Swords and melee fighting in SW and real life

Dear Cantina fellows,

as it has turned out over time, there’s quite a bunch of us out here who have an enthusiastic view both on historic blade weapons, fancy lightsabers and their application. But if your cup of tea is more of the axe, hammer, ball-and-chain, spear, naginata or whatever type, you’re welcome too!

So let’s have a place to discuss Kylo’s sword technique, the weapons of Snoke’s Praetorians and much more!

Or just show around your $2,167 precious replica of a Brescia Spadona.

I’m confident that @GreyLo and @AstromechRecords will join the fray right away, please point others from whom you know that they e.g. are friends of HEMA or have any other interest in this area, please point them in this direction.

So let the games begin!

 

Do you mean when you’re in Texas or we? I’m not sure when I get there the next time!?

 

On Kylos fighting style: He’s an overconfident and very aggressive fighter who relies on his advantage in height to press the attack with powerful blows. His only tactic against Finn seems to be ‘overwhelm that food soldier’ with just brute force while putting strikes down on him from all directions like a hail storm.

He even seems to enjoy this situation as he let Finn stand longer then he need to, maybe to amass more anger and hate to fill up his dark force batteries after have emptied them by controlling the deadly hip wound and force blasting Rey into a tree before.

But as soon as Finn shows any sign of resistance, even wounding him, Kylo just end’s the fight once and for all.

He clearly does not use Form V, Shien - Djem So, as Grandpa and his uncle did.

Edit: I wonder how he earned the name 'Jedi killer' with that level of fighting?!

 

See what he is doing here? Although being in a real adrenalin rush with his caveman mind switched to attack mode (there’s only one other, ”flee”), he has enough control (unconsciously?) to end up in a save stance.

By the end of his swing, his blade is still in front of his body between him and the opponent, while the pointy end is more or less targeted at her face. That’s the best way to do it for protection or counter attack. You see that at the end, he’s a bit out of balance with his feed, but should the other one try a funny move on him, or even start to pirouette , he has a beneficial starting position.

Done like a real swordsman, my kudos to the choreographer!

 

Well, there’s an ancient battlefield on the Sith planet of Malachor they visit. Amongst the petrified remains of the Jedi and Sith combatants, the ground is littered with lots of cross guard lightsabers, at least some of them still working.

Let’s put it that way: At least he does not use any finesse against Finn, but he don’t have to as he’s the one in control during this exchange most of the time.

Finn might not have any experience with lightsaber dueling, but he knows for sure the basic principles of melee combat like distancing, arc of attack, evasive action in combination with an attack, grappling etc. This will help him in a way to use any kind of melee weapon to a basic degree.

 

Rethinking this morning the fighting style so far from Kylo, I came to this:

• It looked more powerful and professional to what we’ve seen in the OT (lightsabers should behave like metal weapons with momentum)
• It looked way less flashy and acrobatic then the PT (lightsabers behaved like lightweight bamboo sticks)

If people complain about his lame style, I guess they have been ‘spoiled’ by the PT as this now doesn’t meets their expectations anymore.

Except for the glorious skills of Ray Park (Darth Maul, who has to slow down his movement quite a bit for the other actors to be able to stand a chance), most of the PT choreography included way too much spinning, whirling and jumping. It looks cool, but would do you no good in a real fight.

So going along with his “claymore” cross guard saber Kylo uses a style that’s closer to original European sword fighting while Obi-Wan in the PT mostly showed movements you would expect more from a Tennis player then a fighter.

So I guess the ‘finesse’ might depend on the eye of the beholder.

J.J. wanted to re-capture G. Lucas original definition for the OT of lightsaber to have a significant weight and momentum when being swung, but what G.L. he dropped himself for the PT for the more flashy buccaneer style of fencing.

I was so glad when seeing Obi-Wan and Maul met for the last time – Maul using the moves from TPM while Obi-Wan had matured to a true swordsmen like all his samurai role models, making a most efficient final statement to end that conflict.

Which, by the way is the same Philosophy within the European Material Arts: A quick and uncompromising application of a technique and movement series: Expecting the attack, going with it while counter attacking and having the aggressor on the ground 2-3 seconds afterwards.

Finn and the other FO Troopers surely do – if you haven’t, I recommend reading his story from the journey to the force awakens novel “Before The Awakening“. Within that, he’s shown to be one of the best in melee class of his squad. The other guy from that training session he meets again at the ruins of Maaz’ castle, wilding the standard issue FO energy baton for melee.