Jamieson 90 said:
I don't get why people are losing their shit over the guard on the lightsaber. There's a reason real swords have guards, they're there to stop your hand being chopped off, you know like what happened to Anakin, Count Dooku, Luke and Vader? If anything you would have thought they'd have learnt sooner.
It's all about practicality and aesthetic.
All those characters you mentioned lost their hands to swinging strikes to the wrist. The guard shown doesn't protect from that angle. Also, it's more of a danger to the wielder. Remember all those blade locks in the films where one fighter gives a line or two of exposition? With this lighsword that blade lock could end the fight because if it's pushed into the wielder's face at the wrong angle the "guard" will stab him - and at the length shown it would either be fatal or injure him badly enough for his opponent to easily dispatch him. And it wouldn't even protect against an opponent sliding the saber down towards the fingers: the blade emitters for the guard blades are extended enough the opponent's blade would slice through them instead of hitting the guard blades. All around the design is impractical.
Lightsabers were based on eastern weapon martial arts, katanas in particular, and based on what little research I've done, Japanese sword styles revolve around evading your opponent's strikes or deflecting with the sides of the blade (to avoid nicking the sharp edge and ruining the blade). Sure, lightsaber styles have branched out - Dooku's saber revolved around fencing - but all shown styles have had slashing strikes at their core. European sword designs were based around stabbing in order to cut through armor or powerful swings to knock the opponent off-balance. As such, the lightsword shown seems out of place because it's designed to defend against a sword style that isn't used in-universe.