Lightsabers in DOTR

[Warmonger]

Perhaps there could be more at the onset, like relics of great Jedi Crusaders or some such jargon and when Vizla makes it out with the Darksaber, the rest are destroyed. Probably something explosion related, because Mandos. It would deepen the significance and value of the darksaber, then, if so much history just went "poof". It'd be like someone setting the Louvre on fire to cover their escape with the Mona Lisa.

If we were to go this route, I think it'd make sense if the Darksabers belonged to an elite unit of Jedi who partook in highly classified missions that would be surrounded in legend with little if any paper trail to connect to the Jedi.

 

[Tsunami]

The concern with having multiple darksabers in my opinion is that Jedi are not immortal beings, they can die and their weapon can be taken.

If there is a large number of these blades being wielded by these Jedi, it is more than likely that one or more of them will die and the weapon will be scattered through the Galaxy.

If it was me I'd keep only one and come up with something REALLY interesting as to why it is the only one.

If KOTOR was canon, it would have been cool to maybe have it brought about that happened during the battle at Malachor 5. Giving it significance to both the Jedi and the Mandalorians.

Just my 2 cents anyway!

 

[Therakill]

I have no issues with curved lightsabers.

In regards to black lightsabers - the darksaber is canon. Something to keep in mind.

Ok so I know that SWR is set far in the future. But would a blaster pistol with a small lightsaberish dagger be out of the question?

What I mean by this is, I would power the pistol how you would a lightsaber so now ammo is needed. It would have a very limited range, decent rate of fire, and you could only use either the dagger or the pistol never both at the same time. I don't know if this is the correct place to put this at all.

 

[OhNoesBunnies]

Ok so I know that SWR is set far in the future. But would a blaster pistol with a small lightsaberish dagger be out of the question?

What I mean by this is, I would power the pistol how you would a lightsaber so now ammo is needed. It would have a very limited range, decent rate of fire, and you could only use either the dagger or the pistol never both at the same time. I don't know if this is the correct place to put this at all.

Short sabers exist in canon, and I imagine the size can be altered through use of different-sized kyber crystals.

 

[StormWolf]

I personally never liked the curved lightsaber blade, as it just lends itself to utaku culture. The whole point for a curved blade is to distribute the weight and force of the swing for a better cut, effectively allowing a deeper cut. Since Lightsaber blades have no weight and can already cut through most things in the galaxy, the curved blade has little purpose, and can actually be detrimental.

 

[Halcyon]

Ok so I know that SWR is set far in the future. But would a blaster pistol with a small lightsaberish dagger be out of the question?

What I mean by this is, I would power the pistol how you would a lightsaber so now ammo is needed. It would have a very limited range, decent rate of fire, and you could only use either the dagger or the pistol never both at the same time. I don't know if this is the correct place to put this at all.

Lightsabers emit pure plasma suspended in a force containment field, which aside from giving the blade its form also protected the wielder from the immense heat produced by the weapon. Since plasma is weightless and generates a strong gyroscopic effect, the lightsaber is a very difficult weapon to handle - let alone do so with precision. Also, the "blade" can have any length and form since it's the containment field that gives it the desired shape.

Because of the aforementioned reasons, assuming that one manages to acquire a Kyber crystal and figure out a way to implement it in a blaster without making it unstable, would still make it a hard and somewhat ineffective weapon to use with both the blaster and saber operating at the same time. Using one or the other might work, but IMO it would be so much easier to simply resort to an actual lightsaber.

A much simpler and practical alternative would be to implement a vibroblade bayonet. It has already been done in Legends (the bayonet) but vibroblades are a part of Canon, so making it go that next step is logical, I suppose.

P.S.: I'm not 100% sure about the next piece of information - i.e. in regards to it being Canon or not.
Blasters already have near-unlimited energy. Very rarely do you see someone switching energy packs. As such, you don't need to use the same power cell you do for a lightsaber with a blaster to make it have "unlimited ammo". You can have it on regular blasters already.

 

[Marcus]

Keep in mind that there was a heavy (no pun intended) debate on the "weight" of lightsabers, and that they were to be considered to have "some" weight and thus more similar to our understanding of swordplay than the EU might have us believe. In my view, they should be nearly weightless, but this was discussed in another thread somewhere fairly extensively that they do have weight, with some admins weighing (again, no pun intended) in.
@Green Ranger @Brandon Rhea

 

[Halcyon]

When I wrote weightless I meant it as near-weightless, in other words that its weight is negligible. I was just stating it lightly (pun intended).
Being plasma, it is matter, being matter it has mass, so when subject to gravitational acceleration it produces weight. But, from my knowledge of physics, it can't weight (much) more than, let's say, a flame.
It's ionized gas, so it can't be that dense.

 

[Reya Starlyght]

Although the blade of a lightsaber is most likely weightless or nearly, according to a documentary or whatever film on Star Wars the handles are supposed to be pretty heavy. I don't know if you guys were talking about the lightsaber in general or just the blade, but I believe in the film the handle is supposed to weigh 30-50 pounds. (US standard)

 

[Marcus]

Although the blade of a lightsaber is most likely weightless or nearly, according to a documentary or whatever film on Star Wars the handles are supposed to be pretty heavy. I don't know if you guys were talking about the lightsaber in general or just the blade, but I believe in the film the handle is supposed to weigh 30-50 pounds. (US standard)

Wow, I would totally fail at wielding one... In all seriousness though, that would throw off the balance of the "sword". A katana, if I'm not mistaken, is balanced right at the Tsuba. A 30-50lb hilt on one side and 0-minimal lbs on the other side would be hard (or very different) to wield than a normal or vibro blade.

 

[Reya Starlyght]

@Marcus Yeah I would have to agree with you about the balance factor, I'm just stating what I am pretty sure is canon about lightsabers. And also, Jedi and Sith have used lightsabers most of their lives, so they wouldn't really know how to use a balanced sword. For them it would be 'I learned how to use an unbalanced sword it's natural, how do you use this balanced one?' while it's viceversa in our world.

 

[Halcyon]

Yeah I was mentioning the plasma beam only - i.e. the "blade" - not the hilt; that can weight as much or as little as you want, that's not the biggest issue as far as I'm concerned.
Despite popular belief, actual IRL swords don't usually weight more than 1,8 kg or 4 lbs. Still, the weight is distributed along the length of the blade. Without getting into much discussion, the difference in weight between the plasma beam - a.k.a. blade - and the hilt makes for one hell of an unbalanced weapon. The weight of any object we carry is factored in our brains using what's called the proprioceptive sense (yes there are way more than 5 ) and used to determine the position and length of those objects.
Putting it simply, is like when you spin around, stop, but keep seeing everything still spinning with your eyes - that's equilibrioception, another sense entirely, but you get the point. A part of the brain (linked to the internal ear) is fooling your brain into thinking that your eyes are still seeing what's in front of them rotating. Because we instinctively expect things to have appreciable weight, we would be flailing the saber everywhere without an accurate notion of its location. Add the (supposed) strong gyroscopic effect from the magnetic field and we have ourselves a recipe for disaster.

It goes way beyond the scope of being accustomed to use a balanced vs an unbalanced sword. It would take godlike strength to use such weapon under any scenario, if they were real. Hence... THE FORCE! XD

Canon never goes into much detail about the actual workings of a lightsaber, that's just guess-work resulting from real world physics applied to an unreal scenario (things wouldn't really work that way and to that extent) and SW is not Hard Sci-Fi anyway, but more like space opera meats fantasy.

 

[Saul]

Yeah I was mentioning the plasma beam only - i.e. the "blade" - not the hilt; that can weight as much or as little as you want, that's not the biggest issue as far as I'm concerned.
Despite popular belief, actual IRL swords don't usually weight more than 1,8 kg or 4 lbs. Still, the weight is distributed along the length of the blade. Without getting into much discussion, the difference in weight between the plasma beam - a.k.a. blade - and the hilt makes for one hell of an unbalanced weapon. The weight of any object we carry is factored in our brains using what's called the proprioceptive sense (yes there are way more than 5 ) and used to determine the position and length of those objects.
Putting it simply, is like when you spin around, stop, but keep seeing everything still spinning with your eyes - that's equilibrioception, another sense entirely, but you get the point. A part of the brain (linked to the internal ear) is fooling your brain into thinking that your eyes are still seeing what's in front of them rotating. Because we instinctively expect things to have appreciable weight, we would be flailing the saber everywhere without an accurate notion of its location. Add the (supposed) strong gyroscopic effect from the magnetic field and we have ourselves a recipe for disaster.

It goes way beyond the scope of being accustomed to use a balanced vs an unbalanced sword. It would take godlike strength to use such weapon under any scenario, if they were real. Hence... THE FORCE! XD

Canon never goes into much detail about the actual workings of a lightsaber, that's just guess-work resulting from real world physics applied to an unreal scenario (things wouldn't really work that way and to that extent) and SW is not Hard Sci-Fi anyway, but more like space opera meats fantasy.

Last sentence is the most important one here. Lightsabers work because we imagine they do. 'nuff said.

 

[Therakill]

Ok so I know that SWR is set far in the future. But would a blaster pistol with a small lightsaberish dagger be out of the question?

What I mean by this is, I would power the pistol how you would a lightsaber so now ammo is needed. It would have a very limited range, decent rate of fire, and you could only use either the dagger or the pistol never both at the same time. I don't know if this is the correct place to put this at all.

Sorry i did mean to say you would not need ammo lol and that you would not use them at the same time. You would either use the Dagger or the Pistol, not both at the same time.

I had to edit cause I forgot a word.

 

[Halcyon]

Sorry i did mean to say you would not need ammo lol and that you would not use them at the same time. You would either use the Dagger or the Pistol, both at the same time.

No need to apologize dude, although you're not making much sense on your last sentence. Not sure anymore if you want to use both at the same time or not.

Anyway, I've already gave you my opinion, for what it's worth. I believe there are better alternatives, like the one I mentioned here; but hey, you can do - almost - whatever as long as it makes sense and you properly RP it.

 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Whoever wanted a lightsaber blaster; It is actually one of the few lightsaber designs that are shown to be canon. Ezra Bridger, the main character of Star Wars Rebels, made his lightsaber as a combination lightsaber and blaster.

Personally, I hope someone completely redesigns the Lightwhip this timeline. I would like a design that works as a Lightsaber with a destabalizer switch, so that you hit it and the lightsaber elongates and becomes whip like, and flicking it back makes it restabalize and turn back into a normal saber.

 

[Reya Starlyght]

I've had that idea, but I'm not sure if it's allowed. I'm using it in a private roleplay with someone right now (dubbed 'Star Wars without the hyperdrive') and I'm going to see how it works out. If I like it, I might go for that design, if it's allowed.

 

[Halcyon]

Yeah, Ezra has an actual lightsaber with a blaster attachment (set to stun). I thought he meant a blaster with a lightsaber attachment, to me it makes a difference.

Maybe I'm nitpicking, but I don't think that design (the one in the image above) is very practical. Just my opinion, though.

I agree that lightsaber variants would be awesome on the site. Imagine the possibilities: tridents, tonfas, scythes, clawed gauntlet, nunchakus,. sais... (not being sarcastic)

I make a motion for the creation of a lightsaber workshop thread! Anyone?... No one?... *sulks at corner*

 

[Marcus]

I really don't want to see a bunch of trident sabers, Ezra stungun sabers, blaster sabers like the one pictured above, or Kylo-wannabes floating around. I mean, people are going to do it, but it could just get downright silly and stop looking like Star Wars very easily. There has to be a fine line somewhere.

Do we really want this kind of lightsaber variety around (and yes, they have a circle spinning thing now too...)?

 

[Vosrik]

Lightsaber nunchakus would be....particularly impractical xD unless you essentially had two bolstered lightsaber handles (to smack people without damaging it) connected by a chain and use them as normal nunchakus, with the optional ability to extend the plasma blades out each end. Of course you'd need some really good dexterity (or experience in the force) to be able to turn them on and off as you're spinning them around.

Bruce Lee could do it, of course.

But yes I rather agree with @Marcus, if we could just stick with more basic sabers, it would be easier. I mean, I don't quite understand the use of all those different lightsaber adjustments in that toy set there. What's the advantage of having two little bits out the front? Seems redundant and impractical.