A lightsaber is a fictional energy sword featured
in the Star Wars universe. A typical lightsaber
is depicted as a luminescent blade of magnetically
contained plasma about 3 feet (91 cm) in length
emitted from a metal hilt around 10.5 inches
(27 cm) in length.The lightsaber is the signature
weapon of the Jedi Order and their Sith counterparts,
both of whom can use them for melee combat,
or to deflect blaster bolts. Its distinct
appearance was created using rotoscoping for
the original films, and with digital effects
for the prequel and sequel trilogies. The
lightsaber first appeared in the original
1977 film A New Hope and has since appeared
in every Star Wars movie, with at least one
lightsaber duel occurring in each main film
installments. In 2008, a survey of approximately
2,000 film fans found it to be the most popular
weapon in film history.As presented in the
films, a lightsaber's energy blade can cut,
burn, and melt through most substances with
little resistance. It leaves cauterized wounds
in flesh, but can be deflected by another
lightsaber blade, or by energy shields. The
blade has even been used as a tool to weld
metal. Other times, the lightsaber has been
shown to cause bleeding wounds in the flesh,
sometimes accompanied by burns. Some exotic
saber-proof materials have been introduced
in the Expanded Universe. An active lightsaber
gives off a distinctive hum, which rises in
pitch and volume as the blade is moved rapidly
through the air. Bringing the blade into contact
with another lightsaber's blade produces a
loud crackle.
== Conceptual origin ==
There are several literary precedents in science
fiction for a "sword" of pure energy that
can cut through anything, notably:
Edmond Hamilton's story Kaldar: World of Antares
(published 1933 in the April issue of The
Magic Carpet Magazine). It was reprinted in
one of Donald A. Wollheim's well-known and
widely read science fiction anthologies, Swordsmen
in the Sky, Ace Books 79276, 1964, and thus
readily available to the science fiction reader
community of the 1960s and 1970s.
Fritz Leiber's Gather Darkness (1943): the
priests' "rods of wrath" (energy projections)
only end where they cut into solid matter,
so that a single duel led to numerous casualties
of bystanders and charred scores across all
nearby walls.
Isaac Asimov's Lucky Starr series (1952):
The force-blade is "a short shaft of stainless
steel" which can project a force field that
can cut through anything, making it "the most
vicious weapon in the galaxy." Asimov's force-blade
expands on his earlier invention of "a penknife
with a force-field blade," first used in his
Foundation novel (1951).
Gordon R. Dickson's Wolfling (1969): the rod
“… something in appearance like a cross
between the flame of a welding torch and the
arc of a static electricity charge crackled
from the end of the rod … even as it burst
from the end of the rod … the discharge
from Galyan's rod met the discharge from Slothiel's
head on, and the two lines of white fire splashed
harmlessly into an aurora of sparks, …". In
a 1977 interview, Lucas stated "As a kid,
I read a lot of science fiction,…I was interested
in Harry Harrison…” and this issue of
Analog ends a Harry Harrison story on the
back of the page with a drawing of this duel.
Larry Niven's Ringworld (1970): Louis Wu uses
his "flashlight laser" as a sword of indefinite
length. Ringworld also features a "variable
sword", consisting of a handle containing
a spool of invisibly thin, molecule-thick
wire. In use the wire is unspooled to the
desired length and made rigid by a "stasis
field". Some depictions show the field glowing.
M. John Harrison's The Pastel City (1971):
the energy baan are used by the Methven, an
order of knights sworn to protect their empire.
=== Prop construction ===
For the original Star Wars film, the film
prop hilts were constructed by John Stears
from old Graflex press camera flash battery
packs and other pieces of hardware. The full
sized sword props were designed to appear
ignited onscreen, by later creating an "in-camera"
glowing effect in post-production. The blade
is a three-sided rod which was coated with
a Scotchlite retroreflector array, the same
sort used for highway signs. A lamp was positioned
to the side of the taking camera and reflected
towards the subject through 45-degree angled
glass so that the sword would appear to glow
from the camera's point of view.
Set decorator Roger Christian found the handles
for the Graflex Flash Gun in a photography
shop in Great Marlborough Street, in London's
West End. He then added cabinet T-track to
the handles, securely attaching them with
cyanoacrylate glue. Adding a few "greebles"
(surface details), Christian managed to hand-make
the first prototype of a lightsaber prop for
Luke before production began. George Lucas
decided he wanted to add a clip to the handle,
so that Luke could hang it on his belt. Once
Lucas felt the handle was up to his standards,
it went to John Stears to create the wooden
dowel rod with front-projection paint so that
the animators would have a glow of light to
enhance later on in post production. Due to
lack of preparation time, Christian's prototype
and a second spare were used for the shooting
in Tunisia, where Star Wars filming began.
It was discovered, however, that the glowing
effect was greatly dependent on the rod's
orientation to the camera, and during the
Obi-Wan Kenobi/Darth Vader duel, they could
clearly be seen as rods. Because of this,
the glow would be added in post-production
through rotoscoping, which also allowed for
diffusion to be employed to enhance the glow.
=== Visual effects ===
Korean animator Nelson Shin, who was working
for DePatie–Freleng Enterprises at the time,
was asked by his manager if he could animate
the lightsaber in the live action scenes of
a film. After Shin accepted the assignment,
the live action footage was given to him.
He drew the lightsabers with a rotoscope,
an animation which was superimposed onto the
footage of the physical lightsaber blade prop.
Shin explained to the people from Lucasfilm
that since a lightsaber is made of light,
the sword should look "a little shaky" like
a fluorescent tube. He suggested inserting
one frame that was much lighter than the others
while printing the film on an optical printer,
making the light seem to vibrate. Shin also
recommended adding a degausser sound on top
of the other sounds for the weapon since the
sound would be reminiscent of a magnetic field.
The whole process took one week, surprising
his company. Lucasfilm showed Shin the finished
product, having followed his suggestions to
use an X-Acto knife to give the lightsaber
a very sharp look, and to have sound accompany
the weapon's movements.
=== Sound ===
The lightsaber sound effect was developed
by sound designer Ben Burtt as a combination
of the hum of idling interlock motors in aged
movie projectors and interference caused by
a television set on a shieldless microphone.
Burtt discovered the latter accidentally as
he was looking for a buzzing, sparking sound
to add to the projector-motor hum.The pitch
changes of lightsaber movement were produced
by playing the basic lightsaber tone on a
loudspeaker and recording it on a moving microphone,
generating Doppler shift to mimic a moving
sound source.
== Depiction ==
Lightsabers were present in the earliest drafts
as mundane laser weapons that were used alongside
laser guns. The introduction of the Force
in a later revision made the Jedi and the
Sith supernaturally skilled; initially they
were only portrayed as swordsmen. The lightsaber
became the Force-user's tool, described in
A New Hope by Obi-Wan Kenobi as "not as clumsy
or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon,
for a more civilized age." The source of a
lightsaber's power is a kyber crystal. These
crystals are also the power source of the
Death Star's superlaser.
=== Types ===
Lightsabers are depicted as hand-built as
part of a Jedi's or Sith's training regimen.
Each lightsaber is unique, though some may
bear resemblance to others, especially if
there is a connection between the builders.
The first film appearance of the dual-bladed
lightsaber (introduced in Tales of the Jedi)
was in The Phantom Menace, wielded by Darth
Maul. The video game The Force Unleashed introduced
two other variants: a lightsaber pike (a lightsaber
with a shorter blade but a long handle, resembling
a spear) and a Tonfa-style lightsaber with
right-angle hilt.
The Star Wars expanded universe adds several
lightsaber types, including short and dual-phase
(adjustable length) weapons. In Star Wars
Rebels, Ezra Bridger's original lightsaber
is a hybrid that features a fully functional
blaster pistol built into the handle. Kylo
Ren, from The Force Awakens, uses a lightsaber
that features two crosshilt blades, giving
it the appearance of a greatsword.
=== Colors ===
Lightsabers depicted in the first two released
films, A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back,
had blades that were colored either blue (for
the Jedi) or red (for the Sith). Luke Skywalker's
new lightsaber in Return of the Jedi was colored
blue during the initial editing of the film,
and appears so in both an early movie trailer
and the official theatrical posters. However,
it was changed to green in the film's final
edit after initial viewings by the filmmakers,
who felt that it would better stand out against
the blue sky of Tatooine in outdoor scenes,
and this color change is also reflected in
the film's re-release posters. Mace Windu's
purple-bladed lightsaber, as first seen in
Attack of the Clones, was requested by the
actor Samuel L. Jackson as a way to make his
character stand out among other Jedi. Jackson's
favorite color is purple, and he frequently
requests that the characters he plays use
an item of that color. The Clone Wars showed
the guardians of the Jedi Temple wielding
yellow-bladed lightsabers, and introduced
the "Darksaber", which uniquely features a
thin white outline around a black blade.
In the storyline, the builder of a lightsaber
chooses a kyber crystal and meditates with
it until the crystal acquires a color. The
color of this crystal becomes the blade's
color when installed into a lightsaber hilt.
In the book Star Wars: Ahsoka and the comic
series Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith,
it is shown that dark side users remove the
crystal from a defeated Jedi's lightsaber
and concentrate force energy on it to break
its connection to the light side, a process
known as "bleeding" to create a red crystal.
The process can also be reversed, as shown
in Ahsoka when the titular character does
so to a pair of crystals taken from an Inquisitor;
she uses them in a pair of white-bladed lightsabers.
A multitude of visible spectrum blade colors
appeared in the Expanded Universe and in other
Star Wars products. The original Kenner figure
of Luke Skywalker in his Tatooine costume
from Star Wars was released with a yellow-bladed
lightsaber. While no lightsaber blade colors
beside blue, green or red appeared in the
films before Attack of the Clones, they have
appeared in several computer games, which
sometimes allow for player-customized colors.
The Knights of the Old Republic video game
series included yellow and silver options,
for example.
=== Choreography ===
The technical lightsaber choreography for
the original Star Wars trilogy was developed
by Hollywood sword-master Bob Anderson. Anderson
personally trained Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker)
and, in The Empire Strikes Back and Return
of the Jedi, performed all the stunts as Darth
Vader during the lightsaber duels wearing
Vader's costume. Anderson's role in the trilogy
was highlighted in the film Reclaiming the
Blade where he shared his experiences as a
fencer developing the lightsaber techniques
for the three original movies.
The lightsaber duels in the Star Wars prequel
trilogy were specifically choreographed by
stunt-coordinator Nick Gillard to be miniature
"stories". For these films, Gillard was the
primary sword instructor for Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon
Jinn), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Ray
Park (Darth Maul) and Hayden Christensen (Anakin
Skywalker / Darth Vader) among other actors.
His goal in choreographing the action for
The Phantom Menace was to create stunts that
flow from the story; "You can't just think,
'I'm a stunt coordinator, I'm going to make
a big stunt happen'," Gillard said. "It's
all about making it tie in nicely with the
film so that you don't notice the stunts."In
writing the prequel trilogy, George Lucas
said he wanted the lightsaber combat to be
"reminiscent of what had been done in the
previous films but also something that was
more energized. We'd seen old men, young boys,
and characters who were half-droid, but we'd
never seen a Jedi in his prime. I wanted to
do that with a fight that was faster and more
dynamic – and we were able to pull that
off."According to Gillard (who would later
go on to perform a cameo role in Revenge of
the Sith), various lightsaber combat styles
were devised for the prequels and intended
to further characterize their practitioners.
I developed different styles for the characters,
and gave each of them a flaw or a bonus. So
with Obi-Wan Kenobi, for instance, he's got
a very business-like style – when he was
younger he could border on the flashy and
might twirl his lightsaber a bit, because
he was taught by Qui-Gon. Qui-Gon was brash,
that rubbed off on Obi-Wan and Obi-Wan then
taught Anakin, who was way too old to learn
anyway... I think the style really worked
well. The Jedi style of fighting is an amalgamation
of all the great swordfighting styles. Melding
them together is the difficult part – to
move from a Kendo style to, say, rapier requires
a complete change in body and feet movement,
and this must look effortless. The style moves
seamlessly between the different disciplines,
but remains technically correct throughout.
For The Phantom Menace, Gillard set out certain
styles and faults for the saber-wielding characters.
He added that the Jedi's use of such "a short-range
weapon" meant "they would have to be very
good at it"; combining a variety of disciplines
from various sword fighting styles to martial
arts "with a touch of tennis and tree chopping",
he created the style seen in the Episode I
lightsaber battles.For The Force Awakens,
director J. J. Abrams decided to approach
the choreography similarly to how it was done
in the original trilogy. Abrams stated that
the prequel trilogy choreography was "increasingly
spectacular and stylised, almost like dance
choreography", but that was not what they
really wanted to go for the new films. He
told Empire magazine, "When you look at Star
Wars and Empire, they are very different lightsaber
battles, but for me they felt more powerful
because they were not quite as slick. I was
hoping to go for something much more primitive,
aggressive and rougher, a throwback to the
kind of heart-stopping lightsaber fights I
remembered being so enthralled by as a kid."
== Cultural impact ==
=== Merchandise ===
Since the release of the first film, replicas
of lightsabers have been a popular piece of
Star Wars merchandise, ranging from inexpensive
plastic toys to the "Force FX" series from
Master Replicas, deluxe replicas which use
LED lighted tubes and sound effects to create
a close audio-visual representation of what
is seen on screen. Disneyland in California
sells lightsaber-themed churros outside its
Star Tours attraction.
=== Attractions ===
The Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple is
a live show where children are selected to
learn the teachings of the Jedi Knights, the
Force, and the basics of Lightsaber combat
to become Padawan learners. The show is present
at the Rebels stage at Disney's Hollywood
Studios and at the Tomorrowland Terrace at
Disneyland.
=== Parodies ===
In the Spaceballs film by Mel Brooks, "the
Schwartz" is a play on "the Force", from Star
Wars. The lightsabers emanating from the Schwartz-rings
held in front of the crotch are phallic symbols.
The cartoon series Futurama features many
lightsaber-style weapons, notably expanding
batons used by police. The batons glow and
"whoosh" with a lightsaber's distinctive hum,
but merely slap victims when used, as if they
are plastic toys. In Jim Butcher's Dresden
Files novel series, medical examiner and Star
Wars fan Waldo Butters wields one of the three
holy Swords of the Cross, which re-fashions
itself into a lightsaber upon accepting him
as its owner.
=== Games ===
With the advent of motion-controlled video
games, the opportunity to physically wield
a lightsaber in a video game became a reality.
In the seventh generation of video game consoles,
there were several Star Wars video games available
on the Wii (Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga,
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Star Wars:
The Clone Wars - Lightsaber Duels, Star Wars:
The Clone Wars - Republic Heroes and Lego
Star Wars III: The Clone Wars) and one on
the Xbox 360 (Kinect Star Wars) that utilized
motion controls to wield a lightsaber through
arm gestures. Unleashed and Duels, both developed
by Krome Studios, have more precise control
of the lightsaber, allowing players to swing
it in any of five different directions (up,
down, left, right or forward) with the Wii
Remote, while Kinect takes advantage of the
eponymous, camera-based motion controller
to grant the player a more fluid, one-to-one
control method of swinging the lightsaber.
Prior to the seventh generation, there were
also a few earlier Star Wars games that used
gesture-based control to simulate lightsaber
combat, such as the two bonus levels of the
arcade game Star Wars Trilogy, where the player
controls Luke Skywalker as he wields his lightsaber
against Boba Fett and Darth Vader in Return
of the Jedi by pushing a joystick in one of
eight directions to follow on-screen offensive
and defensive cues, and a TV game released
around the release of Revenge of the Sith,
titled Star Wars: Saga Edition - Lightsaber
Battle Game, in which the player swings a
lightsaber-shaped controller to deflect blaster
bolts from infantry (such as battle droids
and clone troopers) and duel against characters
from across the saga.
By the time Disney purchased Lucasfilm, new
technological advances made augmented reality
possible, leading to the creation of some
more notable motion-controlled lightsaber
video games that took advantage of that feature.
One of them came in the form of a special
activity mode in the official Star Wars fan
app on iOS and Android in which players use
their smartphone's motion sensors to practice
and master blaster deflection with a training
droid (which appears on the phone's rear camera),
similar to the deflection training exercises
featured aboard the Millennium Falcon in A
New Hope, while progressing through the ranks
of the Jedi or Sith order. Another is in Star
Wars: Jedi Challenges, which works with a
Lenovo Mirage AR headset, a tracking sensor
and a dedicated lightsaber controller that
launched in December 2017. One of the multiple
game modes available in Challenges, which
was jointly developed by Disney and Lenovo,
enables players to confront Star Wars villains
in lightsaber duels, such as Darth Maul and
Kylo Ren.
== See also ==
List of Star Wars weapons
Physics and Star Wars
Photonic molecule
Star Wars: Evolution of the Lightsaber Duel
