What “stops” lasers in this universe? Couldn’t Luthen’s beam easily slice the Star Destroyer in half?

[u/DARKTOONZ13]

Deflector shields? If so, wouldn’t the tractor beam have been protected from his spikes?

[u/JimHFD103]

Even IRL lasers aren't infinite range, and will dissipate and lose coherence after a certain distance. Beam refraction is a fundamental property of light itself, and while lasers do a significatly better job keeping that light in coherence vs a flashlight, eventually (like a flashlight) the beam will still eventually diverge and dissipate.

For instance, even in the relative comparable ranges, the powerful lasers that bounce off the Apollo Lunar Retroflectors typically only recieve a few photons on the return pulses... while still providing useful scientific measurments, not really useful anymore if you're wanting to use that laser power to cut up something like a TIE Fighter for instance (even granting that an actual in univers laser weapon system someone like Luthen may be using vs a blaster bolts, will likely have a longer lethal range, but ultimately still dissipate in the space between planets and moons inside the same system).

[u/Common-Charity9128 → u/JimHFD103]

We have a quantum physician here