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just watching the epIII dvd a little.. and I noticed that very clearly in the Grievous 4-arms reveal scene, there is noticable 'kick' when he activates each lightsabre. (58:23-28 on my dvdplayer)

how does this affect what has been worked out so far on the theories of lightsabre operation?

First, we must find out if this "kick" is from the activation itself or some strange motion of grievous alone(who has displayed some ankward motion patterns). The only non-jedi using a lightsaber was Han in EPV.

We don't see a noticeable "kick" in this scene, and I doubt Han being physically stronger than grievous.

It's looks very much like a kickback. It can't be a particularly strong kick, both because the extended and separated arms of grevious can't be tremendously strong, and it seems that his hands simply weren't prepared for the small kickback. Obi-Wan and other Jedi haven't displayed any such "kick", but they tend to have a good, strong grip when they ignite their sabers, too. I would say the same goes for Han. They weren't made for Grevious' use.

It doesn't change one bit though, a gyroscopic motion from the beam has been noted in some materials (ages since I read it... don't ask me where), this alone could account for the weak "kick".

In the scene with Anakin and the younglings, Anakin's arm seem sto twitch a bit when he ignites his saber.

nightmare wrote:It's looks ver much like a kickback. It can't be a particularly strong kick, both because the extended and separated arms of grevious can't be tremendously strong, and it seems that his hands simply weren't prepared for the small kickback. Obi-Wan and other Jedi haven't displayed any such "kick", but they tend to have a good, strong grip when they ignite their sabers, too. I would say the same goes for Han. They weren't made for Grevious' use.

Greivous ignites them, IIRC, when his arms are extended and the sabre is orthogonal to his arm, so the kickback would generate a much larger torque than your usual Jedi's ignition, who has bent arms and thus relatively less torque upon ignition.

As I recall, when one of the jedi in the foreground of the arena scene in Ep2 activates his, there's a kick.

This is a hazy memory, but I think there was a similar effect when Qui-Gon activated his saber at the beginning of the Maul fight.

Plenty of these occasions around, it seems.

Karza wrote:This is a hazy memory, but I think there was a similar effect when Qui-Gon activated his saber at the beginning of the Maul fight.

Plenty of these occasions around, it seems.

In the prequel trilogy atleast.

The mother of all "kicks" is found in ANH whenever Luke ignites his sabre. It is there because of the way they did the lightsabre effect...

In the other cases, perhaps it is not a kick, but a click. They click a button to turn it on and tries to do it in a cool fashion. Vader's and Luke's sabres in RotJ had such buttons, didn't they?

Speaking of Luke and lightsabres, is it just me, or does one of Grievous' sabres look an awful lot like Luke's from RotJ?

Dooey Jo wrote:The mother of all "kicks" is found in ANH whenever Luke ignites his sabre. It is there because of the way they did the lightsabre effect...

In the other cases, perhaps it is not a kick, but a click. They click a button to turn it on and tries to do it in a cool fashion. Vader's and Luke's sabres in RotJ had such buttons, didn't they?

Speaking of Luke and lightsabres, is it just me, or does one of Grievous' sabres look an awful lot like Luke's from RotJ?

Yep. He also has, I think, one of Darth Vader's sabres, except it's chrome instead of black.

Elheru Aran wrote:

Dooey Jo wrote:The mother of all "kicks" is found in ANH whenever Luke ignites his sabre. It is there because of the way they did the lightsabre effect...

In the other cases, perhaps it is not a kick, but a click. They click a button to turn it on and tries to do it in a cool fashion. Vader's and Luke's sabres in RotJ had such buttons, didn't they?

Speaking of Luke and lightsabres, is it just me, or does one of Grievous' sabres look an awful lot like Luke's from RotJ?

Yep. He also has, I think, one of Darth Vader's sabres, except it's chrome instead of black.

Aren't two of them supposed to be identical to Obi-wan's and Anakin's?

Aren't two of them supposed to be identical to Obi-wan's and Anakin's?

Yup, CG error. Apparently, they forgot to remove them from the character model after Obi and Anakin took their weapons back.

^ And here I heard it was a "homage."

Actually, I think Palpatine's sabre is there too. And the Obi-Wan hilt switches colors, literally changing it from an "Obi-Wan" to a "Luke" model.

Surlethe wrote:Greivous ignites them, IIRC, when his arms are extended and the sabre is orthogonal to his arm, so the kickback would generate a much larger torque than your usual Jedi's ignition, who has bent arms and thus relatively less torque upon ignition.

I thought that was self-evident.

nightmare wrote:I thought that was self-evident.

Better have it out where everyone can see it than assume everybody sees it, no?

It could have been purely psychological on Grevious's part. Some leftover species thing.

Or it's just a CG error, you know, switching from handless probs to user probs

Most people have rationalized that Anakin and Obi-Wan were using more generic lightsaber styles, which were mass-produced for those Jedi who might lose them on campaigns.

Surlethe wrote:Better have it out where everyone can see it than assume everybody sees it, no?

I guess so.

Solauren wrote:It could have been purely psychological on Grevious's part. Some leftover species thing.

Or it's just a CG error, you know, switching from handless probs to user probs

Looks nothing like either though.

On the bonus features disc in the OT box set, there is a short featurette about lightsabers during which it is mentioned that Lucas originally viewed the lightsabers as rather heavy and producing a great deal of energy. SO much so that the weapon's weilder would need to keep both hands on the weapon.

Perhaps the noticable kick at activation comes from this older notion...

Doesn't luke's kick when he first turns his on in ANH?
just a little bit for him, though...
I need to get the DVDs for further examination.

Dooey Jo wrote:In the other cases, perhaps it is not a kick, but a click. They click a button to turn it on and tries to do it in a cool fashion. Vader's and Luke's sabres in RotJ had such buttons, didn't they?

It might be worth mentioning that i recall in ROTJ when Luke deactivates his saber (rather than kill Vader), he jerks his arm purposefully as he turns it off, so a psychological effect could be at work.

I did not realize how noticeable it was:



About a 8 degree deflection for the top lightsaber and a 11-12 degree deflection for the bottom lightsaber.

The Jazz Intern wrote:Doesn't luke's kick when he first turns his on in ANH?
just a little bit for him, though...
I need to get the DVDs for further examination.

There's a very noticable frame-jump whenever Luke activates or deactivates his sabre in ANH.