With the healing of the blade, I plan doing both versions, and letting everyone choose what they think is better… I will also use the footage with Leia’s purple lightsaber as I think that was beautiful work and tribute to Carrie Fisher.

As for the healing itself, I think I would ask what makes the lightsaber crackle. In the Kylo Ren prequel comics his blade crackles because his Kyber crystal broke and causes a distorted beam. If thats what is happening here then I think the best way to show it would be the crackling visually fading away.

But if the lightsaber is crackling because of a mechanical issue due to being torn in half (emitter broken, and roughly put back together by someone who has never repaired a lighstaber) then I would say the crackling needs to stay until the end of the movie.

It really depends on what you want to message to the audience. Filmmakers never what to treat their audience like they are dumb (I believe JJ can be guilty of this at times) but it could be a bit of stretch for the lightsaber to be healed during the handoff to Ben (but I’d have to see it because I think this would be my preference if we went that route like the kyber crystal was healed due to be transferred through the force with their bond)

Edit: personally I kind of like the idea that the lightsaber is permanently damaged due to again being repaired by someone who doesn’t know anything but making or fixing a lightsaber.