I saw a picture of a Swiss army lightsaber. That was amusing.
I don't like the new lightsaber. It looks impractical and only serves to exist for the "Oh cool" factor. I hate the "Oh cool" factor when it's presented by itself. At least the double lightsaber has a practical effect, if a bit more dangerous to wield. The filmmakers are going to have to really sell me on this lightsaber's practicality.
And okay, so a popular assumption is that the cross guard will protect you from lightsaber attacks, which is a pretty legitimate claim. After all, just about every lightsaber battle could be resolved quickly if the duelist just slides the blade down to the fingers and chop them off. But it's not much of a threat now, is it? Why doesn't that happen already in every lightsaber battle? Possibly the "friction" is too much to allow for that kind of sliding. Or as someone already said, the FORCE!
But then why extend that protection to just one plane? A real broadsword has that plane because of how the swords are created. Additional cross guards would be unnecessary and unwieldy. A lightsaber can be struck from any of 360 degrees. And besides, is the handle safe? Because I'm looking at how those cross guards stick out and seeing an unprotected housing. What happens if the opposing lightsaber slides toward that?
It does seem that they are trying too hard to make something cool with lightsabers while forgetting that lightsabers are simply cool. Darth Maul's lightsaber was pretty badass (even though Darth Maul was boring cardboard). General Grievous's four lightsabers were also pretty cool, even though he wasn't technically a Jedi. But not everything needs to be souped up.
But if you are going to soup up a lightsaber, then go big with it, man. Cross guards? Pfft, it looks silly and doesn't convey a sense of awesomeness. A lightsaber chain weapon? Now that would be awe-inspiring. A lightsaber chain would be pretty cool, but they'd have to explain that nobody talks about the horrible period of time in R&D. Tragic, simply tragic.
I just hope the teaser is a marketing test. Maybe they want to see if that weapon will sit well with the audience. Hopefully they got enough negative feedback that they'll reconsider the broad sword idea. But you know I'll go see the movie regardless.
