Blasters do not fire light speed bolts. Blaster bolts move at the speeds you see in the films (absolute canon) which puts them around the speed of bullets that are fired from modern day firearms. Slower in some cases.

Also, Force users do not move or react at anywhere near the speed of light.

Actually bullets dont travel all that fast, theyre just really small so you dont see them. (unless theyre tracers)

have a look at some videos on youtube where someone is firing a pistol at a long(er) range target and its zoomed in on the target, most of the time you can actually see the bullet traveling downrange and it seems to be going at about the same speed as blasters do...

theyre just not huge glowing bolts

Once again I must caution against the use of RL physics in Star Wars. They can still cause migraines. *cough* Explosions and blaster fire heard in space *cough*

Waitasec... what am I saying??? NEVER try to apply physics to ANY sci-fi franchise!!!!

(except Firefly)

In most cases blaster bolts move slower than bullets. Most firearms generally fire a round at about 720mph. The speed of sound is 762mph (roughly). So in actuality the sound of the shot firing reaches you an instant before the bullet does. There are weapons that fire at faster than sound though. We have high caliber rifles that can fire bullets at super-sonic speed, roughly between 900-1300mph, a bit shy of mach 2. Then we have Rail Guns which can fire projectiles around Mach 7. But those're big, Naval Ship mounted guns.

From what I've seen in TCW and the movies, Blaster Bolts aren't as fast as some of the claims I have heard. For one thing, Clone Troopers have dodged shots, which would mean there is no invisible part of the bolt that strikes before the visible light hits you. in fact, no damage is seen until the visible bolt hits you. Another thing is that blaster bolts do have a limit effective range. Just as a bullet will lose momentum, a blaster bolt will lose energy and dissipate. Only a laser could stretch on forever, so long as the energy behind it was continual. Blasters, however, shoot in limited, contain bursts rather than a concentrated continuous beam.

blasters do NOT shoot beams of light nor do they travel at the speed of light.

Instead they fire a bolt of focused high-energy particle-beam. A common blaster is plasma based. meaning it fired a superheated, ionized gas. That is released from the gas chamber into another chamber where it is altered into a plasma state. It is then released from a magnetic "bottle" effect through the collimating components. You may remember tibanna gas being harvested on bespin the home planet of cloud city, as it was a commonly used gas for most types of blasters.

being made from ionized gas these blasters were used by the clone army because droids are more vulnerable to ion energy although they are still quite deadly to humans

The even more common type of blaster fires a high energy particle beam that like the E-11. A small quantaty of high-energy gas moves from what is called the Heter Valve to the XCiter chamber where it is energized by the power pack and then moved to the actuating blaster module the components in the barrel process the high-energy gas into a compressed beam of intense energy particles that give off intense light.

blasters need 2 types of ammo. A gas cartridge and a power cell that does not need to be changed very often in weaker blasters.

blasters do NOT shoot beams of light nor do they travel at the speed of light.

 

Instead they fire a bolt of focused high-energy particle-beam. A common blaster is plasma based. meaning it fired a superheated, ionized gas. That is released from the gas chamber into another chamber where it is altered into a plasma state. It is then released from a magnetic "bottle" effect through the collimating components. You may remember tibanna gas being harvested on bespin the home planet of cloud city, as it was a commonly used gas for most types of blasters.

 

being made from ionized gas these blasters were used by the clone army because droids are more vulnerable to ion energy although they are still quite deadly to humans

 

The even more common type of blaster fires a high energy particle beam that like the E-11. A small quantaty of high-energy gas moves from what is called the Heter Valve to the XCiter chamber where it is energized by the power pack and then moved to the actuating blaster module the components in the barrel process the high-energy gas into a compressed beam of intense energy particles that give off intense light.

 

blasters need 2 types of ammo. A gas cartridge and a power cell that does not need to be changed very often in weaker blasters.

Excellent answer. Next answer, does anybody study quantum physics ?

...lightning and fire both being plasma themselves...

Ummm, NO. Plasma is super-heated gas which has different flow-properties than 'regular' gas due to the high heat. Lightning is electrons (negatively-charged sub-atomic particles which commonly 'orbit' atomic nuclei [protons and neutrons]); the flash of a lightning-bolt is partially composed of plasma (air which is super-heated by the passage of all those electrons). 'Fire' (by which I assume you mean 'flame') is just heated, but not plasma-level -heated, gas.

Ummm, NO. Plasma is super-heated gas which has different flow-properties than 'regular' gas due to the high heat. Lightning is electrons (negatively-charged sub-atomic particles which commonly 'orbit' atomic nuclei [protons and neutrons]); the flash of a lightning-bolt is partially composed of plasma (air which is super-heated by the passage of all those electrons). 'Fire' (by which I assume you mean 'flame') is just heated, but not plasma-level -heated, gas.

Plasma is quite a complex thing, it's not quite gas, it's gas like but ionized.

And Lightning and Fire (well the visual parts of them) are indeed plasma.

Lightning is an example of plasma present at Earth's surface. Typically, lightning discharges 30,000 amperes at up to 100 million volts, and emits light, radio waves, X-rays and even gamma rays.[12] Plasma temperatures in lightning can approach ~28,000 kelvin and electron densities may exceed 1024 m−3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_%28physics%29

The flame is the visible portion of the fire and consists of glowing hot gases. If hot enough, the gases may become ionized to produce plasma.[2] Depending on the substances alight, and any impurities outside, the color of the flame and the fire's intensity will be different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire

Of course the actual energy parts of Lightning and Fire are electrons and heat.

However the question asked was on the visual aspects of plasma and why they move slower than light, which is why Lightning and fire are relevant as their visuals are also plasma.

As for why Star Wars plasma weapons, move at the specific speed the do, IDK.

It is either Phlebotonium or the Rule of Plot that determines the speed of blaster bolts.

Plus, as explained already, it is kind of hard to dodge out of the way of something that announces its presence by hitting you. It might be realistic but it makes for boring movies.

It is either Phlebotonium or the Rule of Plot that determines the speed of blaster bolts.

Nah, rule of cool fx.

Don't know, but they are WAY to slow in most starwars games including this one. When you see them in the movies etc they are almost as fast as a bullet.

I think if they speeded them up to how they should be you wouldn't see them snaking as much as they fly towards moving targets

I know each blaster is different, some fire ionized plasma others concentrated particle beams? Particle accelerated beams would obviously travel at C or faster, but there is an abundance of visual evidence clearly demonstrating that blasters don't travel anywhere near C?

 

Is there any official theory or shared consensus for this fictional anomaly?

The plasma is contained in an electromagnetic field of some sort or another. This has a mass (albeit a very small one). It is propelled out of the barrel by a force. Thus you have an acceleration.

However the nature of the round is that on contact the field breaks releasing the energy. The damage it does is unlike a bullet in that it does not matter how fast its travelling and thus making it travel at great speeds is a waste of energy.

A bolt travelling faster would suffer a higher rate of the fields energy dissipating as heat due to kinetic friction and thus actually result in a shorter range.

Therefore the majority of a blasters energy is put into the strength of the field holding it to increase the time it takes to dissipate and thus its range (which is how and why blaster rifles/pistols/sniper rifles etc exist.. its a matter of the amount of plasma fired and the strength of the field) while making it fast enough that your not going to be able to see it coming and simply move out of the way lol.