Lightsabers.

Does anyone use a light whip? It doesn't make functional sense to me.

Certainly it isn't useful?

Lumiya was more of a threat due to her training and mastery of illusion. The lightwhip was just an added "benefit." Wookieepedia lists distinct weaknesses for lightwhips, such as the blade being weaker than a normal lightsaber, lacking in defensive capability, and the user could be overwhelmed by pure speed or brute force. Lumiya's lightwhip just had extra tassels of lightsaber-resistant material (beskar mainly) that added a bit of an edge to her strikes. It definitely must have taken tons of practice to perfect its use, and Lumiya was obviously a master. It seems more like the kind of weapon to annoy her foes and keep them at a distance, mainly.

As for the poll and my choice, standard.

A standard lightsaber is really useful and easy to use.

To Garwig: I think that would count as a dual phase, with the whole adjusting of size. It's actually a rather useful tactic, if you can nail it down. See I, Jedi for a good example of it.

Really, it all comes down to how you use them. Personally, I think the shoto would be the least useful, and the Lightwhip the most useful against most opponents in a standard setting. People are used to thinking of how to counter a standard blade, it's much easier to think of - but a Lightwhip can bend, can twist and turn to come in at different angles. Yes, you lack the defensive abilities, but if you are using the lightwhip properly, every missed attack can be turned into an attack from a new angle. It's very useful, and very hard to counter with traditional thinking. Probably the best counter for it would be either a shoto up close, or a blaster at a distance. Medium range, it'll be a bit hard to counter with a standard.

A saberstaff is hard to use, just due to the fact that you have two bloody death blades swinging around on both ends. Very useful for countering blaster fire though, and if one side can be activated/deactivated quickly, then you can really surprise your opponent. But generally, you aren't going to get the same freedom of movement that a single blade offers.

Dual blade, assuming it is one in each hand, would probably be my favorite for standard lightsaber duals. Freedom of movement offered by the single blade, tempered by the lack of strength in each hand given by one arm - not that important if you keep moving, and avoid getting into those saber locks. You have a supremely deadly blade at the end, so your lack of strength can be easily done away with as long as you move quickly.

Shotos are very hard to write for. Maybe other people can write them well, but I cannot for the life of me seem to make the shoto equal to, or even close to, the standard lightsaber.

Long handle lightsabers, which are curiously missing from this list, would be also very useful. Allows you, if you're following Darth Nihl's example, to basically use it as a staff, letting your body become the fulcrum as you pull of hard and fast swipes. It could also be used as a spear, which would amplify the bonus one gets from altitude differences. Downside, the hilt becomes a big target, and the sheer size of the hilt would probably slow you down. Probably could be solved by either using a lightweight material to speed it up, or a lightsaber resistant one, and use it as a staff to block.

Sorry for the rambling, just thinking out loud.

The saberstaff killed Qui-Gon and had Obi-Wan dead to rights, I think that counts as paying off at least a little bit.
Single lightsabers are all flash, too. If you know where the blade is you know where the blade is.
My point being, that knowledge, no matter how 'automatic', of where the second blade is is something you have to take note of beyond what you do for a single blade practitioner.

And let's not forget that that dismissive approach by Bane's instructor regarding saberstaves was only to prevent any of his students from practicing with one, thereby allowing him to retain an edge over all of them, since he used one himself.


Almost every single lightsaber has a blade length adjust. It's usually done with a twist-knob.
What is called a "dual-phase" saber is really just a regular lightsaber, only with a second length pre-set with another button besides the ignition button that makes the blade length adjustment quicker than rotating the knob by hand and which therefore preserves the element of surprise and doesn't compromise your guard stance while you do it.

There's nothing keeping you from making those lengths whatever you want them to be.
In fact there's nothing keeping you from designating as many different lengths as you want with their own buttons, within the limits of space, practicality, and lightsaber functionality. Call it a "poly-phase" saber. Dominate.

Dual phase. More versatile.

Why not?
Bane used a curved-hilt saber with Djem So, after all.

I see.

I also put it to you that a.) the benefits of any saber are what you make them out to be, and b.) to have a marked difference in performance from a standard saber in battle requires literally beating those differences to death in description.

Point b. comes from me reading the article about Darth Bane that said the "fraction of a difference in angle" between his saber and a straight one made a difference in how his opponents fared against it and chuckling as I imagined how one would go about writing that sort of difference out on JvS.
To that effect, IS there much of a difference between writing a curved saber and writing a straight saber? I don't use either so I'm legitimately asking this to anyone in the know. Has anyone found that there were things they could(/n't) do with a straight blade that they couldn't(/could) with a curved saber?