Shadowman wrote:Tronus_Rex wrote:Lucas forgot that, lightsabers, used to be big & heavy pieces of tech. that projected a laser.
Actually it's a fairly lightweight piece of tech that projects a stream of plasma suspended in a force field. The blade itself is weightless, which, with proper training, (Especially the enhanced reflexes and dexterity Jedi and Sith have) allows for extremely rapid attacks.
If you go by Bob Anderson who helped Lucas create the lighstaber, before Georgie-poo rethought the icon in the 90's, you'd be wrong. Buuuuuut, we are talking about a very updated/corrected/tweaked/
retconned, Star Wars, so you're correct and also Greedo shot first-not Han-hahaha!
Greedo Shot First by samtung @ DeviantartI jest, but seriously, Lucas's revision is based on Hollywood/movie fantasy, & not tried/tested sword physics.
Lucas's idea and execution for the lightsaber in the 90's and since completely changed the original he made. In the 70's & 80's, you can see he had different ideas & thinking. When you review much of his thoughts/comments from the 70's & 80's to the 90's & today, you see the contrast. IE, Lucas is beyond inconsistent.
A feather weight-ultimate cutting weapon has a flaw. Without the heft or gravity behind your strike or slash you can't do much but parry & thrust in defense & your ability to cut is diminished.
Samurai Sugar by kassarts @ DeviantartThe first lightsabers from IV, V, & VI weren't treated as rapiers, but instead as night's swords or
samurai katanas, equivalent as a laser sword. Longswords, broadswords, bastard swords, claymores, ETC, very in weight from 2 LBS to 4 & 5 LBS. Japanese katanas are VERY similar in weight. If you think of a lightsaber, from from the 1st films, they were deliberately equated as hand-and-a-half swords or two handers. Katanas had a similar feel. You can one hand either, or use both hands.
Lucas revised the lightsaber in to something more like a rapier after the first 3 movies.
There's a misconception that, cutting power alone, would make up for everything, HOWEVER, without weight to back up such a weapon, the wielder would not be able to block as well.
I was inspired by the likes of Bob Anderson. Bob, who helped make the lightsaber, & I picked up medieval martial arts, about 5 years ago, thanks in great deal to him. I've talked with my friends about this topic.
You can treat the 1st trilogy as heavier blades, & almost get away in the new trilogy-as rapiers.
Lucas's revision, is based in fantasy, and not physics. If the lightsaber is like a rapier or an estoc, than it would be best for thrusting/stabbing & not much slashing. Also, another tool in the off-hand is essential as two handing a rapier doesn't do much good. A small shield [or force-field], or dagger [laser-dagger], is good for this. But using two hands for a featherweight rapier? It does almost no good, especially when the ability to slash is, theoretically, coming from the light/laser.
Katanas can stab & pierce too but they still have the required weight to be stable for slashing, BUT a lightsaber has a fraction of that & thus lacks a needed stability to be used, as such. I'm sure it's ability to slash could be helped by it's impossible blade. Still, much of the moves done in the prequels are just ridiculous for something so light.
A solution for the lightsaber is to not treat it as simple plasma, for you'd be burn to death just by proximity. Instead the light blade would need to be a type of energy, with properties of both matter & energy, similar to plasma, HOWEVER, with actual weight/gravity/mass in the blade. This would solve MANY issues of stability & balance * solve much of Lucas's tech/physics delenmas in explaining the icon. It would have the ability to be a rapier, or, more like a heavier blade.
[If you want me to back up everything I've said with ref. I will ask that you, instead, watch "The People VS George Lucas". In regards to the Bob Anderson lighstaber thing, I could reference it by searching online, it would just take time, because you see, what I already have is in ancient magazines & books IE hard-copy
...However,
I can gladly reference my sword physics online, if you request.