2612: Lightsabers

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Lightsabers

Title text: A lot of Jedi romances start with this turning into a Lady and the Tramp spaghetti situation.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a LIQUID LIGHTSABER - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

A lightsaber is a beam-like sword weapon used by members of the Jedi order in the Star Wars franchise. This comic shows a lightsaber fight starting between two Cueball like Jedis. When the first strike is made between the two lightsabers, they seemingly melt together, with a bloop sound, like the beams are made of a liquid. This then causes the two light beams to be stuck to each other.

This scene actually looks a lot like what happens between Harry Potter and Voldemorts wands in the end of the fourth book the Goblet of Fire. Here two spells hits each other and connects the two wands. And the wand holders cannot release or disconnect the wands.

In this situation one Jedi tries to shake the beam, maybe to break the bond, but instead the wave travels down the beam also shaking the other Jedi's hand. When the vibration ends this other Jedi then decides to switch off his lightsaber, maybe to fix this. But the retraction of the light beam into the handle (as seen in the movies) causes both of the Jedis to be drawn together where they collide together, forcefully enough to render them both unconscious. The connected lightsaber handles lies next to them on the ground.

The title text implies that such events are how Jedi romances start, comparing it to the famous "spaghetti scene" from the 1955 Disney animated movie Lady and the Tramp where the two titular characters unintentionally kiss after sharing a strand of spaghetti. In the Old Republic, Jedi were forbidden from entering romantic relationships (and discouraged from forming attachments in general), but in the pre-Disney Star Wars Legends continuity of the Expanded Universe, Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade first met while fighting in the aftermath of the fall of the Empire, and then developed a romantic relationship.

Star Wars is a recurring theme on xkcd, and lightsabers have been prominently featured before in for instance 1433: Lightsaber, where the problem with the physics of a light beam as a sword is shown. That is not the case in the previous comic about light saber, 1397: Luke, although it is with Luke in both of them.

But in general light does not interact with light as photons are bosons and can thus pass through each other. Interference yes, but no way to light beams could collide and bounce back as when two lightsabers collide. Also as the comic Lightsaber mentioned above shows, there is no way of confining a beam of light, making it stop after about a meter (or anywhere). So this is another time where Randall makes a joke about the physics of lightsabers

Transcript

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Discussion

Not sure what's going on here. Are electric arcs what's happening between the lightsabers? --172.70.242.207 12:48, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Could be based on properties of plasma? 172.70.211.72 12:53, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Probably something like cold welding. The fields keeping the light saber beam coherent would not be able to differentiate between the two plasma beams, and would join together. --172.70.91.36 13:22, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

That's my take. The effect that confines the laser (to make it a handy length, at the very least) is potentially too 'self-sticky', but certainly with that of the opposing blade after a bit of awkward cross-resonance. And then the deactivation/withdrawing (typoed that as "sithdrawing"!) still drags the other blade-tip inwards too. 172.70.90.63 13:35, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

The Star Wars tabletop RPG explains the lightsaber blade as plasma contained in a magnetic bottle, all generated by the hilt. In reality, though, (1) this wouldn't generate a rigid blade, but one that would bend as it was moved, and (2) if two bottles contacted each other, they'd tend to merge. I think that's the model this comic is working on - the bottles merge, making the arc, and when the sabers are turned off, the retracting merged bottles pull the two characters together. - Physics & SW nerd 172.69.180.139 19:42, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

My reaction: And THAT's why the two dueling Jedis should have different color of the blade! -- Hkmaly (talk) 19:47, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Very good job on the transcript (except a few minor grammar errors). I didn't envy someone trying to describe all the imagery. Barmar (talk) 15:25, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Lots of comics about lightsabers. Maybe it's time to make a category for them? Many things got categories after just 4-5 appearaces. 141.101.105.249 17:20, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

This is potentially inspired by a scene from Spaceballs where two lightsabers "tangle", although in thta scene they don't actually connect. 141.101.104.134 19:11, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

I see your Schwartz is almost as big as mine.

Like I've never used that line before. RandalSchwartz (talk) 17:41, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

In panels 10 and 11, the bodies seem to cast shadows on the ground. I don't recall seeing this previously on XKCD, is this the first time? 141.101.105.249 19:58, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

I think that's just to indicate that they are off the ground (having been yanked in the air by the lightsaber contracting). Unsurprisingly, depictions of people in mid-air are fairly uncommon. (Before I got bored and gave up) I found 9 examples since comic 2000 - approximately 1 in every 68. Four are levitating, through either advanced technology (https://xkcd.com/2485/ https://xkcd.com/2222/) or mystical powers (https://xkcd.com/2193/ https://xkcd.com/2180/), and in four it's already clear from the context that they're off the ground, because of their actions (https://xkcd.com/2343/ https://xkcd.com/2291/), or from other cues (https://xkcd.com/2148/ https://xkcd.com/2106/). The ninth (https://xkcd.com/2022/) uses the same convention as the current comic. 162.158.34.237 11:21, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

That’s not what’s happening

“In this situation one Jedi tries to shake the beam, maybe to break the bond, but instead the wave travels down the combined beam to also shake the other Jedi's hand-held hilt.”

Nuh uh. One tries to shake loose, then the other tries, also. Why do people make up complex explanations for obvious simple things?172.70.211.72 20:07, 27 April 2022 (UTC)

Strongly agree. I guess either interpretation is possible, but this seems obvious to me, so I’ve changed the explanation. 172.70.54.65 15:16, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

Reminds me of the Priori Incantatem stuff in Harry Potter where wands with the same core source connect with each other :)

My first thought was 'This is why you "don't cross the streams."'

ProphetZarquon (talk) 21:57, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

Reverted from vandalism

The most recent edits were all converting the explanation to "pig latin". (No explanation in English.) I've undone them. If it gets vandalized again, please address that? [/br] ProphetZarquon (talk) 21:57, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

I just reverted the pig Latin twice. Can someone block our IP vandal, please? Nitpicking (talk) 22:01, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

Just did another reversal. While False (talk) 22:04, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

What exactly is going on with the edit summaries they're sending? --141.101.98.221 22:10, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

Trying to get a sort of ransom out us apparently. We’re not doing that of course. While False (talk) 22:18, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

Apparently we did, sort of. --172.70.90.211 22:32, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

Wouldn’t say so. We did nothing but undo edits, having no regard for any demands. Eventually the user took measures to fulfill his own demands and called that a win 💁🏻 While False (talk) 22:40, 28 April 2022 (UTC)

I've been noticing quite a bit of vandalism recently (page blanking, "disaster"/"last xkcd", and now pig Latin). Is there any way to stop this? --172.70.178.33 03:29, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

I'm done vandalizing this page, because I got the emoji I wanted. --🎄 (talk) 04:38, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

And no doubt you'll be back to vandalise something else, later, because you're pathetic and imagine you've discovered a new game that only you have the skill and wit to accomplish. Pathetic and predictable. But small things amuse small minds... See you next Tuesday, I'm sure. 141.101.98.135 08:00, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

And now there's a different kind of vandalism. It seems to be affecting the whole website; the main page now says "We have an explanation for all 905 xkcd comics..." 172.70.126.215 23:57, 3 May 2022 (UTC)

The title text doesn't match the text on xkcd, it says "A lot of Jetag too soon." instead of "A lot of Jedi romances start with this turning into a Lady and the Tramp spaghetti situation." 108.162.216.27 23:46, 4 May 2022 (UTC)