Sword Expert Reacts To Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 

Vader uses one handed style when he doesn't take an opponent seriously. He basically handicaps himself to be less bored

Should also keep in mind that Cal's first encounter with Second Sister is the first time ever where he fights someone else who has a lightsaber. He has also spent the last five years in hiding without anyone to train with to use either the force or his lightsaber.

A fun example of lightsabers in fact NOT sticking to each other is the rather short duel between Obi-Wan and Count Dooku in Episode 2. They're in a sword bind, but then Dooku winds his blade and cuts Obi-Wan's arm. It's really one of the only times they showed how that *could* be done, shame it wasn't used more.

It should be said that in Star Wars there are in-universe fighting stances, largely separated from real life sword stances. Alot of said stances are based around blaster reflection, instead of saber to saber combat, which is why the saber stances often aren't pointed forward but instead parallel to the body.

Glad he acknowledges that lightsabers and space sorcery change sword combat.

This guy would LOVE the blaster stance in Jedi Survivor. It's exactly what he asks for near the end with the idea of more thrusts and whatnot, plus a gun.

One excuse for some ot the stuff that Jedi do in fights is that the Force let's you see the future a little. It also lets you feel what your opponent is thinking and planning. In a way, a big flashy style that has a lot of "openings" makes sense if the real skill of the style is how far you can see in the future. It actually works great as a reason to let fights be big and dramatic in ways that they wouldn't be in real life.

Cal’s opening stance is reflective of his lightsaber, form VI Niman- aka the diplomats form. It focuses on balance and was the preferred form of the order until the Clone Wars. It allows simple blade work and blends other forms and helps incorporate force attacks/defenses into the battle tactics. The goal was to do make a form that could handle 90% of opponents out there while the Jedi could focus on other pursuits (healing, diplomacy, translating, writing, etc. ). It works great until you encounter a sith or someone trained by the sith.

To slightly defend Cal on the single saber stance in the begining, he had defaulted to his training, which was done with the staff style lightsaber. And as someone else said, to be fair to the Jedi most of their opponents used blasters not sabers so most of their training was probably focused on defending against that.

“The age of piracy” has a totally different meaning to my generation. He’s thinking pirates, I’m thinking Napster

Matt should watch The Old Republic cinematic and react to their fighting.

What you said about the lightsabers binding and sticking together makes sense as in the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, Kanan teaches Sabine how to wield a lightsaber and comments on how there is a feel of a pull of energy between the two blades when they touch, like a magnetism of sorts

The rolling dodge makes sense in context of using it to avoid creatures when fighting them but in lightsaber to lightsaber fights the game encourages you to block and parry and stay close to your target

These are fun to watch it always cracks me up when the people playing the game make it look worse

first stance makes a bit more sense when you're focused on deflecting blaster bolts and not fighting other lightsaber users (much as the protagonist of this game would have done as he was just an apprentice during the Clone Wars as a child)

Cal is also not a fully trained fighter/Jedi so his stances and technique aren't refined

I'm curious what you think of the mechanic where repeated strikes "wear down" your ability to parry. That - and the red unblockable attacks - are a big reason why most of us spend a lot of time tumbling.

These are always insightful and enjoyable. Kudos to him for acknowledging the remarks about lightsabers sticking in universe.

Wonder if he's aware that star wars has it's own established set of lightsaber forms (even if they don't resemble real world techniques), so when the night sister says she recognizes the stance, it's because she's aware of what lightsaber form cal is using.

7:50 he was using a double bladed lightsaber with the bottom half broken, it was literally a hand and a half

cant wait for an expert to review the new sword stances in jedi survivior!!

That first stance does look goofy but it's possible that it's a blaster-defense stance and it's not like real swords were ever used to block ranged weapons. Any Jedi growing up during the Clone Wars is probably garbage at dueling unless they went out of their way to spar with other Jedi and sought extra training in saber-on-saber combat. They would prioritize learning to fight droids with guns at a distance.

Star Wars Rebels. Those duels are well thought out. And with Ashoka coming out, it would make sense to look at some of those.

Nice breakdown of the movement. 10/10 will fence again!

Vader canonically fights with the lightsaber form primarily focused on overwhelming the enemy with sheer brute force (form 5, I believe) on account of his slow, powerful cybernetic limbs. In contrast, Anakin used form 4 (I believe), a very agile form which focused on overwhelming the enemy with speed and never staying in one place for too long.

12:45 While countering with any number of things during a bind makes sense. I'm such a sucker for the dramatic tension those binds create. Two opponents pressing against each other both in a physical clash as well as a battle of wills. Maybe sprinkle in a bit of dialogue, a tid bit of personal history. It's just so cool😊

The reason why someone doesn't kick out or adjust more often during a blade lock with lightsabers is because lightsaber cut a million times easier than a steel blade. Giving up leverage could result in limb amputation or death if you decide to kick out and your opponent decides to change the way he pushes the saber at the same time. Most of the time when when kicks are used during saber locks in Star Wars is directly after the blades make contact, within the first 3 seconds, to limit the amount of time one has to think about what motion they will take. Most of the actions taken during a saber lock, and the safest, is to move back with the lightsaber in a defensive position. And when duelist block their back with the hilt behind the head, it wouldn't hit them in the back. The blade of a lightsaber is weightless. If you use two hands during this block the hand nearest to the bottom of the hilt will be pulling towards the head to increase the resistance. It would be fairly easy to keep the blade from pressing into your back unless the opponent is far stronger than you. This guy may be an expert on swords, but I'm a goddamn nerd He also has no clue about Vader's fighting style. It's so much more complex than he thinks

It has it's own form of fighting and yet people keep getting experts to rate it based on swords completely different from a lightsaber.

Tbh the sword binds remind me a bit of tsuba zeriai in Kendo. Essentially it’s a state of where you get to close to the opponent to safely withdraw, so you enter a sort of sword bind ish state, kinda hard to explain

Nice review

Lightsabers are physically drawn to each other, the crystals begin to resonate in the force causing the to be drawn like magnets.

Should do a part 2 talking about the double blade and dual wielding choreography

We need to get him to react to the Old Republic cinematic fights.

You should react to the Revenge of the Sith video game. The swordplay there is fantastic.

Matt comparing Force-wielding to using a pistol will never get old. Especially that time where the video smash cuts to him waving a gun for emphasis.

His point about the weapon being the fastest thing to react with is exactly why the game encourages parrying. He doesn’t know it at that point in the video but he’s backing up how well designed games like Jedi FO and Sekiro are

I'd also like to point something out about force wielders! The force grants them a little bit of "clairvoyance" in combat, almost like seeing a split second into the future and that's why lightsaber combat drags on for a lot longer than real swordfights! When it comes to binds, i'd say that the reason that binds end up becoming more about overpowering your opponent than finesse with lightsaber combat is because if you attempt something out of a bind, your opponent would have that "clairvoyance" and your out to the bind would end up either going back to being neutral for both parties or disadvantageous for you!

A lot of lightsaber blade locks are pushing forward against each other, but in cases where they're fighting to control the center line an option would be to get your blade out of the way (deactivate or just disengage) so the opponent's force carries past center and you can get a quick shot in, at least to further unbalance the opponent and create an opportunity for a more severe attack.

Opens popcorn ready for the "actually" ripostes from space combat veterans

The big benefit of the double bladed lightsabers and saber staffs is they only have 2 blades when you want them to. They can easily just remain as a single blade until you need the 2nd

Funny how he mentions the sword and pistol combo that we now have in Jedi: Survivor

Where is the middle cutscene of the Malicos fight? That part was pretty strong in choreography in my opinion.

The staff the black troopers use isn't that heavy because of technology but they are made out of very heavy material so that they can withstand a strike from a lightsaber

The glove on Vader's left hand is indestructible. Makes for a great 🛡

the lightsaber sticking together thing makes sense as, it would last a few moments because if were both pushing and one of us decides to pull away, the other could use that opportunity to gain more momentum in the fight, it's the same argument as the "why don't you cut it off and back on" argument for binding, the second one saber goes off the other goes forward, you'd have to turn it off and on for a SPLIT second in order for it to work in that argument and as we all know it takes a couple seconds for them to light up and solidify theirefore it would not work, but those are my theories

Yes! Next react to the Jedi: Survivor stances! Mat would love the Blaster stance, super thrust-heavy. Plus a gun. Gun is always a benefit XD

I’m glad pervy the purge trooper was included in this analysis

Funny seeing Cat Easton's dad around here

Ive always imagined that lightsabers react when they touch eachother and kind of repel eachother (kinda like magnets) so that when they touch the blades together and push it actually takes a lot more strength to survive

As far as clashing the blades together goes, I've always just assumed that they were also using the Force against each other and so they can't take any other action.

Id love to see him review the deleted scenes footage of Anakin v Count Dooku's stunt double training

Technically the jedi don't endorse violence and actually shunned allot of the more aggressive styles, so a lot of their fighting styles and stances were meant for defence and being less threatening as they were peace keeps not warriors, which is why they are so overwhelmed when fighting alot 9f the sith

A handguard on the end sorta makes sense since she switches hands sometimes.

0:45 - That is 100% what we always used to call the shield stance. It's a reference to the various Star Wars RPGs that have popped up over the years. ^_^

Great stuff !

oh many this guy would love the new stances in survivor

It’s interesting seeing the drastic change in first Anakin’s then Vader’s technique when he fought Kenobi. Even at his prime Anakin used a precision two handed stance against him because he knew he was a deadly fighter, his critical mistake was in becoming too impatient to end their duel to the point he attacked at a strategically disadvantageous position in the arrogant belief his power would be sufficient to make up the difference. When next they dueled decades later on the Death Star, that arrogance remained in Vader but it had been tempered by painful experience. As a result, you see him using a more guarded stance and utilizing a patient style to test for weaknesses without overtly opening himself to a counterattack. You see the same thing when he first faces Luke in Cloud City. First he uses a loose one handed style as he reasons he’s facing a relative novice and is simply looking to test the basics of Luke’s form. Once he sees there’s some skill involved, he stops the playful phase and changes to a two handed grip to fully test Luke’s limits.

"That guard" is in fact from Shii-Cho. A beginner's stance *in universe*

The Inquisitor saber shouldn't have handguards at all. They're useless against an opponent's lightsaber.

Most force users have limited precognition and they know what the next swing is any way. Wide swings aren't making openings that are exploitable.

I'd say that first stance would be more affective for deflecting blaster fire.

Have you looked at the duel in the 'Shindig' episode of Firefly?

the inquisitor saber guard does collapse allowing for the more frontward handguard, it seems to be always overlooked. Cal looks lost at close range ... yes that's the point its like how lara was haphazardly swinging the climbing pick in tomb raider 2013

im intrersted to see what he think of the cross guard, duel wield and blaster saber in survivor

Matt would likely love the blaster stance in jedi survivor

In fencing it's recommended to try and dodge more than to parry because parrying is less reliable than dodging.

Great video! Thanks. It was awesome that you found someone who knew not just the swordsmanship but also seemed to appreciate how the fighting styles reflected the characters. Anyone could say "this doesn't make sense." But having someone who sees why a character might be doing something sub-optimally because of their own weaknesses or disposition makes it so much more satisfying to watch!

You probably should have explained to him that theirs unblockable attacks in the game, the bit after 1:30 is interesting but in video games nowadays you cant block everything so rolling around and dodging is necessary.

Very informative

Great to see an expert.

His channel is @scholagladiatoria since they didn't plug him well here.

He really gonna love whet they did in the sequel

Correct me if im wrong but arent there mainly one handed bastard swords that are shorter

Acording to some of the cannon novels when two force users fight the real battle and biggest struggle actualy has little to do with the fencing it is more like a constant battle of wills in the force imperceptible to non force users most of the time in a way light sabers are more for blocking blasters and certain force ability’s and while the are defiantly dangerous this battle of wills could explained some of the longer pushing binds not all but some

12:42 but they did... Trilla tried to get a hit in with her 2nd blade, Cal deactivated his blade and dodged causing her to overswing and he then force pushed her back.

Vibroblades are very difficult weapons to master.

Mr. Easton with the realness.

We need a video from this guy on Kingdom Come Deliverance if you haven't already

It's no coincidence his making reaction video of Fallen Order now, because of Jedi Survivor is going to be release on April 28, 2023.

You should do the schwarz saber fight from Spaceballs

You need to read the treatises on light sabers... Saber combat is difficult, the physics dynamics are influenced by the force and how in touch you are with it. Your review should have been done in universe.

Another thing regarding the lightsaber sword-bind thing, Light Sabers are pretty hekkin' hot. Like, Literally Plasma Swords. If you push them into the face of your opponent, they're gonna get a pretty nasty burn if they're not wearing any sort of face protection.

Lightsabers are supposed to stick together to some degree (still it is possible to slide). As for vader. actors in OT were told to use both hands for lightsabers because they are supposed to be heavy, vader is sopposed to be strong enough to use it easily one handed.

People being upset at a weapons expert for not spewing out lightsaber lore

Yet another great critique👍

They should hire this guy for the swordfighting in this game!

This should be helpful for all the Jedi/Sith LARPers!

Here's hope the next movie has a Jedi/Sith that uses a Lightsaber and a Blaster

The inquisitor lightsaber actually has a retractable guard in the 5th episode of Star wars rebels you see the grand inquisitor use both blades with only one guard so whenever they use both guards it’s a choice

Eh it can be hard to watch when they drag it out, but the "stick" is just for dramatic effect and pacing really. It's a story telling tool, we've had a bit of quick action and now we need to slow it down to build tension or exchange quips and move on to the next act of the fight. Fans will try to come up with excuses like energy binding, etc. but really it's just a story telling mechanism you see in nearly any film that utilizes sword fighting.

Tbh, that thumbnail caught my attention in different emotions, not even reading this being about the new Star Wars' game 😂 Another job to our best plumber/doctor/etc. Jedi Sins or Johnny Skywalker definitely crossed my mind before clicking the vid ✌️

Lol, I'm the left fencer at 0:56. :D

Do the Old Republic Cinematics

To be fair on the second lightsaber binding, Cal DOES turn off his saber to make her stumble and force pushes her

Always love Matt

Can you get him to react to the sword fights from the SWTOR cinematic trailers?

15:29 what does he mean choke out? Force Choke or real life choke out?

Keeping in mind that Cal was a barely trained child who spent years in hiding and hasn’t kept up what few skills he had, I’m actually surprised that he does this well in close quarters.

So made up fighting styles with sci fi weapons in a fantasy universe are unrealistic, got it

When Matt says he would like to see more thrusts in this game, he's watching the wrong person playing the game because thrust is a very powerful move in this game