Star Wars Celebration: Is it Rey or Kira? Is Finn Force-Sensitive? What’s Up With Kylo Ren’s Lightsaber?

Star Wars Celebration is just wrapping up, and seeing props and costumes from The Force Awakens up close and personal is likely going to be the highlight of my weekend. 

Walking through the show floor and the Episode VII exhibit though, I did not expect to be scratching my head so often. For me at least, it seems that Celebration has only managed to raise even more mysteries about The Force Awakens, and in some cases, has even made some earlier rumors seem a whole lot more likely.

Here are four questions I had after visiting the convention this weekend.

Rey… or Kira?

Last year, a purported leak led us to believe that Daisy Ridley’s character in The Force Awakens would be named “Kira.” After the trailer was released a few months later though, promotional art revealed her name was Rey, more or less debunking this Kira business.

That being said, rumors are stubborn things, and the name Kira has continued to circle, with some fans speculating that Rey is just a pseudonym. So walking through Star Wars Celebration, this definitely caught my eye:

Granted, this is not an actual prop from the movie. Instead, it was created by the 501st Legion, a fan organization dedicated to creating screen-accurate replicas of Star Wars costumes and props, so it’s possible that this is a labeling error.

That being said, the placard also displays both the Disney and Lucasfilm logos, and from what I’ve been hearing, the replica was created with help from official sources.

Additionally, this setup is positioned super prominently at Star Wars Celebration, with a huge amount of floor-space dedicated to it. It seems insane to me that this passed Disney’s approval process with the wrong character named slapped on it.

So if we’re assuming this isn’t a mistake, who’s Kira? Is she another character that Rey inherited the speeder from? Is it a Padme/Amidala situation? Or as we theorized, maybe Rey is a fake name, hiding her true identity as Kira Solo…

If you need a bit more evidence for that notion, check out what Daisy Ridley is holding in her hand in this piece of official concept art on display at Celebration:

Look familiar?

Is Finn force-sensitive?

In the last teaser, we heard what sounds like Luke Skywalker giving a speech about the power of the force. He references that his father had it, he has it, and his sister also has it. He then adds that whoever he is talking to has the power to use the force as well.

So who was he talking to? It’s almost certainly one of the new characters. Could it be Finn? Rey? Poe Dameron? Perhaps even Kylo Ren before he turned to the dark side?

We can’t say for sure, but here’s one clue that it could be Finn. Check out this piece of official concept art that accompanied Finn’s costume at the Celebration exhibit:

That’s a lightsaber attached to his jacket, and not just any one’s either. It looks to me like Anakin’s weapon, the one Luke inherited in Episode IV, and subsequently lost in Cloud City.

Coincidentally, that lightsaber was featured prominently in the recent teaser. It definitely seems strange to feature a weapon like that in a character’s concept art, unless it was very important to his identity.

What’s written on the Snowtrooper uniform?

This could easily just be a bit of costume flair, but I’m still curious what those markings on the First Order Snowtrooper’s chest armor are.

Chest markings like these do not appear on any other Stormtrooper armor (new or old). It’s also not Aurebesh, and if they are numerals or letters, they’re not from any alphabet I know.

What could it mean? Rank? Unit? A secret Illuminati message from JJ Abrams?

What’s up with Kylo Ren’s lightsaber hilt?

At the Force Awakens prop exhibit, we finally got to see Kylo Ren’s wacky lightsaber up close and it’s… not that good. By that, I don’t mean that the prop looks bad, I mean the lightsaber itself looks like a piece of junk.

There’s a bunch of exposed wiring, the way the metal fits together feels crude, and overall, it just doesn’t look like a very elegant weapon.

 

As some fans noted when that trailer first came out, Kylo Ren’s lightsaber blade seems really… off somehow. Instead of a clean beam, his lightsaber seems to waver with uneven energy.

My initial guess was that it was an ancient Sith weapon that Kylo Ren unearthed. Now I’m thinking that it could potentially just be that it was created by someone with no experience or guidance.

We’ve heard previous rumors that Kylo Ren is far from a Sith master. Instead, he may be just coming to terms with his powers, and with no formal training, it would make sense that his lightsaber uses such an unorthodox design.

 

What do you think? Is Rey actually Kira? Is Finn a Jedi-to-be? Is Kylo Ren a shitty Sith? Let me know in the comments section!