THIS IS V OPEN ENDED MAYBE BUT tell me things about the jedi forms please
YES TIKA I WOULD LOVE TO, THIS TOOK A WHILE
so there are a total of seven forms:
Form I — aka shii cho, “determination form” or “the way of the sarlacc” (i don’t remember who named it that but honestly, yikes). initiates start learning this as younglings and don’t move on to any other form until they’ve gotten older and mastered it. it focuses on specific target zones, which on a humanoid body are the left side, right side, head and legs. not the best for saber-to-saber dueling or for deflecting blaster bolts by a long shot but it’ll keep you alive.
Form II — aka makashi, also called “contention form” or “the way of the ysalamiri” is the go-to for saber-to-saber dueling and is widely considered the most elegant way to go about it and the most disciplined. it focuses on very precise strikes and balanced, efficient footwork. Form II saber-wielders tend to keep one foot in front of the other and move along that line. no crazy spinning mustafar leaps. this is the form you see people holding one arm behind their back for. Form II duels are actually really respected by jedi and it’s a lot like fencing! they are usually ended with very quick marks of contact like sun djem (which dislodges the opponent’s lightsaber with a quick spinning move or burning their fingers with a strike to make them drop it) or shiak (straightforward piercing stabs).
Form III — soresu, “resilience form,” “the way of the mynock” or “that thing bae does that makes us all lose it” is the ultimate in defensive forms. it is also the most inward-directed form of them all, so you better be really fucking good at meditating. it’s ideal for intercepting blaster fire and can actually turn them back on the same vector from whence they came, but that’s really more of a Form V thing. interestingly, there’s actually a thing called moving meditation where a user can pick up on the position of the enemy (or many enemies) and figure out the moves necessary to intercept every attack, including blaster bolts. this was adapted into a technique called “circle of shelter” which is essentially a precognitive state and can actually bring on long-term force visions, which is either the coolest or the worst side-effect ever depending on how you look at it. fighting saber-wielders in soresu usually means keeping your moves close to your own body and not really making large arcs, sweeps or lunges, which makes it hard for the opponent to land a critical blow. it also means counterattacking is an issue, which means you’re mostly wearing down the enemy until they fuck up and you have a clear and quick shot.
Form IV — ataru! also called “aggression form” or “the way of the hawk-bat,” which is probably why there is an actual technique called “the hawk-bat swoop.” it’s a pretty sharp contrast to soresu in that people who use ataru are basically always on the attack. it’s very acrobatic and really only for very fast jedi with a lot of stamina because it is hella exhausting and most people can only do it in short bursts. it’s very disciplined, though, for as showy as it is! in order to be any good on a technical level a jedi has to use every axis of motion they have. they have to be proficient in su ma (a type of footwork), jung su ma (rapid spins), ton su ma (somersaults) and en su ma (basically a cartwheel). this really just sounds like what simone biles would do if you gave her a lightsaber, probably, but if you can do all of that you can jump higher and jab faster than basically anyone. the drawback is that it’s really most effective against one single opponent, because you need some kind of defense against multiples and ataru ain’t it.
Form V — the perseverance form, the way of the krayt dragon, in its two aspects: shien and djem so. a jedi can master both at once but most choose one aspect or the other. Form V is the most physically demanding, which sounds ridiculous right after explaining ataru, but ataru requires a lot more in the way of agility whereas Form V is just brute strength. remember when i mentioned way up there when i talked about soresu that you could turn a blaster bolt back on its vector? that became a thing when some soresu practitioners were like “dude, this sucks, we can’t fire back for shit” and somebody decided “well fuck that” and developed shien, which is the style that did exactly that — send the blaster bolt right back where it came from. shien has a technique called “barrier of blades” that basically creates a tunnel of the energy emitted from a lightsaber to make enemy fire ricochet off in every direction. djem so follows that same philosophy (turning the enemy’s attack right back on them) but is more directed at saber-to-saber combat. the signature of djem so is a fluid riposte that deflects an enemy attack and immediately allows a counterattack. blows with djem so are really, super, exceedingly brutal and violent, and there’s a technique in that aspect called “falling avalanche” which is a literal armor-shattering overhand blow.
Form VI — niman, the diplomat’s form. also called the moderation form and “the way of the rancor” (which really has me questioning who names these things) is the preferred style of jedi consulars who aren’t going to be seeing a whole lot of combat. it’s the most balanced, so to speak. it isn’t as precise as makashi, as defensive as soresu, as kinetic as ataru or as brutal as shien or djem so. it draws a little from everywhere, though, so it’s a very practical all-around style. rather than focusing on bladework, niman focuses on bringing Force techniques into combat. examples include “draw closer” which is exactly what it sounds like — you yank somebody closer to you so you can get them with a saber sweep — and “pushing slash” which Force-pushes an enemy away from you after you’ve inflicted a cut so they can’t cut you back. niman is also the style most associated with people who prefer to jar’kai it up.
Form VII — juyo is nicknamed “the way of the vornskr” or ferocity form, and it’s … very controversial. juyo is basically run on uncontrolled passion. it’s easy to immediately say “that’s a sith style” because the code literally says “there is no emotion, there is peace” and we just said the magic sith word (and i think in the jedi path there’s a note from sidious or maybe dooku saying as much) but i don’t think that’s necessarily true. masters of juyo aren’t just letting themselves go berserk. they channel their passion or their emotion into power and keep those emotions locked very tightly otherwise. i think less-experienced people who use this are likely to slip up, but someone who is very skilled? nah. i think it’s very jedi-compliant. in fact mace windu studied it and developed a variant of it called vaapad, which i can’t ever find much on. (and, rebels-watchers, kanan’s master depa billaba was a practitioner of juyo. that’s very interesting to me.) it’s just very difficult to master. anyway, it’s a very sharp and chaotic way of fighting physically and attacks happen in quick bursts because as much as you’re drilling the way your body is supposed to move when you do the velocities, that passion and rage is what’s pushing it when you’re in the field. all the same, it’s easy to fuck somebody up who’s using juyo. they leave themselves very open to counterattack and a good Force-fueled shove or yank will give them a bad time.
when learning a form the student will deflect bolts from a training remote (which we’ve seen plenty of) and also go through drills called velocities, which are a series of moves in escalating speed until one partner or the other concedes (the proper way to concede is to call “solah” which i’m assuming is “STOP TRYING TO KILL ME” in some obscure language). disarming strikes in training are called shiim, and strikes in general are referred to as “marks of contact,” of which there are nine or so. training sabers are used, which can’t actually cut through a body part — but it can cause superficial wounds and numbness in a limb.
there’s a lot more to saber-centric fighting in general but THAT’S BASICALLY WHAT I KNOW ABOUT FORMS
this was a very long post
good lord thanks for hanging in there
