By rotating the lightsaber deal with and transferring the wrist on Acolyte final weekJedi Grasp Vernestra Rvoh delivered to the display star Wars an concept that has been in growth for nearly 40 years: Lightwhip. It’s miles from star Wars‘ the strangest lightsaberand even together with his surprising look on displayThat is additionally not completely new.
How does a lightweight whip work?
Within the present continuity, we solely have one instance of a Lightwhip: Vernestra’s lightsaber, the place it’s introduced as a modification of her conventional lightsaber moderately than its personal distinct weapon. Little is understood about how Vernestra’s whip works within the present continuity, however within the Expanded Universe, Lightwhips labored utilizing a sequence of smaller emitters and crystals that had no cells across the plasma power they fashioned, permitting for the creation of a versatile beam of power that may very well be managed like a conventional whip, at a larger vary than a typical lightsaber. By buying and selling among the coherent energy of a conventional lightsaber’s beam for this flexibility and attain, Lightwhips usually lacked among the reducing energy of a lightsaber, whereas with the ability to face up to extra sorts of armor {that a} lightsaber would in any other case lower. They may be broken extra simply, and as a result of unstable nature of the blade, they had been susceptible to shorting out.
The unconventional nature of the lightwhip was as a lot a bonus as its versatile blade. Uncommon and tough to grasp in comparison with a lightsaber (which can be one of many weapon’s drawbacks that contribute to its rarity), the lightwhip preyed on the unfamiliarity of an opponent – particularly the Jedi, who had been primarily skilled in fight with conventional martial weapons. Lightwhips may assault a lightsaber wielder from a larger distance, curve round blocks and parries the place one other lightsaber couldn’t, and in some multi-tassel configurations, may overwhelm an opponent with strikes from a number of angles directly.
The place did the Mild Whip come from?
Within the Expanded Universe, the Lightwhip was launched because the weapon of Darkish Girl Lumiya, a Sith and one of many Emperor’s Fingers (an elite order of the Empire’s most interesting brokers and covert operatives) from the continuing Marvel comics. star Wars sketch. First appeared within the 1985s star Wars #95, Lumiya’s mild whip functioned barely in another way than what the weapon finally advanced into in later interpretations – along with a single, elongated power beam, Lumiya’s whip had a number of extra tassels manufactured from leather-based and adorned with lightsaber-resistant Mandalorian iron (higher identified in each the present and Expanded Universe variations by its Mandalorian identify, beskar).
Lumiya’s weapon led to Luke Skywalker creating one other sort of lightsaber that might go on to have its personal storied historical past within the Expanded Universe and past: the Shoto lightsaber, a secondary weapon with a shortened blade that might counter a number of mild whip tassels by wrapping them across the blade of his main saber and utilizing the Shoto to sever the bodily extensions.
After Lumiya’s weapon spawned the Mild Whip into existence, extra conventional types had been codified as historical and very uncommon weapons wielded by the Sith through the New Sith Wars, 1000’s of years earlier than the occasions of the movies. Not like Lumiya’s weapon, nonetheless, earlier Mild Whips most frequently had a single power beam, just like the Mild Whip wielded by the Sith Lord Githany.
Was there a Lightwhip Canon earlier than? Acolyte?
As within the case of Acolyte Vernestra herself is the one identified wielder of a lightweight whip at current. star Wars continuity. An alternate type of her saber was launched in 2021 Excessive Republic center grade novel Check of bravenessThere, the modification to the lightwhip got here to Vernestra as a imaginative and prescient within the Drive when she was nonetheless a comparatively new Jedi Knight. After its completion, she saved the modification a secret from her former Grasp and different senior Jedi, fearing that the lightwhip’s historical past as an unorthodox weapon—and its historic connection to the Nightsisters of Dathomir—can be ridiculed.
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