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There is a distinct advantage between a one and two handed grip in traditional sword fencing: One handed allow for you to take a narrow stance facing your opponent turned to your side as seen in the image Tim posted, allowing for better mobility and quicker attacks(best for rapiers, estocs and dueling daggers which were widely used in duels), while a two handed grip gave power from not only the use of both arms but also the legs much like a boxer (best for battlefield combat an larger swords like Bastard sword and great swords). Most lightsabers have pommels(Plo Koon's, Windu's, Kenobi, Luke's, Ulic Qel Droma's)its a design choice.

 

Yeah, so, I wasn't disputing that. My point is that sticking notions of "traditional fencing" in Star Wars is silly, and assuming it would require specialized hilts when the blades themselves are weightless is even sillier. Laser Kendo 4 Lyfe - which I believe, incidentally, is the current working subtitle of Episode VII.

 

It's also much harder to use one's wrist and finger pressure to guide the blade if one has a 30cm hilt, as opposed to, say, a 20cm hilt (the longer hilt would catch on the inside of the forearm. Foil work is almost all wrist combined with finger/thumb pressure - the standard way of gripping a foil hilt is to curve the index finger tightly around it and use counter-pressure from the thumb to alter the blade angle. The other three fingers really only grip the hilt loosely.

Also, Lightsaber blades are weightless, so I can't really see that slashing attacks (two handed grip) would be able to generate much momentum. Thrusting/Lunging attacks from a one handed grip would be able to utilise the weight of the hilt in-line with the direction of the attack.

EDIT: Makashi? AKA Count Dooku's way of wielding a Lightsaber? Although his had a bent hilt.

Ramza - see edit!

 

Yes, but, counterpoint: laser kendo. Also I'm like 99% sure Dooku had a bent lightsaber hilt because they were thinking

"Holy crap, we got Dracula. We need to give him a cane.

No!

A laser cane."

Then they thought "Wait, Dracula can't be all laser kendoing with a laser cane." So they called in a consultant. The consultant was like "Laser kendo-infused fencing." Hi-fives were had by all.

Edit: Hell, who am I kidding? They probably also ordered a pizza. Like, a good pizza. The instructions for the driver were "Follow the laser cane."

 

So for a swordsmen to use another style of martial sword fighting other then the most popular style is silly?

Well since i have never fought with a sword with a weightless blade I couldn't say but a two handed grip would still carry your momentum, so strength still would play huge factor (only in duels).

 

No, I just don't think it meshes very well with the setting's aesthetic, given what we usually see on screen. In particular, it seems to be a thing that nobles in some system do because they wanted a really easy European nobility analogue and whatever writer was cooking it up at the time probably enjoyed fencing a lot and threw it in. Ergo: silly.

Now that this conversation has gotten me thinking about it a fair amount, I would be totally down for laser fencing in another setting. One imagines a dashing laser Errol Flynn sort.

 

So star wars where han solo was the jedi?

The Esthetic has been expanded it is not as silly as you think. the meljsdfkajd order that developed the lightfoil were neither jedi or sith. it just reflects the variety of sword styles developed across our own world, so in essence you are condemning(condemning to sillyness) a writer for thinking "what if some other group had also made lightsaber like weapons? how would they develop it for martial use".

 

No, I'm definitely condemning them for lazily importing their own tastes in under the veneer of setting exploration.

 

Why are you assuming the writer had a taste for fencing?

 

Mostly because it originates from a bunch of RPG sourcebooks and grognards are big into fencing.

 

Hey I play AD&D and I am big into kendo!

 

Fair enough. Perhaps I am just mad. Mad about laser sword fights.

 

We are all mad about stuff like Zabrak taking over sith tattoos and the lack of jedi in my rp and Ewoks and the one sith and the lacking in explanation of the two Imperial Knight lightsaber combat styles and how I can't draw, and Exar Kun's death and Boba Fett being a clone, and how the original concept for Jar Jar is super rad...etc

 

I'm still mostly angry about how they killed off Poochie.



He deserved better! He was a half Joe Camel. A full third Fonzarelli. But no.

 

I think I admire you Ramza I really do.

 

Heheheh...

**Walks in a pours a large cup of Java...**

Sits back, and relaxes....


"Ahhhhhhhh..."


Listens to the talks in the bar, and just nods along, while drinking her drink....

 

So anyway, Tide of Flames has had its last GM post. The Company's quest, for good or ill, is over. Drop by if you're feeling nostalgic or you ever posted in it

 

Congrats!

 

For the record, my point was that a lightsaber's blade isn't actually made of weighty matter.

 

Correct, though more accurate to say 'virtually mass-less'.....

(Must resist science-geek moment, must resist science-geek moment, must resist....)

 

We're talking, what, smaller than an attoelectronvolt? You'd run it as zero in the math anyway.

 

Photons and electrons do have mass, just not very much of it.

 

Here's another way of looking at it: fictional

 

Plasma and Lasers aren't, though - only a matter of time! IIRC, Ion engines are already being looked at.

 

Look my point was that the lightsaber doesn't need a special, lighter fencing model because it has no mass save for the handle, I'm not denying the science of anything