I'm a fan of Warhammer 40K (had a few half-finished armies as a teen) and some of the equipment presented are quite cool. Notably, power swords are described in lore to have their blade surrounded by an energy field that negates armor.

I wanted to find a plausible mechanism to replicate this effect with current technology. I settled on charging the sword with high-voltage, which discharges upon impact as a destructive arc.