I got several minutes into that video before I realised you meant extended universe and weren't referring to a real fighting style in Europe
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One thing I never got about Star Wars lightsaber combat (across all the movies).
- Thread starter Stiler
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I got several minutes into that video before I realised you meant extended universe and weren't referring to a real fighting style in Europe
This sound ridiculous. If someone is pushing against your sword that is equally pushing back, and that blade suddenly disappears, the enemy's sword is going to continue going forward and through you. That's how momentum works.
Somehow folks here managed to invoke "bullshido" to a fictional fight.
Somehow folks here managed to invoke "bullshido" to a fictional fight.
Same reason they don't just kill each with the force. It's harder to affect someone powerful in the force with it, which is why laser sword kung fu is the ultimate form of combat.
It's not like she just snapped their neck 11-style, did she?
It's a risky move. Suddenly turning off your saber might make your opponent just swing violently and slice your head/limb off.
The UK turned their lightsaber off but turned it back on pointing inwards.
OP
OP
When you're attacking them with an overhead strike, or from the sides and they block, the angle of their swing once you turn off your saber will not hit you, as they'll be pushing above/to the side and not directly at you.
This is the in-universe explanation. Star Wars saber duels are just psychic battles where each Force user is trying to foresee as far as possible while the Dark Side users also try to obscure that reach.
This is the out-of-universe explanation. Don't overthink movies; literally no good can come of it, so at best, you come away with a bland, factual answer (that's really only there to placate the people that obsess over these kinds of things).
I'm just having a bit of fun with semantics. The force is the ultimate weapon.
Yoda, Sidious, Snoke and Luke all becoming so powerful with the force that they ditched lightsabers outright was always such a cool detail to me.
Truly the Force is the real elegant weapon... for a more civilized age.
This. OP is basically asking "wouldn't you win if you stopped defending yourself?" It's a block. The whole point is to stop the opponent's blade from continuing its arc, which is generally intended to kill and/or maim you.
Ive asked people about this, its ... not worth pursuing further thought lol
plus, it would look really dumb
plus, it would look really dumb
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OP
I'm talking about when you're the attacker, not the person who's blocking an attack.
Come on, look at it being used it (a bit without actually getting into the blocking stance like I talked about but same thing basically).
That doesn't look cool?
Come on, look at it being used it (a bit without actually getting into the blocking stance like I talked about but same thing basically).
That doesn't look cool?
no because the precedent it sets and the can of worms it opens basically ruins the franchise. Good luck having good choreography moving forward.
As for an answer it's because lightsaber beams are held in place by magnetic fields, and when they clash, those fields are repelling each other, so when they're clashing they're pushing against the force of both the other person and the magnet. Since jedi have weird precognition when they fight if they sensed you trying the 'turn it off' method they'd just stop pushing and let the blade naturally bounce back towards your face.
OP
OP
Well, when Dooku slid his lightsaber down Obi's and cut his hand that didn't really set a precedent or cause crossguards to suddenly appear on lightsabers, even though historically that's the entire reason they were invented.
I think it'd just a be a cool thing to see one-off, not something that is a common place thing or takes over during fighting. Just like a cool "big fight" moment special move that you see a character do and then the more normal fighting for the rest. Kind of like how the Dooku fight went with that slide and then you never really saw it happen again even though there's no crossguards (til Kylo's, and even then the other lightsabers don't have it either).
Just had another thought. I imagine lightsabers are designed so they are not easily turned on or off when holding them in those kinds of positions. You wouldn't your lightsaber accidentally turning off just because your grip slipped or something like that, after all.
I'm just having a bit of fun with semantics. The force is the ultimate weapon.
Yoda, Sidious, Snoke and Luke all becoming so powerful with the force that they ditched lightsabers outright was always such a cool detail to me.
Right??? Unfortunately they didn't in the prequels. I totally agree with you though, Sidious and Yoda are both respectively powerful enough to have transcended lightsaber combat.
The speed from the kylo gif is very fast but it still isn't instant or even blaster shot fast. In the time it would take for you to move the arc of your swing in past a blocking sabre, the blocking sabre can also adjust to track that motion and the beam extending from the reignited sabre would contact the blocking blade again. Taken to an extreme you're really just trying to turn a lightsabre into a gun by pointing it at the opponent from different angles and feathering it off and on to 'shoot'. Shooting force users doesn't work, historically.
It's probably a useful technique to keep in your pocket to surprise the odd opponent, but just like with precognition we could try and intuit some other bullshit explanations as to why we haven't seen it yet. Like if you hold an unignited sabre only an inch away from an ignited blade and then turn it on, does the extending blade push against the stationary one, or does it push back against it's own ignition source aka the handle, or does it split the newtons of force evenly between the 2? Or does the stationary blade simply completely stop the newly forming blade at a couple inches long because a new blade can't occupy the same space as an existing blade on formation or what? There's myriad ways to write off the maneuver as often putting the user at a disadvantage as long as the story teller doesn't want it to work.
It's probably a useful technique to keep in your pocket to surprise the odd opponent, but just like with precognition we could try and intuit some other bullshit explanations as to why we haven't seen it yet. Like if you hold an unignited sabre only an inch away from an ignited blade and then turn it on, does the extending blade push against the stationary one, or does it push back against it's own ignition source aka the handle, or does it split the newtons of force evenly between the 2? Or does the stationary blade simply completely stop the newly forming blade at a couple inches long because a new blade can't occupy the same space as an existing blade on formation or what? There's myriad ways to write off the maneuver as often putting the user at a disadvantage as long as the story teller doesn't want it to work.
I was under the impression that with proper Jedi/Sith (so not Rey or Kylo) lightsaber duels are like 99% the force making you go on autopilot and 1% actual skill.
I mean Jedi can reliably block blaster bolts without paying too much attention afterall, they aren't doing that with human reaction times. And if they can do that on the regular the chances of turning the lightsaber off and back on before they've taken advantage of the opportunity to strike is probbaly slim.
Specifically in regards to those force based techniques, in the Prequals unless there was a significant difference in power force users tended to cancel each others powers out in combat for the most part.
Edit: Which I like to imagine is why Palpatine opts for blunt force techniques in combat like throwing things at Yoda and spamming lightning.
I mean Jedi can reliably block blaster bolts without paying too much attention afterall, they aren't doing that with human reaction times. And if they can do that on the regular the chances of turning the lightsaber off and back on before they've taken advantage of the opportunity to strike is probbaly slim.
This makes think of those alternate lightsaber techniques people on the internet thought up
There's some crazy stuff you could do
Edit:
Oh it's actually proposed there:
Specifically in regards to those force based techniques, in the Prequals unless there was a significant difference in power force users tended to cancel each others powers out in combat for the most part.
Edit: Which I like to imagine is why Palpatine opts for blunt force techniques in combat like throwing things at Yoda and spamming lightning.
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So then why not have a second lightsaber that comes out horizontally? Why even have swords, why not guns that shoot out light saber light? The fuck? Or lightsaber bullets, missiles, etc etc.
They have that in the comics.
Also, that's basically what the Death Star is - a giant lightsaber cannon - since its laser is powered by kyber crystals.
But where's the gun that shoots out lightsabers.They have that in the comics.
The last one is so good! :))The amount of dark side ones that just end with torture at will is hilarious.
Why don't the Jedis use a lightsaber that can shoot beams of energy at their opponent and use their force power to predict where the enemy is at?
I think what it really comes down to is that space battles are WW2 dogfights and saber battles are samurai duels. It's planes, and it's katanas, and it's wizards, all with futuristic texture maps.
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OP
When you are blocking an attack you usually push against the direction of the attack In the case of both overhand swings and side swings you aren't pushing "toward" the other person that is attacking you, rather you're pushing up or to the side, in the direction they are swinging their lightsaber from. So the trajectory of their lightsaber isn't coming toward you unlike yours
Look at your first gif and ask yourself: what would happen if Vader's lightsaber turned off? Where would Obi-Wan's go?
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You'd have the knowledge of what you're about to do, you know the general direction their saber will go once you turn it off so you can move right before you do that, and the direction in that gif Obi's would go near the top of Vader's helmet, easily missed with a slight duck or moving to the right as soon as he turn sit off and then on.
Because there's just as much chance of the other guy splitting you open as there is of them splitting you. You're both pushing towards one another. The sudden disappearance of resistance is going to cause their blade to fling forward as a physics reaction whereas you're trying to execute a maneuver. There's a good chance they get you first and a better chance you kill one another.
When you're locking sabers it's not generally in a position where the defender's blade is on the inside because they could just stop defending and go for a kill at that point.
A good rule with Star Wars is to always just assume that everything you think of has already been explained in the EU. And any new idea or inconsistency immediately spawns a fleet of writers who expand on it to preemptively answer questions or make it work.
That's why Darth Vader's lightsaber sometimes looking a bit longer or shorter in his fight with Obi-Wan isn't just the result of a movie from the 70's having somewhat dodgy effects, no it's Darth Vader trying to get a leg up on his master by using his special variable length lightsaber.
That's why Darth Vader's lightsaber sometimes looking a bit longer or shorter in his fight with Obi-Wan isn't just the result of a movie from the 70's having somewhat dodgy effects, no it's Darth Vader trying to get a leg up on his master by using his special variable length lightsaber.
I don't remember where I have this from, and I'm not even sure that it's true or canon, but the "block" that everybody talks about here, isn't that a result of the two lightsabers getting stuck together in combat? The way I remember it, the big problem at that point is actually getting the two sabers apart. Maybe there are issues with turning off a lightsaber while that is happening.
Turning off your lightsaber while inches away from someone powerful enough to where you feel you need a trick to beat them seems like a horrible idea.
This would only really work against someone you'd have no trouble beating either way.
This would only really work against someone you'd have no trouble beating either way.
It's not. A lightsaber beam has weight and is physical matter. It's NOT literal light, lmao!
This is also the reason Jedi wielded their lightsabers with two hands in the OT; the lightsabers were supposed to be heavy. Vader wielding his with only one hand at the start of the Bespin duel was meant to show his immense strength and lack of respect for Luke the little rookie (and then near the end of the fight Vader actually starts using two hands as if to say "okay let's get serious now").
Starting with the PT however they started wielding lightsabers with one hand more often because Lucas wanted more acrobatic fighting styles.
For your basic lightsabers 101, have a clip from Rebels:
Lightsabers are not mass-less. They feel surprisingly heavy until you get used to them. Lightsabers attract each other. Separating two locked lightsabers is harder than you think. I think this is probably the only time in Star Wars we get to see the really basic steps on learning how to lightsaber fight.
Lightsabers are not mass-less. They feel surprisingly heavy until you get used to them. Lightsabers attract each other. Separating two locked lightsabers is harder than you think. I think this is probably the only time in Star Wars we get to see the really basic steps on learning how to lightsaber fight.