Ranking the Lightsaber Duels

[DANA-kin Skywalker]

Qui-Gon didn't actually die. He comes back to life with an ironman power generator in his chest in his upcoming standalone film.

[DANA-kin Skywalker]

I don't disagree-- but the idea of a cold killer coming in from nowhere, something you didn't know existed, and he is dangerous and kills your mentor... that's scary and powerful.That said, there's no question that the weight of that didn't actually make it onscreen because Uncle George's grasp of subtext is limited to symbolizing grand political movements... sort of...

Aww give George a break. He had Obi-Wan yell NOOOOOOO didn't he? What more do you want? That's the only way George knows how to do that. NOOO's and AAAHH's. Stop picking on him.

[Justus]

 

Let's be honest here. Would any sword fighting that's aggressive to the point of swords constantly clashing last all that long? Especially with a weapon like a lightsaber. Considering that it has a blade with zero mass (though they act like it's heavy for some reason),

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Hamill:

"George was adamant that these things were really, really heavy..that we couldn't take a hand off--we always had to have two, its like Excalibur--40..50 pounds of weight."

 

 

George Lucas:

"They were very powerful, and a lot of energy in them, so that it was..you worked with them as if they were heavy."

[captainbleh]

The handling / balance of a sword with zero mass in the blade would be really weird.

 

If you could make a real lightsaber, you might have to add something that gives the blade mass or shifts the balance point towards the tip in order to make it in to a practical weapon.

 

If not / if "swords" with zero mass blades can be practical weapons, then fighting with them wouldn't resemble anything you've seen in the movies.

 

(not-ceremonial / fighting swords are not that heavy; anything apart from the longest [total length of five feet or more] two-handed swords is unlikely to weigh more than 5 pounds, and most one-handed swords weigh less than 2.5 pounds)

[DANA-kin Skywalker]

1). Lucas clearly didn't know how to science when thinking that through. Energy = no mass = not heavy.

 

2). Technically flowering a sword is only possible because the blade has weight. You know, inertia and circles and all that uber complicated stuff. So twirling lightsabers technically not possible.

 

3). Nobody cares about 1) and 2) because it's only a movie. We're just supposed to buy the fact they are sword fighting and that should be fine.

[Filthy Jawa]

How can we say he doesn't understand science when he's inventing the science? Good god, I can't believe you're making me defend George Lucas!

We don't have lightsabers so how can we say what kind of mass they have in them? Maybe there's a black hole in a light saber? Doesnt one of those have mass? Who am I, Steve Hawking?

 

I thought I read once that they had a sort of gyroscopic effect or counter balance thing going on so they were difficult to control and only the most skilled user could fight with one.

 

Plus the idea of how long a light saber fight would last seems (obviously) contingent on the fact that we're talking about Jedi and Sith, who can anticipate one another's movements. Non-Force-users don't seem to last too long in these fights from what little bit we've seen.

[DANA-kin Skywalker]

No one's making you do anything; but the fact you are doing it is...admirable...? I guess? lol

 

 

 

the idea of how long a light saber fight would last seems (obviously) contingent on the fact that we're talking about Jedi and Sith, who can anticipate one another's movements. Non-Force-users don't seem to last too long in these fights from what little bit we've seen.

This point that you made here strikes at the very heart of why I can't rally behind the prequel duels. I will try my best to explain my opinion.

 

Jedi/Sith use the force to anticipate each others movements, which extends the fight, and helps explains the super risky moves and mega-skill. K got it. So now the duel is more like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, in my mind. These fights should go on for like...forever with no winner if that's the case. The way Anakin dispatched Dooku is how they all should end, by overpowering the opponent, and then setting up the duel-ending strike like 3 moves in advance. I totally bought that little duel. Anakin was overpowering him with sheer strength, batting Dooku around like a piñata, and setting up a nifty move to win the fight. See it coming Dooku? Too bad you can't do crap about it. THATS how you end a duel. Not the Maul vs Obi way, or Obi vs Ani way; that's resorting to temporary stupidity/insanity. You can't play the duel out like the two combatants are like perfect swordsmanship gods and then have them go out like amateurs. It does not compute. You can't justify unrealistically perfect choreography with force vision on the whole time, and at the same time be like well, he wasn't using the force at THAT moment when he just stands there and gets hit. You can't even justify it with the cliche hubris as a weakness thingy without setting that up for the character. Maul was NOT a character, he was a special effect.

[Driver]

No one in this argument is ever getting laid.

[Filthy Jawa]

I'm hoping to score with one of those SWChicks.

[Guest El Chalupacabra]

I really like what they've done with him in Clone Wars and Rebels, but the whole NOT DYING AFTER BEING BISECTED requires more disbelief than I'm capable of sometimes. Mostly it just makes me laugh because Lucas cut him in half specifically so people would know he was dead. Then, ten years later, he's like, "bring him back. Figure it out."

couldn't agree more. The only out they have is he wasn't human and could have had his vitals in different places. But still, hard to accept.

[DANA-kin Skywalker]

Wait...having maul return was Lucas's idea? LOL