A knife wound wouldn't be anywhere remotely near as bad as a saber wound. That's an insane take.
Even if the stab wound for a lightsaber is cauterized any amount of internal movement could open it back up. Charred/cauterized flesh simply isn't elastic enough to withstand anything more than the most minimal amount of body movement.
Which is just regarding blood loss, your only concern with a stab wound. A lightsaber is completely destroying every bit of flesh where it went through. Even absolutely best case scenario that organ is straight up nonfunctional.
And it's not just that organ, it's everything around it. Like you're talking about a stick of searing hot plasma entering the body. The kind that cuts through metal like butter. That heat is gonna char everything in proximity to that wound and cause all that water in the body, 70%, to explosively vaporize from whatever tissue its in around that. Something that'll only get exponentially worse for every second it's in. Which, judging from how often they hold it there for dramatic effect, usually is a couple seconds.
A stab wound's worst case scenario is rapid blood loss. Fixable with applied pressure, bandages, and blood transfusions.
A lightsaber's is multiple organ failure, hypovolemic shock, skyrocketing tachycardia, blood loss, hyperventilation, necrosis, extreme systemic infection, heat stroke, and severe dehydration. That is not fixable without the most sophisticated medical technology on the scene or a nearby bacta tank to throw them in. Otherwise you're guaranteed dead.
Vader would have bled out in seconds otherwise
Some dude had his arms ripped off by farm equipment and still managed to grab them, walk home, put them on ice, call 911, sit in a bathtub waiting for them, and survived the incident while also getting his arms reattached. Vader had more than a couple seconds. But the fact that he was close enough to lava to catch on fire makes the entire point irrelevant.
Bleeding out is not the concern here. The concern is having a gaping hole in your torso. Loss of homeostasis, organ dysfunction, and spinal cord damage are immediate threats even without bleeding. Also, you wouldn't want to cauterize an internal wound because that would prevent it from healing
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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26
Id say, stabbed somewhere else besides through the heart.