Lighsabers Combat - Making You Roleplay More Representitive Of the Cannon

[Eralam]

Granted, you could go even further and just base most moves off of rapier, because it's the weapon that comes closest to being as handle-heavy as a lightsaber.
Mix in the cuts of the sabre – because unlike a rapier, a lightsaber cuts well – and you've got yourself a sensible style with oodles of reach and maneuverability.
Plus a free hand, to use for grappling/Force/punching/gunslinging.

Some of the earlier ancestors of the rapier, before it evolved into a weapon primarily meant for stabbing, were quite effective as slashing weapons, and the forms used for them are pretty effective. I'm personally a fan of the espada ropera. Mix that up with a good gun in the offhand and you've got Eralam's fighting style.

Except that Star Wars doesn't follow the normal rules and physics of real life swordplay, and you can actually apply physical strength with a weightless weapon because guess what...

It's fantasy.

Canon is sort of divided on the issue. Some authors treat the weapon like it's a weightless, massless blade. Others state that the magnetic fields that contain the plasma create a strong centrifugal force when the weapon is swung, given it the illusion of weight. There's no definitive answer. And since the new canon has yet to have anything with a focus on dueling, we probably won't get one. Like most everything, it's a matter left up to personal interpretation.

 

[Satra Woodle]

[member="Vrag"]
What one must remember is that in a fight the strength of a blow is determined by the speed of the attack. Therefore it acts the same.

 

[Eralam]

That's not necessarily true if one works from the assumption that the blade itself is weightless. With a normal blade, the speed of the blow times the mass of the blade would give you force. If a lightsaber blade has no mass, then it is incapable of generating force, which means that the strike's power is derived from the bearer's body. Your wrists would take the brunt of any blow in that equation.

[member="Satra Woodle"]

 

[I_Am_The_Walrus]

[member="Eralam"] The ropera seems to fall more in line with the fencing/Makashi idea. Of course, a free hand for a gun helps engage more than one enemy without a lightsaber especially.

I've envisioned a kind of Makashi dual-wield with a shoto taking the place of the main gauche. I know Luke kind of does that but he's not really a fencer so much as a 'swordsman' if that makes any sense. It would've been cool to see how Dooku might have used a shoto.

 

[Eralam]

[member="I_Am_The_Walrus"]

It's closer to makashi than actual fencing, and since it takes into account a blade that can cut, it's a hell of a lot more practical than most of your rapier stuff.

I've done that before. It works, but in my experience, the idea of a main gauche in general confuses the hell out of people. They don't get how a dinky little dagger can parry their ultrameganekokawaiidaikatana, and you end up being lectured by someone whose sole practical fighting experience comes from watching a season of Bleach in day and a half. That's the main reason I switched to a revolver as my offhand weapon. Parrying with a main gauche to make room for a riposte is asking for a headache. Shooting someone in the face is a hell of a lot simpler.

 

[I_Am_The_Walrus]

[member="Eralam"]

Oh yes, those people. Bigger isn't always better with swords, but don't let them know that! Correct again about what to do with a main gauche. Those are indeed a pain to write which is why I would've liked to see that done by a better writer than myself. Your attention is in two places and multi-tasking isn't always my strength. That's largely why I write just a basic bith single weapon :3.

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

If we're gonna argue about weight, which I really want to now.

I've always done it is that it depends how strong you are in the force. As a padawan or acolyte or whatever, a lightsaber will be very, very heavy to swing, but as you get used to it and grow in the force, the force takes over and it becomes one light stick that you just wave like a glow stick at Christmas.

 

[Ellie Mors]

I always incorporated a mixture of Makashi and Niman in my lightsaber-focused characters, prior to writing Lisette. Silara, for example, was heavily skilled (mostly because it's way easier to write) in Makashi and utilized Niman to fight dirty.

Trying to write my other character, [member="Lisette Kuhn"], a bit differently with Juyo and Ataru. Juyo isn't too hard to write, but Ataru is tricky.

 

[I_Am_The_Walrus]

The Makashi/Niman thing basically seems like 'I do everything except Juyo'. Not that there's anything wrong with that in the fantasy writing context anymore than weightless blades somehow imparting force. It just seems an odd combination as much as Ataru/Makashi because Niman and Makashi are two totally different ways of training and thinking apparently.

Same thing with Makashi/Ataru which is a thing apparently because holding your weapon with one hand automatically means Makashi. *shrug*

 

[Saran Drast]

Read the Jedi Path book. Seriously, read it. It's the main reason I know anything about Lightsaber combat (That and Jensaraii1 on Youtube)

Also, realize that no lightsaber that I know of to this point is EMP resistant, and a big enough explosive will kill ANY force user. I don't care who you are, a nuke to the face will kill you.

 

[I_Am_The_Walrus]

[member="Saran Drast"]

The Jedi Path gives a very vague description of each and a neat looking picture. Great, Shii-Cho is the tutorial style that teaches body zones. Every paddy learns it. Good but what sorts of moves do they learn? It's still left pretty vague.

Jensaraai1 makes decent videos but he tends to take on this absolute authority role where he thinks he knows everything because he read wookiepedia. Plus he mispronounces words and it just irritates me. Not to mention how a bunch of the other Youtube video makers for the Versus series stuff just basically copy chunks of his scripts word-for-word. Anyway, that's off topic.

Also, of course a nuke will kill a Jedi, but what does that have to do with the subject of lightsabers?

 

[Eralam]

Lightsabers don't have to be EMP resistant. EMPs are not the all powerful killer of electronics that TV, books, and movies have made them out to be. Delicate radios, computers, and other electronics, especially with antennas? Sure, probably ought to be worried. A simple, robust weapon system that's been bonded together at a molecular level via the Force and can withstand just about any conditions you care to name? Probably won't even notice.

 

[Ellie Mors]

Read the Jedi Path book. Seriously, read it. It's the main reason I know anything about Lightsaber combat (That and Jensaraii1 on Youtube)

Also, realize that no lightsaber that I know of to this point is EMP resistant, and a big enough explosive will kill ANY force user. I don't care who you are, a nuke to the face will kill you.

Lightsabers are emp resistant. They have a literal EM field that surrounds their plasma blades.

 

[Edwin Setyl]

The website really helped me 'envision' how the use for Shien could be. Awesome job on you finding it!

[member="Satra Woodle"]

 

[Ellie Mors]

because Niman and Makashi are two totally different ways of training and thinking apparently.

Just noticed this:
Niman is a combination of portions of all lightaber forms before it, which includes Makashi. While Niman may be very different as a whole from Makashi, if you utilize the portions of Niman which utilize portions of Makashi, you get the combination I am referring to. Utilization of telekinetic dirty tricks while actively dueling and other such tactics. I call it "fighting smart", though I'd say it's just a more crude style of Makashi than anything.

I can't say anything on the Makashi / Ataru combination. That just doesn't make any sense (they're fairly opposite).

 

[Darlyn Excron]

[member="Braith Achlys"] There are weirder styles out there. Jerrec was a Makashi user who seemed to mix it with Niman's, as you put it, 'fighting smart' but used wider sweeping strikes like in Shii-Cho.


And on the subject of styles, Niman using lightsaber and a blaster. And my sith uses Juyo with Shii cho. Gotta love those combos.

 

[I_Am_The_Walrus]

[member="Braith Achlys"]

Well I certainly think the deft use of Force attacks within Makashi makes sense. I've seen some sources say Niman has bits of Makashi and others that it doesn't.

Juyo is one of those things that seem like Soresu: they aren't a set of moves but rather a philosophy which takes from other preexisting sets of attacks or defenses. Namely Form I and II for Soresu and a bit of this and that for Juyo. That's just one Walrus' interpretation.