Path of the Lightsaber Review

spoilers ahead!!!!!

Path of the Lightsaber, by artist and writer Kenny Ruiz, is a new Star Wars manga series released last year following Nioka Nastar, a young tinkerer, as she learns to wield a lightsaber she found in hopes to take on the treacherous First Order! To me, the best Star Wars stories are those that break the mold while paying homage to the decades of source material, and PotL definitely hits that mark. The story was action-packed and heartfelt, and the art was a unique direction for Star Wars manga—smudgy, textured, cutesy, and bold. Overall, I greatly enjoyed the first few chapters, and I’m really looking forward to the next.

The heart of the story lies with Nioka, whose whole tribe was either killed or taken hostage by the First Order. Her admiration for the Rebel Alliance and Resistance are palpable; it’s really sweet to see an in-universe fangirl like myself! After finding her lightsaber in an old High Republic-era ship (which was an awesome reference to an amazing publishing initiative), she seeks a teacher. It was nice that, despite finding the lightsaber, her abilities with it didn’t come naturally, but needed some actual training—I think that’s a by-product of Nioka not being strong in the Force, which was another fun aspect of the story. Nioka’s strength comes from her technical smarts, which are demonstrated in cute ways throughout the volume (little Jawas swinging buckets of water, I love y’all). Her determination to make a change in the galaxy and defeat the tyrannous First Order was inspiring—while other protagonists just happened into their positions as fascism-destroyers, it’s interesting to see a main character with that as her primary goal from the start.

The main villain was also interesting, if not a little repetitive. Itai, a prospective member of the Knights of Ren, served as a foreboding antagonist to Nioka—he was competent, tech-savvy, and determined to chase her down. My main issue is that a “prospective” dark-side user or dark-sider hopeful has kinda been done a lot. I mean, the Knights of Ren themselves feel a bit like sith-hopefuls—same with the Inquisitors—and they all look pretty similar. I get that Bane’s Rule of Two has pigeon-holed writers into not being able to write exorbitant amounts of Sith, but it can be difficult to tell Itai apart from the other dozens of black-armored, masked sith-wannabes. Despite this, I do think Itai’s design is pretty cool; the armor and mask are all pretty unique and almost ninja-inspired, which was fun to see in action. Plus, I can see Itai’s clear desperation to make a name for himself, especially with his lack of force-sensitivity, become an interesting plot development in future chapters.

Thinking about the other characters, nothing really jumps out as stunning. Barun, Nioka’s adventuring-partner, was cool, but nothing special. I do like that he used to be a member of the Rebel Alliance—the inter-connected feeling of the universe is something I like a lot from this series. Tobue Taizen was a character introduced in the last chapter, and he was actually pretty interesting—the son of a former Imperial Royal Guard who was murdered by the First Order for refusing to join them. Tobue agrees to train Nioka in combat, which should be really cool. I love to see a crew come together over time, and Tobue and Nioka’s shared disdain for the First Order ought to make them strong allies.

I’ve touched on it a few times, but my favorite part about this series so far is how inter-connected it feels with the wider Star Wars universe. Nioka and Barun are looking for a High Republic ship, and Itai’s droid is (of course) fitted with the databank from an old EX-series droid, used by pathfinders during the High Republic. The ship belonged to a Jedi Wayseeker, and Itai needs a lightsaber to power a Jedi Vector. Things like that, while not being a massive part of the plot, are really rewarding to fans like me who’ve read the High Republic series and appreciate its contribution to the canon—of course characters from different time periods are going to interact with that kind of stuff! Ruiz even drew Avar Kriss, Burryaga, and Barnabas Vim as imagined by Nioka, which was very fun to see. Further, Barun’s connection to the Rebel Alliance and Nioka’s admiration for the Resistance make present an anti-authoritarian throughline rooted in the characters; the story’s temporal placement heightens this impact, as galactic citizens feel the effects of a First Order unhindered by the New Republic or Resistance.

Despite my critique of Itai’s character, I fully enjoyed this volume. Ruiz’s writing and art made for a captivating read—I’m really looking forward to the next few chapters to see where the story goes. Yindi, Itai’s oracle-something (not super clear yet), shows a lot of promise in terms of story potential, so that’s something to be excited for. I hope that the next volume doesn’t take forever to come out—I’m a little worried that we haven’t heard anything yet, but hopefully we can hear from Lucasfilm Publishing soon. Honestly I’d recommend this manga to anyone who’s a Star Wars fan, but especially people who like the High Republic initiative or any of the sequel-era tie-in stories. Daisy’s executive rating—9.5/10, extremely solid story and art.