At the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, after burying the lightsabers of her mentors Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, Rey reveals her newly-constructed, yellow-bladed lightsaber - but it's noticeably different in several ways. Set decades after Luke Skywalker revives Jedi traditions in Return of the Jedi, the Star Wars sequel series features a number of characters reckoning with the legacy that he and his companions left behind. Prime among them is Rey, whose journey along the Jedi path is complicated by her familial relationship to Sheev Palpatine, one of the fiercest Sith Lords of all time and the architect behind the near-extermination of the Jedi.
A key plot point in Star Wars: The Force Awakens comes when Rey is given the lightsaber created by Anakin and lost by Luke on Bespin. Just how Maz Kanata came to acquire it is not explored by the films, but its use by Finn and Rey marks an important step in both of their journeys. Rey goes on to wield the weapon frequently, augmenting it with Leia's lightsaber in her final fight against Darth Sidious, before creating her own and claiming the Skywalker name for herself at the end of The Rise of Skywalker.
Combining the familiar and the novel, Rey's lightsaber emits a distinctive yellow blade from a hilt composed of repurposed parts from her quarterstaff. As a result of the repurposing, and for comfort, it sports a fabric grip that is reminiscent of the leather strap used to reconstruct Luke's blue lightsaber after its destruction by Rey and Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Practically, Rey's lightsaber seems more mechanical, featuring a number of moving parts - including a spinning blade emitter = which serve as a nod to her scavenger background. This contrasts with the solid design of Luke's lightsaber, which reflected his father's headstrong nature and, early on, his own.
A yellow lightsaber blade was previously unseen in the Star Wars films, although there are a number of examples in other material, including Asajj Ventress's black market saber. Importantly, in the Legends, non-canon time of the Old Republic, yellow lightsabers were indicative of Jedi Sentinels, who sought to balance the martial prowess of Jedi Guardians (who used blue kyber crystals) with the intellectual focus of Jedi Consulars (who used green kyber crystals). Whereas Luke progressed between his father's blue lightsaber and his own green one in the original trilogy, Rey, when given the choice, opted for the middle ground, indicative of her unconventional introduction to the Jedi arts. However, brief green and blue flashes are visible in the hilt when Rey's lightsaber is ignited, recalling the traditional Jedi colors and the storied history that she follows.
Cosmetically, Rey's lightsaber is quite different from Luke and Anakin's blue one, which she had previously been using. But they are, after all, meant to signify very different things. Just as Luke inherited Anakin's blue saber before making his own, Rey inherited Luke's saber before making her own. Her weapon is therefore more similar, narratively, to Luke's green-bladed lightsaber, a color which had similarly never been seen in a film before its debut. Both show a dedication to moving forward within a tradition, but as an individual, blazing a new trail as The Rise of Skywalker concludes the Skywalker saga.