Star Wars Lightsaber Lethality (Spoilers for Ahsoka)

[Karmic Acumen]

So a blade stabbed in someone would cut through and vaporize what it touched but wouldn't pop them like a balloon.

Except that vaporized blood expands in volume very fast and very explosively. So you'd still have baseball sized holes and big gusts of red mist. At least.

And keep in mind that the flesh and bone would also be vaporized. Which would explode even harder.

It's not like the lightsaber eats the transformed matter you know.

 

[Sailor.X]

This talk is pointless ultimately. If Qui-Gon Jin didn't get to live after a sticker through the gut, nobody else short of Anakin Skywalker should. Especially since technology doesn't get better in Star Wars, it only stagnates or gets worse. This has always been a thing, the only exception being capital ships during (very brief) wars.

Remember, people, lightsabers are three times hotter than the sun. The sudden vaporization of the blood is a much worse thing than the hole. Realistically, people should explode in red mist when struck. Arguing blood flow to the brain is completely pointless since there would be none left.

Or the brain itself. The brain is very soggy bacon gelatin. It would fare much worse than the blood.

Hard to survive when you are laying on the floor for 20 damn minutes and you are not willing to tap into the Darkside to draw on hate like Maul did to survive. Because that is how Maul survived.

 

[Jormungandr]

Hard to survive when you are laying on the floor for 20 damn minutes and you are not willing to tap into the Darkside to draw on hate like Maul did to survive. Because that is how Maul survived.

The Dark Side, kids; not even once.

 

[DarthOne]

Hard to survive when you are laying on the floor for 20 damn minutes and you are not willing to tap into the Darkside to draw on hate like Maul did to survive. Because that is how Maul survived.

Only in TCW and Disney’s abomination of lore.

 

[Hlaalu Agent]

Hard to survive when you are laying on the floor for 20 damn minutes and you are not willing to tap into the Darkside to draw on hate like Maul did to survive. Because that is how Maul survived.

Don't forget the liberal application of plot armour. Plot armour always helps.

 

[Sailor.X]

Only in TCW and Disney’s abomination of lore.

Take it up with George Lucas he said it. You may not like it but he is the creator and final word in lore imho.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

I haven't been enjoying the show to be honest. It relies upon the Rebels cartoon too much, which is...Really weird because it wasn't a popular show, and it was a kids show.

It'd be like if Mandalorian relied on the Christmas Special or something.

Also it now raises the weapon on what killed Qui-Gon. Because canonically light saber stabs don't kill you anymore.
My personal theory is he hit his head on the ground after he fell, causing brain haemoraging.

 

[Bacle]

I haven't been enjoying the show to be honest. It relies upon the Rebels cartoon too much, which is...Really weird because it wasn't a popular show, and it was a kids show.

It'd be like if Mandalorian relied on the Christmas Special or something.

Also it now raises the weapon on what killed Qui-Gon. Because canonically light saber stabs don't kill you anymore.
My personal theory is he hit his head on the ground after he fell, causing brain haemoraging.

Nah, Maul's blade hit Qui-Gon in stomach and spine, which explains the lethality compared to other strikes we've seen of the type.

Most of the 'stabbed and survived' group were stabbed off-center (Sabine likely lost a kidney/part of her liver, which is bad but not directly or quickly fatal given the lack of bloodloss, Reva during Order 66), or willing to use the Dark Side to keep themselves functional (Reva the second time, the Grand Inquisitor).

It is one of the...'funkier' issues that is lingering around, because of how Qui-Gonn died. I'll admit the 'stabbed in stomach with lightsaber and survived' trope is getting a little worn and over-used in the current material.

 

[Bear Ribs]

I always figured Qui-Gonn died of a broken heart.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

Nah, Maul's blade hit Qui-Gon in stomach and spine, which explains the lethality compared to other strikes we've seen of the type.

My dude.

You get stabbed ANYWHERE in your torso, you DIE.

The only examples of people surviving (barely) are people losing limbs. Which is pretty close to reality. Limbs aren't important. Organs are.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Oh good another lightsaber lethality debate. I guess the last one like a week ago wasn't enough.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

Oh good another lightsaber lethality debate. I guess the last one like a week ago wasn't enough.

The trouble will always be that lightsabers are swords, but even more dangerous.

Getting stabbed by a sword tends to kill you pretty dead, logically stabbed by a lightsaber is far far worse.

Sabine at 'best' should've been in a bacta-tube for a couple of weeks. Not up and about the very next day.

 

[Bear Ribs]

My dude.

You get stabbed ANYWHERE in your torso, you DIE.

The only examples of people surviving (barely) are people losing limbs. Which is pretty close to reality. Limbs aren't important. Organs are.

Qui-Gonn survived, like, twenty minutes after getting stabbed. There's every reason to think if he'd gotten immediate medical care he would have survived just fine.

It's not even particularly new, I recall off the top of my head that Mara Jade, Jacen, and Jaina Solo all survived lightsabers through the torso in the old EU and I'm sure there's more I can't recall offhand.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

Qui-Gonn survived, like, twenty minutes after getting stabbed. There's every reason to think if he'd gotten immediate medical care he would have survived just fine.

It's not even particularly new, I recall off the top of my head that Mara Jade, Jacen, and Jaina Solo all survived lightsabers through the torso in the old EU and I'm sure there's more I can't recall offhand.

There was no stabbings in the OT though, for good reason. George only went full-retard in the Prequels and the like.
Light sabers operate off the same logic as memetic katanas and old Japanese movies, stab=dead

 

[The Whispering Monk]

I mean...Qui Gonn Jinn was also a Jedi MASTER. It's likely that he was using the Force to minimize damage in some way and try and heal himself in some form of Jedi Trance. However, the damage was too severe for him to overcome without add'l aid...which he didn't get in time.

 

[DarthOne]

Take it up with George Lucas he said it. You may not like it but he is the creator and final word in lore imho.

Did he? Did he actually say that 'oh yeah, I always intended Maul to surivive being cut in half and falling down a bottomless pit'?

 

[Bear Ribs]

Did he? Did he actually say that 'oh yeah, I always intended Maul to surivive being cut in half and falling down a bottomless pit'?

Yes. In fact, he originally planned for Maul with cybernetics to be the main separatist general in the Prequels and only changed the concept into Grievous later.

 

[Sailor.X]

Did he? Did he actually say that 'oh yeah, I always intended Maul to surivive being cut in half and falling down a bottomless pit'?

Yea he did and it is on camera.

 

[DarthOne]

Yea he did and it is on camera.

I’d like to see it then.

Yes. In fact, he originally planned for Maul with cybernetics to be the main separatist general in the Prequels and only changed the concept into Grievous later.

It’s interesting. However, the fact that it’s coming out in a recent interview and Lucas’s tendency to meddle and retcon his own work, makes me deeply suspicious.

As prior to this there was not even a whisper of an idea that Maul and Grievous were initially intended to be the same character. And I would know- I used to be utterly obsessed with Grievous, he’s still a favorite of mine*, and this is all completely new to me.

Even if Lucas did intend to bring Maul back all along, it still doesn’t change the fact that the idea of Maul surviving getting chopped in half and so on is ridiculous. Never mind his sudden change in personality- as prior to TCW, Maul was pretty much Sidious’s loyal attack dog/assassin. Which was how Sidious wanted him- someone who would never even think about backstabbing him.

However the idea of Maul coming back as a cyborg predates TCW by several years. It was part of a non canon ‘what if’ comic series where he shows up at the Lars homestead on Tattooine, gets into a duel with Obi-Wan and is killed via a blaster shot from Owen Lars, if memory serve me right.

Old Wounds

"Old Wounds" is a 13-page non-canon comic from 2005 featured in Star Wars: Visionaries that was written and drawn by Aaron McBride and edited by Jonathan W. Rinzler. It is set in 16 BBY. Darth Maul, with replacement bionic legs attached to his upper torso, seeks out the Lars homestead to find...

starwars.fandom.com

Interestingly this wouldn’t be the first time Maul would be resurrected; he showed up even earlier in a comic where he is seeming brought back in one piece from the dead by Sith cultists (exactly how is never explained). Said cultists view Vader was being ‘not a true Sith’ due to his previous loyalties to the Jedi Order as Anakin. So bring back Maul to kill and replace Vader. Obviously Vader wins.

And it heavily implied that Sidious set this whole thing up- if true, I would guess that Maul was brought back via a combination of Sith sorcery and cloning, much like the Emperor would transfer his spirit into clone bodies and would later resurrect himself after Endor.

Resurrection

I thought it was beyond you to underestimate a Jedi. After all, death and resurrection are common deceptions played out by both Nightsister and Jedi.Thrawn Resurrection was the concept of coming back to life after death. It is used in a belief in the resurrection of individual souls, believed by...

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* which is part of why his depiction in TCW infuriates me.

 

[KilroywasNOTHere]

My dude.

You get stabbed ANYWHERE in your torso, you DIE.

The only examples of people surviving (barely) are people losing limbs. Which is pretty close to reality. Limbs aren't important. Organs are.

hot take: This feat of the lightsaber melting the blast door is actually an outlier feat compared to other showings even within the prequels themselves in most circumstances a lightsaber is less a blade of molten hot plasma and more a thousand-degree sword, with most of it's damage reflecting that. Heck in the fight between Obi-Wan and Dooku, Dooku cuts both Obi-Wan's arm and leg leaving about as much damage as an actual sword cut albeit cauterized,. Meaning, if one could imagine surviving a sword strike, surviving a lightsaber strike, is not as farfetched as one might think.



So why did Qui-Gon not survive, besides the plot demanding he die? I always chalked it up to there was a massive street war going on. It would have been hours before any medical staff had a chance to break away and that's even assuming they knew EXACLY where Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon were and with Obi-Wan only being a Padawan he wouldn't have known abilities like Force Heal to sustain Qui-Gon until medics arrived.

Plus I think people forget how much willpower does play a part in this. There have been stories of soldiers surviving horrific injuries and making full recovery out of thoughts of their families and loved ones that'd leave behind if they didn't survive. Likewise there are soldiers who quickly died after their significant other abandoned them or they were simply ready to die. It's possible that Qui-Gon simply thought his death was the will of the force and thinking Anakin would be in good hands with Obi-Wan decided to give up the ghost.