The Lightsaber Exists And George Lucas Wants To Destroy It
First the good news. Someone has actually created a working lightsaber… sort of. Wicked Lasers has developed what amounts to a turbo-charged laser pointer which emits a bright, bright blue beam powerful enough to burn. Like any real lightsaber would be, this thing is crazy dangerous. Take a look:
So this device is pretty cool and obviously inspired by Lightsabers. This shouldn’t be a problem, technological advancements have long been inspired by science fiction. NASA named its first space shuttle “Enterprise” and had the cast of Star Trek on hand when they unveiled it. But if Gene Roddenberry had been George Lucas, he probably would have sued them.
Predictably, George Lucas is out to shut down Wicked Laser’s very lightsaber-like device. Lucasfilm sent this bummer of a letter to them in order to pressure them to be less cool:
It has come to our attention that a company called Wicked Lasers is selling a highly dangerous product out of Hong Kong that is designed to look like a lightsaber from Star Wars. This product is not licensed or approved by Lucasfilm in any way. We have demanded that Wicked Lasers immediately cease and desist their infringing activities. As Wicked Lasers itself admits, this product can cause serious injury to the user and other people. We strongly discourage consumers from purchasing it.
The weird thing here is that they seem more upset that it can hurt people than that it resembles a lightsaber. I guess they haven’t seen Star Wars. Note to Lucasfilm: Lightsabers are supposed to chop arms off. I fully expect to see Obi Wan’s fight scene from the Mos Eisley Cantina digitally removed the next time Lucas releases a new, fucked up edition of the original trilogy. Depressing.
