>A lightsaber is a handmade technological weapon which generates a
>tightly focused plasma bottle in a magnetic field. The blade can
>generate heat within the magnetic field in excess of 2,000 degrees
>Centigrade, but the magnetic bottle protects the wielder from the
>heat. The weapon can cut through virtually any known substance, given
>enough time, although the cuts are nly clean in the sense that they
>are usually cauterized.

This is marvelously detailed, and has absolutely nothing in common with the defined lightsaber technology of the semi-canon Star Wars Extended Universe.

I'm too lazy to get one of my SW reference books to explain how the crystals focus and align the energy beam, but suffice it to say that the blade is not contained within any energy beam; I don't think it's specified in any EU or EU-based text or Lucasfilm-approved reference book just what kind of energy lightsabers actually use (despite what a ten-year-old boy might say, lightsabers are not based in any way on laser technology), but said energy is actually shot in a tight arc from the emitter and brought back upon itself, and the blade emits no heat and loses no energy to speak of, except when it is brought into contact with a solid substance. (This is why power cells last so long; there's no power loss except when the blades are actually cutting through something.) Depending on the number, sizes, and kinds of crystals, the length and intensity of the blade may be flexible; the Sith Lord Exar Kun could vary the length of his dual-bladed saber's beams, and run them from full-power to nothing more than a pretty, harmless light show.

Just another illustration of the distance between UF and source material, I guess.

-- Sean --

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