Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 8 Things We've Learned Since Release

2. The True Story Behind Kylo Ren's Messed Up Lightsaber

Kylo Ren's lightsaber has been a major talking point ever since the release of the first teaser trailer, but The Force Awakens didn't end up shedding any light on why it looks the way it does. With the villain now set to complete his training with the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke, it's possible that he'll have a new blade by Episode VIII, so chances are that answers won't be coming when the character returns in that movie. It's a good job then that the lightsaber's secrets have been revealed in material which was held back until The Force Awakens hit cinemas. There, it's explained that it has crossguard blades both to protect Kylo's hands and because there's a damaged kyber crystal inside. Due to the power leaking from that, the crossguards are needed to split the plasma stream and balance and distribute it equally to basically stop it exploding! This also explains why the blade itself looks so unstable, and Abrams has indicated that Kylo's lightsaber was used as another way of showing his inexperience. However, why he's using a cracked crystal has not been addressed just yet, so it will be very interesting to see if Episode VIII sheds some light on that or just gives him a new lightsaber as I mentioned above (which would help Disney shift a new wave of toys).