"Heavy" Lightsabers

[Crackerjack Bohemian]

I this to be put into affect as soon as possible? I really like the article, but it will both need to be implemented and maintained across the forums.

Or is this even less significant than I believe it to be?

 

[Kiro]

Less significant than you believe it to be.

Unless you're a specialist, like say, Dooku-level Makashi expert, where one would prefer a "Light" Clone Wars Era style lightsaber, then your lightsaber will already be a "Heavy" saber as that is what the nature of the article outlines.

 

[The Kyzer]

Well, that's not explicitly true. There are also lightclubs, super long and/or wide-bladed lightsabers. They give you an advantage via leverage and swing-force, but they'd also be royal b****s to wield, especially against, say, a Makashi-styled "light" blade, because they'd just weave around you and avoid solid contact.

It's significance is that of the Bifurcating Cyclical-Ignition Pulse Emitter, which allows your lightsaber to function underwater or in super-rich atmosphere. Before, it was actually a big thing. Now, everyone has it as a base-design. Mentioning it might get you kudos, but everyone probably already has it (according to canon, at least), and is actually conceivably much more rare to find a lightsaber without the BCIPE than one with.

 

[Kiro]

The article adressed the standard lightsaber, not the different, extreme, variants.

"Light" blades = KOTOR, TOR, Clone Wars.

"Heavy" Blades = Nomi Sunrider era Old Republic, Original Trilogy + Anything set after Return of the Jedi.

And as the Article states, the Jedi of this era, 1013 ABY, use the "Heavy" style of normal lightsaber. And the "Heavy" blade is still a regular lightsaber. It's just got more inertia and thus 'feels' heavier, and imparts more force upon impact, compared to the Clone Wars era "Light" blade, which moves more fluidly and gracefully than the "Heavy".

A lightclub is a variation upon the regular lightsaber, which is sort of taking the "Heavy" blade to an extreme, just as the lightfoil a variation upon the standard lightsaber, which is taking the "light" blade to an equal extreme as the lightclub is for the heavy.

tl;dr = Heavy and Light are both regular lightsabers. They just behave a little differently.

EDIT: Also, bifurcating cyclical-ignition pulses were standard in the lightsabers of Luke's praxeum, I don't feel you can call anything in lightsaber construction "standard", due to their method of construction. I'd rather state that it's "common", rather than "standard".

 

[The Kyzer]

EDIT: Also, bifurcating cyclical-ignition pulses were standard in the lightsabers of Luke's praxeum, I don't feel you can call anything in lightsaber construction "standard", due to their method of construction. I'd rather state that it's "common", rather than "standard".

Ah! I will edit my post to reflect that now.

And he meant the blades with the high-friction containment field! Got it. Sorry, my bad.

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

Well, for jedi and sith maybe. An Imperial Knights lightsaber was standard, though I realize they aren't the focus of the discussion. Just thought it was worth mentioning.

 

[Saul Perth]

And the "Heavy" blade is still a regular lightsaber. It's just got more inertia and thus 'feels' heavier, and imparts more force upon impact, compared to the Clone Wars era "Light" blade, which moves more fluidly and gracefully than the "Heavy".

That's not exactly true. According to the article the blade doesn't have any more inertia, just more friction against the air. This slows the blade and actually reduces the force of impact, but does make it much easier to handle. I believe the less refined containment field would make a saber much simpler to construct, more resistant to damage, and probably have a wider blade. It would also be harder for an opponent to knock around.

Kind of an off the wall example, but I see 'Heavy' vs 'Light' as kind of like Assault Rifle vs DMR in Halo. The first is much easier to use, but ultimately surpassed in most situations by someone with enough skill to effectively use the second.

 

[The Kyzer]

No, it does say that the inertia would increase as the heavy sabers would feel more like a real blade. Yes, the speed would be slower, but your impact force would be higher. Since we're using comparisons, light blades would be like sports cars and the heavy blades like dumptrucks. Yes, the light blades are capable of faster speed and agility, but your actual striking force would be considerably less than the heavy blade's dump truck slamming you. It's why Makashi used the light and Djem So uses the heavy.

 

[Kiro]

Try not to get too hooked up into the difference between "Light" and "Heavy" blades.

They are both regular lightsabers. One is just a little more suited for certain styles than the other. If you have a style like Makashi or Soresu (and possibly Ataru and Vapaad, as they seem to rely more on speed than strenght and impact), then you'd be better off with a "Light" blade, but you can certainly use a "Heavy".

Look at Anakin's duel against Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar, and then look at Vader's duel against Luke on Bespin. The first was with Light blades, the second, Heavy.