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Since lightsabers are made out of light, and all other laser based weapons, can't it be reflected by a mirror or something reflective?

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    When you are ready, you won't have to (deflect or dodge) -Morpheus
    – user5336
    Mar 15, 2012 at 14:48
  • If lightsabers could be deflected by mirrors, then Sith Lords would wear these into combat. i.etsystatic.com/8905937/r/il/252689/2109028305/…
    – RichS
    Aug 15, 2020 at 8:00

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No, it shouldn't be possible. The problem is that lightsabers aren't actually lasers (if they were, they wouldn't stop after 1-2m length, they'd go on until they hit something). They're some form of magnetic plasma bottle. The defences against them are magnetic or heat resistance (shields, dense metals, etc.), not reflection.

A surface which reflected charged particles would help, but the heat transfer would probably still melt it rapidly. (Lightsabers don't have much trouble with blast doors, for example, even shiny ones.)

(Even against laser weaponry, a mirror would be of limited value. The surface polish helps at first, but a sufficiently energetic pulsed laser will rapidly blow that shiny surface apart.)

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    Thank you for clearing this out. So polishing my spaceship could give me a small advantage
    – Frederiek
    Mar 15, 2012 at 10:14
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    I recommend you make your hull out out of Mandalorian iron (starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mandalorian_iron)
    – HNL
    Mar 15, 2012 at 11:26
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    There is precedent for a reflective surface successfully deflecting a blaster bolt; IG-88 did with his palm shortly after he was activated - see starwars.wikia.com/wiki/IG-88A
    – PhilPursglove
    Mar 15, 2012 at 11:57
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    @PhilPursglove: A blaster bolt only interacts with the surface momentarily; it's a small fast-moving pulse. A sufficiently shiny surface might do it. (It's still silly scientifically, but within the usual range of SW tech.) A second blaster bolt on the same point, however, ought to hit the scorch mark and, well, not reflect. (Also, IG-88 is made of very tough materials; that makes a big difference as his shiny surface was also designed to cope with incoming energy and damage.)
    – Tynam
    Mar 15, 2012 at 14:13
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    Technically the free electrons in the metal should act as a plasma (oscilating at the plasma frequency, in a similar way to the lightsabre) and deflect the blaster bolt. But various corrections to that model mean this is largely not the case.
    – AncientSwordRage ♦
    Mar 15, 2012 at 15:51
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Yes. The way I understand them is based on a bunch of books I purchased as a kid, so I am unsure how canonical it would be, but I think it would work. As I understand it, the lightsaber is not plasma, as some claim (it is clearly actually light), and works by the photoelectric effect, ionising a surface to the point where it is destroyed by the repulsive force of the bits ionised very strongly by virtue of the blade. By this logic, perfect mirrors which reflected all photons would block a lightsabre, and it would refract, and do everything else light does. It would also go through glass.

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    This doesn’t appear to be correct per my knowledge of canon. Could you find at least what books they are but the quotes as well if possible and edit them in to back this up?
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Aug 15, 2020 at 6:27

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