The circuitous journey of Anakin’s lightsaber to Rey in The Force Awakens is one of Star Wars‘ enduring mysteries. Wielded by Anakin during the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan handed the lightsaber to Luke in A New Hope. He then went on to use it in his first battle with Darth Vader in Cloud City, only to lose it when Vader chopped off his hand and delivered his famous paternal revelation. The saber then plunged into the depths of Cloud City, only to pop up decades later when Rey found it in Maz Kanata’s bar. So, how did it get from A to B?
Well, in the new Marvel Star Wars comics, we’re beginning to get some answers. First, a previous issue showed a mysterious woman picking it up in Cloud City. Now, the upcoming Star Wars #4 shows Luke returning to Cloud City after The Empire Strikes Back to search for it. And he does this in a pretty logical way: heading to the Cloud City garbage dumps, rolling up his sleeves and sifting through the trash. Even though he has R2-D2 for companionship, it doesn’t look like much fun. Not even the Ugnaughts working in the dump think he has much chance, shrugging when he describes a small metal cylinder while hip-deep in small metal objects.
See for yourself below:
But after reaching out with the Force for it, he has a ‘Force vision’ style revelation, seeing Obi-Wan, Vader, the Emperor, Yoda and a mysterious female cloaked figure. The figure tells him to “Follow your destiny,” which, if I’m being honest, is pretty lame and unspecific advice. Oh well, we all know he does in the end.
Speculation is building as to whether this mysterious figure could be a new version of Legends fan-favorite Mara Jade, with the following issues apparently set to show Luke searching for this woman. In any case, there are no answers yet, but I hope whatever this is building up to is worth the wait.
