Musings on the Lightsaber

I've spent a long, long time compiling knowledge about lightsabers—both in-universe lore and behind-the-scenes information about the lightsaber props themselves. I figured I'd share.



Behind the Scenes

1. Lightsaber props were made from random junk.

The original lightsaber (Luke/Anakin's in Star Wars) was an old press camera flash handle (a Graflex 3-Cell) with strips of black rubber T-track glued onto its sides to make "grips." Darth Vader's saber was made from a different flash handle (a Heiland MPP), but otherwise followed the same process. Ben Kenobi's saber was made from a shower faucet, a gear, a sink knob, a clamp from a flash handle, and the shell of a World War II British grenade. It wasn't until Luke's second lightsaber showed up in Return of the Jedi that a handcrafted, custom-machined lightsaber prop was first used.


2. Saber props used to actually "glow."

The original "lit" lightsaber props actually had a rotating pole with reflective tape on the blade, so that when a light was shone through the camera lens, the light would bounce back, thus creating a shimmering effect. VFX technology had advanced by the time of The Empire Strikes Back, so this idea was completely thrown out in favor of simply painting over the film footage in post-production.



In-Universe

1. Lightsabers aren't actually made of light
This "fact" is possibly not canon any longer due to the recent continuity changes, but it's been pretty well-established in the Expanded Universe thus far that lightsaber blades aren't "lasers;" they're tightly-wound loops of coiled plasma (the stuff stars are made out of) held in place by a magnetic field. So really, they're plasma chainsaws.


2. Lightsaber blades are opaque

Saber blades apparently block energy, like force fields and blaster bolts. So it makes sense that they'd also block light. This is a screencap from The Clone Wars season 1, "Defenders of Peace:"

Apparently whatever light is shining on Ahsoka is actually brighter than her lightsaber. As someone once put it, "it's like shining a flashlight on a glow stick." It'll still cast a shadow.

3. Lightsabers aren't that bright

For some bizarre reason, lightsabers rarely cast light on other objects near them. Now, in the OT era, this makes sense, as special effects technology wouldn't necessarily allow for that. Or perhaps the science of saber blades is, in fact, much more complicated than we might think, and they really don't cast light on other objects somehow. But then we have scenes like this one from Attack of the Clones:

Clearly, lightsabers actually do illuminate their environment, just to a minor degree. So perhaps they're just not very bright? Maybe the white core of a saber is just an optical illusion of sorts, not actually something bright enough to be white. But The Phantom Menace seems to contradict that.

Here we can see a close-up of Obi-Wan's blade, and (in a brilliant VFX move) it seems that the saber blade is behaving exactly as a white-bright light source does when a camera focuses close to it. In order to counteract the brightness of the blade, the overall exposure is turned down, causing the normally-white blade to appear solid blue. This is proof, of sorts, that lightsaber blades are, in fact, colored blades so bright that they appear white at the center. And they are REALLY bright...

Luke holds his saber up against the sky on Tatooine and it still appears white at the core. So if that's a real representation of the light level of a blade, that means it's brighter than the sky itself, possibly as bright as the sun. And yet it still doesn't actually cast light on other objects.

So yeah. The light levels of a saber blade don't make any sense. The only potential way to justify it is to say that the "camera" is picking up the lightsaber blade the same way cameras often pick up real-world replica lightsabers. Here's an old picture of me holding my Master Replicas Luke FX saber:

Spoilers: it's not actually that bright. At best, it's a solid light blue, but never white like that. The camera overadjusts for the low light and makes it look brighter. Of course, that wouldn't explain why lightsabers in the blinding twin-sun light of Tatooine look white, but oh well.

It seems like for the time being, this is one in-universe mystery that will go unsolved.


4. Sabers move funny

It's a common misconception among geeks that since lightsaber blades are "made of energy," they're weightless, thus when you swing a lightsaber, you're essentially only swinging the handle. That's only partially true, and a lot more complicated.

While plasma is essentially weightless, this doesn't mean that wielding a lightsaber is the same as holding the hilt. George Lucas himself was insistent during the filming of the original Star Wars that lightsabers were supposed to be incredibly heavy due to the incredible amount of energy coursing through them. However, as the OT films progressed and fights became faster, this idea was somewhat dropped. The "official" EU explanation for sabers having weight has been that the magnetic field created by a saber blade causes it to drag through space, essentially simulating mass where there is none.

Now, to be technical, there is a difference between "having mass" and "being heavy." Lightsaber blades do seem to have the inertial effect of mass, as Jedi seem to have to "work with" their blades as any swordsman would. Additionally, lightsabers do have some force of impact on things they hit. Battle droids not only are sliced in half by lightsaber blades, but also buckle under the force of the hit. When Yoda throws his lightsaber at a clone trooper in Revenge of the Sith, the saber "sticks" in the trooper's torso, like a thrown sword or knife.

However, saber wielders don't seem to react to their blades being ignited whatsoever. There's no kickback from the ignition, no sudden weight seems to be applied, no-nothing. It just flicks on as if it were always there, although once it's on, the "simulated mass" inertial effect seems to apply. So the blade itself isn't necessarily "heavy;" it just behaves like a sword when it's swung.

Random interesting note: In the Clone Wars season 1 episode, "Hostage Crisis," Padmé holds Anakin's lightsaber hilt and notes that it's heavy. This might be a reference to the behind-the-scenes "weight" aspect, although realistically speaking, the hilt would actually need some weight in order to provide adequate balance for the "mass" of the blade. Otherwise it'd handle like a baseball bat.

Of course, the "real" reason lightsabers seem to have mass is because the actual props used by the actors do, in fact, have mass, and there's no way to film around that and have it look real. But then again, lightsabers are intended to behave like swords anyway. Lucas himself was insistent upon that fact. So in the end, lightsabers are a bizarre intersection of myth, wonky science fiction, and real sword physics.

The Expanded Universe: A New Dawn

Last week, Lucasfilm posted a news article detailing their plans for the future of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I've quoted it below, with the important bits bolded:

For over 35 years, the Expanded Universe has enriched the Star Wars experience for fans seeking to continue the adventure beyond what is seen on the screen. When he created Star Wars, George Lucas built a universe that sparked the imagination, and inspired others to create. He opened up that universe to be a creative space for other people to tell their own tales. This became the Expanded Universe, or EU, of comics, novels, videogames, and more. 

While Lucasfilm always strived to keep the stories created for the EU consistent with our film and television content as well as internally consistent, Lucas always made it clear that he was not beholden to the EU. He set the films he created as the canon. This includes the six Star Wars episodes, and the many hours of content he developed and produced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. These stories are the immovable objects of Star Wars history, the characters and events to which all other tales must align. 

Now, with an exciting future filled with new cinematic installments of Star Wars, all aspects of Star Wars storytelling moving forward will be connected. Under Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy's direction, the company for the first time ever has formed a story group to oversee and coordinate all Star Wars creative development.
"We have an unprecedented slate of new Star Wars entertainment on the horizon," said Kennedy. "We're set to bring Star Wars back to the big screen, and continue the adventure through games, books, comics, and new formats that are just emerging. This future of interconnected storytelling will allow fans to explore this galaxy in deeper ways than ever before." 

In order to give maximum creative freedom to the filmmakers and also preserve an element of surprise and discovery for the audience, Star Wars Episodes VII-IX will not tell the same story told in the post-Return of the Jedi Expanded Universe. While the universe that readers knew is changing, it is not being discarded. Creators of new Star Wars entertainment have full access to the rich content of the Expanded Universe. For example, elements of the EU are included in Star Wars Rebels. The Inquisitor, the Imperial Security Bureau, and Sienar Fleet Systems are story elements in the new animated series, and all these ideas find their origins in roleplaying game material published in the 1980s. 

Demand for past tales of the Expanded Universe will keep them in print, presented under the new Legends banner. 

On the screen, the first new canon to appear will be Star Wars Rebels. In print, the first new books to come from this creative collaboration include novels from Del Rey Books. First to be announced, John Jackson Miller is writing a novel that precedes the events of Star Wars Rebels and offers insight into a key character's backstory, with input directly from executive producers Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Greg Weisman. 

And this is just the beginning of a creatively aligned program of Star Wars storytelling created by the collaboration of incredibly talented people united by their love of that galaxy far, far away....

To summarize:

-The Expanded Universe is effectively getting a refresh.

-The six live-action films and the 2008 Clone Wars TV series are now the only "past" stories considered to be absolute canon.

-Moving forward, ALL Star Wars stories, including films, TV series, novels, comics, video games, will ALL work together as one single canon.

-Future Star Wars stories can and will lift elements from past EU stories, bringing them forward into the new canon.

-Past EU stories will remain in print, now with the "Legends" banner to denote their separate-canon nature.


As someone who's read quite a few Star Wars novels, plenty of comics, and played nearly all the video games, I'm entirely cool with this. Yes, it definitively puts the "non-canon" label on the 35-year history of the EU, but that doesn't mean that the story "didn't happen"; it only means that future stories will be different. And that's fine. Honestly, I don't think I would want the Star Wars sequel films to be mere adaptations of old novels, or need to dodge and weave between hundreds of post-Return of the Jedi storylines in order to tell an original story.

One thing that's nice to see is how reverent Lucasfilm is being towards the EU even in spite of the new status of canon. They even put out a video that's essentially a montage of Lucasfilm employees gushing about the EU.

This "reset" or "reboot" of continuity is something that honestly needed to happen. George Lucas was never particularly willing to work with EU authors in the past, and as a result, the EU and film canon grew in different directions. Now that Post-ROTJ stories are being told in film, it's time to honestly re-evaluate what's best for the entire saga.

What I find most exciting about this announcement is the fact that from this point forward, every single Star Wars book is just as "real" as any Star Wars film. We can now read new Star Wars books and know for certain that what we're reading matters to the entire saga.

They've already announced the lineup of new novels coming out over the next couple of years:

The first book, A New Dawn, is a direct prequel to the upcoming TV series, Star Wars: Rebels. Heir to the Jedi is a Luke Skywalker story written in first-person and set between ANH and ESB. Lords of the Sith is a teamup story where the Emperor and Vader join forces. Tarkin is... about Tarkin, I guess.

I can't wait to read these new books. As a matter of fact, I completely plan on reading each and every Star Wars novel from now on. After all, if there's no gigantic backlog of books to go through (as there currently is with the past EU), why not start right now, at square one?

It's a very exciting time to be a Star Wars fan.

Star Wars Episode VII Casting

The cast for Star Wars Episode VII has been announced. From StarWars.com:

Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film. 

Director J.J. Abrams says, "We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again. We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud."

This is pretty monumental news. Returning are not only the original trio of Luke, Han, and Leia, but also Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2. Aside from Lando Calrissian, this is the entire main surviving cast of Star Wars. After all these decades, this was something no one ever thought would actually happen.

What's perhaps even better is the fact that in the official statement, the new cast members are mentioned first. This should be their trilogy: a new saga for a new generation.

Amazing is the word I think best suits this news. Star Wars is really, truly back.

Only A Sith Deals In Absolutes

One of my absolute favorite podcasts is Rebel Force Radio, hosted by Jason Swank and Jimmy Mac (former hosts of The ForceCast). If there's one thing I greatly dislike about the show, however, it's the hosts' (mostly Jason's) tendency to be very aggressive towards anyone who is not a diehard George Lucas follower or who dislikes the prequel films. More recently, they've gone after Patton Oswalt, who is famous in Star Wars fandom for two things:

Firstly, this is part of his stand-up routine (caution, harsh language after 0:35).
Secondly, he made this cameo on Parks and Recreation recently:

Since Oswalt has now become a minor Star Wars celebrity in response to this cameo, RFR decided to remind Star Wars fandom just how apparently-evil he is by labeling him "Patton 'frickin'' Oswalt," much as they did for Simon Pegg, who has repeatedly spoken out about his intense dislike for the prequel films. Essentially, RFR decided to get their fanbase riled up for a Dathomiri witch hunt. They asked their fans for opinions on whether or not Oswalt deserved the "frickin" title; this was my emailed response:

Patton Oswalt does not deserve "frickin'" status.

One of the things that has consistently confused and dismayed me about Star Wars fandom is its tendency to be at war with itself and with other fandoms. Yes, other fandoms can be hostile as well, but since Star Wars fandom is so large, it tends to be farther-reaching. There've been times where I actually pulled out of Star Wars fandom entirely simply because of all the internal conflict. (the "Karentraversy", the Prequel-haters, et cetera) It doesn't matter to me if you're a die-hard George Lucas follower or a Prequel-critic, I do not want to see my closest friends at war like that. It just makes Star Wars not fun anymore.

How many times have you heard something completely offensive in a comedian's stand-up routine, but didn't let it bother you because you knew it was only meant for an innocent laugh? Why are we now holding Patton Oswalt to a different standard? Sometimes I think Star Wars fans sound as irrational as those groups that insist Harry Potter teaches children witchcraft and video games mold you into a serial murderer. CHILL OUT, PEOPLE. Hope the prequel-critics come around someday, but in the meantime don't make enemies of them. That's only going to make the conflict worse.

And here's the thing: with all the conflict, we are completely missing the point of Star Wars. Let's think back to the endings of Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi.

Anakin: "If you're not with me, you're my enemy!"
Obi-Wan: "Only a Sith deals in absolutes."
Is absolutist black-and-white thinking not precisely the sin that we fans commit when we label one another "Prequel-haters," "kooks," or "people who give Star Wars an F"? Should we not instead follow Luke's example?
Luke chose not to strike down Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith though he was. Instead, he chose to throw aside his saber in an act of selfless love. Yes, it meant putting himself at risk, but it was the right thing to do.

Don't strike down Simon Pegg, Patton Oswalt, or anyone else in anger. Instead, throw aside your lightsaber and invite them to join the light.

May the Force be with you, always.
-Aaron

It Needs to be Personal

There've been some pretty incredible episodes recently on The Clone Wars. Many fans have noted that the recent Darth Maul/Mandalorian story arc, ending with the super-climactic "The Lawless," is perhaps the best story the show has done yet. With big things happening with Darth Maul, Palpatine, and the entire planet of Mandalore, there are huge implications for the saga as a whole. Many have also noted that the following episode, "Sabotage," featuring Ahsoka in a CSI-style murder mystery, felt lackluster by comparison. Personally, however, I disagree.

For all the Mauldalorian arc's epicness, for all of its direct ties to the primary characters, and for all its major events, much of it felt too impersonal. Some of that is undoubtedly because the story is following villain characters that we're not supposed to relate to anyway. A lot of it, however, is probably due to the rapid-fire pacing of the episodes, which doesn't give the drama time to breathe.

[spoilers for The Clone Wars season 5]

In the span of two episodes, we have the Mandalorian government being overthrown, a civil war breaking out, an A New Hope-style rescue attempt, the deaths of three major characters, and Palpatine coming into physical conflict with Maul and Savage. That is entirely too much for two episodes to handle properly. If the arc added two or three more episodes, more could have been done better. What if one of the episodes focused entirely on Obi-Wan and his quest to save Satine? As it happened, he basically landed on Mandalore, watched Satine die, then left. He didn't appear to actually have any impact on the story whatsoever, and his scenes were almost running in parallel with—instead of intersecting—the main plot. It was a side story, essentially. I'd also like to have seen a Bo-Katan-centric episode, dealing with her struggles to unite the Mandalore-loyal warriors against the now-Maul-led Death Watch. Having her side of the story only seen in glimpses seems odd.

Now, I do think the episodes were still extremely well-done. My gripe is that, in the end, after watching "The Lawless," I felt more like I'd watched an episode than experienced a story. It was hard to entirely get lost in the drama of it all when it was so obviously cut down to its bare bones and left at a cliffhanger. When I first saw "The Lawless," I didn't quite understand why it didn't impact me as much as I thought it should. However, after seeing "Sabotage," it's becoming clearer.

"Sabotage" is paced properly and has epic-scale cinematography that perfectly mimics the films. Because of this, the stage is set better for the actual story. What's more important, however, is the way the episode deals with character. Ahsoka is given the spotlight, clearing most other characters out of the way. Instead of having Maul, Savage, Vizla, Palpatine, Satine, Obi-Wan, and Bo-Katan all fighting for center stage, Ahsoka is allowed to breathe, letting us follow her adventure and live through her in the story itself.

This goes back to the central tenet of the Star Wars original trilogy: the story must be personal in order to be powerful. The prequel films lacked such a character as well as a cinematography crafted to support a character-based narrative. The sequel trilogy absolutely, completely needs a character-based story that feels personal in order to recapture what truly makes Star Wars special.

Star Wars #1

Yesterday, Dark Horse Comics released the first issue in a new comic series titled merely Star Wars. The basic premise is, essentially, "what if today were 1977, and Star Wars had just been released?" Although it doesn't actually contradict previously-established Expanded Universe continuity (it most definitely is part of the EU), this new series doesn't directly deal with it or in any way rely on it either. It's something that anyone who's seen Episode IV can instantly pick up, read, and enjoy.

It's absolutely brilliant. Brian Wood definitely "gets" the entire cast of characters as well as the Star Wars universe itself, easily weaving genuine-feeling character development into a story that's still based in high adventure and action, as any true Star Wars story should be. What's even better is that he takes the character of Princess Leia and actually makes her great. In the films, Leia does little onscreen other than bitch and whine whilst being either kidnapped or rescued by others; she takes very little proactive action herself. In Star Wars #1, we see her on the front lines with Luke and Wedge, leading a scout mission for the Rebellion. In that same moment, we also get a ton of great vocalized character depth from her that we never get from the films at all. Following that, there's a wonderfully-done action scene where Leia once again gets the spotlight, showing just how strong and decisive she can be in battle. For probably the first time, I really, really like Princess Leia.

While Leia is the primary focus of the story, she's not the only one who gets to shine. Luke, Han, Wedge, Mon Mothma, and especially Vader get their turns spotlight as well, each character acting as a fully developed person as well as being perfectly in line with their portrayal in the films. Fortunately, this feels very much in line with The Empire Strikes Back, where a heaping ton of focus is put on the characters as characters—and moreover, as people that you can care about.

Carlos D'Anda's art helps a lot, too. It's extremely dynamic and vivid, with tons of great detail on the tech of Star Wars—lending it that "real-world" feel that makes the Original Trilogy so believable.
On top of all that, the covers by Alex Ross are flat-out amazing, perfectly echoing the original trilogy's unforgettably-iconic posters.

Suffice it to say that if you're a Star Wars fan, you owe it to yourself to be reading this book.

Disney: VII, VIII, IX

So this post is pretty late in coming. Oh well.

Part of the reason I didn't write about this earlier is that I'd already written about the possibility of a sequel trilogy a couple of years ago. Also, to be honest, the reason this blog has had a total of two posts in a whole year (and none in the past nine months) is that I've been quickly losing interest in Star Wars.

Something that's always struck me about Star Wars is how it was crafted as an amalgamation of hundreds or thousands of different stories from fantasy and mythology. So, in much the same way that George Lucas delved deep into various mythologies to find the universal qualities to make Star Wars, I decided it'd be cool to delve into other fantasy and sci-fi stories, in order to get a larger view of the genres. Unfortunately, doing so only illuminated for me the fact that Star Wars is severely lacking.

Let's be honest: for as epic and wonderful as the Expanded Universe is, it's essentially a gigantic series of spin-off stories that gets trampled by the Star Wars films and TV series on a semi-regular basis. It's always been held back by Lucasfilm restrictions (the most they've been able to do is kill off Chewbacca; everyone else is in their elder years and somehow still alive despite decades of war), and rarely has it been truly worthy of the Star Wars name. Knights of the Old Republic, the Thrawn trilogy, and many other stories stand as notable examples to the contrary, but on the whole, the EU has suffered from simply being treated as a lesser aspect of the franchise.

Similarly, The Clone Wars, which is basically as canonical as the films, is also merely a spin-off, not the "primary" story. No matter what happens in The Clone Wars, most of it won't matter because most of the characters are from the films and can't be changed from what we know them to be in AOTC and ROTS. The galaxy won't be forever changed by The Clone Wars; it's changed by the events of the films.

Meanwhile, in other franchises, the primary story is much better-handled. In the Stargate universe, each of the three Stargate TV series (and the three movies) are equally capable of changing the direction of the entire story. In the Halo universe, nearly every story—whether it be a game, novel, or comic—is just as important to the story as anything other. Huge, epic (and canonical) facets of the universe are told in different forms of media, yet they all interweave between one another. Finally, the Star Trek universe has over 700 hour-long episodes and full-length movies, not even counting any of its expanded universe fiction or the single-season animated series.

To go from marathoning literally hundreds of episodes of Trek back to watching Star Wars is like learning to swim in a lake and then being dropped into a kiddie pool. Sometimes the six SW films are plenty deep enough. Certainly there's plenty of philosophical conversation to be had about them. But then (and perhaps more often) you hear Star Wars fans saying things like, "Oh, man! I just found something totally new about Star Wars! For one frame in the Special Edition VHS version of A New Hope, R2's red and blue light turns GREEN! Wow! I can't believe how deep and detailed these movies are! Thirty years later and I'm still discovering new things!"

-_-

I really can't describe how disheartening it is to see how shallow my fandom actually is. Yes, the Star Wars fan community is vibrant and wonderful. Wars fans are possibly the best fandom in existence, despite the angry sect of them that dominates internet message boards. Yes, The Clone Wars is great, for what it is. Yes, the EU is a very deep and endlessly detailed sub-universe. But as a whole, Star Wars needs a kick in its complacency.

That is exactly what I think this Disney purchase—coupled with George's retirement and the hiring of Kathleen Kennedy as his replacement—will provide. The fact that we're getting the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy—THE Sequel Trilogy, straight from George's notes and outlines—with an entirely new director and writer is amazing.

Currently over in The Clone Wars, there's a storyline going on that focuses on Jedi younglings learning to build their lightsabers. It's pretty fitting, as this news really has made a lot of older Star Wars fans feel like kids first discovering Star Wars again. What new galactic wonders will we see in the new trilogy? What will happen to the main characters from the OT? What new mysteries of the Force will we discover?

Despite the dark times of recent days, since the Disney and Sequel Trilogy announcement, I've been proud to once again think of myself as a Star Wars fan.

I'm excited enough that I'm actually going to go back and re-watch the entire Clone Wars series in chronological order, posting reviews for episodes that are missing on this blog. Should be fun.