I don’t like the “heavy lightsaber” presentation they are deciding to copy from the Sequels.
Lightsabers are supposed to be “an elegant weapon, for a more civilized age”, as shown in the Originals and Prequels, not weighted sticks that are swung like clubs.
Wasn’t the original idea that they were very heavy? I could swear there’s a quote from Lucas or someone on that on something like the Empire of Dreams doc. I think the PT is the outlier in terms of how they are handled.
JEDIT: Okay so it’s Hamill quoting Lucas in the “Birth of the Lightsaber” featurette on the DVD (https://youtu.be/RIefj6dOhnM?t=213):
George was adamant these things were really, really heavy. That we couldn’t take a hand off, we always had to have two. It was like Excalibur - forty, fifty pounds of weight.
And then Lucas saying:
They were very powerful. They had a lot of energy in them. And so you worked with them as if they were heavy.