Lit A brutal weapon for a more uncivilized age: going beyond the lightsaber for spectacle SW fights

It should be a surprise to no one that lightsabers are the most ionic weapon of Star Wars, unfortunately, they're also the most overused since most everyone wants to either be a Jedi, or Sith, either in games, or developing new characters.

Mandalorians are the Star Wars answers for those who want badass non-forcer users, operating as commandos, assassins, and bounty hunters. And bounty hunters and mercenaries themselves are often a lesser explored aspect of the SW galaxy. In that, the Clone Wars cartoon was a particular blessing, with a number of very new, and cool, hunters introduced.

The question is, what would be some creative additions to the combat traditions of the Galaxy Far, Far Away, that would give great diversity, but not supplanting, Jedi Knights and their laser swords? For example, Teras Kasi, while not executed terribly well, was a novel attempt at bringing Kung Fu traditions to Star Wars, establishing that a Teras Kasi master is a match for your average Jedi Knight.

Since it has also been established that Lightsabers can block, but not reflect, projectile weapons, I would submit the following would fit perfectly well in Star Wars: Gun-Fu.

 

That would be cool. The user would have to be a force user, alien, robot or cyborg for me to fully enjoy it. I don't like the shonen anime trope of ordinary humans training hard and being on par with people with special powers.

 

No we are better not going for Equilibrium, it is literally one of the stupidest movies ever made.

 

It would depend, I would think an extraordinary person would have a chance against an average Jedi. Much like Cad Bane during the Clone Wars. Sharpshooters are also something we don't get nearly enough of.

Again, the point is not to overshadow. The point is to expand, something that Star Wars has more than enough diversity within its makeup to accommodate for.

It's a shame vibroblades don't get greater play in the same fashion. They're essentially heatblades similar to the ones in the Metal Gear series. They're essentially budget lightsabers, the "old" quality ones.

 

Extraordinary people in Star Wars usually turn out to have the force.

 

I despise that trope personally. Heroism and importance should be about choices, not winning the genetic lottery.

 

Well sorry, sometimes the genetic lottery determines whose name is in the history books and whose is in a record of casualties.

Vibroblades, invisible blaster bolts, ampistaffs, force imbued swords, slugthrowers and the like for anyone who wants more than lightsabers and standard blasters.

 

In a supplement to WEG's SW RPG, there was a subset of the Jedi who were gunslingers. If someone ever made a film about them, they'd probably fight a lot like the gun fu masters in Equilibrium. Which would be cool; I'd like to see SW blaster fu action in a good movie, not a movie like Equilibrium.

 

The Morgukai

I have hard to belive that most Teras Kasi adepts would be a match against a Jedi, after all they go unarmed against a gal who have a lightsabre and know how to use it. One hit and you lose a limb.

 

Frankly, what really matters is if one is a main character or not. I mean, not says that because Han is so good that all smugglers are badasses, and we can clearly see a lot of mook jedi in the PT movies.

 

I think you can make the case that by focusing on the Skywalkers the saga is suggesting Force potential = importance, but I don't think it presents that as true IU necessarily--the Skywalkers are surrounded by muggles who are military and political leaders, ace pilots, etc. Theirs just isn't the story SW has chosen to tell (before RO).

 

Well, to start with, it would be nice to see a bit more diversity in lightsaber duels. There are plenty of different styles of swords and fights we could see in Star Wars. Broadsword fights! Errol-Flynn-style Hollywood fencing! All-out wire-fu! Axes! Shields! If lightsaber fights have gotten more boring over the years, it's mostly because we kind of settled on a fairly boring idea of what lightsaber fights have to look like. Would be fun to blow it open a bit.

Besides that, I dunno, there's plenty of room to work with what we already have, frankly. More Western gunslingers! More high-tech bounty hunters with cool gadgets! Cool robots! People don't have to be able to go toe-to-toe with Jedi to still be cool and interesting; they just have to have to their own place and their own style. Legolas doesn't have to be able to take down Saruman to be dangerous.

So I guess I think we should start by doing a better job of portraying the archetypes Star Wars has already given us more effectively; we don't necessarily need to invent new ones.

But sure, gun-fu in Star Wars would work.

 

In Legends though those people orbit them not the other way around, the skywalkers are the metaphorical center of the universe.

 

No one's mentioned this yet? For shame:

 

I was hinting at that, but yes, Imwe's fighting is exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about.

 

While they're not supposed to be commonplace, cortosis and phrik weapons can at least even the odds against a lightsaber wielder. And depending on the era, ysalamiri + gas grenades = trouble for Force-wielders.

 

I always have thought that ysalamiri wouldn't work beyond average level force users, Palpatine or GM Luke for example wouldn't be affected by a ysalamiri blockade around them.

Yeah Cortosis seems like an effective equalizer, but remember Jedi have more than lightsabers they have the force and so do the Sith making them immensely difficult to kill.

 

Didn't the Confederation/Corellia use Yuuzhan Vong Hunter droids against the Jedi at one point?

 

Hmm I don't recall.

It's a shame LOTF didn't have Vong interacting with the rest of the Galaxy during the SGCW

 

I would really, really like a series of Star Wars stories surrounding an independent mercenary crew, taking jobs from rebels, the Empire, AND independent factions, planetary leaders, trade alliances, the corporate sector, etc.

There's just so much potential there, not just for story telling, but for the action too.

Having just reread Darth Vader, it seems like the new IG droid had a heavy caliber machinegun, complete with shell casings going everywhere.

 

In Stephen King's Dark Tower series, the Gunslingers are the descendants of their world's version of the Knights of the Round Table, and their guns are made from the melted down and reforged version of Excalibur. There could be Jedi who escaped the purge who have swords forged from their lightsaber hilts, to be less conspicuous.

I think you mean one of the greatest movies ever made.