User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail Chapter 334: Sin and Sacrifice, Review/@comment-202.156.10.11-20130607160115/@comment-7418318-20130611064351

That might make a little sense for Gundam beam weapons, though a forcfield "core" surrounded by the beam effect would make more sense than the beam being encased. How would it damage anything otherwise?

But in Star Wars it's even established backstory that a lightsaber's blade is only a laser, without any forcefield (even though they do have forcefield technology, like the shields on spaceships....).