Why Didn't Ponda Baba's Arm Cauterize? #starwars

Why does Ponda Baba’s arm bleed? Shouldn’t the lightsaber cauterize the wound? This is absolutely a case of the rules about how lightsabers worked not being established until later movies. But to retroactively account for Ponda Baba’s bloody wound, reference materials stated that his species’ blood simply did not cauterize by heat. It’s as simple as that.

[emilromano]

I think the explanation that makes most sense is that his species is similar to arachnids that don't have thin blood vessels that can easily cauterize shut. Instead, they have an open blood system that is larger and therefore a cut won't be able to cauterize all the blood to stop it from bleeding

[MCLegoboy]

The Walrus Man is actually a Spider Man

[BrickStopmotions]

Better question: Why is Ponda Baba's arm hollow?

[myriadmediamusings]

I recall this being answered fairly early on in one of the Insider magazine Q&As. I'm willing to bet though that lightsaber severings wouldve continued to have bleeding if George didnt decide to cut off Luke's hand in Empire Strikes Back.

In retrospect this feels like one of those things people wouldnt have cared about if some didnt get so overly pedantic. But I do like how Aqualish physiology was one of the earliest examples of Star Wars biology and making the universe more fleshed out.

[Bingopete]

Walrus man was the only name I knew for that character. Never knew they gave him a proper name.

[levig]

I love it when Star Wars fixes plot holes with lore

[JustWastedHoursHere]

You might also be wondering why it's a hairy hand and arm. Originally it was a flipper type of hand to match his face and body, but someone pointed out that this would make it difficult for him to hold a blaster so they improvised something quick.

[iamcarbine]

Bro put everything in alignment w this one lol

[mact]

This has bothered me for 48 years! Thank you!

[jbear]

I mean the idea of completely cauterizing the wound every single time is pretty absurd in and of itself.

[TonyTylerDraws]

lol it’s so funny that people exceptions for the classic stuff but if this happened today “fans” would lose their minds

[page]

That actually was pretty simple. I accept it.

[DeathlessViking]

I dislike the cauterize thing it would not always work, depending on surface area and where it's cut, the cauterized area will start to bleed anyway. It probably work om extremities but if a torso is cut, the guts would spill out. (probably)

[TooRudeProductions]

Of all the things that could've been redone, touched up with a single easy to do edit, for some reason that dang arm is still in the movie to this day with blood on it, in a movie that supposed to "be for kids", from a weapon that is supposed to cauterize wounds, yet George Lucas never felt the need to correct it, but we got maclunky!

[thepokeystormtrooper]

It should also be noted that obi wan light saber didn't actually hit him if you slow down the footage and look closely you can see that what obi wan did was reflect the blaster shot back into the guy, atleast that's how it is with the version on Disney plus

[rubberneckinc.]

Who cares? Look how handsome he is. He's wanted in all those systems because he's a looker.

[JackRavenMad]

He was saving some ketchup packets in his sleeve for later

[WeirdOftheWhiteWolf]

Panda Baba should have turned the other cheek instead of try to mix it up with Space Jesus 🤣

[mrjtfang]

Blood isn't what's cauterized. Flesh is.

[DarthJone]

If star wars really had blood in all kill scenes... the most violent r rated franchise