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In the answers to this question it is noted that when the user dies a lightsaber goes off and that the activation button on a lightsaber may be a safety feature so that it will go off if the user drops it.

There are cases when lightsabers remain on when not in the users hands (e.g., Darth Vader throws his activated lightsaber during his battle with Luke in The Return of the Jedi.), but it isn't clear that the user isn't keeping it on intentionally with the force.

Does a lightsaber have to be kept on intentionally during use (like by holding a button down etc...), and will it automatically go off if the user drops it?

Answers using any level of canon are appropriate but please note the canon level in your answer.

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DQdlM
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  • Have deleted my answer as per your clarification. – PlutoThePlanet Mar 17 '17 at 19:23
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    An example of when a non-Force user threw an activated lightsaber would answer your question. That would show that it was on, but not kept on by a Force user. – RichS Mar 17 '17 at 19:45
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    An interesting case is Starkiller (Galen Marek) from The Force Unleashed. His lightsaber didn't have an activation button, and he activated it by shorting the circuits with the Force. And yes, he was able to throw it. – Gallifreyan Mar 17 '17 at 20:16
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    I'm not enough of a Star Wars buff to make this an "Answer," but I once saw someone say, in an online discussion, that at least one novel has claimed that some Jedi like to have a "self-destruct" feature built in so that if a non-approved user picks up the metal hilt, and tries to turn it on and use it as a weapon . . . the thing literally blows up in his face! That obviously doesn't happen every time in the movies, so my best guess would be that various Jedi Knights (or Sith Lords) have experimented with different "personalized security features" according to their own tastes. – Lorendiac Mar 17 '17 at 22:57
  • It is widely assumed that the button on a lightsaber can and does turn on the lightsaber when pressed or held down. However force users tend to use the force to push it or some inner mechanism to keep it on during use, hence it turning off when they die. –  Mar 18 '17 at 01:19
  • @Valorum and ThelronCreek I agree it is a duplicate and I voted to close. Unfortunately, the accepted (and highly upvoted) answer to that one is just an opinion with no support. – DQdlM Mar 21 '17 at 13:29
  • @Lorendiac - No Jedi would booby-trap their weapon. – Valorum Mar 21 '17 at 13:39
  • @Valorum -- I really don't know if they would or not. I've read maybe a couple of dozen "Star Wars" novels, and a bunch of comic books, but I am very far from having looked at everything. I was just citing someone else's claim -- I myself don't recall ever seeing anything that even addressed the subject of whether or not a "typical Jedi Knight" would seriously consider booby-trapping his lightsaber in order to keep someone like General Grievous from taking it as a trophy and then using it against other Jedi in the future. Can you point me to a source of information on this point? – Lorendiac Mar 21 '17 at 23:09
  • @Lorendiac - It's inelegant (and potentially indiscriminate). Neither of those are traits you'd associate with the Jedi. – Valorum Mar 21 '17 at 23:16
  • @Valorum -- don't be so sure. My opinion of the ethics and wisdom of the Jedi Order from the "prequel trilogy" is far from high. For a long time now, I've nursed a suspicion that Kenobi's line about "an elegant weapon for a more civilized age" is just a case of an old man living in denial, having managed to convince himself that the later years of the Old Republic had been a far, far better time to live in than they ever actually were, and that the old Jedi Order had been undone by sheer bad luck instead of by its own cluelessness, etc. – Lorendiac Mar 21 '17 at 23:34

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