What Is the Meaning of the Yellow Lightsaber?

Yellow Lightsabers in Canon and Legends

In current canon, the prevailing yellow lightsaber lore is most commonly associated with the Jedi Temple Guard, who, as the name implies, were charged with the sacred task of protecting the temple of the Jedi Order on Coruscant. The Jedi Temple Guard, who wore masks to remain anonymous, carried yellow lightsaber pikes—a type of saber with a long hilt and a blade emitting from each end.

If you reach back into the shadowy (and non-canonical) realm of Legends, you encounter another type of Jedi who utilized the yellow lightsaber: the Jedi Sentinel. The Sentinel represented one of the three “schools” of Jedi, the others being the battle-ready Guardians and the diplomatic-minded Consulars. Sentinels occupied the position between those two other types of Jedi, taking inspiration from both and giving themselves latitude to fight, negotiate, or keep watch as the occasion demanded.

Sentinels were realists, not ideologues. They were fond of learning handy skills that did not require Jedi training, like repairing machinery or administering medicine. While the Guardians and the Consulars might call upon the Force to fix a broken vehicle, the Sentinels were far more likely to grab a screwdriver and go to work.

Recent Revelations with the Yellow Lightsaber

So what should we make of all this? What do yellow lightsabers mean? The events of Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker have expanded the canon of the yellow lightsaber beyond the previous associations with the Jedi Temple Guard or the Jedi Sentinels of Legends. To be specific, the final moments of the film depicted Rey Skywalker with a brand-new yellow lightsaber in her hand. This is an interesting development for a number of reasons.

Rey’s yellow blade may be reasonably said to symbolize nothing more than her ascension to a new phase in her life—a way to break away from the past. But if that’s the case, why is her lightsaber yellow? Why not a color that has no history in the Star Wars universe? As we’ve seen, the color yellow already occurs in canon and has a set of specific associations.

• It may symbolize Rey’s ability to manage and harmonize all the conflicting influences within her—as a granddaughter of Palpatine who now claims the Skywalker name—that have brought her to this present station in life, while keeping her squarely in the Jedi camp. This is similar to the philosophy of the Jedi Sentinel. Like those practical Sentinels of Legends, Rey isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty—she’s a former scavenger, after all.
• And like the Jedi Temple Guard, Rey is now in the position of acting as the protector of the Jedi cause—not in the literal sense of standing at a gate with a pike in her hand, but in the sense that she’s the most important figure involved in the continuance of the Jedi way.
• Like the Jedi Sentinels, Rey’s yellow lightsaber may also symbolize the combination of the main schools of thought in the Jedi Order (Guardian and Consular) that flow through her as she carries the knowledge and history of all those Jedi who have come before.
• Because Rey is the last Jedi that we know of after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, it could also symbolize that she is going her own way, forging a path that’s neither blue nor green.

Learn More About Rey Skywalker’s Lightsaber

In summary, the meaning of the yellow lightsaber is difficult to pin down in a few words. Among other things, it represents balance, practicality, and a certain level of independence from the mainstream of Jedi life. But as recent events indicate, we probably haven’t seen the last of the yellow saber, and Rey could go on to show the entire galaxy what it really means.

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