Cuz presumably there's something about light sabres that make them difficult to mass produce. Vader thought it was impressive that Luke managed to get his grubby mitts on a new one in 6, and immediately concluded he had to have built it himself instead of getting it at the corner store.
In-universe, lightsaber construction requires the use of various resonant crystals to generate the blade. Most of the crystals used by the Jedi were natural, while Sith used synthetic crystals. The crystals have to be imbued with the Force, requiring the Jedi to meditate over the crystal for several days before it could be usable. Therefore, mass production of lightsaber-based weaponry would be inefficient at best. With regards to Luke's saber in Ep6, that was somewhat explained in the Shadows of the Empire book - he used a furnace he found in Ben's belongings to generate a new synthetic crystal, and then used that to build his new saber.
Why don't really long light sabers that turn on and off really fast come out of the front of the star fighters? Why use crappy energy blast weapons?
Length of the blade would be dependent on the size of the crystal, the emitter, and the power source used to power the saber. I would assume that in order to produce a beam that would be able to hit in ship-to-ship combat you would need a crystal so immense it would be impractical to create one. And yeah, I know, it's space fantasy, so why not, right? Who knows. I'm sure they'd make up reasons, like why the Wookiees don't use their claws in hand-to-hand combat.
It looks like part of Darth Mauls double-ended saber.
Crystals in the light sabers is no longer canon. This is the awesome thing about the new movies doing away with extended universe stuff! We can now speculate again! Yay! Now, if only the prequels were uncanonized, we'd be able to do some real speculation on Anakin's back story again.
Au Contraire. Disney's announcement included the cartoon Clone Wars as part of the new canon, and there is an episode where young jedi go and find crystals for their lightsabers and a lot of implication that specific crystals are fated for specific jedi/sith.
Another response to the people who are mad about the black Stormtrooper: Who says it's even a Stormtrooper at all? The only time in the original movies that we ever saw someone wearing a Stormtrooper uniform without the mask, it was Luke and Han in disguise. I'd say there's a pretty good chance that the guy in the trailer is just 'borrowing' that uniform. Maybe he's a Calrissian? Along those same lines, I'd bet a good deal of money that the girl on the speeder bike is a Skywalker.
And if we go by the rules set forth in the prequels, there were only supposed to be two Sith Lords at a time. Since they both died at the same time, any new Sith that we see would have to be self-trained, and perhaps had to fumble through the art of lightsaber building. So it doesn't even need to be an old model saber, just a patchwork one built by an amateur.
I'd bet the girl on the speeder is a Skywalker as well. Mara Jade Skywalker, to be precise. Yeah, the book canon is mostly tossed out, but they're definitely not tossing everything. They're going to keep a lot of book shit. Too easy to cherry pick from it, too much work not to.
I'm kind of annoyed by the new lightsaber. It looks cool but it also just looks like a good way to stab yourself in the leg.
If you're rolling with a weapon like that, it's not like you just grabbed it off a rack and went a-murdering, you've trained and practiced. You know what you're doing, and frankly, if you're damaging yourself with your own sword, you need to put down the sharp things and pick up something more your speed, like a slice of toast. As long as it's not cut into triangles, because then it has points.
And to head the people off at the people who say "aw, but there's no such thing as a pointed/bladed crossguard", yes, there is. You see them on some German broadswords, they're used for mordhau or mordschlag, which is basically taking your sword, turning it about, and battering the shit out of someone in armor with the hilt. The pointed/bladed cross-guards are to do damage through mail and gaps in the armor.
Technically EU was C-canon (one step below Television-Canon, two steps below George-Canon) and part of the official Star Wars universe until Disney gave all the Star Wars geeks the finger and wiped it out. Yes, technically it doesn't count now, but it did count before. Up until that point, Cortosis-weave armor and weapons could have potentially been used to short out lightsaber blades, Mandalorian iron was basically lightsaber-proof, and Yuuzhan Vong Amphistaffs couldn't be cut by 'sabers (among other lightsaber-resistant items).
Phrik is featured in the films - it's what the weapons that Grevious's personal guard were made of, and what the Emperor's lightsaber hilt was made of.
That out of the way, the whole "The EU Canon is thrown out" is a misunderstanding of something that Leland Chee said - He said they're getting rid of the whole canon hierarchy, not that they're getting rid of all the EU stuff. Which makes sense, considering there's six levels of canon that all have different levels of authority about different things, and then further stories of different canon levels that then incorporate different levels of canon in previous information, and then other stories that also contradict those that are equally canon, etc, etc, not to mention the situations where some levels will trump others despite not normally doing so.
Now, it's just canon, or not Canon. No more hierarchy - which means that under unified canon, all that EU stuff would be just as canon as the films. It's a tighter control to make a consistent universe, unlike the undeniable mess of years past.
The EU is not being thrown out. Need Proof? Go watch Star Wars: Rebels. The Inquisitor, the ISB, Sinear Fleet Systems, Sabine Wren as a Mandalorian and basically everything about the Mandalorians including the markings on her armor, Corellian Engineering Corporation(who made the ship), the idea of Force-sensitives without being full Jedi/padawans or strong enough to be Jedi, Hera Syndulla's home planet and culture, so on - all of which are lifted directly from the EU.
Yeah from what I've heard its not that EU is overwritten or suddenly non-canon, its just that they didn't want to have to write the movies to fit all of the EU, so if anything conflicts now, the new movies will automatically win.
That does look better. I had thought about the V shaped guard. Really even just having the guard's emitters deeper into the handle would make it stronger, assuming the handle isn't made of lightsaber resistant material. I do like that idea of having the guard suddenly extend out as a full blade during a block to stab the other guy.
In the force unleashed, your blade can be changed to look like that by using unstable synthetic crystals. Maybe this lightsaber was created in a hurry without all of the necessary meditations and whatnot and they were just whatever shitty parts he could get his hands on.
I would pay ready money for an Admiral Thrawn movie.
One thing that makes me a little sad about the EU-death is that KOTOR (and all the stuff around that time) now never happened. I miss HK-47.
Funny thing is, that when they declared that stuff non-canon or maybe non-canon, my installation of Kotor 2 didn't go anywhere from my computer. Nor did the saves disappear, nor HK-47 from the game.
The only thing you really have to worry about being non-canon is anything happening around the same time period as the new movies. They have people working to make sure all the new EU stuff doesn't conflict with each other or the existing EU. Besides, KOTOR happened so long ago that I doubt there would be much to conflict with it.
I'd bet the girl on the speeder is a Skywalker as well. Mara Jade Skywalker, to be precise. Yeah, the book canon is mostly tossed out, but they're definitely not tossing everything. They're going to keep a lot of book shit. Too easy to cherry pick from it, too much work not to.
God I hope so. While I love me some Princess Leia (The Courtship of Princess Leia is still one of my favourite EU books) I think Mara Jade is my favourite character from what used to be the entire Star Wars canon.
I'm in the weird position where a startling number of my friends have never seen Star Wars. I think I'm going to try and organise watching them as a group spread out over x amount of time. I struggle with what to do about the prequels/the viewing order in general. I've come across this blog post a few times in the last year, and I'm thinking it might be the winner. His suggested order is IV, V, II, III, VI so as to preserve the 'big reveals'. Hopefully I'll be able to get them hooked enough to then be able to do a big group outing to see the new one. I think pretty much however the movie turns out, it'll be more fun in a group.
I'm not heavily into lightsabre lore, but I do hope the theory that its an older design is true just because I think that's nifty.
Comments
With regards to Luke's saber in Ep6, that was somewhat explained in the Shadows of the Empire book - he used a furnace he found in Ben's belongings to generate a new synthetic crystal, and then used that to build his new saber. Length of the blade would be dependent on the size of the crystal, the emitter, and the power source used to power the saber. I would assume that in order to produce a beam that would be able to hit in ship-to-ship combat you would need a crystal so immense it would be impractical to create one. And yeah, I know, it's space fantasy, so why not, right? Who knows. I'm sure they'd make up reasons, like why the Wookiees don't use their claws in hand-to-hand combat.
Man, that weapon mounted on the side sure does look a lot like a lightsaber hilt...
Crystals in the light sabers is no longer canon. This is the awesome thing about the new movies doing away with extended universe stuff! We can now speculate again! Yay! Now, if only the prequels were uncanonized, we'd be able to do some real speculation on Anakin's back story again.
Okay, not quite.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Force_pike
And if we go by the rules set forth in the prequels, there were only supposed to be two Sith Lords at a time. Since they both died at the same time, any new Sith that we see would have to be self-trained, and perhaps had to fumble through the art of lightsaber building. So it doesn't even need to be an old model saber, just a patchwork one built by an amateur.
Oh please Admiral Thrawn, please please please.
And to head the people off at the people who say "aw, but there's no such thing as a pointed/bladed crossguard", yes, there is. You see them on some German broadswords, they're used for mordhau or mordschlag, which is basically taking your sword, turning it about, and battering the shit out of someone in armor with the hilt. The pointed/bladed cross-guards are to do damage through mail and gaps in the armor. Phrik is featured in the films - it's what the weapons that Grevious's personal guard were made of, and what the Emperor's lightsaber hilt was made of.
That out of the way, the whole "The EU Canon is thrown out" is a misunderstanding of something that Leland Chee said - He said they're getting rid of the whole canon hierarchy, not that they're getting rid of all the EU stuff. Which makes sense, considering there's six levels of canon that all have different levels of authority about different things, and then further stories of different canon levels that then incorporate different levels of canon in previous information, and then other stories that also contradict those that are equally canon, etc, etc, not to mention the situations where some levels will trump others despite not normally doing so.
Now, it's just canon, or not Canon. No more hierarchy - which means that under unified canon, all that EU stuff would be just as canon as the films. It's a tighter control to make a consistent universe, unlike the undeniable mess of years past.
The EU is not being thrown out. Need Proof? Go watch Star Wars: Rebels. The Inquisitor, the ISB, Sinear Fleet Systems, Sabine Wren as a Mandalorian and basically everything about the Mandalorians including the markings on her armor, Corellian Engineering Corporation(who made the ship), the idea of Force-sensitives without being full Jedi/padawans or strong enough to be Jedi, Hera Syndulla's home planet and culture, so on - all of which are lifted directly from the EU.
http://www.theverge.com/tldr/2014/11/28/7303233/please-hire-me-jj
In the force unleashed, your blade can be changed to look like that by using unstable synthetic crystals. Maybe this lightsaber was created in a hurry without all of the necessary meditations and whatnot and they were just whatever shitty parts he could get his hands on.
Also, it's a space laser sword wielded by an evil wizard/knight.
One thing that makes me a little sad about the EU-death is that KOTOR (and all the stuff around that time) now never happened. I miss HK-47.
So I don't see a single reason to be sad.
I'm in the weird position where a startling number of my friends have never seen Star Wars. I think I'm going to try and organise watching them as a group spread out over x amount of time. I struggle with what to do about the prequels/the viewing order in general. I've come across this blog post a few times in the last year, and I'm thinking it might be the winner. His suggested order is IV, V, II, III, VI so as to preserve the 'big reveals'. Hopefully I'll be able to get them hooked enough to then be able to do a big group outing to see the new one. I think pretty much however the movie turns out, it'll be more fun in a group.
I'm not heavily into lightsabre lore, but I do hope the theory that its an older design is true just because I think that's nifty.