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It was a good call to go with blasters because it just makes sense, non force users are useless with lightsabres. We don't even see many vibroblades or melee weapons anyways, if anything a secondary lightsabre for tight melee situations is ok but no way should it be primary weapon.

Meest wrote:It was a good call to go with blasters because it just makes sense, non force users are useless with lightsabres. We don't even see many vibroblades or melee weapons anyways, if anything a secondary lightsabre for tight melee situations is ok but no way should it be primary weapon.

It was a good call; but was it forced by budget realities or a solely conscious creative decision on Lucas' part or that of his team? He seems to have had many ideas for gadgets and story elements, judging from snippets of early ANH draft scripts, but Lucas seems to have lucked out on the common sense that pulled them all together to make Star Wars tick.

Doing the ANH boarding scene with sabres, choreographing and FX-ing a mass melee lightsabre battle, seems a lot more costly than a brief shootout with FXed blaster bolts. It probably couldn't be done on his 1976 budget. Like S.L Jackson's whimsical decision to use a purple lightsabre, it actually worked out to open deeper creative paths.

Left to his own devices and an unlimited budget, Lucas came up with TPM; again a lot of good ideas, maybe, but unrefined and undefined. There was no push to exceed himself like in ANH or TESB, no late-night ah-has or pressures to leave good-enough alone and move on to the next crisis in production, high on panicked creativity and aided by a staff of near-equals rather than near yes-men.

Lucas says he has a creative vision for his films; no doubt he does, but it keeps changing on him.

Meest wrote:It was a good call to go with blasters because it just makes sense, non force users are useless with lightsabres. We don't even see many vibroblades or melee weapons anyways, if anything a secondary lightsabre for tight melee situations is ok but no way should it be primary weapon.

It was a good call; but was it forced by budget realities or a solely conscious creative decision on Lucas' part or that of his team? He seems to have had many ideas for gadgets and story elements, judging from snippets of early ANH draft scripts, but Lucas seems to have lucked out on the common sense that pulled them all together to make Star Wars tick.

Doing the ANH boarding scene with sabres, choreographing and FX-ing a mass melee lightsabre battle, seems a lot more costly than a brief shootout with FXed blaster bolts. It probably couldn't be done on his 1976 budget. Like S.L Jackson's whimsical decision to use a purple lightsabre, that decision actually worked out to open deeper creative paths.

Left to his own devices and an unlimited budget, Lucas came up with TPM; again a lot of good ideas, maybe, but unrefined and undefined. There was no push to exceed himself like in ANH or TESB, no late-night ah-has or pressures to leave good-enough alone and move on to the next crisis in production, high on panicked creativity and aided by a staff of near-equals rather than near yes-men.

Lucas says he has a creative vision for his films; no doubt he does, but it keeps changing on him.

Um, sorry for the double post; I messed up an edit...

Building all those appliances would have been a nightmare, but painting a bunch of sticks wouldn't have been that difficult. But that's how the techniques changed from movie to movie (or the tale end of ANH).

It was a good call to go with blasters because it just makes sense, non force users are useless with lightsabres.

Nonsense. We've got Greivous now, remember? And Splinter of the Mind's Eye has Leia using a lightsaber with no training (before she was even considered as a "daughter of Skywalker" though I get the sense that in the early days, ANYONE could use the Force with proper training and the right attitude, but lightsabers are just a weapon, even if the Jedi were especially good with them).

Even in the classic trilogy, Luke seems able to handle that lightsaber one handed pretty well. And it isn't long before he's training with the remote (before he ever uses the Force!).

Lightsabres as a cutting tool or sword maybe, again the massless issue makes it dangerous when a vibroblade will suffice. Lightsabres main advantage for force users is the blaster blocking, which non force users can't do and it's better for them to use a blaster. Greivous was an advanced cyborg, and had a blaster for range then sabres for melee.

Force-users aside, a lightsaber is to a blaster as a sword is to a gun. Not useless, but you don't see modern troops carrying swords into battle anymore, do you?

Kurgan wrote:Nonsense. We've got Greivous now, remember? And Splinter of the Mind's Eye has Leia using a lightsaber with no training (before she was even considered as a "daughter of Skywalker" though I get the sense that in the early days, ANYONE could use the Force with proper training and the right attitude, but lightsabers are just a weapon, even if the Jedi were especially good with them).

Even in the classic trilogy, Luke seems able to handle that lightsaber one handed pretty well. And it isn't long before he's training with the remote (before he ever uses the Force!).

To further prove that ordinary troops would not benefit from carrying swords, observe Kurgan's examples of "ordinary" characters using lightsabers:
1) General Grievous, cyborg killing machine
2) Something out from Splinter of the Mind's Eye
3) Luke Skywalker himself

Yes, Luke had no training then, but neither did Anakin when he won the podrace (supposedly impossible for a human to even compete). I think the raw talent of the Skywalkers is obviously shown to manifest even without training.


Without the guidance of the Force, a lightsaber is nothing more than a sword, when blasters are guns!