Star Wars Episode VII Trailer: The Real Problem With the Lightsaber - The Design Contradicts Itself

The strange lightsaber design in the new teaser trailer for "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" has awoken the Internet's ire, along with endless memes making fun of it. But most critics don't get the real reason it doesn't make sense. Here's why.

It seems most of the "Star Wars" set is simply excited after finally seeing the first teaser trailer for the "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens." The one major exception is the new Sith lightsaber (skip to about 0:53), which features a crossguard made up of that same magical lightsaber laser material.

If you don't know what a crossbar is, think William Wallace's giant broadsword in "Braveheart": it's the two bars that jut out between the blade and his handle to stop enemy blades being swung at him and protect his hands.

This seems like a good idea for Star Wars, considering three major characters from the previous movies have lost their hands to the cut-anything lightsaber material -- which I will refer to simply as "lightsaber" from now on: (SPOILERS!) Count Dooku and Anakin Skywalker lose both hands in "Revenge," and Luke gets off relatively easy, losing just one hand in "Empire."

It's Nonsense, But Not Just Because It's Dangerous

But the execution of this design improvement is flawed, but not for the simple reason that most people have pointed out -- including a "certified master bladesmith" interviewed by The Washington Post (the nerds certainly have taken over!):

"The idea behind a crossguard on any blade is to protect the swordsman's hand from another person's blade," said bladesmith Kevin Cashen to WaPo. But in real life, the crossguard is a dull, though sturdy, piece of metal. You can bash people at close range with it, but it doesn't pose a self-injury risk.

Responding to the new lightsaber, with laser crossguards? "That would be very bad to have around your hand," said Cashen.

So the crossguard may have some creative offensive uses, but it would probably cut off its wielder's hands (or at least cause some serious unintended self-injury) long before being effectively used for defense.

The Real Problem With the Crossguard

True, a crossguard made of cut-anything lightsaber laser material would be risky to the wielder. But so would a double-bladed lightsaber like Darth Maul's. It's all about how skilled the character is (plus a little bit of the audience's suspension of disbelief).

But the real problem with this lightsaber design is the self-contradictory nature of the crossguard's design in the first place. Consider this:

Why did J.J. Abrams and company design the crossguards to be made of lightsaber?

1. It looks cool. This is an undeniably good reason in the movie business.

2. It has to be made of lightsaber, because the only thing that stops a lightsaber's cut is another lightsaber.

In the "Star Wars" universe, lightsabers can cut through anything, including the heavy, thick metal of blast doors, given a bit of time (see: Episode I). So a protective crossguard has to be made of lightsaber, too, in order to have any utility.

But anyone who's ever seen a movie where a sword's crossguard comes into play for defense knows that the attacker's blade inevitably slides down to that crook where the blade meets the crossguard.

That crucial part of the new lightsaber's crossguard -- where opposing blades will almost always end up sliding -- is not made of lightsaber. It's made of the same metal that the handle is made of.

That leads to two logical conclusions:

1. The lightsaber crossguard is only useful for deflecting glancing blows.

It will become utterly useless if the attacker aims at the crook, or if their blade is stopped by the crossguard and inevitably slides to the crook. The blade will go right through and cut off his hands.

2. The metal that makes up the lightsaber crook is stronger than lightsaber.

In which case -- why not make the whole crossguard out of that previously unknown lightsaber-proof metal and avoid the self-injury danger mentioned by WaPo's bladesmith (and everyone else on the Internet)?

Conclusion: They Could Have Thought It Through

I love "Star Wars." Although I was disappointed by the prequels, I'm excited about the franchise rebirth -- in part, because I trust J.J. Abrams (and Disney) to pay attention to details.

But it seems 88 seconds of the teaser trailer was enough to spark a controversy over the lightsaber design, and how illogical and self-contradictory it was.

The crossguard is a good idea, and making it out of lightsaber makes sense in the "Star Wars" universe. But, like any new tech gadget (real or imagined), you have to think through the logic of how a new feature might work -- and how it might not.

Here's a design idea that fixes this whole conundrum, created and posted by Reddit user MoonSpider just after the trailer came out:

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