The Last Jedi's Most Controversial Line Pays Off A New Hope's First Draft

One of Luke Skywalker's lines in Star Wars: The Last Jedi was controversial, but it actually pays tribute to the original drafts of Star Wars, which was later renamed A New Hope. 

The Last Jedi stirred up a lot of debate for various reasons, from changing Luke's character after Return of the Jedi to being different from The Force Awakens. 

Many viewers had issues with the movie, but one line, in particular, stood out.

When Rey found Luke on Ahch-To and asked him to join the Resistance, he replied, "I'm going to walk out with a laser sword and face down the whole First Order?" 

The sentence made some of the fans upset. They thought it was odd for Luke to call lightsabers "laser swords," given his deep knowledge of them. 

While some considered it disrespectful for the iconic lightsaber, it was actually a nod to the early script of A New Hope.

"Laser Sword" Was Used In A New Hope's Earliest Drafts

In the early drafts of A New Hope, the famous Jedi and Sith weapon wasn’t called a lightsaber. 

In fact, George Lucas didn’t create the term "lightsaber" – it was Alan Dean Foster, who wrote the novel version of A New Hope. 

In the early scripts, both Lucas and others referred to the weapons as "laser swords." Foster later started using the word "lightsaber" to explain how the weapon works. 

When Luke says "laser sword" in The Last Jedi, it’s a nod to the original name, but it wasn’t the first or last time that term was used.

Laser Sword Gained Popularity In Star Wars

Since The Last Jedi, the term "laser sword" has been used more often. 

Two other characters, Din Djarin in The Mandalorian and Hunter in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, have also called a lightsaber a "laser sword." 

It is for sure that both of them don’t know much about the Jedi or Sith. So, the term "laser sword" seems to be a casual or slang term in the Star Wars universe. 

It clearly makes sense, considering how legendary the Jedi became, especially when Order 66 was passed.

The term "laser sword" wasn’t new to the Star Wars world when The Last Jedi came out. 

The first time someone used it on-screen was when young Anakin Skywalker met Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace in 1999. 

It happened over a decade before Luke said it in The Last Jedi, both in real life and in the Star Wars timeline. 

Anakin, being a child with little knowledge of the Jedi, used "laser sword" as slang, showing it was a term used by people not familiar with lightsabers.

Though "laser sword" sounded like a mistake in The Last Jedi, it actually has a long history in Star Wars. 

It's the kind of small detail that longtime fans might appreciate, though it wasn’t taken that way by many. 

The thing is it shows how The Last Jedi faced backlash and was sometimes misunderstood. 

Luke's use of "laser sword" is a deep reference that reflects how much love and respect The Last Jedi had for the Star Wars universe.