Saber Venting

[Obese Wan Kenobese]

Official sources call Kylo's sidebars 'vents'. Unofficial conversation says the sidebars can be used for various dueling techniques. Do official sources have Kylo using the sidebars as short saber blades? What I mean is, do they have their own magnetic field to behave as a 'solid' blade like the main blade does, or are they just hot? I see Kylo burns Rey with the vent, but would the vents engage a saber's blade or just pass through?

[Obese Wan Kenobese]

Perhaps I shouldn't have called this 'Saber Venting'. People will think it's complaining about sabers. Curse my enjoyment of double meanings. 

[Benji]

The 'vents' on the saber, I think, would actually engage another blade and could possibly be used to parry.  Perhaps the earliest ones weren't able to, but then someone saw potential there and said you know...

In the scene where Kylo Ren burns Rey, it looks like it actually stabs into her shoulder. Another reason to believe they would be useful in other ways.

[Darth Tepes]

He didn't burn Rey...he burned Finn

[scifidude79]

He didn't burn Rey...he burned Finn

Indeed.

Whether he actually stabbed Finn with it or just burned him, it looked like it hurt like hell.

[Darth Tepes]

It looked like how a blow torch would act.  Not really a stab or a slice..but basically melting the flesh away.  Real life it would probably only hurt immensely for a few seconds until shock set it.  But the wound would be horrific....and the smell.

[Benji]

He didn't burn Rey...he burned Finn

I guess this officially settles it. It has been too many days since the last time I watched this movie.

The end point is that the little 'vents' coming out of the sides appear to be made of the same stuff the main blade is. And should function in the same manner. If not, it's a stylistic thing that then becomes a complete waste of space.

[Obese Wan Kenobese]

Disney states repeatedly, it's a vent for excess energy of the cracked crystal. From what I've seen, my question has not been officially addressed.


If you can't see it resized on the forum... http://i.stack.imgur.com/RzjVa.jpg

It's not the plasma that makes it behave like a 'solid' blade, but the magnetic field containing the plasma. Logically, a vent doesn't have a magnetic field to recycle the plasma the same way a non vented blade does. Recycling the energy would just keep the energy in excess. But, as it's fiction, they can do as they please. I see no explicit use of it that demonstrates it is a short blade. Perhaps the energy is too much for one blade, so more blades distribute energy. However, a 'vent' implies a different function than another blade. It's also stated the timing is different. The label of 'quillon' fits the appearance, but doesn't address what I'm wanting to know. It is stated that the metal crossguard vent shrouds protect the hand from the vent. Many have pointed out that these shrouds could still be cut. If they were, the vent could either explode or vent unguided and burn the user. Many others are assuming the appearance makes it a blade. But, I don't see a blade. I see energy forced out of a tube that burns for several inches.



I'll just wait until something official confirms people's assumptions that the quillon protects the hands and could be used as a 'solid' blade, adding the possible combat techniques many expect without seeing Kylo utilize.

[scifidude79]

That poster is probably the closest you're going to get to something "official" on the subject.

[Obese Wan Kenobese]

It really seems that the excess energy is vented out of tubes on the side that would need to be resistant to lightsaber plasma energies in order to protect the hands. But, no magnetic energy would be involved, so the vented energy would not parry as if solid against another saber blade. The vent tubes themselves might as saber resistant materials, but not the side bar energy.

The quillons just make a different look and the cracked crystal is a parallel of Kylo's volatile nature. It makes more sense that he didn't utilize them in any great technique, because they don't add much function other than shoulder burning, which could as easily burn him. I've been practicing with one, and it's just a minor hindrance to free movement.

[Darth Tepes]

If you have any training in European Longsword it's not hard to not hit yourself with the quillions.  The issue so many were having was that Lightsabers have always been used like Katana or Classical Fencing (with Wushu thrown in when Ray came into it) and people (who had no HEMA experience) were just thrown for a loop.  Kylo more than once went into Longsword techniques, mind you not 100% but close enough.  Here's what I hope to find out.  It's been establish both in the TFA Visual Dictionary and Rebels the crosshilt is an ancient design.  The Vents bleed off the excess energy from the cracked Kyber Crystal, so was it a design of Necessity or aesthetics.  Real life weapons usually had a bit of both in their development.

[Rapine]

He didn't burn Rey...he burned Finn

There it is...

-1 Darth Tepes

[Darth Logos]

In response to the OP,

Champagne was an accident, but it didn't stop people from drinking it or recreating it.

What I'd like to know (before I truly gripe about it), do the guards actually have emitters or are they pure vented energy. If they in fact have the field emitters to contain the energy in a blade form, well done concept-thinker-people. If it was just something that wasn't fully thought through, then, yet again, boo to Disney/Abrams.

It would make sense though, that in order to keep from rapidly depleting the sabers energy that these vents would need field emitters to recycle the diverted energy. So then the need to compensate for the defective crystal then results in a new functionality. I'm beginning to like this saber more.

[Benji]

Disney states repeatedly, it's a vent for excess energy of the cracked crystal. From what I've seen, my question has not been officially addressed.


If you can't see it resized on the forum... http://i.stack.imgur.com/RzjVa.jpg

It's not the plasma that makes it behave like a 'solid' blade, but the magnetic field containing the plasma. Logically, a vent doesn't have a magnetic field to recycle the plasma the same way a non vented blade does. Recycling the energy would just keep the energy in excess. But, as it's fiction, they can do as they please. I see no explicit use of it that demonstrates it is a short blade. Perhaps the energy is too much for one blade, so more blades distribute energy. However, a 'vent' implies a different function than another blade. It's also stated the timing is different. The label of 'quillon' fits the appearance, but doesn't address what I'm wanting to know. It is stated that the metal crossguard vent shrouds protect the hand from the vent. Many have pointed out that these shrouds could still be cut. If they were, the vent could either explode or vent unguided and burn the user. Many others are assuming the appearance makes it a blade. But, I don't see a blade. I see energy forced out of a tube that burns for several inches.

I'll just wait until something official confirms people's assumptions that the quillon protects the hands and could be used as a 'solid' blade, adding the possible combat techniques many expect without seeing Kylo utilize.

I just noticed this... but in that poster zoom in on the vented energy... It is officially labeled as 'Quillon Plasma Blade' SO, if the poster was something produced by Disney and not fan created then there's the answer.

It would make sense though, that in order to keep from rapidly depleting the sabers energy that these vents would need field emitters to recycle the diverted energy. So then the need to compensate for the defective crystal then results in a new functionality. I'm beginning to like this saber more.

Also, this^^ otherwise the vented energy would extend out indefinitely and ultimately make the main blade ineffectual.

[Darth Logos]

Also, this^^ otherwise the vented energy would extend out indefinitely and ultimately make the main blade ineffectual.

Considering that they are just vents, I don't think the energy would have gone out indefinitely but rather dissipated at a distance similar to the quillion. Also keep in mind that Ren's crystal is of inferior quality (cracked) which A) necessitates the vents and B) results in it's unstable lightning-like appearance. A good crystal would produce a more laser like beam that possible could go on in perpetuity without the field, but the power cell would rapidly drain.

The emitted fields on all 3 blades prevent this...



Have you ever wondered why we never see a Jedi wall hugging?