User blog comment:Eureka Enderborn/Kylo Ren's lightsaber-putting the debate to rest!/@comment-26184570-20151226164349

Actually, this is what I found out.

The Knights of Ren are kinda pathetic copy cats, and don't have the good craftsmanship that the Sith had. As such, if you look closely at his lightsaber, you will find that there are many odd wires, and that it is rather home-made. Now, additionaly, they only had access to crapy, old designs, so, the extra blades are not for defensive or offensive reasons, they are actually exhaust ports. The focusing crystal in it is actually cracked, which is why the blade looks messy. So, I hope that explains things!