Light Sabre - Possible or Not?

Get yourself a suit that protects you and boom magnetized plasma sword.

Since we’re going in this direction… in Jedi Knight 3 (which is Canon, I think), Jaden Korr manages to create a lightsaber without any force training, thus nullifying your point. And I’m pretty sure there are some instances of lightsabers getting created by non-force users in the books. The force is only used to properly place the crystals in the hilt to direct the energy.

Yeah, but even so - are video games really part of the universe?

Like I said, I think it counts as Canon. I haven’t actually read any of the books, but from what I can make out the big events that happen in the game (Luke founding a Jedi Academy, for instance) happen in the books and whatnot, the focus of the game just is on different people instead of what the books and movies follow.

I’d prefer a Statis Blade. One molecule-thin metallic wire encased in a time-retardant field (has to be metallic wire to conduct the field) to hold it perfectly still would not only cut through everything ever but would also be capable of having swordfights with other Statis Blades, which is why everyone must go and read Larry Niven’s Ringworld books right now. Lightsabers are for fanboys. :stuck_out_tongue:

TD, George Lucas once said that anything ever written/filmed/programmed under the Star Wars official license was canon. I believe that’s why the Christmas Special is canon, despite everyone hating it. and wanting it to die.

So this wont be happening soon? LOL

why won’t this die?

Because it’s one of those Irresistable Topics that need to be locked before they can truly die.

nothing new or useful could possibly added. I’m amazed sin didn’t lock it back when he asked my very question.

Don’t you have to be a jedi before you can make “your very own lightsabre” anyway? Walk before you can run, guys.
May the Force be with you.

*By the way, my man Rusty reckons that if you were to make a lightsabre, the beam would more or less go on forever, “without any way to close it”…what do u reckon?

Hmmm

My suggestion would be to just by a plastic one and beat each other over the heads with it like me and my brother in law do its not near as dangerous and wont hurt as much

On the contrary. Starstorm alerted me to this thread and suggested I comment(I don’t usually frequent forums). In one of my two books set to be released sometime this month, the heroine- and several other characters- wield fully functional lightsabres. The book, like the heroine, is titled “Lisa Huntress,” and is the first of a series about the character.

Everyone is assuming that a lightsabre would have to be made out of light. Not true. The swords of Lisa’s universe emit charged fields from their hilts. These fields are of atomic scale cross section, rotating at near lightspeed, and strip the electrons from atoms they contact. Thus, they glow, hum as they whip through the air(neither effect could happen in a vacuum, of course), and create microscopically thin burn cuts, and depend on muscular strength to increase the power of a cut(as opposed to a laser beam, which need only settle on the target and remain there long enough to do its work).

In addition, Lisa is an amputee- in battle, her arm is replaced by a “gunhand,” not unlike Barret from FFVII or Samus Aran from Metroid. This gunhand carries a number of weapons- all of which fit into a 1-1/2" cylinder, said cylinders rotating around a common axis like the barrel of a revolver. The reason she is able to get away with this, is because weapons are limited mainly by their ammo supply. In T2, Arnold should have had that minigun plugged into an electrical source, and with about a quarter mile of rolled up ammo belt. Same thing with energy weapons- that laser scalpel the surgeon uses to remove cancers is not much bigger than the one Lisa has… but it’s plugged into the wall-and thus to a hydroelectric dam to supply the vast quantities of power required.

However, while most people in Lisa’s world have weapons consisting of energy weapons which are consist of a small device hooked up to a handle and a bulky power source, until it resembles a large pistol or a rifle, Lisa’s gunhand is plugged into the same power source as her powered armor. So her arsenal is more varied, and easier to carry. OTOH, she lacks the resources needed for a sustained slugfest.

Also, note that Lisa wields her sword without the benefit of a wrist. Her personal style is similar to that of Raziel from Legacy of Kain: Soulreaver- especially Defiance when he starts making more use of the thrust. Other duelists use other styles- in “Love and Hate,” Lisa watches a lightsabre tournament, where the contestants don weapons and armor not unlike that of today’s Olympic fencers, then face off- one team specializes in a variant of Kenjutsu, with emphasis on two handed slashes, while the other team relies on a foil fencing derivative- almost entirely devoted to the thrust. Just don’t expect any combat styles along the lines of those seen in Episodes 1 or 2, unless the combatants are wearing powered armor to enable jumps and acrobatics like that. And don’t expect any Jedi to show up, either. Lisa feels hate and anger, and doesn’t feel any guilt about that.

One of Lisa’s other weapons that you might find it fun to read about is her Freeze beam. It fires a tight wave with an entropic effect, which slows down the motions of all molecules it passes through. The visual effect is of a ball of ice flying through the air, trailing snow, but that is not the beam itself; merely the moisture in the air condensing as it passes through. The Freeze beam works very well on unarmored foes, especially when casualties must be kept to a minimum- as long as they can be taken to a location with suitable medical technology, they can be thawed out without a problem(save for a few extra wrinkles developing in their abused skin)… unless they fell over after being hit and shattered- but Lisa is one of the few combat oriented individuals to use one. Normally, the Freeze gun is used by emergency medical personel- a quick zap freezes the patient solid, then they can be thawed out in the hospital. EMTs are taught about the Golden Hour- get the patient there within an hour of being injured. In Lisa’s day, they can get them there somewhat sooner than that.

In Episode 1 Qui gon jinn uses his lightsaber to melt through a blast door. If the saber emits so much heat, how are they able to wield them without singing their bodies?

Radiation travels in a straight line- if you put plutonium in a lead tube, then opened one end, the only things getting infected would be anything in the direction that open end is pointed. So it is with heat- another kind of radiation. Take a mundane example- a welding torch. Perhaps you may feel warm from a bit of blowback from the torch’s flames, but that’s nowhere near as bad as what the torch will do to whatever’s in front of it- like the chunks of metal being welded together.

A laser takes this effect in a more refined way. The laser focuses all the photons- the particles of light- into a single tightly focused beam. For targeting systems such as laser scopes and rangefinders, as well as laser sensors being used as trip wires(the glowing red beams you see acrobatic cartoon characters contorting themselves in order to avoid, when they break into a high security building) this beam is no more powerful than a flashlight. For a more powerful laser, the effect remains focused and refined- a laser can cut through steel, without heating up the operator… or for that matter, the majority of the chunk of steel. Only the part being contacted by the beam heats up.

The lightsabre as I’ve described isn’t even a heat based weapon, though- it “burns” in the same way that nuclear radiation burns- no actual flames or even actual heat involved. The cuts are microscopically thin, though they are still burning cuts- so a lightsabre also cauterizes the wound it makes. From a Jedi’s POV, that makes it a more merciful weapon, if slaying the foe is unnecessary- the victim is unlikely to die from shock when his blood gushes out through the stump where his hand used to be.

In the meantime, I suggest that if you want to learn more about lightsabres, you start studying science in greater depth. There’s so much FUN stuff out there to know, that is a lot more interesting than anything the twits running in and out of the Betty Ford center can come up with. Wait until you learn about String Theory, for instance… :wink:

  1. Itemcreation Feat: Craft Lightsaber
  2. Get materials (Depending on GM, either quest or do it ‘offgame’)
  3. Expend 1/25 of Credits Value in XP
  4. Roll Dice

All hail the combustion inducing Light sabers.