this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2026
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TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name

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[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 31 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Inaccurate.

Physics dictates it would deflect the phaser beam to the nearest redshirt.

[–] _NetNomad@fedia.io 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

what happens if a stormtrooper fires the phaser?

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The phaser beam would hit enemy cover and background props in dramatic showers of sparks, of course.

You know how it is. Storm Troopers always forget to switch the dial.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

It depends on who they're shooting at.

In the first movie, they were extremely accurate except when shooting at Han, Luke and Laia.

Those three escaped the Death Star, and the tacker on the Millennium Falcon led the Empire directly to Yarvin 4.

The next appearance of the Stormtroopers had them be Flanderized to the point where literal rocks were their Achilles heel.

[–] gnufuu@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Imagine being a laser beam but after traveling for 1.5m you've simply had enough. Oddly relatable.

[–] cattywampas@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (3 children)

um ackshully it's a high-energy plasma loop contained within a force field

[–] Logarrhythmia@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Why is it called a lightsaber then?

[–] cattywampas@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Because it's bright.

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Because it's not a heavysaber maybe? (Ok, I've got nothing.)

[–] dreadbeef@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It was supposed it be heavy in the original trilogy

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 1 points 6 days ago

🤔 That makes sense!

[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 1 points 6 days ago

Luckly they aren't, it's better having plenty of weight on the blade— which is clearly not present

[–] justcallmelarry@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It has fewer calories than a saber

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Anakin Skywalker: You're a Jedi Knight, aren't you?
Qui-Gon Jinn: What makes you think that?
Anakin Skywalker: I saw your laser sword. Only Jedi carry that kind of weapon.

Is Anakin--the very Space Jesus himself--an idiot, then?

Uh... don't answer that.

[–] cattywampas@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's actually canon that it's common for laymen in the SW universe to call them laser swords.

Anakin was an enslaved kid from a backwater planet, and as such probably only heard stories and rumors about the Jedi from travelers.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Um ackshully it depends on the crystal and power source, Mace Windu’s purple lightsaber is explained as being an electric arc IIRC. (IRL Samuel L Jackson just wanted to be able to see himself in the wide shots apparently.)

[–] OfCourseNot@fedia.io 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

An electric arc is plasma.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago

I think in the spirit of the level of comedic pedantry we are trying to hit here I will point out that electric arcs are electrons the plasma is what’s around it. In the case of purple likely argon and/or krypton.

[–] cattywampas@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That must be a Legends thing because I can't find anything like that in the Canon page on Wookieepedia.

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

No this is one of those Lucas made it up because I was serious about the second part things.

I mean, it's plasma, not a laser.

[–] EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 19 points 1 week ago (3 children)

1- why would a starfleet crew shoot jedi?

2: why would the jedi not simply do hat jedi have been seen to do in nearly every movie and not block the shots?

C, why would they have had a conflict in the first place? Neither groups are hostile.

I love trek and star wars and this would never happen.

That said, the presence of a red light saber and blue together indicate it was a sith, since a jedi wouldn't willingly use a corrupted crystal in their saber. Maybe it was Grievous.

[–] Waterpumpee@lemmus.org 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)
  1. laser swords are cool but they dont make sense. Imagine throwing a rock at a jedi. The rock gets burned, maybe split but the jedi is still hit. It sucks at deflecting anything that is not bundled light, super slow oh and buckshots. Source: i played the episode one game from 1999.
[–] EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Video games aren't true to lore, as you need video game mechanics that won't work in-lore. S

In said games, you also can slash droids many times and they won't slice in half. You can slash the viewport looking out into space and not have to worry about decompression.

And besides, none of that matters since as the crewman stated, "I vaporized with my phaser" which is not something that would "split" and still hit whoever is holding the saber.

And if you threw a rock, the jedi would use force abilities, not his lightsaber.

And trying to argue one group's weapons are nonsensical when the other group literally invented the term "treknobabble" to justify anything with complex sounding words is hilarious.

To be clear: I am not in any way upset about the meme, it's funny, and I like franchise vs franchise stuff. Warhammer vs star trek would be awesome. Golden age of humanity might be able to stand against starfleet, but certainly not the Imperium as it is in M41.

[–] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The lore is that slugs and shot are super problematic for Jedi though. Not so much a Trek issue, but IRL Jedi would get merked by stuff like shotguns or rifles.

[–] EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Scattershot, yes, but I don't remember single-shot kinetic weapons being an issue. Logically the worst would be splattering it instead of vaporizing it, which then just kind of makes it scattershot. Of course, molten metal splashing across your body at high velocity isn't nothing.

[–] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 1 points 6 days ago

Modern firearms have an extremely high rate of fire and travel fast as hell. It wouldn't be deflecting a bullet, it would be deflecting dozens or more bullets effectively all at once (never mind if there was more than one shooter).

I forget what their energy weapons travel at, but I recall it being a fraction of the speed of even your basic M4 (never mind something like a sniper rifle or anti materiel rifle).

Even a shotgun slugs would be a big problem once they hit the lightsaber: They'd probably explode and pepper them with semi-melted lead spall traveling around 1,500-3,000 feet per second.

Seems like it would actually be more of a liability than just taking cover, retreating, or maybe using the force to either escape or deflect them.

[–] _NetNomad@fedia.io 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

because phasers are rays and not bolts, would a phaser beam bounce off of it like a laser pointer in a mirror? and then the ewoks, effortlessly able to limbo under the beam, soundly defeat both the jedi and starfleet

[–] EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Phasers work in whichever way the plot demands. Of course the same goes for anything in star wars, sometimes even in the same movie trilogy being different.

Romukan plasma weapons would be terrifying, I'm imagining a plasma bolt just splashing around the light saber and covering the jedi with plasma. Basically the same as a flamethrower in star wars lore.

Ewoks are eldritch horrors that don't even need to dodge or limbo. For every one that gets struck down, 100 more are scrambling over every surface, swinging on every vine, and hang-gliding in to club everything to death.

[–] negativenull@piefed.world 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] snooggums@piefed.world 7 points 1 week ago

Phaser swords!

[–] Janx@piefed.social 5 points 1 week ago

It's the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

[–] BasedMaquisEddington@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Ariselas@piefed.ca 3 points 1 week ago

SUMMER! Star Trek

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

So uncivilized…

[–] relativelyrobin@mander.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

What did you call me?