Just got back from watching *Star Wars: The Force Awakens* and it occurred to me at the start and about 3/4 of the way through that a blaster rifle is essentially a super hot bullet somewhat similar to a lightsaber.

So with that in mind, when a character is shot with a blaster rifle by someone or they are wounded by a lightsaber, there shouldn't be any blood - right? Or am I wrong and this isn’t right at all.

Because in the first *The Phantom Menace*, when Maul is sliced in half by Kenobi, there is a tiny cloud of blood. And in *The Force Awakens* when Kylo Ren is shot by Chewbacca he proceeds to hit the side of his body where he was shot in the forest during the fight scene and blood falls from his wound onto the snow.

My thought is that because both are so hot, when it comes into contact with the skin, yes it will hurt but it would cauterize at the same time because of the heat. How wrong am I?

This question was spurred by [another question about lightsabers causing cauterization](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/48346/does-a-lightsaber-have-a-cauterizing-effect-when-cutting-off-appendages-or-not) but if questioning a blaster rifle as well as a lightsaber.