Japanese Katana's are used with two hands. You don't duel with broadswords

Well, I was trying to simplify it but thank you for the correction

I more meant how the sabers were supposed to feel, and be treated in the original  concept. It was more broadsword than strict katana.

I think that's what I meant-my brain is fried

Please, bear in mind, that I am talking about Lucas' original conceptions for the story, and not what was portrayed in the films. I'm not arguing that what eventually happened on film was not kendo, having studied kendo, and watched 7 Samurai for inspiration.

I doubt I am saying it exactly how I mean, so I might just stop while I'm not ahead.

I don't have any sources available, but I'm pretty sure I've seen quotes somewhere saying that the sabers in the OT were intended to be rather broadswordish.

Braveheart, I think. More relevant, I think there is a broadsword duel in Mel Gibson's Hamlet. I could be thinking of another movie, though. Or, the wrong kind of sword.

As for 'original intentions' Lucas has claimed to have started the story in his early teens. It's been through countless revisions (and many of his claims have changed too may times for me to believe anything he says) but the earliest full treatments I have seen/heard of were near-exact copies of The Hidden Fortress: same plot, same characters (the General was Starkiller). And, the Vader/Obi-Wan fight is kendo. It is one of only two duels in the OT and Vader/Luke is also heavy with kendo.

That said, who cares if there's a broadsword now? I only question the crossguard because no one in 6 movies needed one...

Also, a quick look at Wiki says broadsword basically just means "not a rapier": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basket-hilted_sword

Vents make little sense to me, especially since lightsabres are a familar technology (why would it be unstable?). It's a sword and swords have guards.

I love the fact that the design intent appears to be 'if Jedi are samurai, then this new sect are european knights'.

That's interesting to consider I'll admit. How did Luke make his I wonder? Are we to imagine that ghost ObiWan was giving instructions? Not the kind of on the job training that's safe!

But I thought

Since Disney has thrown out the expanded universe, maybe. The expanded universe old tech was lightsabers that had belt-mounted batteries.

There is a deleted scene of Luke making his lightsaber. Was Obi-wan there? I can't recall. Regardless, the color suggests Sith and the Sith are the ones who experiment (caveat:expanded universe info). I would guess a new design rather than an ancient one.

Last edited by Jp12x (2014-12-18 04:30:57)

This is one of the ways the prequels made the OT make less sense.  The OT suggests that Jedi were rare, mysterious, even just a myth to some people (Han Solo, for one).   Then the prequels declared that just 20 years earlier they were like the UN - there were hundreds of them getting up in everyone's bizness, and they even had an office building in the galaxy's equivalent of downtown.   In that reality, light sabers wouldn't be much of a mystery either.  Heck, you can still find a working Commodore 64 in our world, if you want one.