Galaxy’s Edge merch: Jedi & Sith Holocrons

I don’t have a ton to say about the Jedi and Sith holocrons ($50) offered at Galaxy’s Edge, because such items were extremely very rare in the Galaxy, and not something your regular Jedi—let alone average citizen—would ever have access to:

“…the deepest secrets of the great Masters of the Force were stored in restricted holocrons; since the Lorian Nod affair, some seventy standard years before, access to these holocrons was denied to all but Jedi Masters.” (Matthew Stover, Revenge of the Sith, Chapter 10).

While some further research revealed that the Jedi Temple archives probably held more holocrons than I had originally understood, I still don’t think they would be the kind of thing that any random Jedi or citizen could pull out of their backpack. (Disney!Canon has made it pretty clear through their various properties–Galaxy’s Edge, the recent Jedi: Fallen Order game, probably Rebels (I haven’t seen it), likely Marvel comics as well–that in their Canon, holocrons are widespread. I’ll just have to agree to disagree.
I’m also disappointed that their holocrons are solely limited to blue Jedi cubes, and red Sith pyramids. In the EU, they were found in many geometric shapes and colors – just another example of Disney making poor choices that make the Galaxy feel smaller and more limited than it should be.

From what I’ve seen in videos, the GE holocrons look pretty cheap (and for $50, they shouldn’t). I don’t have much to say about their ‘Kyber crystals’ ($13 for an RFID-embedded hunk of plastic), since that’s some post-Disney nonsense I choose not to recognize (the name is clearly a play on the Kaiburr crystal of Mimban).
In the EU, the best crystals for lightsabers came from the Adega system (Ossus) or Ilum, although it seems like just about any kind of crystal could work (see I, Jedi Chapter 42 for a fairly detailed description of lightsaber construction). The idea of being able to swap crystals also doesn’t sit right with me; I always understood that once a lightsaber was constructed it was a cohesive whole that couldn’t be easily taken apart. (The Jedi Path (p.62) supports this theory—stating that the final phase of construction bonds the saber components at a molecular level—which explains why Kenobi’s saber doesn’t shatter into pieces (and actually bounces!) after falling hundreds of feet to land at Commander Cody’s feet):
https://youtu.be/qJg8Pui6KZk?t=205

The specifics of lightsaber design and construction—are they made using standardized, commonly-available items or custom-made? -Why do only Original Trilogy ‘sabres have control boxes? -Can you easily swap crystals?—was the subject of a great discussion over at the SWLH fb group earlier this year.) What do you think? Do you like the GE holocrons? Share your thoughts below!

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