listen nothing in sound design will ever come close to the sheer power of the sound of a lightsaber turning on
I truly 1000% believe that Star Wars would never have gotten as popular as it has without everything about the lightsaber being absolutely perfect.
And I also believe the lightsaber is the perfect weapon in any form of media ever.
It draws upon a traditional and iconic weapon: a sword. Swords have gravitas, an ethos, that I don’t think anything else has. People love swords. They’re dramatic, they allow posing, tense back and forth battles, tests of skill and chances to flourish and show off.
But it’s better than a sword, because it sounds fucking awesome. You know what’s even better for your sword fight? If they make a cool ass noise when they hit eachother. Like everything about a lightsaber sounds amazing. It turning on, when they clash, when they deflect something, hell even when they just sit there and HUM it sounds cool.
There’s also the different colors, and this is important because it allows there to be differentiation. Vader has red, Obi-Wan has blue, Luke gets green. They’re instantly recognizable and you can understand what side someone is on based on the color of their weapon. It also allows there to be a certain amount of personalization and customization, which is VERY IMPORTANT because you know what really gets people into your story? When they start imagining themselves in it. When people start thinking about themselves in Star Wars I guarantee one of the first three questions that will come up (if not the first) is what color lightsaber would you have.
Finally, this is a small thing but, lightsabers are just easy to carry around. You just turn the damn thing off the and blade goes away. It’s a very manageable prop to carry around, and then you get sweet noises and posing when it turns on.
Laser sword goes swoosh buzz hmmmmm and it’s rad
