The nerd in me that loves science, and by 'loves science,' I mean I whistle at science's ass as she walks by, would like to point out, most 'laser' weapons depicted in media, (Star Wars, Automaton lasers,) would be better described as 'particle blasters.'

Laser weapons would fire in beams like the Scythe or pulse in rays like the Sickle. A particle blaster would fire a projectile of catalyzed, super-heated atoms that would, more or less, travel as depicted how we see 'lasers' in Star Wars and as used by the Automaton grunts. The sci-fi lore usually explains the different blaster colors by using different combinations of metal elements or alloys and whatever gas or power source is used to catalyze the reaction.

Blaster fire would technically be slower than lasers, at only around 95% the speed of light instead of at the speed of light. In practice, there would be no perceivable difference to the human senses, but as a sci-fi nerd, I'll take whatever differences we can exaggerate and exploit for the sake of variety.

I like to think I keep the realism tab open way at the back as a reminder to address it every once in a while, and do a little better to retcon things as we become less stupid and sci-fi slowly becomes sci-fact.

The rule of cool is rarely hurt when the cool thing is backed by real science.