Some stories tell of prophecies. Prophecies that lead a hero to his path of light. However, while some do start with doing good, some end up becoming who they shouldn’t be. If you’re a fan of Star Wars, you’ll know about the dark side and it’s opposite, the side of light.
In this article, we’ll be talking about a weapon used by a conflicted character in the story of Star Wars, Kylo Ren. Unlike others, his weapon is unique in more than just one way. There’s a lot to tell about its mysterious origins, power source, and its design.
Later in this article, you’ll realize how the producers and designers cleverly depicted Kylo Ren’s character with his lightsaber. You’ll learn how deep and meaningful lightsabers are, that they are not just weapons, but symbols.
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Normal Light Sabers Vs Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber
On a very shallow level, lightsabers come in different colors and are used by jedis. They come in blue, green, yellow and other colors. Other than those, there are also lightsabers with the red color. These are typically used by the Sith Order or the dark side users.
While lightsabers can come in different colors, there are still similar characteristics that all lightsabers share in common. What makes Kylo Ren’s lightsaber unique is that it doesn’t have one characteristic that the others have.
This is that all lightsabers produce a stable beam. But if you haven’t noticed it, with Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, you can hear crackles. This signifies that his lightsaber isn’t stable.
At first glance, you’ll also notice that Kylo Ren’s lightsaber seem to have an additional crossguard that are beams too. When the movie first came out, a lot were baffled about why his lightsabers had them.They appeared to be impractical and perhaps even a hazard.
While Kylo Ren could use those additional beams to harm his opponents, one wrong move of the arm and he could hurt himself instead. Having those meant that Kylo’s lightsaber might be harder to wield than a traditional lightsaber.
But Kylo Ren’s lightsaber is at a higher difficulty with the addition of two other beams. Before we go deeper into Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, we first have to talk about its power source. All lightsabers have a power source and Kylo’s lightsaber is no different.
What is the Power Source of Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber?
Typically, the power source of a lightsaber comes in the form of a crystal. While there are other materials that can be used as a power source, in this article, we’ll only be focusing on crystals as that is the type of power source used by Kylo Ren for his lightsaber.
To be more specific, he used a Kyber crystal. Kyber crystals are rare and naturally grow on different planets across the Star Wars Universe. What makes them ideal power sources for lightsabers is that they are attuned to the force.
In Star Wars, and as mentioned earlier, there’s the dark side and the light or the good side. These crystals are sensitive to energies and they can be influenced when someone channels their force into the crystals.
Before a Jedi or a sith can use a lightsaber, they first have to prepare the crystal by channeling their force into it. For Jedis, they could meditate on the crystal for days. For the Sith, it’s a different story.
They have what they call the “bleeding” process wherein they turn a crystal attuned to a different force to the dark side. They do this by channeling all their hatred, anger and all other negative emotions and energy into the crystal.
They do this until the crystal becomes red as if it bled out the color. The color of the beam of the lightsaber then is dependent on the color of the crystal. As for the case of Kylo Ren, he used a red Kyber crystal so naturally, the color of the beams of his lightsaber are red.
But with Kylo Ren, there’s one problem, the origin of his crystal wasn’t mentioned. Some theories suggest that the crystal he used once belonged to either Anakin (Darth Vader) or Luke Skywalker.
Regardless of origin, the Kyber crystal that Kylo Ren used was cracked. Being conflicted, it also didn’t help Kylo Ren with the bleeding process. This led to issues and is the major reason why his lightsaber looked the way it is. His unique situation led him to create a unique lightsaber.
Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber Design
Now that you know about the power source, we can then go back and tackle more about the design of Kylo Ren’s lightsaber. Tackling the design will also answer the questions as to why the sword crackles, the reason for the crossguards, how his lightsaber reflects his personality and more.
If you don’t pay much attention to the design of the lightsabers, there are so many details and clues about the story that you will miss. The first is that each Jedi or sith carry with them a uniquely designed lightsaber.
This is because part of the training of being able to wield a lightsaber was to also learn how to create it. From attuning the crystal up to the construction of the lightsaber, a wielder needed to understand and know the mechanics of a lightsaber in case his or her lightsaber ended up getting destroyed.
Kylo Ren did not have this knowledge. He did not have the tools, resources and knowhow to create a lightsaber. This was largely due to him leaving his master, Luke Skywalker, before he could be taught about constructing lightsabers.
When he switched to the dark side with a new master, Supreme Leader Snoke, he again failed to learn anything about creating lightsabers. This was because he killed Snoke before he could teach him anything about it.
When Ben Solo (Kylo Ren) first appeared as Luke Skywalker’s apprentice, he was already seen using a blue lightsaber. When he then became Kylo Ren, there were no longer any mention of his old weapon.
The significance of this is because we found out that his old weapon and his new one as Kylo Ren could actually be the exact same lightsaber. Have a look at the designs yourself.
So, what is the importance of having the same lightsaber? What if he did use his old one and just modified it? To start, it meant that he did not abandon his old weapon. Another thing that it has told us is that when Ben Solo became Kylo Ren, he did not create a new lightsaber.
This confirmed that he never learned how and his modifications proved it even more. There are a lot of similarities with the design. In fact, the two are quite identical without the modifications.
There were some that suggested that his lightsaber when he became Kylo Ren actually once belonged to Darth Vader. However, we don’t think that it was the case. The designs are just too far apart.
The Lightsaber’s Crossguard
Part of the modifications that Kylo Ren did with his lightsaber was with the crossguard. This caused a lot of rage with star wars fans because at first glance, it just seemed impractical. However, the crossguard is not actually what you think it is.
It actually isn’t a crossguard. Those are actually exhausts. The reason why Kylo Ren added the exhausts was because of his failure to recreate his lightsaber perfectly. Remember, he did not know much about creating lightsabers.
Another reason for the crossguard was that he was conflicted. Now that you understand the nature of the crystals and that Kylo Ren did not have enough knowledge about lightsabers, we can begin to further discuss how his personality affected his lightsaber’s blade.
Earlier, we mentioned the process of bleeding. This is when crystals are channeled with negative emotions. As far as what we understood with the films concerning Kylo Ren, he wasn’t completely an evil character.
In fact, in our opinion, the films emphasized just how conflicted Kylo Ren was. It seemed like he was a good guy pretending to be a bad guy. Kylo Ren being conflicted, wasn’t in his best form to do the bleeding process.
To further add to the damage, the crystal he used was cracked. Because of this, his lightsaber was unstable. This is why his lightsaber crackled and this is also why he needed the exhausts. It was to balance out the unstable power being generated by his cracked and unstable crystal.
Here is to summarize and to add some more points as to how the crossguard were actually exhausts and why the lightsaber needed them:
- His lightsaber was unstable and needed the exhausts for it to be manageable. Otherwise, the lightsaber might have exploded or destroyed in some way.
- The beams from the exhausts ignited after the main blade. This suggested that it tried to regulate the surge of power by giving out excess energy.
- He used a cracked crystal and he was not able to perfect the bleeding process.
- He didn’t know how to create his own lightsaber and failed to recreate his old one into a lightsaber that didn’t need exhausts.
- The sound of his lightsaber is different from others because of the function of the assumed crossguard as vents or exhausts.
His unstable lightsaber became both a good metaphor and literal representation of his character. He was conflicted, unstable and was in need of guidance.
Redesign of Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber
Kylo Ren’s lightsaber was actually redesigned and this minor change was actually barely noticeable. Did you notice what has been changed with the lightsaber’s design?
What they changed is the top part of the exhausts. With the original design, the exhaust is shaped like a short pipe with no openings at the top. With the redesign, the top parts no longer have a cover.
This was done so whenever a lightsaber would hit the exhaust, it would appear to cause no damage to the appearance of the lightsaber as it would only strike the beam of the exhaust, not its cover.
Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber: After Battle With Rey
Kylo Ren changed the look of his lightsaber after it got damaged during his fight with Rey. In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, he was seen wielding what seemed like a repaired version of his damaged lightsaber.
We say this because much of the overall design is the same. It just seemed like Kylo Ren got better with creating the casing of his lightsaber. It’s apparently more black and with an excellent finish.
Where Did Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber Come From?
When Ben Solo first appeared, he already had a lightsaber with him. It is not known where he got his lightsaber from or from whom it was originally. It also wasn’t mentioned if it was Ben Solo himself who made the lightsaber although it is quite unlikely as he didn’t know how to create a lightsaber yet.
The Impact of Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber in Pop Culture
Although Kylo Ren’s lightsaber was newly introduced to the world of pop culture, it took the world by surprise with its deviant design. Kylo Ren, being the conflicted and unpredictable character that he is also helped with boosting both his fame and also his lightsaber’s fame too.
His unique looking lightsaber is hard to ignore and we thought that it added another reason for the new Star Wars films to be talked about. And indeed, it became a sensation. It caused a lot of viral memes about the lightsaber and people had mixed emotions about the design at first.
Now, the design has been widely accepted and we just can’t wait to see more of Kylo Ren wielding his one of a kind lightsaber.
Did you learn something new about Kylo Ren’s weapon? We had fun collecting everything we could about his lightsaber and we hope you were able to get some new information from this article.
Please share this with your friends so they would also know the many reasons why Kylo Ren’s lightsaber was how it was. For more cool swords and other weapons from pop culture and history, check more of our other posts from this website.