canofhumdingers

The Duel of the Fates ( which to this day I think is the greatest lightsaber fight on film. No CGI bull shit doubles or artsy glow stick dancing. ESB's the most dramatic, but for pure spectacle this is the king.)


Have to disagree with you here. i watched the TPM duel the other day for the first time in forever & i couldn't stand it. I've taken Olympic style fencing lessons for several years and recently started taking Kendo (japanese "samurai style" fencing) and Iaido (the art of drawing the sword and killing the antagonist, from an unassuming position - i.e. sitting on the floor eating a bowl of rice & someone attacks you). The TPM fight just made me cringe! Ewan McGreggor jumps off the ground EVERY time he blocks* a blow!!! You would NEVER do that! you'd get killed in a heartbeat! In fact, in kendo you never even allow your feet to cross (much less, leave the ground)! You keep you right foot forward & your left foot back in a very agressive stance. you move in an awkward(at first) way similar to how a child would run with a "stick pony" when playing cowboy. & you lift your feet just enough to be able to move them, effectively "gliding" across the ground. This is so that, when you run into your opponent, if you don't succeed at killing them, they can't knock you over when you run into each other. Having one foot forward & one back is a very stable/powerful position. if your feet are close together, or worse yet, in the air!!, you're a dead man. This doesn't even bring up the point of the ridiculous twirling baton lightsabers of the prequels! The OOT fights were at least reasonably believable as they were based on ACTUAL swordfighting techniques (& honetly, the ANH duel is probably most realistic). I'm a huge fan of swordfighting and can go a long way in forgiving the over-the-top fights from hollywood when they at least try to mimic something that you might actually do, but the prequels are just laughable. They remind me too much of the sword twirling you see at karate tournaments (not to knock karate, it has lots of cool aspects, but the majority of people you see using swords in a karate demo or tournament have no idea how to actually fight with one) Sorry for the rant, i've been chewing on that for a few days now...

*in my experience, you very rarely "block" in a swordfight. you either dodge altogether, which leaves your oppenent open for the brief moment they've extended to strike you, which gives you the chance to kill them. Or, you parry, which is not to block, but deflect the attck in such a way as to make an opening from which you can immediately attack. This attack is called the riposte (pronounced ruh-post or ree-post depending on who you talk to). Of course, this is mostly from my olympic style fencing experience, of which i practiced foil and epee, but really focused on sabre. I've only been taking kendo for the past 4 months or so & we're still working mainly on footwork and swinging the sword correctly. It's a very slow learning curve, like any sword art, and we probably won't begin thinking about the defense side of things for months to come.





canofhumdingers wrote:
Interesting. & i found that to be a great show of the total command of the force Vader had &, the telekinesis aspect seemed like a natural progression of the force to me. PLus it makes the duel that much more intense. After Vader has totally owned luke in the duel, he really pours on the heat, revealing that he doesn't even need the saber to defeat luke. I think that draws a neat parallel to the concept that, once someone has truely mastered the sword arts, they have mastered themselves & therefore, no longer need the sword. Of course, it's not quite in the same vein as the japanese concept seeing as Vader is evil & that concept is really referring to enlightenment in a good way.

As for the telekenisis negating the need for lightsabers, i don't think that's necessarily true. Take, as an example, the jedi knight video games. you can do some pretty amazing force-feats, but you can't do them all at once, or forever. you have mana, which is essentially "force stamina" the more intense the force action, the more of this "stamina meter" you use & the longer you have to wait for it to recharge before using it again. That sort of how i always envisoned using the force, even before those games came out. You can't do everything all the time. the force is a source of energy, & just like our physical body, you can only do so much for so long with it before you need to rest & recuperate. &, just like our physical body, the more you train in the force & the more you "work out" (for lack of a better phrase) with it, the stronger you become & the more you can do before giving out.

edit: this is also why i feel yoda should never be seen with a lightsaber!! He has reached such a high level of "oneness" with the force that he essentially IS the ultimate samurai. He has transcended the need for physical weapons.