Slides; Vernestrah's lightwhip, Maul's double, Senya Tirall's collapsing spear, Ventresses curved double, Ezra's blaster saber, Mary Poppins beyblade and Kylo's crossguard
Who, in your opinion, has the most useful unorthadox lightsaber?
FunI love when Kanan uses it as a pistol and then saber immediately, Ezra was like why didn't I think of that, 😭
Like you dummy, you made it haha, love Ezra though
I think originally Ezra was thinking that it could be used as a blaster to disguise the fact that he’s a Jedi, and then as a last resort he could turn the blade on, he didn’t realize the strategic ability it possessed at the time because he was still barely a padawan.
Wisdom comes with age and experience. Kanan fought in the Clone Wars as a Padawan and was like twice Ezras age if not 3 times his age. Loved Ezra in the Ahsoka series. I think they showed his experience very well at that point.
Also it helped that Kanan was effectively fighting a boss. When you are in a life or death situation you better believe you are pulling out all the stops
But what if I need those healing potions for a different boss?
Well, now your potions are the boss' loot.
"Dead. Ooh, he dropped some potions. Better save these for when I need them."
He’s only 14 years older than Ezra, but your point does still stand
Especially since Ezra had like a year of training under a semi-rusty PTSD handicapped Ex- Padawan in the back of a space RV by that point
And Kanan was taught by a super prodigy (youngest master in the history of the order) Council Member who was an alumni of the school of Bad Motherfuckers for 10 years (with 3 in a an active warzone) and basically had his moment where the OP abilities from the tutorial return
Edit:
Wanted to reply to your comment OP but it seems to be deleted now
I used by that point to specifically highlight the grand inquisitor fight because afterwards it's a completely different story with Kanan being back to form , Ahsoka, Maul, Mandalorians, constant inquisitor fights and the Lothal temple his training is much more he arguably had even better training than Kanan but he didn't have the Glock-saber anymore so we don't see him use that at his peak but I would assume he could utilise it much better
Oh yeah. Being able to change the fight without taking your hand off the handle would be useful.
Especially so in the age of Inquisition using ex-Jedi who have been told the Blaster is an uncivilised weapon.
I also love that the Grand Inquisitor wasn't sure how to handle it either. Kanan shifting tactics with alternating between blaster and lightsaber modes kept him off balance.
It was so unorthodox that it completely baffled the guy who was expecting another rigidly standard Jedi.
"Wait no, you're doing it wrong! I do the dramatic lightsaber spinning blade thing, you get scared and I stab you. No one said anything about a Jedi shooting me...are you shooting me with a lightsaber? The hell is that? And now you're just breaking my saber? If you're not going to play fair I'll just let myself die, spoil your win"
Not only that; he's FURIOUS that his rigid classical training can't compensate for the unorthodox combo. Multiple times he's able to create seperation & Kanan just starts zoning him with it & he just has to switch to defensive & lets Kanan close the gap again. It's definetly one of the more underated moments in the show.
Ezra does start using it this way a few times later when he has more experience including against the inquisitors quite effectively. My theory is that Ezra realized the way that it was destroyed actually exposed a design flaw. If he had had a stock saber at that exact moment it would not have actually been hit and exploded in his hand. The gun part actually is a protrusion.
It was also a nice little moment where we got an explanation as to why it wasn't a common thing. Like, yea it's a nice idea, but an experienced opponent would destroy it quickly.
I wonder if coating it with beskar or some other lightsaber resistant material would make it a more viable option, assuming you had access to the materials
Now that would be an interesting lightsaber, it would have the blaster function and it would also serve as crossguard.
And now we come to it: why don't we have cortosis lightsaber handguards?
Yup Ezra really needed a lesson from Zuko.
“Two halves of a single weapon. Don’t think of them as separate, because they’re not. They’re just two different parts of the same whole.”
Feels like proper Jedi philosophy about deceiving eyes and preconceptions blinding you.
Facts!!
The only good argument I’ve heard against the Glock-saber is you can throw a regular light saber. But my reply to that is you’re unguarded the moment it leaves your hand, Glock-saber is always at hand even during ranged attacks.
I'm sure you can throw the Glock sabre too, you just don't need to cause gun
Throw it and use the force to pull the trigger while it's behind your opponent
The Glock-saber is also a great counter to the thrown saber…. Blast away at them as soon as their saber leaves their hands, then switch to saber mode to deflect the thrown saber, then back to Glock mode to blast away at them while they are unarmed
I like the way we’ve argued to call it ‘Glock mode’
It really depends. If you used the more fencing like form II, the blaster saber is useless. And for the most part, you’re better off just carrying a blaster instead. Also, that grip looks uncomfortable as hell.
It’s a great design but it’s very non-Jedi. In fact I think you could argue it’s a weapon better suited to a sith. Not that I have a problem with it. I love Kanan and Ezra because they take some liberties with the old rules for the sake of the higher good.
Why couldn’t Ezra’s be thrown?
Right! I think it can. And you can use the force to shoot it wherever it’s at.
Also the whole like "it shoots stun balls" thing. A lightsaber/heavy blaster combo would be kick ass.
Cal Kestis Blaster Stance is 😘🤌
The one ep where he stuns Rex and Kanan Rex chastises him for not shooting to kill since they were in stormtrooper armor, I assumed that meant it had a kill setting like most blasters Ezra just stuck with the stun function because he was still a (mostly) innocent kid who didn’t seem like the type to want to hurt people unless forced to. Granted that changed by s3 when he was using Kanan’s blaster.
"Guns for show, knives for a pro."
"Soap, is there something we should know about you?"
They need to play some devil may cry for ideas. Get styling!
"I need to look down the sights to aim this gun. Better ignite the lightsaber part - hey wait a minute, I can't see through the beam!"
Its dissapointing how ezras second lightsaber wasnt just his first one again
Even more disappointing when his third saber wasn't that either. Like dude you had 2 chances to remake that greatness and you went with a normal saber? Come ooooonnnnn.
Helicopter lightsaber but with a built-in hyperdrive
Truth. Helicopter light saber is dumb but I’d get it just to avoid traffic jams when going out to dinner or run errands.
I love the idea of that lady from Visions just getting vaporized in hyperspace, and millenium later, a lightbrella atomizes a small city when it crash lands from lack of energy
Pike or Ezra’s gunsaber. The pike is the most useful out of the box, the gunsaber can be easily tweaked to be much more viable.
Always thought the Pike could be a particularly brutal sith lightsaber aswell. Where kinda like Maul, he doesn't ignite it at first. Beating the crap out of people with his Bo staff, before revealing it's a lightsaber when shit gets real.
Also just in terms of leverage. Overpowering an enemy's guard with a pike or mauls longer haft would allow for some brutal combat techniques. I could see Mace using this technique.
No a mace is a different kind of weapon altogether.
Yeah I don't think there's a place for a can of aerosolized light saber to spray in someone's face
Well parried, ser.
Lol, I think they meant Mace Windu. But you're not wrong.
I mean, getting smacked with Mace Windu would really hurt.
Hah, I know I was misunderstanding on purpose for the bit 😅
No idea why they didn't give Rey a pike. We see her fight with a staff, it would have been an obvious and unique choice. Instead they do that bizarre double blade crap
Right? Just give her a pike with a detachable beskar staff.
Because they didn’t think about anything when they made those films.
I thought the same thing when I saw her using a staff ‘oh cool she will get a Saberstaff/Forcepike etc, i love those’
But nope.
Instead we got her being able to mind control with 0 training after having only just been told the force exists.
A pike/staff made primarily from beskar and inlaid with cortosis with a shoto length blade on one end and a full saber length on the other. You could duel against multiple light sabers without ever having to ignite your blade until you’re ready to kill.
Plus you can walk around like a fucking wizard.
A pike made of beskar or cortosis
Beskar. Idk how cortosis that close to the blade itself would affect the function of the lightsaber.
Also, I think the cortosis would crack after repeated clases with another sword
True. I'd forgotten how brittle it was.
Beating the crap out of people with his Bo staff, before revealing it's a lightsaber when shit gets real.
I like this.
*Jedi beats your ass with the staff*
"But... but Jedis are supposed... to be peaceful...."
*Powers on the lightsaber*
Oh trust me, if I wanted to get violent I would have.
Heh.
This made a scene pop in my head: Good cop, bad cup routine. A police interrogation room. The doors closed but you can hear thuds and grunts inside. The door opens and a disheveled detective exits, wiping blood from his knuckles. Just beyond him you see a suspect, bloodied, and slumped over a table.
Detective: OK, Mike, he ain't talkin'. We tried it my way, time for you to go bad cop in there!
Suspects head bolts up, eyes wide in terror.
A Jedi utilizing dual blaster sabers in combat would be an absolute beast to take on if they were proficient
You just described the dude from Jedi survivor
He’s just built different
Pikes ‘n’ spears, back bone of any melee infantry division. Reach and leverage are kings of combat.
The problem I have with pike is it would be good for melee, but probably worse alternative in defence against blasters.
At short range, possibly. At medium to long range, given the way blaster deflection works, it would just mean moving a fraction earlier and probably doesn't have an appreciable difference if proficient.
I was so disappointed that Rey didn't convert her staff into a pike saber. Could've finally had one in live action
Traditionally, spears were better than swords. They were considered a primary weapon to a sword's sidearm. That reach and leverage is just incredible, so I'm gonna go with the pike every time.
I agree having a built in gun is second place, but only second place because the primary target is Force users who can block blaster bolts fairly easily. In a normal fight between normies, the gun wins.
Did Ezra ever successfully use the gun I remember him not being able to hit anything
He used it more as a distraction than anything else, something other duelists weren't expecting. But it was essentially a crutch to make up for a skill gap.
Kanan got the drop on Grand Inquisitor with it in a rush, but iirc that’s the only noteworthy application of gunsaber in the show. At least from memory’s sake.
Ezra, i think. The Light pike is interesting, and the Double is classic. But a ranged weapon built in? That could easily be every padawans training saber.
I especially think having a stun blaster built into a lightsaber could be a very practical tool for a jedi, especially as you said, padawans.
If anything that should be a standard feature. Much more "pacifist" than dismembering as a first option.
Nothing says peace keeper like "OH GOD WHY, MY HANDS ARE GONE YOU CUT OFF MY FUCKING HANDS"
My personal heacanon is that advanced prosthetics are so ubiquitous and effective that dismemberment is actually not so bad.
Ridiculous I know, but how else can you justify the Jedi going straight in for a “lop lop and maybe a little off the top” every time.
Probably not so bad if you're living on a relatively wealthy planet. But we can see with Kleig on tatooine that prosthetics aren't universally accessable
Absolutely. Luke even gets that stump thing near the end of ESB before they get to the medical frigate.
Oh huh I never noticed that… I figured he left it as a cauterized actual stump until he got there.
In legend, and maybe new canon, I recall reading that Luke got “the best of the best” prosthetic provided for him because he’s obviously the #1 figurehead of The Rebellion, destroyed the Death Star, saved millions and etc., so the higher ups pulled out all the stops getting him the best prosthetic available. Not so sure how accessible or what it would cost for normal folks/rebels.
I believe they use the sabers to have a "don't go escalate to violence because blood will be spelt" to make them think twice.
It also looks fucking cool.
The Jedi kill as a last resort. You can live without hands, and you can't kill people without hands.
Unless you get guns for hands.
Imagine one of the dudes who got their arm cut off coming back with a gun arm.
Pew pew pew.
Nice! I figured the same, and that’s why we(I) don’t (remember) see(ing) blood: the saber cauterizes the wound immediately.
Edit: because it’s apparent that it has been too long since I watched ANH and forgot about the bloody arm …. Which led me down the rabbit hole as to why they showed blood for that, and going theory is because he, Ponda Baba, was an alien with arachnoid anatomy (according to Wookieepdia), and therefore his wounds would not cauterize …. Interesting
Jedi Knight: Well... The suspect has been de-armed.
Padawan: Do you mean disarmed?
Jedi Knight: I said what I said.
flashbacks to darcy
A bigger concern for me personally is that everyone we see lose a hand in the series gets way stronger soon after. Why are Jedi leveling up the bad guys through amputation?
To be fair, would you wanna start a fight with a psychic warrior monk who will cut your hands off with a superheated energy blade the moment you refuse to "negotiate" with them?
dismembering as a first option
Elegant method from a more civilized time.
Definitely. It’s so stupid to refuse to use a weapon just because of some arbitrary decision made a long time ago that blasters are not “civilized” and now every Jedi just blindly goes along with it. The only downside is you have to turn off the saber to use the gun part of it. A saber in one hand and a blaster in the other would be the most useful, but hey, it’s still an improvement over most Jedi.
I always took that saber design more as a storytelling device. A tangible expression of where Ezra was on his journey with the Force. He's on the path, but the blaster is sort of a statement of his attachment to his old life and ways.
Especially due to his lack of skill with the force at the time. It provided him with much more of a non-lethal than he would have otherwise.
He had a hard time deflecting blaster fire which is why he compensated by having his own blaster
Never thought of it that way but the symbolism makes sense
It's also a statement on the era he lives in. Running around with what's obviously a lightsaber visible isn't a smart thing to do in the early Empire era. Running around with a blaster? Totally normal.
I liked the way they introduced that particular setup in Jedi Survivor.
In legends luke made all jedi carry a blaster. It was pretty much sometimes people are too far away to stab.
I wish I had more time to dive into the expanded universe. I'm missing a lot of information, and it does make it difficult to keep up sometimes with some of my friends who do have the time for it.
As a thought. Get it on audio, maybe?
There's also a YouTube channel that recently did a read of the Heir to the Empire, and I think he's midway through Hand of Thrawn.
If you're on a Star Wars without Jedi stuff, the X-Wing novels also have audio books available.
It was cool until you got to the point where you got your gun and if you had changed your controls you couldn’t use it at all. I spent an hour wondering why I couldn’t shoot 😂😂
I actually wasn't a big fan of the class myself, haha. But I did like how Cal brought up that his master was always against it, but understood that things have changed, and it didn't make sense to keep holding on to some values.
That’s the. Best thing about Jedi survivor. Cal was taking things from the past but also realizing the future needs change. So he’s making his own way while still following the force. Not blocking himself like most other Jedi at the time but also not being pushy lol
So, like Cal Kestis
I like how the different kinds of sabers are described in the Bane books. Like, most non typical saber types are usually actually less effective, it's just that people aren't used to defending against them so they only seem stronger, and that a skilled/experienced opponent will adapt quickly, so you better be damn good after that initial surprise wears off.
Or the hooked handled blade being only millimeters different in combat but it throws force users who don't notice it off.
We need a damned dark and gritty series for Bane. 3 seasons at least, one for each book.
S1E1 would be like 25 minutes one drilling and then 15 minutes of talking to the barkeep about killing that guy
God the fight in the temple against his former lightsaber teacher is just so fucking cool. I loved the Bane series.
I would say the pike, but it'll be costly, since you'd have to coat it with cortosis or beskar, otherwise there's a good chance an opponent with a saber can just slice the end off the pole.
Yep, some of these definitely need lightsaber resistant materials. Same flaws exist for all of the doubles and the kylo crossguard
I always factor in the cost of fictional materials when discussing such serious matters
I can't remember the source but I'm fairly sure that force users can use the force to reinforce their weapons and can even make them lightsaber resistant.
i mean its still pretty hard to chop a spear sideways when its poking at you and the "spearhead" is a 3 foot lightsaber
Kylo's crossguard could have been great... If it was an ACTUAL crossguard made from a saber resistant material (really, the whole hilt should be). The way it is now, Kylo would just accidentally poke himself in the wrist and drop the saber.
Yeah, I frankly just choose to believe the crossguard emitters are lightsaber resistant. Just seems like a death trap if not.
I think the point he was making is that the horizontal plasma is more risk to the wielder than benefit. Just make a plasma resistant cross guard. No need for actual saber there.
But muh cool factor!
Cortosis cross guard. Good luck stopping that one.
Wouldn’t that just deactivate the actual sabre? Or is there an emitter further away?
It appears to be saber resistant, in TROS Kylo saber-locks Rey’s blade in the crossguard and breaks her hold with it.
No one is saying it isn't. What they are saying is there should be no emitters at all, it should just be a crossguard with no blade (ignoring the mediocre in universe explanation)
Actually a red crackling burning cross is raw as fuck, and it is legitimately functional in the films. I see no reason to naysay against the design.
It's not meant to be a crossguard. I mean, obviously JJ wanted it to look like a crossguard, because he only really cares about style, not logic or continuity. But pretty much immediately afterward it was explained/retconned as a heat vent, because its an archaic style of saber that needed to do that apparently in order to function. That being said, Kylo does use it in the film effectively, during a saber clash, to poke a hole in his opponent in TFA.
You see him use the cross guard for its intended purpose. In duels saber wielders will have a moment where they clash their sabers together and it’s a test of strength. But Kylo can twist his saber and dig the cross guard blades into his enemy. It’s a very sith-y trick.
Cortosis coated cross guards that short out your enemy's saber if they hit them would be ideal.
I think with the pike saber, having the body of the pike made out of cortosis is the way to go. Gives the pike saber a great balance between being a defensive weapon as much as and offensive one
The issue with cortosis is that it's relatively brittle and can't take that many hits. If the opponent can break your staff with a few hits and negate your defence and reach advantage that's not ideal. Phrik alloy or beskar would probably be better for defence.
is it just me or did no one know what cortosis was before that episode of the acolyte. because i certainly did not
It was a thing in legends and also some Disney canon books and comics, but that episode of the acolyte is the first time it's been mentioned/shown on screen. So unless you're a super lore nerd who reads all the books/comics and stuff, you probably wouldn't have heard of it until now.
What really gets me is all the folks claiming to have read and watched everything, and then saying there's nothing that can short out a saber blade. Like, I understand not everyone has the time to read/watch it all, and that's fine. I don't expect the average person to know what cortosis weave can do. But if you're claiming you *do* have that time, or that you *have* put in that effort? I think you're fair game at that point.
To be clear, folks not knowing about cortosis isn't the problem. People claiming to know all the lore not knowing about cortosis is (especially since it shows up in a good number of the books as a plot entanglement).
Wasn’t the cross guard supposed to be a vent for the unstable crystal or something?
The crossguard blade continues underneath the metal guard, the guard is there to keep the user from slicing off their own fingers.
You could really just say that about any lightsaber, I mean the whole thing is one superheated blade, there's no room for mistakes.
I think we got to give credit to Ben, for how incredible of a swordsman he must have been to handle a weapon like that.
I don’t know which one is most useful, but the Inquisitor blades easily win the contest for least useful.
I mean, lightsaber whip. The Inquisitor’s blade merely has a shitty secondary function, the whip is a massive threat to the user.
Let’s be real, most of these are a massive threat to the user. It’s a miracle Maul didn’t cut himself in half before Obi-Wan had the chance to.
Double-sided would be a threat to most users, but Maul had clearly mastered it. It wasn't his lightsaber that got him cut in half
he actually only got cut in half after his saber got split and really probably wouldve been able to stab obi wan once he flipped over him if he had it
Makes you wonder why, when facing him two-on-one, one of the jedi didn't just immediately attack straight down the middle. It has ample ability to destroy maul, and has the longest range which is their advantage over Maul's "I have to hold this with both hands in the middle and avoid any lunges" style of weapon.
Best-case scenario it cuts Maul in half. Good scenario you damage /destroy his lightsaber since you are attacking its vulnerable middle. Middleground, he's forced to block with one end which can still uncentre him and throw him off as the other guy's blow is coming in from another direction. Worst-case he manages to back up (which is still useful to the jedi because it means he's not attacking at the same time, and you can back him into a corner).
Instead they keep throwing sweeping side-blows at angles that a single staff can simultaneously block. Still a great fight, but the plot armour is real.
Makes you wonder why, when facing him two-on-one, one of the jedi didn't just immediately attack straight down the middle
The same reason they kept dodging missed swings from maul as maul basically kiddie played with them.
You're supposed to assume Maul is kick ass killer who wouldn't allow it. Not the possibly suicidal thing that can't use his own weapon well.
Proving that the most effective weapon is the script.
Yeah, not a good design. Not Exar Kun level bad(Dude had basically a single handed grip on his) but double swords are fundamentally a shit design.
I actually don't think the threat would be all that significant. A normal person using a whip that cuts through almost everything, sure, they'd slice their limbs off in the first 10 minutes of practice. Normal people don't have telekinesis and precognition though.
IDK, the umbrella saber from Visions was espescially silly
There is definitely a point in time where you have too many blades
Like that bit in the Phineas and Ferb Star Wars special
The Inquisitor blade gets some points for the helicopter, which, while kinda dumb, is also useful. However, it fails because there is a big opening when it is spinning that could be fairly easy to stab into and destroy their hands.
there is a big opening when it is spinning that could be fairly easy to stab into and destroy their hands.
Which Kanan did when he marked the Grand Inquisitor, amazing scene but I could never take the inquisitors seriously after that
And again at the end of season 2 against the Inquisitor who had been chasing Maul - Kanan slicing the spinning mechanism by jamming his own lightsaber under the spinning track is what killed the guy in the end to my memory lol
Yeah, I'll personally never be able to take the attack helicopter lightsaber very seriously, but hey, it is unorthodox
It's because there is no one to teach them how to dance fight.
The inquisitor blades always struck me as a gimmick to compensate for the Inquisitor’s lack of skill.
But they have tiny repulsorlifts in them so you can helicopter away!
None of them. I'd say Cal. His is used as a single blade, double, dual weld, and cross guard at the press of the button. (The online reason you can't have all equipped all at once in the game is for gameplay reasons)
Imagining every part of cals Saber active at once is funny cause it'd just be that Phineas and Ferb bit about heavily modified sabers but cannon
The only reason the Jedi restricted lightsaber modification is because they knew if Anakin caught a glimpse of one he’d make a phineas and Ferb styled lightsaber in a week
As much as I dislike the sequels I have to be fair, Kylo Ren cross guard is easily the most practical in real life, people lose hands a lot in star wars and there is a reason almost every historic battle sword ever has some sort of cross guard. As for the lore though Maul's double blade is well known for being very effective, as he built it in the first place to kill jedi that were more powerful than him while he was still in training. I will say though, you missed an important variation of trick saber, the Cal Kestis and Smylo Ren detachable double saber is a very practical trick saber, as it can be used as a normal saber, double blade or split for the main and shoto saber.
I will say though, you missed an important variation of trick saber, the Cal Kestis and Smylo Ren detachable double saber is a very practical trick saber, as it can be used as a normal saber, double blade or split for the main and shoto saber.
Wasn't an accident, tbh. I love the Cal split double. Basically thought it would be unfair to include them, as there's really no drawback. Most of the others atleast have drawbacks that come with their quirks.
Teeeechnically Ventress’s curved double bladed saber is the same type of lightsaber as Cal uses, major difference being the curved hilt and the fact that Ventress almost never attaches the two halves to each other over the course of the Clone Wars series (birds of a feather I’d say, once I unlocked the dual saber stance in Survivor it was one of the only two stances I actually used) lol
Speaking historically. The SPEAR has been the most used weapon in history. So the lightsaber pike (especially Senya’s that’s extends from basic lightsaber length) has to be it.
Honourable mention to Ezra’s blaster mod, but in the SW universe, it really was ineffective.
Yep. Achilles and Hector battled with spears for a reason. Samurai and medieval knights relied more on their spears on the battlefield than their swords. Swords were often backup and ceremonial weapons.
Great on an open battlefield, and great for improving your reach in a fight. No so great in tighter corners. If you can only carry one weapon on average, then I'd choose a saber. You can learn how to fight reach with a sword. However, ideally, you'd do what Cal Kestis does, and have a setup that can be a dual saber blade, for distance, or two sabers, or one saber. Also, carrying a sidearm does help. Knights and Samurai both carried other weapons on them for when they lost their spears or when they needed to fight closer. Samurai were also excellent archers.
A major reason that spears were so common is they are much cheaper and easier to make than a sword. Axes were also used a lot in many cultures, because again, they are cheaper to make, but still effective. A long piece of wood with metal on one end, as opposed to mostly metal with a grip.
Totally correct. Which is why senya’s collapsible pike is incredible. The pike goes to a full 5 door handle and a 3 foot blade, or it’s just a standard two handed lightsaber.
The cutscene of her fighting Valkorion's guards to rescue Vaylin just to have Vaylin go back with Valkorion still tugs my heart strings.. then the next scene when she meets Vaylin as an adult, fully immersed in the dark side.. it's cinematic masterpiece.
The Temple Guard approves of this comment
Ezra’s lightsaber pistol is sick, it’s crazy that no one else has tried to make that besides him.
Second place goes to the pike, but only if it’s made of lightsaber-resistant materials. Otherwise, massive waste of mobility. Still, the extra range can be somewhat useful…
Maul’s double saber isn’t the worst idea, could be a good second or third place as well.
Everything else in the list is more dangerous to yourself than any opponent.
I never even considered the lightsaber pike not being made out of a lightsaber resistant material. That feels incredibly necessary, the difference between one of the best forms of a lightsaber to practically throwing your weapon away.
If the pike part is collapsible and becomes a normal short hilt, It could still be useful just to do extra long range moves when you need to. But otherwise yeah, it would be a massive waste
Everything else in the list is more dangerous to yourself than any opponent.
I honestly think the danger the Kylo saber presents to his wrists is vastly overblown. I'd trust myself with a crossguard before I'm going all out with a Maul double any day of the week.
You missed off Dooku’s cock-hilt
The flaccid sabre is fairly orthodox, imho. It's a pretty minor modification. Also skipped Cal's split double cuz it can basically be used as a normal single aswell
flaccid saber
amazing
It must mean the white Ahsoka sabres are at half mast
It's not bad, it allows for a style more like a modern epee fencer, have you seen the grips they use on those? I think it's a great idea, and fitting for his aristocrat style.
Maybe it's just me but I think the light whip is friggin stupid
100%. It looks awful too.
It is stupid. how would a weapon made from a projected beam of energy have rope physics? The only way it can be explained away is if she's manipulating the shape and physics of the blade with the force, but that's stupid.
In Legends it was a string of pieces of metal which each had their own emitter. Not a stupid design imo
Legends also had Exar Kun’s super long saber. These kids don’t know the old, better, stories.
Loud explosions in the vacuum of space, wizards who can move things with their minds, instantaneous pangalactic travel, swords made of light that somehow can't pass through each other... the list goes on a ways... but a light whip? That's just silly!
/s
It's silly because it just doesn't match up with how lightsabers have worked in any other media. The blade is straight in every other iteration except for this one just. because. A generic whip is not cool enough to offset that difference, imo
Cal Kestis!
Im glad you included Senya's Pike. For people who don't know, hers is actually unique in that its a normal lightsaber that can extend into a Pike. Look up the swtor "Betrayed" trailer.
In fact watch all the swtor cinematics if you haven't.
Senya's cutscenes, in fact, ALL of the cutscenes in that arc are incredible.
Most useful? Spear or blaster, easily. Distance or distancer.
Both true. Suprised no one has shouted out Ventress though. Because 2 is more than 1 (I actually left Cal off cuz I feel his are almost too good)
I mean I like it the least, it’s straight up dumb, but one of these enables you to fly?!
I know nothing about combat or weapons, but I really feel like Ventress's doubled bladed lightsaber that has a very small area where you can hold it, that area having two large curves that go in opposite directions, does not feel like it would work very well compared to just a straight staff like Maul has. It looks very uncomfortable to use in that form.
What about Maris Brood's tonfa sabers?
While Lightsabre Gun looks useful, I'd say it suffers from the same problems real life sword+gun combos have (and which make them little more than a novelty). Especially since you can simply have a gun and a sabre without combining them and have almost all advantages.
I'm gonna argue for the Lightsabre Spear/Naginata if you're fighting other sabre-users - more reach is just so incredibly useful when both of you have instakill, weightless blades.
I'll say Darth Kyle's hilt is the most "unorthodox" purely because it has negative use. They gave it a crossguard to look cool. But the emitter for the crossguard is actually made of the same stuff as the rest of the hilt. Since a blade is, upon clashing, predisposed to travel either out of the guard or into it. This means there's a significant chance of the crossguard deflecting any other lightsaber blade directly into the hilt thus destroying it and the wielder's hand. Though no formally trained Jedi existed at the time this was still a dumbass decision. All Jedi were trained to first target the hilt, then the hand, then the arm, then aim to kill. That was the order of priority. Even without the formal training of Form I, II, or even III/IV. Any well-intentioned prick with the Force and a lightsaber who wants to capture instead of kill is going to follow that same order of priorities. Really, it's just up to maneuvering a dipass with a dumbass hilt into blocking with their crossguard and the fight is over.
In terms of use? The pike you posted is Senya's. It is modular and can be a normal hilt or a pike. Spears are among the easiest weapons to learn and use, as well as having notable benefits in direct combat. I would be tempted to lean towards the lightwhip if they weren't so obtuse to use they canonically required the Force to be wielded safely. As in control the actual lash. They also make the least sense.
But I'd actually have to give the "useful" award to Exar Kun. The hilt was only rated for a single blade and thus could only support the grip of a hand and a half. But Exar Kun made up for the complexity of grip required to wield a double-bladed one-handed hilt by adding... MORE complexity in the form of a full suite of modifications. He could on the fly, as in during combat, alter the blade's length, which blade was active, the density of the blades, and their thickness. The dude used Trakata in all but name. He was a terrifying duelist to face in combat because of the sheer uniqueness of his hilt. It was certainly peak unorthodox.
Ezra, it's like it's a blaster no it's a lightsaber
Vern’s lightwhip is dangerous but if used right it has a lot of range.
I can't believe no one has yet mentioned Lord Nyax and his lightsaber knees
Blaster/Saber makes so much sense it’s criminal.
Ezra, just doesn't use it as effectively as he could.
It's a blaster long-range and a lightsaber up close. It allows you to fight in both ranged and melee.
Kanan showed off how useful it could really be against the grand inquisitor he used the gun and saber together fighting the Grand Inqusitor to keep him off balance and attack him at every range.