Summary
The Empire doesn’t want anyone to know about this one simple trick. Imperial scientists hate it. But the question remains: can a lightsaber theoretically deflect the planet-killing superlaser fired from the Death Star?
Star Warshas seen its fair share of technicalities over the years, even nearly from the start. “Technically” Darth Vader really did kill Luke Skywalker’s father, from a certain point of view. But as the decades have piled up, such things have expanded from simply explaining away plot discrepancies to offering up fantastical new ideas. Viewers regularly pick up on tiny details and expand upon them well beyond their original scope, bringing to life tons ofStar Warsfan theoriesthat occasionally affect the official canon itself. But this particular discussion might be a bit much even for the franchise’s wildest moments.
Fans on theStar Warssubredditrecently brought up a simple yet delightfully unhinged thought regarding how the Death Star’s superlaser works. As many now know thanks to certain plot elements inRogue One: A Star Wars Story, the laser is powered by kyber crystals, the same natural formations that make lightsabers do their thing. Among other attributes, one “thing” lightsabers excel at is deflecting blaster bolts as well as clashing with other lightsabers. So seeing as how two lightsabers can collide and bounce off one another rather than passing through, couldn’t a big enough one (made with enough kyber crystal energy) theoretically be able to block the giant blast from the Death Star?
Well, at first glance, it seems like the only hurdle would be the size of the lightsaber blade itself. WhileStar Warscanon hasn’t messed with that idea much, stories flying fast and loose with the source material like one in particular fromseason 1 ofStar Wars: Visionstechnically open the door to new possibilities. The short in question is “The Twins” from Studio Trigger, which notably features one character supercharging his lightsaber enough to cut clean through a Star Destroyer. Despite the over-the-top nature of the short, it’s definitely enough to raise up a tiny possibility in the minds of fans. At least, it is when those same fans aren’t making admittedly chuckle-worthy jokes about how, technically, the laser was already blocked… by Alderaan.
“They would need an equivalent mass of kyber crystals to do that. That’s a big lightsaber. Plus they don’t need a lightsaber to do it. They blocked it fine with Alderaan”
The other hurdle would be ensuring the lightsaber is perfectly in the path of thealready eccentrically-designed Death Star’s laser, and even more importantly, making sure it isn’t deflected into some other poor world. After all, it fires from a considerable distance, which adds plenty of variables when it comes to positioning. Even with a big enough blade, there’s a very real chance the wide beam of the superlaser could still glance off. Well, one fan theory going around is that lightsaber blades attract each other, offering a nice in-universe explanation for all theexciting lightsaber duels inStar Wars. If that property comes from the kyber crystals, then maybe it would also apply to the superlaser.
It’s a fascinating idea, and one that would be incredibly engaging to see tackled in aStar Warsversion ofMythbusters. Just imagine space Adam and space Jamie renting out an entire solar system to test this one out. At the very least, it would still be less controversial thanThe Rise of Skywalker.
