New efforts!

[Sinistar]

If you're willing to suspend disbelief on every aspect of the big bad weapon in ep 7 a little laser knockback is barely worth mentioning.

Not to mention suspending disbelief that a LEGION of the Emperor's best troops were on Endor and they were defeated by a bunch of teddy bears with rocks and sticks.  ;)

Now if they were all Wookies.....

[Arcana]

First, they are NOT "lasers" they are plasma blasters.  A laser is just a beam of light, a plasma bolt contains some solid mass, so it is not inconceivable for one to hit with enough force to knock someone down.

It is unlikely that even a plasma weapon could hit with enough force to knock someone down because plasma just doesn't have enough momentum, but there is a mechanism that would be at least physically plausible for both plasma and laser weapons: when the plasma bolt hits the target it is possible it imparts enough energy to vaporize a small part of the target.  That could cause a small explosion of gas strong enough to knock someone over.  There are theoretical designs for propulsion systems using laser ablation or laser-pumped plasma detonation that work on similar principles.

[Arcana]

Not to mention suspending disbelief that a LEGION of the Emperor's best troops were on Endor and they were defeated by a bunch of teddy bears with rocks and sticks.  ;)

Consider the Battle of Isandlwana where about 20,000 Zulu warriors, nearly all of them armed with only leather shields and hand thrown spears obliterated a British force of 2000 trained and experienced soldiers plus an additional 2000 auxiliary militia and volunteers, all armed with (for the time) modern weaponry including repeating rifles, cannons, and battlefield rocket artillery.

Why did they lose?  Their commander severely underestimated the Zulu, refused to set up suitable defensive positions, split up his forces repeatedly, and failed to understand the advantages terrain and environment would provide to the Zulu vs his own troops.

The Stormtroopers defending the shield generator did not deploy any reasonable defensive positions around the shield generator to deliberately make it an attractive target, were ordered to allow the rebels to attack so they could ambush them, split up their forces accordingly, underestimated the forces they would have to contend with, appeared to have no suitable intelligence, and fought in terrain and environment that almost completely negated their technological advantages.

[slickriptide]

A laser is just a beam of light,

That doesn't prevent a "light saber" from chopping your arm off.

There's a point where you have to wave your hands and say, "Space Opera!" and Star Wars crosses that boundary within the first few minutes.

IMO, there is really no point in trying to come up with real-world explanations for things like "light swords" or "light bullets" or artificially intelligent machines that nevertheless are (sometimes) resigned to being slaves and second-class citizens. It's all just "technology!".

How does a "lightsaber" contain a laser beam and multiply it *AND* make it visible while allowing it to release energy in a controlled fashion when it encounters a physical object without disrupting the magical force fields or other hand-wave tech that makes it possible? If you accept that the technology exists for there to be a "lightsaber" then why is it even a stretch to accept a "lightbullet" that only has to exist independently of a power source for a few seconds? (Under normal circumstances - Kylo Ren's bit with the suspended laser bolt could imply that they can exist for an extended time or it could just suggest that he happens to understand how to stabilize whatever is holding it together until he desires to release it.)

They aren't "plasma bolts". They're magic bullets.

[Azrael]

Not to mention suspending disbelief that a LEGION of the Emperor's best troops were on Endor and they were defeated by a bunch of teddy bears with rocks and sticks.  ;)

Now if they were all Wookies.....

Aye.

As it should have been...

The Stormtroopers defending the shield generator did not deploy any reasonable defensive positions around the shield generator to deliberately make it an attractive target, were ordered to allow the teddybears to attack so they could ambush them, split up their forces accordingly, underestimated the 'forces' *stifled laughter*...

***Snip.***  I think we'll stop there.

Give it up, Arcana. 

Azrael.

[TimtheEnchanter]

How does a "lightsaber" contain a laser beam and multiply it *AND* make it visible while allowing it to release energy in a controlled fashion when it encounters a physical object without disrupting the magical force fields or other hand-wave tech that makes it possible? If you accept that the technology exists for there to be a "lightsaber" then why is it even a stretch to accept a "lightbullet" that only has to exist independently of a power source for a few seconds? (Under normal circumstances - Kylo Ren's bit with the suspended laser bolt could imply that they can exist for an extended time or it could just suggest that he happens to understand how to stabilize whatever is holding it together until he desires to release it.)

Lightsabers are more like shields with a unique configuration than anything else. You'd need some kind of a containment field to hold the energy anyway (otherwise it'd more or less just be a plasma thrower spraying nasty stuff everywhere) but wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having the energy in the first place since it couldn't touch the intended target?

But you still probably wouldn't want to touch a shielded ship. I dare say you 'could' envelop a ship in a lightsaber shield and use the ship to smash through enemies, but the power requirements would probably be comparable to a death star. So let's just stick with it being the size of a sword and hey, since it's a shield, it can also deflect energy weapons.  8)

The Stormtroopers defending the shield generator did not deploy any reasonable defensive positions around the shield generator to deliberately make it an attractive target, were ordered to allow the rebels to attack so they could ambush them, split up their forces accordingly, underestimated the forces they would have to contend with, appeared to have no suitable intelligence, and fought in terrain and environment that almost completely negated their technological advantages.

This has probably happened to advanced civilizations more times than anyone would like to admit. You come across some indigenous and you're strange to them so they probably scare easily. Then only after you set up your town, they start to get curious. And then their curiosity becomes greater than their fear, and next thing you know, you're in the middle of Hell with nowhere to fall back to.

Another example besides Zulu. The Native Americans chased the Vikings off of the continent. Think about that for a moment. One of the most badarse warrior races ever, armed with metal weapons and shields, got pwned by a stone-age culture.

[LaughingAlex]

Consider the Battle of Isandlwana where about 20,000 Zulu warriors, nearly all of them armed with only leather shields and hand thrown spears obliterated a British force of 2000 trained and experienced soldiers plus an additional 2000 auxiliary militia and volunteers, all armed with (for the time) modern weaponry including repeating rifles, cannons, and battlefield rocket artillery.

Why did they lose?  Their commander severely underestimated the Zulu, refused to set up suitable defensive positions, split up his forces repeatedly, and failed to understand the advantages terrain and environment would provide to the Zulu vs his own troops.

The Stormtroopers defending the shield generator did not deploy any reasonable defensive positions around the shield generator to deliberately make it an attractive target, were ordered to allow the rebels to attack so they could ambush them, split up their forces accordingly, underestimated the forces they would have to contend with, appeared to have no suitable intelligence, and fought in terrain and environment that almost completely negated their technological advantages.

So the british commander was an idiot like these morons here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o41Ih5XQBk0

Edit: Fun moments include:
One guy talking down a woman who actually does come up with the winning strategy and then said idiot dispersing the troops all over the place.
Ordering the men to run up and down the hill repeatedly before the fighting begins.
Testudo in an open battle in melee!
Spending to much time attacking a woman and her two daughters while the rest of the roman army is 100% surrounded save like 5-6 guys who manage to flee!

[Arcana]

IMO, there is really no point in trying to come up with real-world explanations for things like "light swords" or "light bullets" or artificially intelligent machines that nevertheless are (sometimes) resigned to being slaves and second-class citizens. It's all just "technology!".

In my opinion, there's three very good reasons for trying to come up with real-world explanations for things like light sabers and plasma pistols.

1.  Its entertaining.  Considering that we're discussing this in an internet forum thread which dances around the subject of resurrecting a discontinued MMO, that should be sufficient reason.

2.  Its intellectually stimulating.  However fictional a blaster is, or a light saber is, analyzing those things through the lens of reasonably extrapolated science and technology requires you to actually know and understand the relevant science and technology.  That can compel you to learn the relevant science and technology, and exercise the intellectual machinery to apply them.  This is the functional world of engineering.  The same thought processes involved in thinking about how Star Wars blasters work apply to figuring out how suspension bridges work or how to optimize slog sequentialization for high write-biased ZFS workloads.

3.  It can inspire people to make the fictional into reality.  Apple Quicktime was created by someone inspired by an episode of Star Trek to replicate the ability for the Enterprise's library computer to hold vast amounts of multimedia data.  Robbert Goddard was inspired to build rockets after thinking about how the aliens could travel between worlds in the story War of the Worlds.  The warp drive in Star Trek is pure fiction, but it has inspired people to think about whether the laws of physics permit such technology.  Whether we ever invent warp drive or not, the amount of thought dedicated to thinking about warp drives has undeniably advanced our understanding of general relativity.

How does a "lightsaber" contain a laser beam and multiply it *AND* make it visible while allowing it to release energy in a controlled fashion when it encounters a physical object without disrupting the magical force fields or other hand-wave tech that makes it possible?

No one within the movies themselves says a light saber is a laser beam, so I'm not required to believe it is a laser beam.  It is a really bright thing that can cut through a lot of stuff like a sword but when it encounters another thing like itself they do not pass through each other.  Can something like that exist?  I'm unaware of any laws of physics that make that blatantly impossible.  In engineering, it is often the case that when presented with what appears to be an intractable problem the real problem is the problem statement is too narrow to admit a solution.  As an engineer, I believe the reason it is so difficult to come up with a plausible explanation for how light sabers work is that the premise that they are somehow confined laser beams is faulty.  We assume because they are called "light-something" they have to be made of light.  But that's the grape-nuts fallacy.  Light sabers aren't even sabers.  They are more like thick foils.  If they don't have to be sabers, they don't have to be made up exclusively of light either.

Very high energy plasma would be my guess.  In fact, if I was presented with the problem of hypothesizing a technology that could imitate one, maybe I would consider a light saber handle that contained a retractable thin metal extension that itself was designed to emit a very strong magnetic field, and within that field would be contained a very high energy plasma.  That would explain what was confining the energy blade, why the light saber has a finite length, where the blade goes when the light saber is turned off and even what happens when you push the blade into a solid object (the blade retracts then slowly burns its way back out into the object).

A light saber that works like those plastic retractable ones you buy for your kids from Target is maybe not fanciful enough for the Wookiepedia crowd.  But pleasing them is also not a requirement for coming up with an engineering solution to the problem of how light sabers work.

[TimtheEnchanter]

I think humanity is a bit too primitive to debate whether or not lightsabers, or even anything remotely similar, are possible. We're only just reaching a point where ANY kind of energy weapon is practical, and in those rare cases they need to be mounted onto a vehicle with an enormous power source.

[Sinistar]

I think humanity is a bit too primitive to debate whether or not lightsabers, or even anything remotely similar, are possible. We're only just reaching a point where ANY kind of energy weapon is practical, and in those rare cases they need to be mounted onto a vehicle with an enormous power source.

Yeah I somehow don't think a light saber will run on 2 D batteries as this classic commercial demonstrates. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRfZWX-L7Hg

[Remaugen]

Busted!   

You can always switch your avatar back to the The Swine of Steel, The Porcine Powerhouse.

If we ever get our game back, I feel an SG starting up :)

Yeah, I could do a Zoo Crew Themed SG!

[Arcana]

I think humanity is a bit too primitive to debate whether or not lightsabers, or even anything remotely similar, are possible. We're only just reaching a point where ANY kind of energy weapon is practical, and in those rare cases they need to be mounted onto a vehicle with an enormous power source.

Actually, it depends on what you mean by practical.  Energy weapons are currently not economically practical, but I don't see how that has any bearing on whether we can reasonably discuss what is technologically achievable.

I think you are assuming that because every military application you've heard of involves extremely large weapons with extremely large power sources, that represents the limits of technology.  But that's not the limit of technology, that's actually a political limitation.  There's a treaty that bans the use of battlefield blinding weapons that cover laser small arms.  Most militaries aren't looking at small scale laser weapons explicitly for this reason.  But they are looking at large scale weapons designed to attack vehicles and as anti-missile weapons.  These do require very high energies and large power supplies because the intended targets require that level of power.

But if you wanted to make a hand-held anti-personnel laser weapon, I believe that's just within the limits of current technology.  The knuckleheads on the internet have already figured out how to make diode pumped Nd:YAG laser weapons capable of delivering megawatt pulses of energy - the kind of thing that can burn holes in razor blades and write your name in blocks of wood.  These are hobbyist projects costing maybe hundreds of dollars.  If you were willing to spend Tony Stark levels of cash, I think you could make a laser weapon capable of seriously injuring or killing someone that was hand held and used nothing but state of the art lithium batteries to power it.  The problem might be making a housing that wouldn't melt or burn your hands while you were holding it, but it would kill.  I'd probably make a pulsed fiber laser array of optically pumped infrared Nd:YAG solid state cluster.  Well, I'd hire someone to do that: I like my eyes still functional.

[rookery.]

Yeah, I could do a Zoo Crew Themed SG!

I like that idea....

could I join?

Maybe as the Carmine Crow?

[Vee]

I'd probably make a pulsed fiber laser array of optically pumped infrared Nd:YAG solid state cluster.  Well, I'd hire someone to do that: I like my eyes still functional.

Hey kids, when you ask Santa for a pulsed fiber laser array of optically pumped infrared Nd:YAG solid state cluster this year, make sure it's a Red Rider brand pulsed fiber laser array of optically pumped infrared Nd:YAG solid state cluster!

[Power Gamer]

You'll etch your eye out, kid.

[blacksly]

Not to mention suspending disbelief that a LEGION of the Emperor's best troops were on Endor and they were defeated by a bunch of teddy bears with rocks and sticks.  ;)

Now if they were all Wookies.....

That's because they had their top people working on it. Top.... people.

[brothermutant]

You'll etch your eye out, kid.

Dammit! Beat me to it.

[Talon Blue]

Not to mention suspending disbelief that a LEGION of the Emperor's best troops were on Endor and they were defeated by a bunch of teddy bears with rocks and sticks.  ;)

After being a few Star Wars role playing campaigns over years, I've witnessed and played with a few Ewok rogues that were the equivalent of the Winter Solider...using only a pointy wooden stick.

[hurple]

After being a few Star Wars role playing campaigns over years, I've witnessed and played with a few Ewok rogues that were the equivalent of the Winter Solider...using only a pointy wooden stick.

There are no problems in life that cannot be solved with a pointy wooden stick.

[hurple]

Speaking of lightsabers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uer5Gk_y-8