Loss of Arms in Star Wars

TerrorFirmer

EpIV, Obi-Wan slices the trouble makers hand off.
EsB, Vader slices off Lukes hand
RotJ, Luke Slices off Vaders hand

AotC, Dooku Slices off Anakins arm
Windu Slices off Jango Fetts arm
RotS, Anakin slices off Dookus hands
Anakin slices off Windus hand.

Nothing like a bit of specific arm slicing eh? You wont see many legs lost in Epic Star Wars battles in the near future....I was thoroughly surprised to see Obi Wan cut off anakins legs.....I had a comedy scene in my mind where Anakin jumps up, Obi Wans cuts off both his arms and anakin rolls down the slope like a sausage into the lava

monkeyfudge

MobileInfantry wrote:

Nothing like a bit of specific arm slicing eh? You wont see many legs lost in Epic Star Wars battles in the near future....I was thoroughly surprised to see Obi Wan cut off anakins legs.....I had a comedy scene in my mind where Anakin jumps up, Obi Wans cuts off both his arms and anakin rolls down the slope like a sausage into the lava

Actually when I saw that scene I was greatly reminded of the the scene with the black knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

D-FENS

monkeyfudge wrote:

Actually when I saw that scene I was greatly reminded of the the scene with the black knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

When he was on fire and shouting "I hate you", i was reminded of one of the Simpsons' Tree House of Horrors , when they were ripping off Nightmare on Elm street and Groundskeeper Willy was on fire at the Parent Teacher Meeting , screaming "I'll come back and get your children, in their dreams!"

robinph

monkeyfudge wrote:

Actually when I saw that scene I was greatly reminded of the the scene with the black knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Surely if he was that strong with the force he should have been able to still fight, float around in the air holding his lightsabre in his mouth or something.

dearg_doom

This is one of my favorite aspects of the swordplay in these films.. it has been ever since I saw them properly for the first time in the cinema in '97.

I'm a huge samurai/ninja nut, and used to read a lot about various martial arts and sword tactics, and believe it or not, the lightsaber fights are very true to these 'old' ideologies. (I know people like to be flippant because it's just star wars, but they are well researched)

One main tactic for winning a sword fight is attacking your opponents sword-wielding arm, because if you injure that(or indeed slice it off:o), your opponent is not only disabled, but he is also disarmed. Meaning he is no longer an immediate threat to you.

Samurai who could no longer wield a sword through injury, and survived the battle on the winning side, commited hara-kiri, because they were now essentially useless to their army.


In the SW films, I reckon the arm is completely removed, is just because lightsabers are so powerful(and it looks cool on screen!), but in real life with metal swords, its quite difficult(obiously not immpossible) to cut through.

and about Obi-wan cutting off Anakin's legs, I think this was just a target of opportunity as opposed to intentional, Anakin recklessly tried to jump over him, but even if he tried to fight from where he was, as Obi-wan says he had the higher ground, so Anakin probably would have 'lost'(probably through arm-slicing:?) anyway.



****s sake do I sound like Nerdlinger or what...floigen:)

Clinical Waste

robinph wrote:

Surely if he was that strong with the force he should have been able to still fight, float around in the air holding his lightsabre in his mouth or something.

"Oh, I see. Running away, eh? You yellow bastard. Come back here and take what's coming to you. I'll bite your legs off. "

Rhyme

As outlined before attacking the attacking arm was a major target... also a good cut to the armpit or elbow is disabling also... i guess all the arms/hands etc in Star wars being lobbed off is just a way of saying that the person who lost the arm is an inferior fighter, a kind of insult perhaps.

Roar

Whats with the serious lack of blood though? In ep4 the trouble maker in the cantina's blood is on the floor after he gets his hand cut of.. but then after that.. nada....

dearg_doom

Roar wrote:

Whats with the serious lack of blood though? In ep4 the trouble maker in the cantina's blood is on the floor after he gets his hand cut of.. but then after that.. nada....

The lightsabers, being a beam of energy, are so hot they cauterise the wound I guess, they were probably a bit sloppy in ep4:)

dearg_doom

Rhyme wrote:

i guess all the arms/hands etc in Star wars being lobbed off is just a way of saying that the person who lost the arm is an inferior fighter, a kind of insult perhaps.

Yeah I forgot to mention that while I was ranting!

It seems to be a domination type move alright. Kind of like ye say shows they are an inferior fighter, it used to think it was a 'normal' move for the Sith to do to young Jedi who they wanted to corrupt, but the new films niether confirmed nor denied that idea, so maybe?

TerrorFirmer

Roar wrote:

Whats with the serious lack of blood though? In ep4 the trouble maker in the cantina's blood is on the floor after he gets his hand cut of.. but then after that.. nada....

Yeah, I was just thinking that. I guess its just in EpIV, it was the first movie, and they were showing the raw power of the lightsaber, it seemed far more realistic and threatening at the time, it wasn't until Empire that Lucas probably realised the way it should be.

Megatron

dearg_doom wrote:

The lightsabers, being a beam of energy, are so hot they cauterise the wound I guess, they were probably a bit sloppy in ep4:)

the sabers can have thier intensity level set differently depending on the situation. Like when Qui-Gon decideds that he wants into the Bridge.

Now the joke for me is that Ben has always liked lobbing bits off people, he taught luke how to do it, and Vader ;P .. but who did he get from , Yoda ...

now try and follow me , each step up is the person who trained the first person

Luke,vader >> Ben >> Qui-Gon >> Doku >> Yoda

So the lieing little green toerag is responable ....

/goes to look for a lynching Party.

dearg_doom

lol, it's always the little angry guy, eh?


imo the arm thing is pretty self explanitory (and very cool:))

but the thing which worries me most is the amount of decapitation in the films!!! so many.



and as if that's not bad enough, do ye know just how (supposedly:D)hard it is to perfectly lop off a head when the victim is kneeling and still? In the thick of a swordfight, or while the victim is moving(Windu->Jango Fett in ep2 and Yoda->clones in ep 3) it is next to impossible to strike at the right time and achieve the right angle to lop off the head but not touch the shoulders!

I would have much prefered a more shocking scene for both of those killings, kind if like the one in Johnny Mnenomic!

Pigman II

MobileInfantry wrote:

EpIV, Obi-Wan slices the trouble makers hand off.
EsB, Vader slices off Lukes hand
RotJ, Luke Slices off Vaders hand

AotC, Dooku Slices off Anakins arm
Windu Slices off Jango Fetts arm
RotS, Anakin slices off Dookus hands
Anakin slices off Windus hand.

Don't forget Luke cutting off the Wampas arm in Esb and ObiWan cutting off the Zam Wesells hand in AOTC (it's harder to spot than most but he certainly did it.)

I reckon the Jedi do it because they:
1) want to preserve life
2) prevent attack
3) incapasitate their opponent
4) teach their attacker a lesson they won't soon forget.

BEAT

I was thinking this very samething OP!
without reading everyones comments, I'd say it has something to do with..
cut off his arm and he has nothing to fight with...you cant wave around your lightsaber with no hand
so you are not killing him but you are rendering him "arm" less ... so the Jedi way