Lightsabers and Fighting Styles
The color of a lightsaber can tell us a lot about its user. The blue saber is associated with righteousness and bravery. The green with spirituality and harmony. The red sabers of the Sith represent hatred and fear.
But it’s not only the lightsaber’s color that tells something about its wielder; so does the fighting style that its wielder adopts.
In his chapter on “Lightsabers and Fighting Styles” in Star Wars and Conflict Resolution, Tom Freeman explains that there are seven different styles of lightsaber dueling. Each of the seven types of dueling comes with its set of strengths and weaknesses. For example, Master Yoda’s style, Ataru, “relies heavily on Force-assisted acrobatics”, and it can “only be used by Jedi who are strong enough to resist being tempted by the dark side” which is at its most tempting during use of this style.
None of the styles, is inherently better or more powerful than any other of the seven fighting styles. However, depending on the situation, the matchup, and the user,, some fighting styles will have an advantage over others.
For example, Darth Sidious only attacks, in his fight against Master Windu; Master Windu, on the other hand, is effective at blocking and redirecting the attacks. Darth Sidious’s signature attack style was vulnerable to be exploited by Master WIndu because of Master Windu’s ability to block and redirect. Darth Sidious’s inability to best Master Windu through aggressive attacks just leads him to more ineffective aggressive attacks. Without the assistance of Anakin, Darth Sidious would likely have met his end in the Chancellor’s office.
This reveals the vulnerability of someone who depends solely on one approach for getting things done. When it doesn’t work, doubling down is unlikely to resolve the problem. If you can’t shift to another approach, well, you’ve lost the high ground.
While untrained with lightsabers for the most part, people tend to have a default mode in approaching conflict. Some people are competitive, even aggressive, by nature, when it comes to conflict. Others tend to yield quickly, or to avoid conflict altogether. Naturally, this default approach serves them well… in some of the conflict situations they find themselves in. No approach is inherently better than the other, in terms of getting what you need. However, in a given situation, in a given matchup with a conflict conterpart, adopting one conflict approach will serve you better than choosing another.
So, Jedi, Sith, and all of us regs would do well to be more flexible. We should recognize that we default to a certain style of fighting, and that ithis renders us vulnerable in certain situations, or against certain conflict opponents. As Freeman puts it, “being effective in conflict resolution means being able to realize when a style is not working and adapt accordingly.”
— Written by Max Lentz, SW&CR Padawan and 3L student at the University of Oregon School of Law
