My friend and I were talking about Star Wars and lightsabers and he said that some kind of coil came up when you pushed the button on the saber. I said that a saber was pure energy and there is no kind of coil in it, just a crystal. (I learned this from JK2) He said Obi's saber was going out when he was fighting Vader in ep 4, you can see a metal thing in the middle. I pointed out that in filming the movie, hey do have a metal stick and a hilt but you can't make something invisible but he said, yes, you can. I then pointed out that in ep. 4 and 5, they never showed the part where the saber turns off. They would always hold it below the screen and make the sound.
Then he said when Obi's saber absorbed Dooku's lightning it was the metal thing that did it. I said that he used absorb and when Dooku shocked Anakin, it didn't get absorbed and Luke, when palpatine was shocking him to death. He said that it wasn't in front of him and didn't work like that. I'm only posting this to clear up our argument and find out who is right and who is wrong, so I want everyone's opinion.
Thanks.
lightsabers are pure energy, there is no such thing as a metal coil in the core of a lightsaber.
Obi-Wan's saber in ANH may look like it has something in the middle but this is due to the special effects restrictions of the time.
Regarding obi-wan absorbing lightning with his saber, well apparently the saber did the job, he didn't use 'absorb' like yoda did. however he might have redirected the bolts so they hit his saber, but we have no proof of it. Also luke couldn't absorb the lightning with his saber because he had thorown it away after beating his father.
hope this clears things up for you.
I believe the early props for the original movies were actually metallic sticks, which explains the slow type of fights that they were. Along with Alec Guinness and Prowse in the Vader costume not being able to move around quickly.
It was most likely a fault with the ability to do the visual FX for ANH and TESB that makes your friend think that there was metal up the middle of the sabre. As mentioned above, a sabre is meant to be pure energy. So what Obi-Wan was able to do in AOTC was most likely the built in ability for the sabre hilt (the part they hold) to have built in protection when other energy got into the loop. IE another sabre is energy, so was that force lightning.
I thought the OT saber duels were pretty damn cool, especially for the time.
I believe the early props for the original movies were actually metallic sticks, which explains the slow type of fights that they were. Along with Alec Guinness and Prowse in the Vader costume not being able to move around quickly.
The latter part may be correct. :)
But the former is that they didn't have the metal sticks when they shot it. Someone had forgotten them. :D
So they had to make improvised ones of tinfoil or something, which couldn't resist much blows. :D
Or something like that. ;)
i hope that person got beat up for forgetting them, how stupid can someone get?
It was my understanding that the origianl saber blades which were used for filming the Vader/Ben Duel in ANH were lucite rods covered with a reflective substance similar to the paint used on the type of street signs that illuminate at night when they reflect your headlights.
These rods were fairly fragile (hence the delicate choreography of the duel) but it was hoped that the stage lighting would be sufficient to produce enough glow that it would look right on film.
Sadly the close set where this duel took place limited the lighting coverage and minimized the results of this practical on set effect.
Optical tricks were employed in post production to 'pump up' the glow in the scenes on board the Falcon and at Bens house on Tattoine.
The limited motion tracking of the time did not allow for perfect coverage in the duel however and there is one shot in the movie right before the line " Didn't we just leave this party?" where Alex Guiness points his saber almost exactly at the camera and it seems to wink on and off.
This has bothered me since 1977 and I can't understand why it wasnt corrected in the SE
From ESB on, sabers were always filmed with a metal rod that was later covered with an optical effect.
One notable exception was in EP2 where Anakin used an illuminated rod to throw proper reflections and shadows on his own face in the battle with Dooku.
Ironically though that out of all the things they could fix for the special edition they did forget to fix up the saber effects in ANH, and even forgetting to fix an error of the original where they forgot to color Vader's lightsaber as he walks up to the (closing) blast door after he killed Obi-Wan, you can clearly see the "rod" there. >.> tsk tsk ILM.
Pure energy they are, no metal coil there be:yoda:
What happened in episode 4 and 5, the lightsabers have got skinny!
Originally posted by Ion
Pure energy they are, no metal coil there be:yoda:
No. only the cortosis (sp?) crystals.
Originally posted by InitialD
What happened in episode 4 and 5, the lightsabers have got skinny!
Because for different episoides uses different blades. :p