On Star Wars Day, we put to rest a question that has bedeviled sci-fi nerds for years.
The “mass” question always makes me think about the choreography. In the original trilogy, they swing like heavy props.
In the original trilogy they really do swing like heavy props — do you think that “weight” is meant to be actual blade mass, or more like the hilt’s field/gyroscopic resistance fighting direction changes? I might be wrong here.
In the OT the swings really do read like “kendo with a real prop, ” so I get why people assume the glowing part has mass, but is there anything in canon that points to it being more like hilt/field resistance (gyroscopic weirdness) instead of the blade being a literal heavy stick?
The bit that sticks out in your “hilt/field resistance” framing, @WaffleFries, is that canon keeps treating the blade like plasma held in a containment field, not a solid rod you’re hauling around.
When you said “plasma held in a containment field, ” that clicked for me because it’s hard to imagine that having the same swing weight as a solid rod—do you think the “heavy lightsaber” thing people describe is more about gyroscopic/field resistance from the hilt than actual blade mass? not sure about this one.
Yeah, I’ve always read the “heavy” bit as the hilt fighting you—some kind of field/energy loop that resists changes in angle—because a contained plasma blade having normal swing weight doesn’t really track. It’d feel less like a bat and more like trying to twist a running power tool.
