Not as clumsy or random as a blaster, lightsabers are incredibly deadly ... sometimes. Other times, getting sliced with a lightsaber is only a little more inconvenient than the world's worst paper cut.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 Not as clumsy or random as a blaster, lightsabers are incredibly deadly.
00:05 Sometimes.
00:06 Other times, getting sliced with a lightsaber is only a little more inconvenient than the
00:09 world's worst paper cut.
00:11 Lightsaber-related injuries have certainly come a long way over the course of the history
00:14 of the Star Wars franchise.
00:16 Back in 1977's Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope, two Mos Eisley patrons learn the hard
00:21 way not to tangle with a Jedi.
00:23 Their brief yet memorable encounter with Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan ended with one of them
00:27 losing an arm and bleeding on the floor.
00:30 Why didn't Obi-Wan's lightsaber instantly cauterize his severed arm?
00:33 Well, the simplest answer is that it's because George Lucas hadn't quite nailed down the
00:37 science of lightsabers just yet.
00:39 Fast forward to the premiere episode of Ahsoka, and you've got the villainous Shin Hati stabbing
00:43 Sabine Wren with her lightsaber, only for Sabine to shake it off a day or so later like
00:47 the champ she is.
00:49 Surprising as the moment was, it's far from unprecedented.
00:51 Indeed, one's ability to survive getting skewered by a lightsaber appears to depend heavily
00:56 on the knees of the plot at any given moment.
00:58 "Tis but a scratch."
00:59 "A scratch?
01:00 Your arm's off!"
01:01 "No it isn't."
01:02 If there's an upside to getting stabbed by a lightsaber rather than a regular sword,
01:06 it's that the heat of the lightsaber instantly seals your wound and prevents you from bleeding
01:09 out.
01:10 It's why Obi-Wan was able to bounce back but a few minutes after Count Dooku graced his
01:14 shoulder and knee during their lightsaber duel in Episode II, Attack of the Clones,
01:18 or how all it took was a nice cozy nap spent soaking in a bacta suit to get Finn back on
01:23 his feet after Kylo Ren sliced him in the back with his lightsaber in Episode VII, The
01:27 Force Awakens.
01:28 Kylo himself was left with a rather long scar after getting hit in the face by the wrong
01:32 side of Rey's lightsaber in the same movie, and then Rey would later stab him dead center
01:37 in his gut during Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker.
01:40 Kylo recovered from that more serious wound after Rey used her newfound Force healing
01:44 powers to repair the physical damage she'd caused.
01:46 Meanwhile, poor Kit Fisto and the other Jedi who accompanied Mace Windu to arrest Palpatine
01:51 in Episode III, Revenge of the Sith, barely had a chance to lift their lightsabers before
01:55 the Sith Lord cut each of them down with a single blow.
01:58 Naturally, where you get hit by a lightsaber makes all the difference in the world.
02:02 When Shin stabbed Sabine in Ahsoka, she failed to pierce any vital organs.
02:06 When Darth Maul blinded Kanan Jarrus on Star Wars Rebels, that injury proved a little more
02:10 permanent — even for the advanced medical world of Star Wars.
02:13 Remember how lightsabers cauterize severed limbs?
02:16 Well, it's a good thing they do, because otherwise a whole lot of Star Wars characters would
02:20 have met their maker much earlier than they did.
02:22 It's not just Sabine and Finn who might have been toast had they been stabbed with knives
02:26 instead of lightsabers.
02:27 Even Anakin Skywalker could have ended up six feet under after Dooku chopped his arm
02:31 off during Attack of the Clones, long before Obi-Wan cut off most of Anakin's remaining
02:35 limbs during Revenge of the Sith.
02:37 Had that happened, Luke would have never been born in the first place, much less live to
02:41 see his own hand hacked off by Anakin/Darth Vader during Episode V, The Empire Strikes
02:46 Back.
02:47 Like father, like son, as they say.
02:49 Of course, no history of Star Wars characters overcoming lightsaber-related injuries would
02:53 be complete if we didn't talk about Darth Maul.
02:56 After literally getting bisected at the waist by Obi-Wan and falling down a reactor pit
03:00 during Episode I, The Phantom Menace, he managed to survive through the dark side of the Force,
03:05 channeling all the hate and rage he could muster into staying alive.
03:09 He would eventually be rescued and equipped with a pair of prosthetic legs, allowing him
03:13 to become a major player in the Clone Wars, and even more or less seize control of the
03:16 planet Mandalore for a period of time.
03:19 So it seems that much like real estate, when it comes to getting stabbed or cut with a
03:22 lightsaber, location is everything.
03:24 -