Luke was on Dagobah for 18 months. I don't know what you classify as a short stay, but 18 months is a decent amount of time. And what do you classify as "little"? He seemed to learn a decent amount about harnessing the force, as well as the nature of the force.

How could he be on Dagobah for 18 months? The entire sequence takes place simultaneously as the Falcon sequence in Empre, so we know it can't be during the actual film. Plus that would contradict Luke's line to Yoda at the beginning of Return, where he says he's come back to complete his training, you know, the training he skipped out on to fight Vader and lose a hand. It makes no sense narratively, for him to then go back to Yoda (after Empire, pre_Return), hang out for a year+, train, leave again abruptly (prior to Return opening), do the opening sequence to Return on Tatooine, and THEN go back AGAIN to "complete" training. That's just messy writing, and lessens the loss of Yoda, as there is no longer any way for Luke to train in the Force, and he's now on his own. It makes more narrative sense to have him be gone that entire time, and only after rescuing Han, going back to Yoda, thus only showing up in time for him to die.

55 minutes ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

Well, we've got canon in the form of The Clone Wars of building a brand new lightsaber isn't a simple process, what with a group of initiates being tutored in the process as they're doing it, and presumably have studied at least the fundamentals prior to undergoing their trial on Ilum. So it's certainly more complicated than "insert tab A into slot B."

And yet it's simple enough for literal children to do, so it's not that difficult. I didn't say it was Lego Simple, but it's not advanced quantum ultra-physics. It's a replicatable device with mechanical components. And equipment maintenance is a very common thing in the SW verse. Luke is repairing droids, fixing moisture vaporators, etc when he's introduced, so the idea of people just being competent with mechanical devices in SW isn't that far fetched.

58 minutes ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

As for Luke, it was never explained in the movies because it wasn't important to the plot.

And it's still not important for Rey either. It's only important to ultra fans who spend hours freeze framing every frame of a teaser trailer to try and spot ship silhouettes to try and guess what people will have cameos based on the fleet makeup, because they apparently don't have anything better to do.

I personally don't care if she built one from scratch, or repaired the old one. Either method accomplishes the needed step of "she has a lightsaber now." Both have their own flavor of thematic and narrative weight, as far as tropes go, but if it happens off screen (like with Luke), it's ultimately a pointless detail, that clearly didn't need explanation.

1 hour ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

Side note, it does bring up an interesting notion that perhaps Rey has opted to keep using that lightsaber, not simply because it was easier to repair than to build a new one, but for the symbolic value it has as having once been the lightsaber of the legendary Luke Skywalker, both to the Resistance and to herself.

Sure, it would be fitting for her character. Having thematic weight given to such a weapon goes all the way back to ANH. "It was your father's.." *dramatic pause from Alec* "..Lightsaber!" Everything about the presentation of that saber to Luke in ANH loaded it up with gravitas and import, so yeah, I could see Rey being as inclined to use that as any other Star Wars fangirl/boy would, if given the actual saber from the film. But given she's going to turn it into a double blader, and her semi-shattered illusions about the Jedi and Luke at the end of TLJ (not lost entirely, but definitely had the shiney polish peeled away), having her decide to build something new, and more fitting for her combat style, would also be as fitting.

41 minutes ago, KungFuFerret said:

Sure, it would be fitting for her character. Having thematic weight given to such a weapon goes all the way back to ANH. "It was your father's.." *dramatic pause from Alec* "..Lightsaber!" Everything about the presentation of that saber to Luke in ANH loaded it up with gravitas and import, so yeah, I could see Rey being as inclined to use that as any other Star Wars fangirl/boy would, if given the actual saber from the film. But given she's going to turn it into a double blader, and her semi-shattered illusions about the Jedi and Luke at the end of TLJ (not lost entirely, but definitely had the shiney polish peeled away), having her decide to build something new, and more fitting for her combat style, would also be as fitting.

Do we know for certain she's going to turn it into a double-blader? The only time we see "Rey" in the trailers break out a double-blader, the hilt is of a very different design (apart from having red energy blades that appear to have a similar crackle to Kylo's blade). Every other instance we've seen thus far of her using a blue-bladed lightsaber, it's been a single blade. Given LFL had no hesitation about revealing that Darth Maul had a double-blader in the trailers for TPM as a way of building hype for the film, it seems off that they wouldn't have done the same here in the similar hopes of further building hype for TRoS.

I get there's been a ton of fandom speculation that Rey's going to construct for herself either a double-blader (seems lots of folks are obsessed with that type of weapon) or a saber pike (playing off her staff-fighting skills demonstrated in TFA), but thus far there's not been anything to suggest that she'll actually do either of those in the film.

So on the topic of symbolism, given that Rey repaired the Skywalker lightsaber and Ben refurbished his mask, I wonder if there is indeed symbolism between those two characters, whom director JJ Abrams has said are "two sides of the same coin" in a recent interview.

With Rey, her repair work is clean and functional, with the repaired hilt having only cosmetic differences around the area where it broke, and looking for the most part like it'd never been broken in the first place. Enough so that a person in-universe would have no idea that she'd had to repair it unless they either asked or were pretty familiar with Anakin's old lightsaber. It could reflect that she's properly healed her own "broken" parts and managed to form a relatively integrated whole, resolving her disparities (a child from nowhere that's been thrust onto the grand stage in a role she never wanted in the first place but had to accept because there wasn't anyone else*).

Now in contrast we have Kylo Ren, whose helmet is functional but appearance-wise is a mess, with visible cracks all throughout. Perhaps that's a reflection of how Ben is still "broken" inside, and is only pretending that he's not, once again hiding behind the mask to project an illusion of power and confidence, while it still being plain for all to see the cracks in that persona. He's done a messy job of patching up his inner disparities, and the helmet reflects it.

*Which is itself an interesting nod to RotJ, with Luke's brief moment of not wanting the Hero's Burden once Yoda had confirmed that Vader was indeed the boy's father; if Luke had any notion at all of there being other Jedi out there, I've little doubt he would have tried to pass the buck onto them so that he wouldn't have to face down his own father. Thus, Yoda's motivational lie (assuming that as of RotJ there were other Jedi or even other Force users strong enough to have a chance against Vader) that Luke was it; wouldn't be the first time in the history of story that a wise and trusted mentor didn't give their student the full truth as a means of motivating that student to be the hero of the given story.

17 minutes ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

Do we know for certain she's going to turn it into a double-blader?

No we don't know that, it is speculation on my part, mostly just based on the already established precedent of double bladed sabers being a thing, her being a staff fighter, a tease of her having a double saber in that Darth Rey image. It just feels like a natural move for her to me. I could be wrong sure, but it seems like a way she would improve/adapt for the final film.

20 minutes ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

I get there's been a ton of fandom speculation that Rey's going to construct for herself either a double-blader (seems lots of folks are obsessed with that type of weapon) or a saber pike (playing off her staff-fighting skills demonstrated in TFA), but thus far there's not been anything to suggest that she'll actually do either of those in the film.

Interestingly, a double saber is more like how a staff fighter would function than a saber pike. Saber pike more directly translates to a spear, which is not what she used. But a double saber is literally a staff, with the green screen bits on both sides instead of just one.

19 minutes ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

So on the topic of symbolism, given that Rey repaired the Skywalker lightsaber and Ben refurbished his mask, I wonder if there is indeed symbolism between those two characters, whom director JJ Abrams has said are "two sides of the same coin" in a recent interview.

With Rey, her repair work is clean and functional, with the repaired hilt having only cosmetic differences around the area where it broke, and looking for the most part like it'd never been broken in the first place. Enough so that a person in-universe would have no idea that she'd had to repair it unless they either asked or were pretty familiar with Anakin's old lightsaber. It could reflect that she's properly healed her own "broken" parts and managed to form a relatively integrated whole, resolving her disparities (a child from nowhere that's been thrust onto the grand stage in a role she never wanted in the first place but had to accept because there wasn't anyone else*).

Now in contrast we have Kylo Ren, whose helmet is functional but appearance-wise is a mess, with visible cracks all throughout. Perhaps that's a reflection of how Ben is still "broken" inside, and is only pretending that he's not, once again hiding behind the mask to project an illusion of power and confidence, while it still being plain for all to see the cracks in that persona. He's done a messy job of patching up his inner disparities, and the helmet reflects it.

That's definitely the most likely visual representation of those thematic character elements, though I would disagree that his helmet is at all functional. It's basically a cosplay helmet for a Vader fanboy. Not saying that as a criticism, just a fact, it's even pointed out in TLJ, when Snoke tells him to take the mask off. So yeah, I would say the visual imagery of "him hiding behind his broken personal identity" is a sound interpretation of that choice in costume. Star Wars has never been terribly subtle with their imagery, and that's a very easy and simple one to use for the target audience, kids.

22 minutes ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

*Which is itself an interesting nod to RotJ, with Luke's brief moment of not wanting the Hero's Burden once Yoda had confirmed that Vader was indeed the boy's father; if Luke had any notion at all of there being other Jedi out there, I've little doubt he would have tried to pass the buck onto them so that he wouldn't have to face down his own father. Thus, Yoda's motivational lie (assuming that as of RotJ there were other Jedi or even other Force users strong enough to have a chance against Vader) that Luke was it; wouldn't be the first time in the history of story that a wise and trusted mentor didn't give their student the full truth as a means of motivating that student to be the hero of the given story.

Possibly, though I personally don't think Lucas had all that fleshed out. I think "the last of the Jedi" will you be, was accurate for the time the film came out, and has since been retroactively expanded on, because the franchise keeps coming back to the Rebellion Era and sticking Jedi-esque characters into the story, like a junky getting their narrative fix.

19 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

He had Ben's journal on the matter which provided instruction on how to construct a lightsaber.

One thing I find pretty hilarious is that JJ literally "fixed" what Rian Johnson broke. Kylo's helmet and Anakin's lightsaber both repaired in the trailer.

I'm excited for the reveal when Snoke appears, stapled back together.

1 hour ago, Tom Cruise said:

I'm excited for the reveal when Snoke appears, stapled back together.

You say that jokingly, but being cut in half is surprisingly survivable in the SW-verse

With the rumors that just surfaced over the last days about some alleged test screenings, I'm not only concerned - I'm afraid...

I can only hope that those rumors are the work of some trolls.

5 minutes ago, Malashim said:

With the rumors that just surfaced over the last days about some alleged test screenings, I'm not only concerned - I'm afraid...

I can only hope that those rumors are the work of some trolls.

I can almost guarantee that they are. 95% of the TRoS rumors are nonsense.

1 minute ago, Malashim said:

With the rumors that just surfaced over the last days about some alleged test screenings, I'm not only concerned - I'm afraid...

I can only hope that those rumors are the work of some trolls.

Problem is those rumors are exactly that... unfounded rumors being spouted by some YouTuber with an axe to grind.

The only "test screenings" that get done are for Disney and LFL employees, not to members of the general populace.

1 minute ago, StarkJunior said:

I can almost guarantee that they are. 95% of the TRoS rumors are nonsense.

If the source for a rumor is wegotthiscovered, then you're pretty much assured that it's 1) blatantly false, 2) deliberately malicious, or 3) both.

54 minutes ago, Malashim said:

With the rumors that just surfaced over the last days about some alleged test screenings, I'm not only concerned - I'm afraid...

I can only hope that those rumors are the work of some trolls.

Good thing it's just a movie, and not something to get afraid over.

I'm saying it here first. The big bad in the epic conclusion of Star Wars......Evil Yoda Baby.

2 hours ago, Sturn said:

I'm saying it here first. The big bad in the epic conclusion of Star Wars......Evil Yoda Baby.

"Heh, see that coming young Rey, you did not."
"And here I thought Ben was a baby..."
"I HEARD THAT!"