Exar Kun predates Darth Maul by a good 5 - 6 years.

Are you saying by the Galactic Timeline (If so you're an idiot) or are you saying it by the George Lucas Timeline (If so then you're still an idiot but not as much of one lol)

Why is it that in the films there is hardly no Jedi/Sith dual-wielding? Or was it just a rare form of combat?

Try holding a pen in your off-hand and writing your name with it. Now practice for 8 hours a day until you become good enough at it that someone reading it does not think the writer has alzheimers.

For most people, this takes months (or even years) of practice.

Now consider that, if you are holding a weapon in that hand instead of a pen, you do not need to worry about the other person thinking you have alzheimers, you have to worry that they are going to kill you. Having confidence in your off-hand skills in that situation requires years or decades of practice. For the VAST majority of people, they will discard that second weapon to either replace it with some form of protective shield or to grip their existing weapon in a double-handed grip.

As for the double-handed grip, watch womens' tennis matches. Most of the women with the strong backhand strokes use both hands on the raquet. Many also use two hands for the forehand, but the musce groups used there are more powerful than on the backhand side.

So two-handed wielders have more power and leverage than single-handed, and single-wielders are less likely to chop off their own foot than dual wielders.

hello everyone. First post here, but the discussion is particularly interesting.

Well I agree with everyone saying dual-wielding is too much difficult to be so frequent. It's really spectacular, obviously, so when we see it we say ooooh. But I'd have preferred not to have it as a must for Sentinels, nor to see it so often in the game. Some special training, or perhaps a specific skill tree would have been fit. But having it for any Sentinel/Sith Warrior is like under-qualifying it, to me. Same for saberstaffs (or double-bladed sabers). Statistically we have now a 25% jedi/siths using 2 blades and 25% using double-bladed ones: too many, movies or not movies, clone wars or not clone wars, Satele Shan or not Satele Shan. Different skill trees would have been better, perhaps leaving dual-wield to ataru or shien forms.

Furthermore: in Clone Wars Ahsoka wields two sabers, but one of them is shorter (or so it seems to me): more realistic. Resembles fighting with sword/shortsword or sword/dagger. Having two long blades seems to be really hard and hardly useful.

Two sabers is so last decade, I want to see more characters using four sabers.

you mean like Kreia or like Grievous?

you mean like Kreia or like Grievous?

GG only got to use 4 sabers for like 10 secs before Obi popped his hands off. Kreia wasn't in the movies.

What does GL have against quad-sabers anyway??

Found it.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmR1ee223zQ

 

About 7:09 into the video.

that is what I thought this game would be like

Why is it that in the films there is hardly no Jedi/Sith dual-wielding? Or was it just a rare form of combat?

 

 

Yes, I know of Anakin dual-wielding for a few seconds, but other than that I mean primarily Jedi/Sith using two lightsabers by default.

To the original point of the post. I think the main reason you do not see more Jedi/Sith in the movies dual wielding is because the people portraying the Jedi/Sith were actors. With the exception of the "actor" (who really was a martial artist, hence he never really talked) who portrayed Darth Maul, most had no real swordfighting skills. It is difficult enough to teach complete novices how to swordfight to begin with, let alone try to teach them how to wield two weapons and have to look good cinematically. Now with the Geonosian battle, they could hire numerous martial artists who would only fight in the background and hence, could have more variety in fighting styles.

Everyone wants to be Jedi (or Sith) Drizzt!

I do agree that there seems to be many who do have that desire. Personally I wanted... UNLIMITED POWER! (throws lighting)

I believe it was also mentioned somewhere that for Jedi, using more than one lightsaber was dangerous due to the 'aggressive' nature of it, which could lead to the Dark Side. It's part of the symbolism of why Anakin did it. It was to show him giving into his hatred more.

As for the actual mechanics of fighting with two weapons, it's not as hard as many of you make it, but it's not easy either. The two famous styles have already been mentioned (Fencing/Rapier+Guiche & Escrima/Kali). Both of these are more 'athletic' and 'fast' styles that lend themselves to more dodging/evading than blocking. The blocking they do tend to be disruptive to an attack flow which creates an opening for one to counterattack.

Personally, I'd love to see a duel-wield Lightsaber user pull of the Kali Heaven 6/Earth 6/Heaven & Earth patterns. They are a flashy combo designed for rapid hits or an intimidating distraction.

In a documentary called "The Birth of the Lightsaber," (OT DVD set, Disc 4) Lucas mentions that in his original vision of the lightsaber, it had to be held with two hands. This was due to the amount of energy expended when it struck an object, and especially when two lightsabers struck each other.

Over time, he backed off of this a bit because he realized that as the movies progressed, he would need better and better lightsaber combat.

Note: I'm paraphrasing this off of memory - I suggest grabbing the disc and viewing this yourself for the precise explanation. It's a pretty fascinating documentary.

In reality, effectively dual wielding is incredibly hard.

Even cultures and fighting styles that used two blades almost always used the offhand as a defensive/shielding weapon.

There's a reason why most cultures gravitated towards a sword and shield combat style for regular troops.

the single most likely factor is that jedi are in a lot of ways based on samurai their philosophy is a lot like Zen Buddhism and the fighting style draws heavily on it.

and well samurai basically dont dual wield , no one does outside of fiction books movies and games, it kinda doesnt work.

but as noted it creeps in over the decades as it catches on in the fantasy worlds

In a documentary called "The Birth of the Lightsaber," (OT DVD set, Disc 4) Lucas mentions that in his original vision of the lightsaber, it had to be held with two hands. This was due to the amount of energy expended when it struck an object, and especially when two lightsabers struck each other.

 

Over time, he backed off of this a bit because he realized that as the movies progressed, he would need better and better lightsaber combat.

 

Note: I'm paraphrasing this off of memory - I suggest grabbing the disc and viewing this yourself for the precise explanation. It's a pretty fascinating documentary.

Sure I saw that too, they also used to have power packs connected by a cord.

Like Maul's Double-Bladed Lightsabers. After that we got famous EU characters like Kun and Shan.

Actually, Exar Kun predated Darth Maul. Kevin J. Anderson even talked once about after seeing TPM, and fan asked him if he was mad that George Lucas stole his idea. KJA replied that, first of all, George couldn't "steal" the idea, because KJA had essentially sold it to him along with the story. Second, KJA was just flattered that Lucas liked it enough to include it in a movie.

and well samurai basically dont dual wield , no one does outside of fiction books movies and games, it kinda doesnt work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niten_Ichi-ry%C5%AB

And something not samurai related but just as interesting:

http://storm.alert.sk/swordsmanship/hutton/case.html

I also read somewhere that originally (early 80's) Lucas's intent was that it wasn't electricity that made a blade, it was "The Force" that powered it, hence only Jedi used them...

The reason why no Jedi/Sith could dual wield, therefore, according to him, was that no Jedi/Sith was so powerful that they could wield two blades... it would take too much strength in the force... Of course, originally, Darth Vader was his actual name, and not a title; and he was only just a dark Jedi... Not "The Chosen One"...

I also read somewhere that originally (early 80's) Lucas's intent was that it wasn't electricity that made a blade, it was "The Force" that powered it, hence only Jedi used them...

Oh, so that WASN'T Han who switched on Luke's lightsaber in ESB?

Oh, so that WASN'T Han who switched on Luke's lightsaber in ESB?

1. This is Lucas lol, he changes stuff and makes glaring mistakes constantly.

2. That was what he said after New Hope, before Empire...

Exar Kun predates Darth Maul by a good 5 - 6 years.

5-6 years? I think you missed by over 3900 years...

I also read somewhere that originally (early 80's) Lucas's intent was that it wasn't electricity that made a blade, it was "The Force" that powered it, hence only Jedi used them...

That's not what he said - he said only the force empowers their crystals - so thus Sith will always use red (the crystal becomes evil); and good guys will use Green or Blue (the crystal becomes good).

That changed when games started to put some 'believablity' into it - and of course, when he signed Sam Jackson - he made it official with Mace Windu ...

That's not what he said - he said only the force empowers their crystals - so thus Sith will always use red (the crystal becomes evil); and good guys will use Green or Blue (the crystal becomes good).

 

That changed when games started to put some 'believablity' into it - and of course, when he signed Sam Jackson - he made it official with Mace Windu ...

Unfortunately, the quote I am looking for is buried underneath the mountains of SW fanpages and games and whatnots... trying to find a specific interview with him in 1979/1980 area is near impossible...

He may have changed his viewpoint on things several times, this is the problem with trying to reason anything out in SW though... Originally, Darth Vader was the guy's name, not his title; and originally, he DID betray and kill Luke's father... of course, originally, Obi-Wan was trained by Yoda, pretty much directly next to Luke's Father... and Anakin spent a great deal of time on Tatooine, and knew the Lars family VERY well, so much that Owen hated Obi-Wan for convincing Anakin to run off to the wars...

How much of that was in the very first movie, but by the time the second movie arrived, had been trashed? Lucas changes his mind faster than anyone I know, and amazingly he has severe problem keeping to his own canon throughout 6 movies (heck from one movie to the next)... Whereas, hundreds of authors writing EU stuff have managed to keep things pretty straight between each other... It's actually pretty sad...

Either way, going off what current canon says? Dual Wielding is something only done by practicers of the Nimen form (which is a mix between Shien and Ataru)... Since there weren't too many people who studied that form (of which Anakin is not, he studied Shien almost entirely) you would not see many of them running around in the movies...