The Ending: Beautiful, but problematic

It's exceedingly far more likely that Abrams just wanted to end on one of his personal favorite moments in Star Wars.

He talks about the original sunset scene like Spielberg talks about the dagger scene in Lawrence of Arabia.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

My interpretation for why she buried them is simply because they had died, so the sabers were laid to rest as well. I believe the Jedi Order had a place for lightsabers of dead Jedi, as it’s probably not the best idea to burn them with the body. They are laid to rest as the Jedi is. Perhaps Ahch-to would have been better in that aspect, since it was a temple. They aren’t normally on display for people to see to my knowledge.

So a more fitting place, in Rey’s mind, is the home of Anakin and Luke, where their legend started (and Leia’s to be with Luke). I agree with Jayson that it would have fit better if there had been a mention of her going to Tatooine somewhere.

it won’t work for everyone, but that’s mainly how I’ve come to just accept the moment in-universe.

(also, tbf to the sequels on making the Jedi myths, Palpatine somehow succeeded in making people believe the Jedi were ancient and just a myth as well, and that was within a short span of time).

 

It's rare for people to take things back to places people actively hated but weren't the actual spots of the tragedies though.
It's just weird.

It isn't like this is a memorial constructed at Alderaan or hell, even a memorial for the heroes of the Rebellion x2...it's just burying their lightsabers for reasons.....in a place they hated.

 

There's entire religions where masses of people swarm sacred origin sites that were purported absolute crap hole experiences - some complete with infanticide legends.

Whole temples or churches are erected over such sites.

Considering Disney's new mythical religious Jedi spin - as seen in Rogue One and Mando - it's quite frankly amazing that a Church of Luke Skywalker and the Latter Day Jedi hasn't been established with a Church of Emergence built right over his old home to preserve the sacred site.

It's not odd Rey went there. It's more odd that a line of religious zealots aren't already there.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

It was customary in many ancient cultures to bury a warrior alongside their weapon. Jedi throughout their life would bond with the kyber within their saber. It was highly revered and considered sacred; an extension of their body. I would assume Abrams is following this logic here. With no bodies to bury, Rey is laying to rest the next best thing: their lightsabers/ kyber crystals.

 

I think that's where we agree things got a bit off trail.

Perhaps it was in TROS at some point, we'll know eventually. We do know a bunch of Leia material was cut because they failed the VFX quality level in the recovery process of reused footage. I'm not saying it's in that, but it might have been.

Either way, it's a big woops moment.
On the other hand, I kind of like how it shows why what Lucas does - which seems redundant at times - matters.

Not that that's the reason it should be liked.

I like the scene fine. It would have been better with stuff filled in properly, but like Lando & Han getting back on just fine without any talk (because of a cut), it happens once in a while and I can just fill in the blanks if I really need to (but I don't...it's just a film and that stuff doesn't ruin a film for me).

I just acknowledge it was a drop in narrative strength by a simple omitted bit and move on.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

Abrams idea was that Rey brought the sabers there to honor the Skywalker twins by laying them to rest together. Twins and twin suns. Abrams liked the idea. So Rey had to start a new tradition with burying lightsabers, before that burying lightsabers hasn't been a thing, but who cares- isn't she allowed to start new traditions?

 

Eh. It's more accurate to say he never did it with anything that mattered to you, because he certaintly did (and I used to care about at least one of them).

Yeah, I don't care about burying swords.

I don't care about world lore though either so I'm not a good voice for that stuff.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

Indeed.
And as far as it seems...it looks like Lucasfilm loves making a big deal about them...Filoni included.

A bunch of material exists all about them in spades and the new stuff all seems to really hold sabers as sacred.

Thing is...as much as Star Wars on screen was never about them, Lucas' earlier drafts of both ANH and ROTJ REALLY made big deals about them. There was a whole thing about them being connected to the person and Luke making one in a cave...it all got scrapped so it never became anything on screen (which I personally don't care one way or the other).

It was this big warrior and his sword ethos he had bound into everything all Kurosawa-esque.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

I don’t recall this. Anakin’s saber to Luke is the only one I can remember being passed on, but Obi-wan said it was that “his father wanted him to have it.” I don’t recall Obi-wan giving Qui-gon’s to Anakin. As far as canon goes, this isn’t a common thing shown, to my knowledge.

my understanding was that Jedi initiates mostly used training sabers, essentially wooden or metal with some energy coils on them to simulate a saber. The main time I recall younglings using actual sabers for the blaster deflection training like we saw in ANH, which, going by AotC, look more like shotos so they have a more appropriate sized blade.

As to the significance the lightsaber has..well it varies. There were additional stuff that wasn’t in the OT that suggested their significance, and Vader considers Like’s skills complete with having built one of his own. Obi-wan has to constantly remind Anakin that the blade is his life. And The Clone Wars has 2 episodes that essentially show how important a saber is to them with The Gathering and A Test of Strength. And then canon they added how the kyber crystals within are specifically tuned to the Jedi. I think it’s safe to say they’ve grown in significance to a Jedi. but JJ did place some extra significance on them, notably with his whole “Luke’s lightsaber called you” in TFA, like why?

like I said, that’s how I see it, and it helps. That said, there could be details in canon that I missed to contradict my thought process, I haven’t read all the books yet.

 

While this is starting to move more away, What makes you say that? Her blade is yellow.

 

Ha! I was starting to think that as well ... my question became a fork in the road of this thread. I'm enjoying everyone's perspectives, though.

 

it’s still part of it, as the scene involves not just being on tatooine but the the burial of the sabers as well, and how that fits into the scene.

ahh, I see. I knew she used parts of her saber, and it was apparently in progress during the film, but I can see why people may say that.

yeah......the sequels didn’t use his green blade much at all (unfortunately). It’s just...gone (my main issue with Luke’s projection). I didn’t know hers first shows blue and green before yellow, though. I just always saw the yellow.

 

Oh. Ohhhh. Interesting catch. Now I’m curious on the internals of her saber. That ignition system is really intriguing and unique to my knowledge.