Light Saber Fighting Is Totally Unrealistic

[origami_itto]

So I know that in most sword fighting disciplines we aren't actually doing the standard movie style blunt blade on blade blocking, mainly because it's a horrible way to treat a weapon. It would be more likely to chip and shatter, and it really isn't a very good technique anyhow. Aside from deflecting tent blocks and parries, it's just a bad idea to try to stop something as dynamic as a blade with another blade.

But NOWHERE in cinematic absurdity is this idea of what combat looks like more ridiculous than in Star Wars' lightsaber combat.

First let's tackle the elephant in the corner.
They're made of light. How the hell are they blocking ANYTHING? I can accept that, being lasers basically, they could burn anything that they crossed paths with. Sure, why not. And it's a magic laser so we don't have to worry about the MASSIVE AMOUNT OF RADIANT HEAT emanating from the thing.

And I guess magic is the reason for this kind of laser's apparent ability to block other lasers and laser blasts. Fine, okay, we need to accept this bit of absurdity to make everything else work. Lasers block lasers in the physics of this universe.

So accepting that, it's still ridiculous, and here's why.

Even if you could block a laser with a laser, your opponent has telekinesis and can flip the switch on your laser sword with their mind and turn it off, moving it out of the way so they can attack unimpeded.

But, you say, they are attacking another telekinetic wizard that can use their mind power to keep the switch firmly locked. Okay, sure, I can buy that too.

BUT WHAT ABOUT YOUR OPPONENT'S SWORD?!

What's to keep them from swinging directly at your head, you trying to block, then they just turn the blade off for a split second and turn it back on pointing straight at your face?

Really, why would anybody do ANYTHING except using it like a stilleto? Keeping it off until they have it aimed and flipping the switch on for a split second? The whole premise is just dumb.

And how do you block that? If you're THAT close, even with the force? Like.... IT'S A LASER AT ARMS LENGTH!!!

I submit that if you're within reach of a light saber you are already dead. There is no effective way to defend against attack other than attacking quicker, I don't care what kind of malarkey George Lucas and his cronies have made up to hand wave away the problematic logic.

[everything]

lol aside from the "force" problems, there is some interesting interview somewhere with Ray Park (Darth Maul) about the long double-saber weapon and how he had to adapt (since two "light laser things" could injure you while you do your staff/spear/whatever). might be here. not sure.

[wayne hansen]

I forget his name but the guy who taught them is a high ranking Iaido and kendo teacher from either Byron Bay or Ballina
A lot of his students did Kali with me

[windwalker]

Light sabers move and react more akin to a plasma...which someone has used and made into a "light" saber ...
considering all the other things, the power source and type of plasma might be a kind of plasma that has yet to be developed or made giving it the solidity it has in the movies.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey_EjSzKFWQ


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAzY28C8Syc

[everything]

amazing, um, weapon?

here's early footage of the anakin vs. dooku fight.

apparently there is more deleted footage.

[RickMatz]

They're still just glowsticks.

[origami_itto]

amazing, um, weapon?

here's early footage of the anakin vs. dooku fight.

apparently there is more deleted footage.

See what I mean, though? It's bullshit. If he turned his saber off for a microsecond he could pass that guard and slice dude open. If you are within reach of the saber you simply aren't safe, period.

[everything]

keeping in mind i know nothing about weapons, so it's hard to follow all this

there is a moment where anakin lets go of his saber because dooku aims for his wrist then catches it in the other hand. they don't slow it down at all, so it's just one of those fun details.

but you're saying at certain moments, you turn it off, make the other person miss / lose track, turn it back on? something like that?

the more we over-analyze it, the more it's ridiculous yeah lol.

[origami_itto]

keeping in mind i know nothing about weapons, so it's hard to follow all this

there is a moment where anakin lets go of his saber because dooku aims for his wrist then catches it in the other hand. they don't slow it down at all, so it's just one of those fun details.

but you're saying at certain moments, you turn it off, make the other person miss / lose track, turn it back on? something like that?

the more we over-analyze it, the more it's ridiculous yeah lol.

What I mean is like, say you're doing an overhand chop, a grand slam tennis serve type motion, straight arc down at the middle of his head. He counters by putting his blade made of plasma in the way horizontally. You turn your sword off just before the blade meets his blade, your hand keeps moving in the same arc, you turn it on, having passed the block.

Basically with a lightsaber you can just choose to ignore any attempt to block, with another lightsaber or with that whatever mandelorian armor stuff. It can just dissappear and get past it. Your only hope is to dodge.

Remember in fighting there are only 4 ways to deal with a strike.

1 - get hit
2 - put something in the way for it to hit instead
3 - be somewhere else
4 - smother it in the cradle

Your only real hope in this situation is #4 unless you're not only a Jedi but a Taijiquan master.

[everything]

that's a super interesting point. seems like you'd also be vulnerable to the on/off technique in that moment, too?

we'll go with "you read each other's yi/qi" so you both know you should keep your saber on. lololol

[windwalker]

looking at how light sabers are used and reactions
might be interesting to make a rule set that explains the actions..
for example

Look at them as some type of enclosed plasma

1. they can not cut through each other, tend to act like magnets in their repulsion properties of like to like.
..

[everything]

so maybe there is a reason you can't do the cycle off/on thing.

[vadaga]

The roleplaying game kind of backfilled this whole thing but it was based mainly on the original trilogy lightsaber fighting- the idea being that the Jedi duel was a combination of mental force battle and physical sword battle which is why it ended up being all kendo. (of course this is just shoehorning in an idea when George Lucas just wanted everything to look Japanese due to his source material on Starwars i.e. Kurosawa's 'Hidden Fortress')

That all got chucked out for spectacle when the prequel trilogy came along and dont get me started on the sequel trilogy. At this point there's not much consistency or logic left in the galaxy long long ago and far far away, just lots of pfwshhh.... boom! pow! pow! pow! and pyeeew with wisecracks stuck in there for laughs.

[Steve James]

Iinm, in SWs, the light saber's source of power is the owner's genetic "force" focused through a (khyber?) crystal. I don't think it'd be possible to turn off someone's light saber because the user is the energy source or creates it. Ya gotta suspend disbelief when it comes to usage.

The Clone Wars and the "Filoni-verse" have more stuff about light sabers. Of course, the dark-saber (r.i.p.s) was its own thing. Then again, they've been turned into arrows and blasts.

Yeah, Lucas raised the importance of the weapon to the level it had in Kurosawa films. I like that it's not supposed to be technologically sophisticated. Anyway, "lots of people say" the fight between Ahsoka and Anakin/Vader from "Rebels" is the best light saber duel.

[vadaga]

https://pinsmovieproject.wordpress.com/ ... ers/#text3