Star Wars is fantasy first and foremost. People who can’t stop searching for science and logic drive me crazy. I guess the space and advanced technology setting sort of courts that highly literal contingent of people out there, but in my mind that’s simply not how these films are to be viewed.

It’s been 30+ years since ESB so really you could come up with any number of explanations that float your boat, in my opinion the only one that matters is “the way of the force.” Sure you can call that an excuse for a convenience but fuck that, it’s explicit in these films that there’s an all powerful force that controls everything (which doesn’t excuse every convenience, but clearly the saber is very strongly tied to the force and Rey’s fate). It’s like Excalibur basically, which often in Arthur stories gets seemingly lost, only to appear again later.

Which also ties into the thematic significance. I think “uncorrupted Jedi” is a bit too narrow an interpretation. The saber was always primarily about the legacy of the Jedi in general (and Luke’s father specifically). Losing the saber tied into Luke learning the truth behind the lies Obi-Wan told him when he gave it to him. Gone with the saber of course in that moment was the preconception of Anakin as an uncorrupted Jedi, but that doesn’t swallow up the entirety of the thematic meaning behind the object, it just adds to it. It’ll be interesting to see the journey of the saber in TLJ (will it be lost once more?) but it’s hard to say it’s not fitting in TFA. The symbol of the old Jedi order, lost for years because of the power of the dark side (meanwhile Luke himself retreats from his own lost Order), but found elsewhere in the galaxy by those who still hold hope for the return of the Jedi, and given to the new generation who can bring about that return. Honestly feels like the main reason that saber was included was because of the thematic significance.