Severed limbs

Severed limbs refers to the permanent separation of a limb (arm or leg) from a living organism. In medical practices, the deliberate surgical removal of a limb is called amputation. In many sci-fi stories, people who suffer from missing limbs may often look towards cybernetic prosthetics as a replacement; providing that they do not die from blood loss or other injuries sustatined in whatever circumstance caused the loss of their limb(s) to begin with.

Film director George Lucas seems to enjoy interjecting severed limbs into his work, in particular the Star Wars film franchise. Each installment of both the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy shows examples of people having their arms or legs cut off. In the first film, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi used his lightsaber to cut off the arm of an Aqualish named Ponda Baba at Chalmun's Cantina shortly before the onset of the Battle of Yavin. A few years later, Obi-Wan's proteg, Luke Skywalker used his own lightsaber to defend himself from a Wampa ice creature on the planet Hoth. When the Wamp lunged at him, Luke cut the creature's arm off with his blade. Shortly thereafter, Luke felt the sting of a lightsaber himself in Cloud City on Bespin when he lost his right hand in a dual with his father, Darth Vader.