Stephen Colbert gives his analysis of the new lightsaber seen in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer.
It has only been about a week since the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer dropped into the Internet for all prospective fans to see. It shows off a startled Storm Trooper, the Millenium Falcon in battle with several other fighters, and a fleet of X-Wings flying above a planet’s waters. The most contentious part of the trailer arrives near the end, though, when a Jedi reveals a new model of lightsaber.
The new weapon appears to have a hilt which contains a crossguard made from beams of light in the same way the main beam emits from the hilt of any standard lightsaber. Of course, commenters across the Web have their opinions. However, none may be so animated as the one Stephen Colbert provides.
“People think it’s actually three different plasma streams, but it’s all one,” Colbert exclaimed on his show that aired Dec 1.
“The long beam, right here, it comes out,” he continues, “and the two smaller beams at the bottom, they’re still attached to it. They don’t start where the little metal hilt ends. They’re attached to the other beam inside. The metal hilts are just casings around the little beams to protect your hand. Even if someone slices through the metal, they’re gonna hit the beam right there. Any Padawan knows that.”
Colbert, the obvious authority on the issue, continues by explaining, this time to a fictional nay-sayer named Greg, that it would only take three “focusing crystal activators” to make a single beam turn into three beams that go in different directions.
Controversy aside, the trailer is just a taste of what is to come. The film is not set for release in theaters until December 2015. The Force Awakens is the first in a planned trilogy which will show events that take place beginning about 30 years after those in Return of the Jedi. This time around, J.J. Abrams will direct, and George Lucas will provide creative direction and writing for the events the will unfold.
