Disney Canon Lightsaber Tech

[2046]

Disney Canon, Heir to the Jedi, Ch. 3:

Luke, not especially long after ANH, pondering a lightsaber he'd been given:

"Doing my best to relax and leave myself open to the Force, I activated Huulik’s lightsaber and marveled again at how the hilt didn’t feel quite right; even though I’d wiped it down with a damp cloth and removed all hints of debris, it still seemed to want to escape my grip with a slippery, viscous surface tension that was absent from my own lightsaber. Was it a function of Rodian versus human manufacture? Or was my lightsaber better suited to me because it had been constructed by my father?

The blade was not pure light, of course; it was energy from the same sort of power cell that fueled blasters, given form by passing through a kyber crystal as superheated plasma that arced at the top and returned to the hilt. It didn’t give off heat until it touched something solid; the rest of the time its power was contained by a force field. I knew that much but very little else. I wanted to see how it worked—how it was constructed. I had never dared take apart my lightsaber for fear that I wouldn’t be able to put it back together again, but Soonta had given me Huulik’s lightsaber to learn something if I could, so I was going to risk it.

I deactivated it and inspected the hilt closely. There were no screws or switches or any of the usual markers of assembly. Except for the button to turn it on and the dial that adjusted its strength, it appeared to be a solid artifact, as if it had been shaped that way in nature. Perhaps the barrel was a solid piece, albeit hollow, that had been slipped over the rest of the assembly. And perhaps the key to opening it wasn’t visible with the eyes.

My room had a basic desk and chair, and I seated myself at it and placed the lightsaber on the desk, emitter pointed away from me for safety. As before, I kept myself open to the Force, but now I tried to focus on the lightsaber and feel the Force inherent in it. Closing my eyes, I explored the top of the hilt right below the emitter with my fingers, searching for any tactile clues. The surface retained that same strange slick feeling, but I detected nothing unusual at the top, or around the button or dial, or even on the rest of the hilt. When I ran my finger fully around the base, however, clockwise and then counterclockwise, eyes still closed and trying to feel the Force, a snick announced the appearance of a fissure lengthwise down the hilt; after another soft click, the casing popped free, revealing yet another metal sheath, one that looked more like mine and had visible screws. Artoo unscrewed them for me and I was able to lift off one half of the sheath and reveal the innards.

The power cell at the base was insulated and held no interest for me. Above that was a platform for the primary focusing crystal that gave the lightsaber its color. Two additional crystals floated above it, balanced so precariously on mounting ridges that they could easily be disturbed—and they had been. They lay askew, and I feared I must have done that in the process of disassembling it. The lightsaber wouldn’t work properly now, even if I put it back together; without proper focusing there was no telling what would happen if I tried to turn it on. It might explode. And aligning those crystals by hand would be impossible—I sensed that it had to be done with the Force, and only through the Force would I know whether it was aligned properly or not. They were wafer-thin slices of crystal, too, a beautiful clear amethyst, and might scratch or cloud with handling. Moving them precisely with the Force would ensure that they remained pristine.

The lightsaber’s construction confirmed for me what I had already suspected: Far from being merely a feeling of interconnectedness that could guide your actions or a method of tricking the weak-willed, the Force could be used to manipulate solid objects. However, the skill required to construct a lightsaber—or even put this one back together—was a parsec or five beyond my current abilities.

I had Artoo take holo stills of the lightsaber as I deconstructed the rest of it for future study, and then I thought I should work on those Force abilities if I ever wanted to reassemble it or make my own."

Compare with TCW re: screws and internals ... I suspect they'll be different.

Not sure about the blade description making any sense.

[Darth Spock]

Hmm, well, I guess it's official then. I guess I'll have to review canon policy too, I assumed so far that it would follow roughly the same path as before the Disney acquisition. It would certainly be easier to keep up with a fresh start now rather than trying to catch up with the huge existing EU, but I had rather hoped I wouldn't need to. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a muscle head who hates to read, but I never was able get into Star Wars in print. Case in point, I've read several Timothy Zahn novels, but none of his Star Wars titles, although I might actually like those.

Compare with TCW re: screws and internals ... I suspect they'll be different.

Not sure about the blade description making any sense.

Yeah, I don't know about it making sense either. I like it, as a fan theory, we're allowed to screw up, but to commit to such details regarding such exotic technology in canon is just asking for trouble.
As for the screws, well, I know the original props made from camera flash guns have them. *Shameless gloat: At least mine does!* The internals with the extra crystals sounds like he's borrowing from the old Visual Dictionary and the KOTOR series. Speaking of which, am I the only one who got a heavy KOTOR vibe from the new SW: Rebels series?

[Mike DiCenso]

I do appreciate the continuity with the ANH novelization:

"Strangely, Luke felt no heat from it, although he was very careful not to touch it. He knew what a lightsaber could do, though he had never seen one before. It could drill a hole right through the rock wall of Kenobi's cave - or a human being."

That both agree on the blade not giving off any obvious heat. Very nice touch.
-Mike

[Mr. Oragahn]

Hmm, well, I guess it's official then. I guess I'll have to review canon policy too, I assumed so far that it would follow roughly the same path as before the Disney acquisition. It would certainly be easier to keep up with a fresh start now rather than trying to catch up with the huge existing EU, but I had rather hoped I wouldn't need to. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a muscle head who hates to read, but I never was able get into Star Wars in print. Case in point, I've read several Timothy Zahn novels, but none of his Star Wars titles, although I might actually like those.

Zahn's trilogy was cleverly entertaining, especially for a lack of anything else SW, but his later duology, what a snorefest!

I think LFL had hampered the success of the EU by having way too many books. It was a race to the bottom at that point.

Yeah, I don't know about it making sense either. I like it, as a fan theory, we're allowed to screw up, but to commit to such details regarding such exotic technology in canon is just asking for trouble.
As for the screws, well, I know the original props made from camera flash guns have them. *Shameless gloat: At least mine does!* [/quore]

OK, you reminded me of that phase when I had a sort of fan like fetish for custom lightsabres and even mused about building my own. I had already started collecting some parts, working on designs.

The internals with the extra crystals sounds like he's borrowing from the old Visual Dictionary and the KOTOR series.

Pretty much all the descripting, baring the naming of the main (?) crystal as a kirby one, is just sheer EU being microwaved.
Perhaps with an extra pinch of the arcing energy filament that was first proposed on Bob Brown's website.

One thing that annoys me most with that is the idea of superhot plasma going through crystals. At best they'd be used to focus internal force fields and time some systems. And eventually, since plasma is contained, shine some light through anciliary cystals and shoot it into the blade, through a force field, just for colouring the plasma inside said blade. In other words, the colour crystal would be purely cosmetic, and an extra piece, with the blade being white by default (like on the old and original McQuarrie drawing showing a stormtrooper holding one lightsabre).
In KOTOR, they had one crystal being responsible of creating the blade AND colouring it.
The only way to have that would be to have a LASER shot through a crystal, pass through a forcefield and then heat up the plasma field.

Oh they also mention amethyst. Lol, that's not really a tough crystal. At least not something you'd expect to be used to shoot stuff through.

Plus: the lightsabre Luke studies is super slick and only twisting the end of the hilt actually reveals a moving panel on the handle?
That's way beyond any other design we've seen in the movies.

Also, there's no mention of safety system to prevent erroneous activations (and Solo in TESB didn't have to do anything special to use Luke's), but the book still mentions the Force inside the weapon or something like that... ?

The plus side is that the mention of the kirby crystal allows us to tap into the growing thingamajic properties of super duper plasma and transfer of matter into hyperspace (a clever way to emulate some kind of NDF).
Perhaps the Force allows the blade to get the extra effects? At least, we might have a plasma + NDF system.
OK, the plasma part is confirmed, but the use of kirby crystals is clearly something we cannot neglect.

And, well, the Death Star was a sort of huuuuge lightsabre, of which the containment was only maintained to allow the tunnel of destructive matter to reach its target.
Once there, perhaps the rest of the containment was progressively dissolving into the crust, or literally splintered against said crust; but we know the secondary blast, the bigger one, occured clearly far from the point of impact, and looks like to be originating from somewhere on the other side of the planet, so a massive amount of tunneling was clearly involved imho, and we can cast away the old EU-based neutrino-mix theory ... the one conveniently ignored by SDN for ages!

[Mr. Oragahn]

I do appreciate the continuity with the ANH novelization:

"Strangely, Luke felt no heat from it, although he was very careful not to touch it. He knew what a lightsaber could do, though he had never seen one before. It could drill a hole right through the rock wall of Kenobi's cave - or a human being."

That both agree on the blade not giving off any obvious heat. Very nice touch.
-Mike

This meaning there is no convection between ambient air and the matter inside the blade.
So the force field is damn tight and emulates a sort of vacuum.
The only caveat atm is what happens when the field is interrupted?

[Mr. Oragahn]

Not really substantiated idea here, but what if the super-compressing, or perhaps super-stabilizing of the somewhat exotic plasma, which I suppose is obtained thanks to the use of a kirby crystal, somehow gained/unlocked its inherent NDF property that way?

[2046]

Forcefield handguard/crossguard. 'Nuff said.

[Darth Spock]

Forcefield handguard/crossguard. 'Nuff said.

Heh, you win! Actually, I've been wondering about just how common forcefields are in Star Wars lately, and that would fit right in. I should assemble the references I have floating in my head and make a post on that....

As for the screws, well, I know the original props made from camera flash guns have them. *Shameless gloat: At least mine does!*

OK, you reminded me of that phase when I had a sort of fan like fetish for custom lightsabres and even mused about building my own. I had already started collecting some parts, working on designs.

Ha! Cool! I had done something similar, I even had one test fitted together, but I wasn't content to have just another dust collector, I had planned to rob an old flashlight of its parts and make a "useful" lightsaber, but moved before I got it finished, and never got back to it. I still have a box full of plumbing parts, electronics, and other odds and ends around in the basement somewhere.

One thing that annoys me most with that is the idea of superhot plasma going through crystals.
SNIP
The only way to have that would be to have a LASER shot through a crystal, pass through a forcefield and then heat up the plasma field.

Yes, that makes no sense to me either, I'd sooner assume that a beam is focused through a crystal which then energizes a plasma stream. But, the CW story reels actually seem to support the really funky plasma through crystal idea. I noticed that the giant kirby (oi, you've converted me) crystal didn't react to being dropped, exposed to sound waves, manhandled with the force, or even left out in direct sunlight for an extended period. That struck me as particularly noteworthy... But shoot it with guns or cannons that are generally considered to fire plasma, and you get clean, high energy output that doesn't even seem to damage the crystal. Uh. Yeah. Not to mention the "I need two hands free to 'force grab' the crystal." I got the feeling the writers were high on video games when they wrote that, and I suspect the script might have undergone a tad more refinement had it been properly finished.

I do appreciate the continuity with the ANH novelization:

"Strangely, Luke felt no heat from it, although he was very careful not to touch it. He knew what a lightsaber could do, though he had never seen one before. It could drill a hole right through the rock wall of Kenobi's cave - or a human being."

That both agree on the blade not giving off any obvious heat. Very nice touch.
-Mike

This meaning there is no convection between ambient air and the matter inside the blade.
So the force field is damn tight and emulates a sort of vacuum.
The only caveat atm is what happens when the field is interrupted?

It is a nice touch. I'm not too surprised by the thorough containment, forcefields in Star Wars seem to be pretty adept at letting only certain things through, or in letting things through one way but not the other. I really don't like the idea of NDF in a lightsaber, it's just so unStar Wars, to me at least. But, it may not be a bad explanation, and it definitely has some canon foundation now. Of course, it can't be too perfect in its containment of material touching the blade, or Qui-Gon could never have leaked enough heat out to melt the door in TPM.

[359]

Their blades also cast a shadow as seen in TCW: "Defenders of Peace" as Ashoka slices through two droids while stealing a ship at night. They also encounter physical resistance when they cut through materials. Both of these would seem to support some kind of physical encapsulation of the blade.

The only caveat atm is what happens when the field is interrupted?

Perhaps that's when they start to cut through stuff.

[2046]

Amusingly, this means that we are finally certain that nothing referred to as a laser in Star Wars is a laser in any way.

Turbolasers? Galvened radioactive particles.
The superlaser? A funky beam of funky stuff from a kyber crystal that does weird stuff like combine out in space.
Laser swords? More kyber plasma stuff wrapped in a forcefield.