Random thoughts on episode 3

[Rünya I’shiego]

adavenport said:

The power setting for the blade makes more sense. Without some way to turn the blade "down" Jedi would be risking their lives just to spar with each other. OTOH, they are supposed to be so good that sparring with live sabers wouldn't be a big deal. But still, there must be times when they need to tone it down.

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I've seen this in a book somewhere, but can't remember which one. (don't you hate that?) I think it must have been one of the Jedi Apprentice books about Obi-wan's early apprenticeship (padadwan-ship?) to Qui-gon. Obi-wan was sparring with some other padawan, and they both had their lightsabers set on 'stun' as it were. When either was hit by the other's blade, it stunned them and left a burn that medic droids could easily and quickly clear up afterwards.

... or were they using training sabers specifically designed to do just that and not meant for real combat? (I think this incident might have been in the first book where Obi-wan was trying to show off to convince Qui-gon to take him on. If it was at this point, then Obi-wan wouldn't have had his own lightsaber.)

Shoot. I don't remember now if they were using their own sabers or special-made training sabers. Sorry.

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

Well, I've just been looking at the Jedi Apprentice books and I only remember them having separate regular lightsabers and training lightsabers. But I still think it's sensible for them to have some kind of power adjustment on the blades on the lightsabers.

[Leda EmBorr]

Both of you are correct. In the Jedi Apprentice series there were training sabers that the younglings used, and in the Star-Wars Visual Dictionary it shows a picture of Luke's saber and points specifically to the blade adjust knob.

[Seda Navilli]

I thought that blade adjust was for length? I just don't see the need for a power adjust knob on a lightsaber. A lightsaber should be a very dangerous weapon, even when just playing around with it. That is why the Jedi are the only ones who can successfully weild a lightsaber. If I was a Jedi constructing a lightsaber, I would not see any reason to go to the trouble of installing a power adjustment knob.

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

Simple reasons for putting a power control on the lightsaber could be using it as a light source, or a heat source, or to converse the power cell. Even though the lightsaber is designed as a weapon, it's foolish to not recognize it's obvious postential as a tool.

Now, that doesn't mean that the Jedi have anything like that for their sabers. If they had become so mired in their own traditions that they were blind to what Sidius was up to until it was too late, then perhaps having non-adjustable power on their lightsabers was a symptom of that.