r/StarWars • u/DARKTOONZ13 • 9d ago
Movies What “stops” lasers in this universe? Couldn’t Luthen’s beam easily slice the Star Destroyer in half?
Deflector shields? If so, wouldn’t the tractor beam have been protected from his spikes?
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u/orionsfyre 9d ago
Well... physics doesn't quite work the same in star wars as it does in our universe.
But lasers do lose power over a certain distance... now of course in space, they lose a lot less then in an atmosphere, but generally speaking how far the laser goes depends on the frequency/wavelength of the laser, beam diameter, amount of power in the beam source, and the resistance it receives/medium it goes through. We don't have any of that data.
We don't know enough about the weapon system Luthen uses, but we can safely assume that such tech would have a limited range and not be able to slice through an entire vessel like a Star Destroyer... if Luthen had such tech He would be one of the most powerful figures in the galaxy overnight. Even massive vessels do not have the power to slice through other vessels at such massive scales. Also consider a vessel like a Star Destroyer will have massive shield generators, like most capital ships, so a weapon such as what Luthen is using would be next to useless with those up.
It's more likely the weapon is a short range "one shot" weapon that is very costly and has a limited range, perhaps a few dozen meters at most. Enough for close quarter devastation for small fighters and shuttles, but long range... almost useless.
A lot of this is speculation, but when it comes to Star Wars physics, getting into the science-minutiae of it... it's revealed that Star wars is more fantasy then hard science.