Underwater lightsabres?

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-11-13 08:33pm

From tonight's Clone Wars short...

What the hell is this? I thought they were extinguished under water.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-11-13 08:34pm

Since when?

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-11-13 08:43pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Since when?

Jedi Outcast, I believe there was a scene in the TPM comic where Obi-Wan's lightsabre goes out underwater.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2003-11-13 08:43pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Since when?

I think it has to do with a deleted scene from The Phantom Menace, but I guess that deleted scenes aren't canon, at least not in this case.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-11-13 08:44pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Since when?
I think it has to do with a deleted scene from The Phantom Menace, but I guess that deleted scenes aren't canon, at least not in this case.

Since that specific scene never surfaced, it would certainly not be canon.

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2003-11-13 08:52pm

Most sabres go off underwater, but they can be insulated so that they work underwater.

In some of the books, they were used underwater (VotF, I think was one), and EP III SPOILER: Obi-Wan will fight droids in an underwater tank.

zombie84 · Post by **zombie84** » 2003-11-13 08:55pm

The scene where Ob1's saber shorts out was deleted. In Episode II we see it functioning fine during a heavy rainstorm. So i guess it can withstand water, up to a point at least. Underwater use isnt that much of a stretch i guess.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2003-11-13 08:58pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:
Drooling Iguana wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Since when?
I think it has to do with a deleted scene from The Phantom Menace, but I guess that deleted scenes aren't canon, at least not in this case.
Since that specific scene never surfaced, it would certainly not be canon.

Was it in the novelization?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-11-13 09:01pm

It might have been, but what I meant was that since the scene was never released, it is not film level canon.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2003-11-13 09:24pm

Lightsabers have been known to go out underwater? I never heard this before. In fact, in one of the young Jedi Knights books, Crisis at Crystal Reef, I think, some veteran Calamarian Jedi said that a lightsaber would work underwater as long as it was "built properly." I guess that those books aren't very high on the cannon scale, though. In either case, the Jedi in tonight's short was clearly capable of breathing underwater and would've naturally built his lightsaber to be able to function wherever he can.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2003-11-13 09:24pm

I'd imagine that it was something in Obi-wan's original design that failed when it was imersed, as there are notable other sequences where lightsabres function underwater.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2003-11-13 09:44pm

Luke Skywalker's first lightsaber functioned underwater in Spliner of the Mind's Eye.

It just made bubbles.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2003-11-13 10:20pm

CaptainChewbacca wrote:Luke Skywalker's first lightsaber functioned underwater in Spliner of the Mind's Eye.

It just made bubbles.

Wasn't SotME written before the EU got started? Is it considered canon? I haven't read it, but I've heard that it contains some parts that directly contradict episodes V and VI. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

zombie84 · Post by **zombie84** » 2003-11-13 10:45pm

well, yes and no. It was written as an official sequel to ANH that was supposed to be filmed as a low budget movie (similar to ANH) but when ANH became a box office hit it was ignored and ESB was developed.

It contains the Kaibor Crystal (not sure on the spelling, its spelt different everytime it surfaces), a crystal which has the ability to enhance ones force abilities. Luke and Leia crash on a planet and find it and then Vader returns to seek out the crystal, ending with Leia battling Vader in a lightsaber duel (

). I'm not sure how its treated in the EU but its doesnt really contradict things too badly other than the presence of the crystal itself, which was one of Lucas' ideas for the original films from draft one.

Anyway like i said, OB1 uses it in the rain in EPII so it doesnt seem to be a problem. Perhaps that is why the EPI scene was deleted--to ensure continuity.

Cal Wright · Post by **Cal Wright** » 2003-11-13 11:39pm

Ep I novel has Obi Wan's sabre shorting out due to it not being off. However, in Splinter of the Mind's Eye and countless other books, they work under water.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-11-14 12:30am

These are blades that can vaporize heat with mechanisms that have such fine control over the massive thermal excesses that they can melt steel on touch without the wielder so much as getting a tan. And we're surprised that they work under water?

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2003-11-14 12:37am

Plus Kit Fisto's a member of an aquatic species, I imagine he'd rig up his lightsaber to work underwater.

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2003-11-14 01:30am

Kit's sabre also looks quite different. Might be due to the water, though.

Edit: Accordiing to the art director Paul Rudish on Hyperspace, Kit's sabre has 2 crystals and has some gadget constantly turning the sabre on and off.

CaptainChewbacca · Post by **CaptainChewbacca** » 2003-11-14 01:50am

zombie84 wrote:well, yes and no. It was written as an official sequel to ANH that was supposed to be filmed as a low budget movie (similar to ANH) but when ANH became a box office hit it was ignored and ESB was developed.

It contains the Kaibor Crystal (not sure on the spelling, its spelt different everytime it surfaces), a crystal which has the ability to enhance ones force abilities. Luke and Leia crash on a planet and find it and then Vader returns to seek out the crystal, ending with Leia battling Vader in a lightsaber duel ( ). I'm not sure how its treated in the EU but its doesnt really contradict things too badly other than the presence of the crystal itself, which was one of Lucas' ideas for the original films from draft one.

Its Kaiburr crystal.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-11-14 11:05am

What YT300000 said.

It seems like lightsabres vary much since they're individually made by each Jedi - the Sith's lightsabres have red blades because their composition differs from those used by most Jedi.

On the other hand, I don't really know how lightsabres are supposed to function so I can't figure out a way you could modify a lightsabre to function underwater. All I know is that it's possible.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-11-14 11:11am

Durandal wrote:These are blades that can vaporize heat with mechanisms that have such fine control over the massive thermal excesses that they can melt steel on touch without the wielder so much as getting a tan. And we're surprised that they work under water?

Lightsabre blades actually don't produce any heat at all. They cut by stripping electrons from the objects they are cutting. Any heat produced is caused by the atomic/molecular (one of those two) vibration of the material itself as it's being cut.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-11-14 11:13am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Lightsabre blades actually don't produce any heat at all. They cut by stripping electrons from the objects they are cutting. Any heat produced is caused by the atomic/molecular (one of those two) vibration of the material itself as it's being cut.

Source?

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-11-14 11:23am

Robert Brown's old Lightsabre page. It was part of the most likely theory regarding their operation. Two advantages are that it makes sense and that it's not contradicted by anything, IIRC.

Wild Karrde · Post by **Wild Karrde** » 2003-11-14 12:56pm

The Star Wars What's What book for Ep.I states "Many lightsabers from this era lack flashback waterseals and can be shorted out if submerged while the blade is ignited."

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2003-11-14 12:59pm

zombie84 wrote:The scene where Ob1's saber shorts out was deleted. In Episode II we see it functioning fine during a heavy rainstorm. So i guess it can withstand water, up to a point at least. Underwater use isnt that much of a stretch i guess.

However, it DID appear in the canon novelization. Obi's saber was evidently not properly shielded against water. It must have been for episode II, when he used it in the rain against Jango Fett.