Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope - Hey Light Sabers Can't Go Through Lightsabers
At the scene when Vader strikes down Obi Wan look at there light Sabers. When Vader strikes obi wan, his Light saber goes THROUGH Obi Wans light saber. I just thought they couldnt do that.
Well, there could be a couple reasons for this. Darth could have knicked the top of the lightsabre and damaged it, turning it off. Also, lightsabres have a kind of 'deadman's switch' that turns them off when they leave the user's hand (like in Empire when Darth and Luke are fighting in the freezing room and Darth knocks Luke's sabre away), so the lightsabre might have just gotten pushed slightly and switched off as soon as Obi-Wan...disintegrated? Vanished? I think this got mentioned in the book.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
MattC writes:
If your theory about a 'deadman's switch' is true then how come in Return Of The Jedi in the scene where Vader & Luke are fighting at the end of the movie vader's light sabre does not switch off when he throws it at Luke ?
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Psyche writes:
Simple. Vader used his force powers to hold the switch down. Sounds like a cheat-out answer, but entirely possible. After all, he also used his powers to aim the lightsaber and control exactly where and when it hit.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
I Am Darth Maul writes:
Also, some lightsabers also have what's like a reverse firearm safety that keeps the weapon on until the switch is moved off again.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Thomas writes:
Actually, Siths and Jedis have this force called Force Sabre Throw, what happens is they use the force and throw there sabre, the sabre stays on and when it has finished moving it is switched off and 'force pulled' back to the 'owner'
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
asylrecht writes:
Light Sabers have a locking switch that allows the saber to stay on when thrown. The 'dead man's switch' is right. When the saber leaves the jedi or sith's hand it turns off automaticly
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Spazmo writes:
Um... I don't think it has anything to do with the mechanics of a lightsaber... or nicking the top... or "dead-man-switches". I think it was just a little mistake that the editing guys missed.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Red 5, standing by writes:
The answer to both questions: Some lightsabers are turned on by a button that has to be held, some by a sliding rheostat. Either way, a lightsaber can be turned on and off quickly or slowly, and with the slider, the saber would stay on when dropped. Therefore, Obi Wan's saber turned off when he released the button, a fraction of a second before Vader's saber passed through Kenobi's cloak.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Brendon writes:
Foget dead-man switches and other methods for lightsabre activation and deactivation - the slip-up is not correct! If you watch this scene carefully, when Vader cuts through Kenobis cloak, his lightsabre blade hits Obi-Wans and STOPS! It doesn't pass through it at all (It makes the right noise of sabres clashing and jolts the other blade a bit, and from follow though it would have swung by, but the other blade stops it)
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Brandon Amaro writes:
If you look closely, Vader's light saber pushes Obi-Won's out of the way. This is not a mistake at all.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Gungan Din writes:
Well, it depends whether the sabre in question is a regular lightsabre or a FORCE sabre. Regulars have a button that must be pressed, but one must use the Force to hold the button down while throwing it. Force sabres are powered directly by the Force. Luke definitely had a regular one, as evidenced by Han's ability to use it.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
normaster writes:
Come on, all this talk about force switches and stuff... For crying out loud, you can base your Star Wars doctrine from Super Return of the Jedi for Nintendo! I'd add my opinion on what really happened, but it would be lost on all the worthless BS SW dogmas. Like it all matters!
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Insomniac6700 writes:
it COULDNT be a slip up, because, when they are filming, the lightsabers are metal rods (they are later turned into the white cores with the different coloured glows) so it MUST of hit it, because it is still a metal rod underneith, or failing that, watch the final battle on ESB, when the camera is zoomed out, look at the size of the glow, perhaps the saber passed over the top of the glow.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
tom_m525 writes:
If you read the book "Heir to the Empire", then you'll know that before Luke throws his lightsabre and kills like 10 aliens, he flicks a switch that locks the blade on so he doesn't have to hold the button down or whatever.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Nightglider1 writes:
My two cents:
All this talk about "locking switches" and "force powers" is ret-con (retroactive continuity). Can we accept the fact that someone goofed? I'm sure that back in 1977 Lucas didn't know that 14 years later Timothy Zahn would write a novel which "fixed" the sabre on/off dilemma. Sheesh!
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
KieranJanson writes:
Ben shut off his Saber. There are dead man's switches and such, even Force powered Sabers, as seen in The Crystal Star. Ben shuts off his Saber because he feels he can help Luke better as a spirit. He needed to concentrate on leaving his body, but not dying, so he killed the Saber just before Vader killed Ben.
Thank you, come again.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
dj_mcfresh writes:
Maybe a flying monkey flew through the room tipped the lightsaber which caused it to quickly move out of the way then back.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Vestril writes:
Uhhhhhh, does Vader actually sweep ALL the way through Obi-wan, or does he stop when Ben Vanishes, I don't recall ever seeing Vader sweep is Saber through Ben's. Perhaps he was aiming low & cut under the shaft of the weapon...
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
CloudVII writes:
Look, Let's clear things up here and now. If you have read STAR WARS X-WING THE KRYTOS TRAP {book 3 in the X-Wing series} then you know Lieutenant Corran Horn found a lightsaber trying to escape from Ysanne Isard's {a.k.a. Icehart} Super Star Destroyer LUSANKYA that had to have the button pressed once to activate and TWICE to deactivate. So lightsaber's don't always have a dead man's switch. Thank you.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
MiLK writes:
You are all wrong on this I'm afraid. During the actual filming of this scene, some idiotic prop guy lost the light sabres with the glass rods used for fighting, and the scene had to be shot using the props that represented the sabres when the blades were withdrawn. The blades were added into the film later, and had to be placed according to where the actors hands were positioned.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Mindbender writes:
$0.02 about the lightsabre consctruction. One of the plot points of the movies is that a Jedi must construct his own lightsabre to fully realize his training. Vader vaguely mentions this to Luke in ROTJ when Luke is captured. So, if every Jedi builds his/her own lightsabre, then it would seem to me that each sabre's construction would vary. Colors are different, handles are different.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Tom C. writes:
This may be unimportant, but a light saber, if it has two crystals, can be changed in length and energy. Thusly a saber can be powerful enough to cut through almost anything or weak enough to pass through anything and not even make a mark. So Obi-wan could have done that if he wanted to. I know this because i have a Star Wars dictionary right here.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Mentasm writes:
Why have so many people gone off on irrelevant tangents about non-canon explanations? If you just watch the scene in question you will see that Vader's saber never passes through Obi-Wan's. Obi-Wan is holding his saber directly in front of his chest when Vader swings, which would allow for Vader's blade to hit his left shoulder/arm (as it does). If you still-frame advance through the DVD it's fairly obvious.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Hermi Odle writes:
Ok, here it is folks, the REAL answer. Obi-Wan let go of his physical body so that he could help Luke (this is dicussed further in other slip-ups). He surrendered the battle with Darth Vader but he DID NOT switch off his lightsabre. He simply held it vertically in front of him and meditated on leaving his body. He was then preparing himself for the transition to spirit. Darth Vader then slashed Obi-Wan killing him. Since he was reconciled to death his body disapreared (also discussed elsewhere). As he left his body, he switched off his lightsabre as a final gesture of surrender to death.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you?
Forceuser35 writes:
I am a giant SW fan, and I am resigned to accepting the fact that this was in fact, a slipup.
Whew! Now that I got that out, I can go to work. Yes, it was a slipup, but all you guys who read these comments on how it would be possible in the SW universe and then add your own stating how BS the SW dogma is and how the rest of us are too blinded by this to accept this large oversight are the largest retards of all. Look at it from a different perspective guys! It is FUN and INTERESTING to come up with different theories on how it would be possible in the SW universe so back off and go back to your own, boring, imagination free lives.
![[Slipups.com Logo]](/images/slipupslogo_small.gif)
