A little known fact about Star Wars is that George Lucas had wanted lightsabers to behave and act a certain way. Unfortunately, due to the technology of the times, this was not possible and he had to settle for less. Star Wars The Force Awakens may have finally found the answer.
There has been one facet of Star Wars The Force Awakens that has been under constant debate since its reveal in the first teaser for the film, how smart or stupid is Kylo Ren's lightsaber? There are two different schools of thought in this argument, one side for how awesome the villain's lightsaber initially looked, and the other just wept inside. I wasn't weeping, but I was scratching my head at first. Ok, I admit that I don't like change, but I think it does look sweet now.
According to IO9, George Lucas had an original vision for the futuristic sword, he wanted them to have 2 things: heft and light. Unfortunately, at the time that the original trilogy was made, there was no technology that existed to fully realize his dream. Now that we have advanced light years technologically since the early 80s, it is finally possible to pull off this feat.
Recently, Adam Driver sat down with The Telegraph to speak about the lightsaber controversy and in the process divulged a little bit about the physics behind the infamous prop. Driver said that, "When George Lucas did the first film, he wanted them to be really heavy, but they couldn't quite figure it out. This is the first time that we're actually fighting with the whole lightsaber too. Before it was just the hilt with [something] like an antenna or a green stick, but this was state of the art - it actually sends off light."
In the original trilogy reflective tape first covered the weapons that allowed the cameras to see the tool, and that was later replaced with aluminum poles to help with the rotoscoping effects that were later added during post-production. In the prequels the lightsabers were basically all CGI, making the Jedi look more like baton twirlers without the effects added.
The prequels lightsabers didn't have the casting effects that the sabers in The Force Awakens sport. It is interesting to know that the light cast from the sabers was actually part of the prop that the actors held, allowing this light to be true, and not something just added later. It is subtle touches like this, that show you how much thought and passion J.J. Abrams infused into this film. It gives the film a realistic touch. That is something that has been missing from the franchise for decades.
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