As a Star Wars fandom, we’re often divided. Just type The Last Jedi into YouTube to pick up all the evidence you need. But one thing we can all agree on is that lightsabers are damn cool.

So, does it matter how much they weigh?

From era to era, lightsabers have been treated differently in this regard. The Prequel Trilogy featured heavily choreographed duels in which the blades were twirled like helicopter rotaries and the fight gymnastics were Olympic gold standard.

Compare that to the Original Trilogy, where lightsabers were heavy weapons. Every clash was significant and weighty – the combat often seemingly lethargic but you felt each strike and it underpinned the emotion of those duels.

So far the Skywalker Saga films in the Disney era have adopted the Original Trilogy approach. This was particularly obvious at the climax of The Force Awakens, when Rey and Kylo Ren battled on a fracturing Starkiller Base.

It was raw, powerful and the best lightsaber duel since Luke faced his father at the end of Return of the Jedi.

But it would seem that December’s The Rise of Skywalker will see a return of the lighter lightsaber philosophy according to Daisy Ridley.

“The interesting thing about this film is that we concentrate more on the fact that the lightsabers are light,” Ridley said when speaking to Wired.

“Because the old lightsabers were so heavy our new stunt coordinator [Eunice Huthart] said that it was more like broadsword fighting, which isn’t technically what it’s supposed to be because lightsabers are supposed to be light by nature.”

Are they though? I didn’t think that the “light” part of the saber referred to it’s weight. Surely, it’s the ‘beam of light’ that we’re referring to?

Crucially, there are no right or wrong answers here. My preference is for lightsabers to be like broadswords, others will unquestionably prefer their lightsaber combat in a different flavour.

The popularity of the choreographed marvel that forms the finale of The Phantom Menace probably proves that I’m in fact representing the minority of Star Wars fans with this view.

Hearing that the lightsabers used in filming the The Rise of Skywalker were lighter is counter to my ideal of what the weapon should be, but I’m still excited to see the new approach.

And that is, in part, because of two factors that put my mind at rest.

Whether it’s directly addressed in the narrative or not, the time jump from The Last Jedi to The Rise of Skywalker will have allowed both Rey and Kylo to hit the gym. They’re stronger now – those lightsabers weigh nothing compared with the 500kg bench press they destroy, no force required.

Also, and rather more poignantly, Ridley mentioned in the same interview; “In this film we have perhaps one of the most epic fights in Star Wars.”

An epic battle to end the saga? We’ve been teased a return of Palpatine, we’ve seen Rey and Kylo with (not-so-)lightsabers drawn in the middle of a torrential downpour on what could be the Death Star II wreckage.

The change in fighting dynamic can be explained away, be it in actual canon or my own ‘head canon’ and if the lightsaber combat delivers the “best fight in Star Wars” then the weight of the props pales into insignificance, reduced to simply being a neat piece of behind the scenes trivia.

And as I said at the top, lightsabers are still cool however you’re swingin’ em.