can non-Force users weild lightsabers?

[Temis the Vorta]

A fanfilm in my voting thread made me wonder...is there any canon answer to the question of what happens if a non-Force-sensitive person gets their paws on a lightsaber?

Will it even work for them? Can they use it, but will probably just hurt themselves? Can they be trained to use one adequately? Would an untrained Force user be better or worse in a lightsaber duel vs a highly trained non-Force user?

If there are contradictory answers to this question in the EU (you can see, I'm starting to get the hang of Star Wars ) then what do you think should be true?

Also, is there any significance to lightsaber color (other than girls prefer the pink ones)? I had the notion that blue means Jedi, red means Sith, but is even that true? There are also purple, green, yellow...anything else? A nice coppery color would be cool.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Lightsabers can be used by anyone...although one still would have to know how to activate the blade and the principals of sword fighting. Han activated and used Luke's in Empire to slice open the belly of the steed his was riding to keep him and Luke warm on Hoth.

As for the color of the blades, Sith Lords and apprentices use Red, Jedi normally use Green and Blue, Padawan's are known to emulate their Masters but sometimes have their own. Mace had a purple blade because Samuel Jackson wanted a purple blade.

All the Force probably does is enhance a lightsaber wielders reflexes and speed, etc. and of course there are the various fighting techniques and stances that could only be mastered by a Jedi or Sith.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Just in the movies we've seen a couple instances of non-Force users using lightsabers. Han Solo used Luke's briefly to slice open the Taun-taun in The Empire Strikes Back. And the implication I always got from Revenge of the Sith was that Count Dooku had trained General Grievous in the Jedi arts but that Grievous was not Force sensitive. We never see Grievous use any Force powers. And when he goes one-on-one with Obi-Wan Kenobi, he gets a couple of his hands chopped off pretty quickly.

As for lightsaber colors, the movies establish the standard that Jedi are blue & green (except for Samuel L. Jackson, who is just such a badass that he gets a purple one) while the Sith are exclusively red.

Colors beyond that don't appear in the movies and seem to have totally different rules applied to them that even I don't understand. I co-wrote a couple of Star Wars fanfilms ( http://www.spiritsoftheforce.com/ ) and even I don't quite understand why we made Jaina Solo's lightsaber pink and Spince Larrin's lightsaber yellow. (I tried to get a black one for one of the bad guys in the 3rd film but everyone told me that I was crazy.)

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Though they probably regret it when someone fires a blaster at them.

 

[Holdfast]

(I tried to get a black one for one of the bad guys in the 3rd film but everyone told me that I was crazy.)

Sith with black lights? I dread to think what kind of nasty stains that would show up.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

(I tried to get a black one for one of the bad guys in the 3rd film but everyone told me that I was crazy.)

Sith with black lights? I dread to think what kind of nasty stains that would show up.

Well, he's not a Sith. He's...

Spoiler: Reflections of Evil

...an evil dream version of Kit Parson.

But... yeah... and... ew!

 

[Skywalker]

Anyone can use a lightsaber, but because the blades have no mass and can cut through pretty much anything, they're understandably difficult to wield effectively. It typically requires someone trained in the Force to be able to wield a lightsaber without seriously injuring himself. I guess Grievous, who was not trained as either a Sith or a Jedi, was able to do it because he was mostly machine, and his cybernetic body was more capable than an organic body would be.

As for lightsaber colors, originally all Jedi were supposed to have blue blades, and all Sith were supposed to have red ones. During production of Return of the Jedi, Luke's new lightsaber was also supposed to be blue (see the original ROTJ trailer), but the blue blade clashed with Tatooine's blue sky, and so they made his lightsaber green instead.

In the EU, there aren't any restrictions on color. There have been Jedi with yellow lightsabers, silver, gold, and bronze lightsabers, purple lightsabers (long before Mace Windu), orange lightsabers, and various shades of blue/green such as turquoise, among many others. Basically in the EU the color of a Jedi's lightsaber is determined by the color of the focusing crystal the Jedi uses in the construction of his weapon.

 

[sojourner]

Modern fencing sabres have virtually no weight. People use them just fine.

 

[Mr Light]

Anybody can swing a lightsaber but you need the Force to be able to use it well. The Force gives you limited precognition so that you can sense where a blade or laser bolt is about to hit and move the sword to block it before it happens.

Grevious has no Force ability at all but his cybernetic reflexes allow him to move fast enough to mimic this ability.

 

[Whofan]

There's a part in Heir to The Empire where Han borrows Leia's saber to slash open the Falcon's coolant tank to mess with some bad guys, if I remember correctly.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Modern fencing sabres have virtually no weight. People use them just fine.

But they don't have that distracting hum.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Oh right, I forgot Han and the tauntaun. I was wondering whether lightsabers were made of "the Force" and nobody but a Jedi could turn one on, because nobody else would know how to "channel" the force into the saber.

Basically, the idea would be that the hilt is just a mechanism the Jedi uses for getting the Force to align itself in a convenient blade shape. But unless Han has been hiding something all these years, that idea doesn't fly.

Even if a normal person had a lightsaber, there would be no advantage to them, versus a blaster. You can kill someone with a blaster from a distance but a lightsaber forces you to get in close. A Jedi with a lightsaber can overcome the distance advantage of a blaster by predicting blaster bolts and blocking them. A normal person would just be dead.

It would be difficult if not impossible for someone with a blaster to kill a Jedi unless they also had a lightsaber but then they'd end up dead through lack of skill. So even though a lightsaber seems like a silly weapon in a galaxy filled with blasters, it synchs up well with Jedi powers. Also, I image the Jedi appreciate the PR factor.

And I also like the idea of a "black" lightsaber, even though a black light seems counterintuitive. If it's reflecting light, it's not "really" black, but however you could achieve the effect would be cool.

 

[Sephiroth]

it's even mentioned in the clone wars that there are lightsabres on the black market, rare as they are

 

[PsychoPere]

I was wondering whether lightsabers were made of "the Force" and nobody but a Jedi could turn one on, because nobody else would know how to "channel" the force into the saber.

There was a Jedi in the EU novels (though I'll be damned if I can recall who - first thought was Corran Horn, but I can only find reference to his dual-phase saber) who specifically constructed their lightsaber so that there is no external power button. Instead, the actuator was built inside the hilt, so that only a Jedi could activate the saber using telekinesis.

Since Corran's skill with telekinesis is pretty much non-existent, I don't think it was him but like I said above I can't recall who it was.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I think anyone can wield them. However, it's a question of if they can actually use them and adequately. Luke trained a lot in order to be proficient with it

 

[Caliburn24]

What I have never understood is that in the first moments of A New Hope we see the perfect counter to lightsabers when the stormtroopers use a circular stun blast to take Leia down. But then we never see anyone else use that against lightsaber wielders.

The circular sonic blasts or whatever they are in AotC were similar I guess.

Honestly lightsabers, even wielded by a master Jedi are horrible weapons for offense or defense. They tell the world exactly who you are, they give away your position. They have almost no reach.

But they do look cool, oh yes they do.

 

[EmperorTiberius]

Vader, who can lift a man with one hand, has trouble wielding a saber in ANH, but Lucas said they're weightless since they are made out of light that interfaces with other light and stops a meter away from the source, so that makes sense, I agree with Lucas.

 

[David cgc]

it's even mentioned in the clone wars that there are lightsabres on the black market, rare as they are

In Episode One, Qui-Gon suggested it wasn't unheard of.

Anakin: You're a Jedi Knight, aren't you?
Qui-Gon: What makes you think that?
Anakin: I saw your laser sword. Only Jedi carry that kind of weapon.
Qui-Gon: Perhaps I killed a Jedi and took it from him.
Anakin: I don't think so. No one can kill a Jedi.
Qui-Gon: I wish that were so.

 

[Shazam!]

purple lightsabers (long before Mace Windu)

Yeah, Mara Jade called dibs on the purple lightsaber.

 

[stj]

As ever, the situation is hopelessly complicated. In Return of the Jedi, Vade sees Luke's new light saber (the old being lost with Luke's hand in Empire Strikes Back.) Vader declares Luke's training is complete. Somehow, just making a light saber requires a mastery of the Force. Go figure.

This isn't a television series where you have hours and hours and hours and hours, each broken up with tv commercials, dribbled out in weekly doses, with gaps of weeks or months over the years. TV series have an enormous burden put upon the willing suspension of disbelief. When it's all said and done, there are fewer hours of Star Wars than a season of Dexter. And there are no damn commercials. It's barely possible to put the brain in neutral and coast. In the case of Star Wars, it's also obligatory.