Watch Star Wars Episode VII's First Official Trailer Right Here

[Falling_v1legacy]

@Aiddon

What people are looking for when they complain about the non-crossguard laser-broadsword is not realism in the conventional sense so much as internal consistency. In-universe it has been established that lightsaber cuts through pretty much anything- even blast doors will eventually melt, though it will take a long time. So using Star Wars' own rules, there seems no advantage, but a very great liability to stick a bunch of lightdaggers on the hilt of your sword. (But still have the actual crossguard that attaches to the blade vulnerable to another lightsaber if the blades ever lock.)

To pull from Tolkien

...makes a Secondary world which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is "true": it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed.

I am all for entering a world that has all sorts of crazy rules. But those rules ought not contradict each other, or else they ought to have a very good reason for the exception, or the art of building a consistent Secondary World has failed.

And furthermore, if it is simply supposed to be Rule of Cool, for me it fails on that front as well, but maybe for others it does not.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

For all those who don't think a longsword lightsaber would be practical.

The vanilla lightsaber by itself is impractical for normal people to use and is actually stated repeatedly in Star Wars mythos. So, having said that, having a crossguard is very useful to a jedi/sith for all the reasons having a crossguard on a normal plain jane longsword is useful. No, they won't be cutting their hands and fingers off because if they did, they wouldn't be force users and, as such, shouldn't be anywhere near lightsaber combat. So there you go.

 

[silver wolf009]

For those of you complaining about the LightSword (As I think it should be called), just remember...

Spoiler: There have been other lightsabers that looked cool at first, until you realized how dangerously impractical they are.

Such as the Light Whip

And the Light Tonfa

Well, in defense of the Lightwhip, the idea is it's supposed to stupidly dangerous that only a few specialized masters can use that the pool of people who would know how to counter it would be incredibly small. Only an insanely well trained fool would use one, and that well trained fool would come to rule the fight. The light tonfa are kind of stupid though.

Also, there has already been a broadsword lightsaber; it was a well disguised double bladed lightsaber used by Warb Null:

Spoiler

Oh wait, no there wasn't, because this isn't canon anymore.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

I saw a picture somewhere that put forth that the blades represent the trilogies.

Vader's lone blade as the first trilogy.

Maul's double blades as the second trilogy.

This new saber's 3 blades for the third trilogy.

Symbolism.

 

[Metalrocks]

dont understand the hate for the lightsaber. only because it doenst look exactly as the once we saw in the previous movies? it does give a certain medieval stile to it and thats all fine by me. maybe he has a use for it as well. like maybe a used as a hidden blade without revealing the entire sword for everyone to see. or just to fight dirtier like a quick stab to the throat instead swinging the entire sword.

 

[Travis Fischer]

For all those who don't think a longsword lightsaber would be practical.

The vanilla lightsaber by itself is impractical for normal people to use and is actually stated repeatedly in Star Wars mythos. So, having said that, having a crossguard is very useful to a jedi/sith for all the reasons having a crossguard on a normal plain jane longsword is useful. No, they won't be cutting their hands and fingers off because if they did, they wouldn't be force users and, as such, shouldn't be anywhere near lightsaber combat. So there you go.

The danger of cutting your own hands off is only half the problem.

The other half is... look at it this way. On a normal sword, there is a good reason to have a crossguard. But imagine if the middle section of the cross guard on the metal sword was instead made of butter. How useful would you imagine that cross guard would be in stopping a metal blade?

That's about how effective those protrusions would be in stopping a lightsaber.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

It looks interesting, and they can't really go anywhere but up from here due to the prequel series.

I'm not sure. That lightsaber broadsword made me absolutely cringe. It's quite possible to do worse than the prequel series.

unless the strategy using that broadsword directly involves those two side blades, I'm with you. I audibly 'ugh-d' when I saw that, but luke I said, if they are a natural part of the swordplay with that weapon, I can excuse it. I can already see a lifhtsaber duel where those side sabers are used defensively to block a strong, downward swing.

 

[Extragorey]

Indeed, the Light-Staff used by that one dude in Episode I was not only impractical, but insanely dangerous. Virtually all forms of staff fighting require the wielder to move their hands actively up and down the staff as they strike and block. This allows for a much wider variety of strikes and prevents the hands themselves from being targeted by the opponent. That being said, this light-sword's guard looks like an even better way to kill yourself. . .

Of course, we're talking about Jedi/Sith here, who have enhanced reflexes and pretty much a sixth sense. And given we know nothing about how this new lightsaber works, it could well be used as a standard lightsaber most of the time until the wielder is face-to-face with his opponent, their sabers locked between them, and then TZZZZZ... turn on one side of the hilt and you've won.

 

[Brian Tams]

Oh my God, but that sucked. I wasn't expecting much fro J.J. Lost Abrams, but this is even worse than I expected! Spaceships flying less than ten feet from the ground? Why? What happened to outer space? How much did they pay to have the original cast return? Not one in the trailer, really?

What's wrong with X-wings flying around somewhere other than space? Like, if there's a base that needs to be taken out, and x-wings are the only vehicles that can do the job, then what's wrong with having them do it?

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I don't care what anybody says, that broad-lightsaber sokks awesome to me.
And that shot of the X-wings flying across the water, ah.
I'm actually pretty excited, and I'm a pretty passive Star Wars fan.

 

[kael013]

Regardless of style I'll take a sword with some hand protection over a sword with none whatsoever any day of the week. Just like I'd always pick a sword that had the longer reach as it's a massive advantage. The same rules apply to lightsabers.

I would too, but if we're gonna get super Star Wars nerdy they could have just pulled cortosis from the old EU. It's a metal that's resistant to lightsaber blades; hand protection without the potential self-stabbing. Though it wouldn't have looked as impressive.

[quote/]Maintaining a blade lock is a moronic thing to do, having a chat with your opponent whilst you're doing it even more so. Anyone who knows anything about swords will tell you that leverage is one of the most important aspects; if your blade locks with your opponent's then you slide your own blade either upwards or downwards until you have the leverage whereupon you push their blade to the side allowing you to attack them. Either you do that or they beat you to it, both of you don't just stand there. So saying the blades would get in the way of blade locks or would make them more dangerous is redundant because you wouldn't maintain a blade lock anyway.[/quote]

Yet blade locks are a staple of the series' lightsaber fights. Hell, the first lightsaber fight in the series, Darth Vader vs. Obi-Wan in [i/]A New Hope[/i] is [b/]nothing but[/b] blade locks. Only for Episode 1 they were just part of the choreography with no bantering at all; for the rest it's about a 50/50 split between silence and talking.

Honestly though, at this point we're arguing about realistic sword fighting in a universe with visible laser swords, people who can shoot lightning from their hands, and spaceships that can surpass lightspeed several times over. All I've been saying is out of all the options they could have gone with they chose the flashier, but ultimately least practical one.

EDIT

For those of you complaining about the LightSword (As I think it should be called), just remember...

Spoiler: There have been other lightsabers that looked cool at first, until you realized how dangerously impractical they are.

Such as the Light Whip

And the Light Tonfa

This is amazing. Thank you internet (this is mostly directed at the Youtube comments section) I am laughing so hard right now. All these people complaining about Disney "ruining" lightsaber lore and they don't know it was already in the canon.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Crossguard_lightsaber

Again thank you internet your stupidity entertains me.

I love how people are bringing up all the stupid lightsaber designs from the old EU [i/]that Disney threw away[/i] as if they were some sort of justification. Old stupid designs don't excuse new stupid designs.

Also the old crossguard saber design looked a hell of a lot more practical than this one: it's crossguard was angled away from the user.

Now can we stop talking about the saber and focus on the soccer droid? What was up with that useless thing?

 

[Dark Knifer]

I dunno why everyone cares so much about the lightsaber when the original trilogy had the bad evil space emperor floating around in a death star and he shot lighting. My suspense of disbelief is already suspended from that point one.

Plus it looks damn cool.

I think this has a lot of potential but I have no idea if it will be any good at this point.

 

[Ftaghn To You Too]

Looks a lot like the crossguard isn't a crossguard. They look more like jets, and the blade itself is shaky as all hell. It looks more like a badly built saber with jets designed to vent gas or energy rather than a crossguard.

 

[GabeZhul]

Indeed, the Light-Staff used by that one dude in Episode I was not only impractical, but insanely dangerous. Virtually all forms of staff fighting require the wielder to move their hands actively up and down the staff as they strike and block. This allows for a much wider variety of strikes and prevents the hands themselves from being targeted by the opponent. That being said, this light-sword's guard looks like an even better way to kill yourself. . .

To be fair, having a guard on a lightsaber would make sense for the same reason real swords have guards: to stop your opponent from sliding his blade down yours and chopping your fingers off (or your arm, in this case). The problem is, well, those cross-guards in the trailer would do anything except that, since they don't start right from the base of the blade and thus can be cut all the same. It looks unique, sorta, but aside of that it's just pointless flair.

As for the rest of the teaser, I have to echo the ones speaking before me: It looks cheap. Maybe because they haven't put all the post-processing layers on them, but everything feels too sharp and clean, even that speeder on tatooine. It's the prequels' aesthetics all over again...

 

[GabeZhul]

I'm one of the few who thinks that Claymore-like Lightsaber is freaken awesome.
I mean, would you feel safe using a blade with no hilts than one which has hilts?

Because if your saber slides against your foe's, a lot of the times- it'll probably dash across your fingers.
So a lightsaber with hilts is safer, and cooler looking (I admit, not sure why the hilts are sabers themselves but it's still radical to see).

As for the trailer, it looks promising. I'm still far more excited in seeing Jurassic World.

As I said just above you, while the idea of crossguard for a lighstaber is a logical one, the ones in the trailer simply cannot actually be used as a crossguard because if someone slides another saber down them they would simply cut through the emitters and cleave off the hand of the wielder anyway. It's a nice aesthetic thing, but it is useless as a crossguard unless your opponent is polite enough to only hit the saber-parts.

 

[Excludos]

Awesome. "First official trailer", and then get people to complain it doesn't show anything. Of course it doesn't, its not trailer. its a TEASER. Its there to remind everyone that they're still working on it. A real trailer will come along as they get closer to release.

 

[MorganL4]

Question: Am I the ONLY ONE who is pissed off at the lightsaber hand guard? I mean seriously! The hand guard was there to make sure your fingers didn't get lopped off while dueling, if you make it out of lasers you and probably going to burn off your OWN fingers..... For crying out loud!!! Did the people making this actively spend 0 time researching ACTUAL sword fighting? It's not cool just because it's never been done JJ.... It is just dumb.

 

[Skeleon]

Huh. Okay, here are some of my thoughts:
- A stormtrooper with his helmet off? Will we have stormtrooper protagonists? I'd like to see that. Or is that just a rebel in stormtrooper armour? This has potential, I always wanted more characterization of the regular "bad guys" in Star Wars movies. Like in that A New Hope scene where two stormtroopers talk about a new type of glider or something while Obi-Wan disables the tractor beam on the Death Star. Of course, this dude might also just be a guy who starts out as a stormtrooper but then joins the rebels or something.
- A rolling droid? Stupid. At least the rolling droids of the Trade Federation looked kind of menacing when standing up/ready to fire. Yeah, those were kind of cool, actually. Then again, this robot will probably be more of a comedic foil like R2D2. Still stupid, though.
- Okay, that lightsabre with the little lightsabre crossguard on the handle actually makes sense (assuming you can handle it without slicing your own wrists off) seeing as the only thing that can withstand a lightsabre seems to be another lightsabre, but it still looks kind of, nay, very dumb and impractical/suicidal.[footnote]Which reminds me, why don't they use lightsabre technology for almost anything else? Melee robots with lightsabre claws to slice enemies, lightsabres as projectiles that will not only penetrate enemy installations but sink through them, lightsabre fences that function as barricades against advancing armies, lightsabre grenade lobbers (with a "star" of lightsabres that activates upon launch) and so on and so on. This technology is so powerful, I'd use it as much as possible if I was designing weaponry.[/footnote]
- Millenium Falcon? I guess that had to be there for fan service. I have to admit I like the other kind of fan service better.
Overall? A mixed impression from the trailer. Let's see what else they'll show us.

 

[elvor0]

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.

Only a real swords guard isn't made of LASERS. Seriously, that's the complaint, because twisting your hand in any slightly wrong direction, will chop your /own/ hand off. Or y'know, just turning it on while the guards are facing your wrist. Not to mention it wouldn't actually stop a lightsaber blade, because it would just cut through the projectors.

Plus Luke and Vader lost their hands from over head swings perpendicular to the target. A laser guard wouldn't have made any difference, and very likely would speeded up the loss of their limbs given some of the positions they get into in those fights.

 

[Alma Mare]

This franchise gets more and more stupid by the day. Look forward to seeing light-greathammers in Ep.8 and light-swiss-army-knifes in 9.