The Froggy Ninja
The Blade Will Never Die
It does kind of go into detail, with sub-specializations within forms and the idea of personal styles expanding on them.
Using The Force Made Easy
- Thread starter Fencer
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
FullNothingness
Mostly DHMO.
IMO one thing to keep in mind is that not all fights start at point blank range. Often one or both parties are not inclined to blindly rush the other side. So while a melee sword fight might be fairly short most of the time the fight as a whole might not have been. Even in Star Wars where there is a heavy focus on melee with lightsabers fights often start with with blasters or force powers getting used to take out the other side from a safe distance or to score an advantage. There is also a lot to be said for positioning sometimes and that can make all the difference (insert high ground meme). In the end experience fencing may be useful to write a fight scene but it is also in a lot of ways not like a real fight because those a far more messy situations generally.
Yeah, the details of minutiae will have a very narrow target audience. I like the stories where they take a step back. Maybe a flashback to a training memory, or the feeling of the Force evaluating the collapsing possibilities to provide that edge of reaction and action. Maybe an emotional narrative that is essentially the peanut gallery watching the body and training take the stage. (eg Inside-Out)
"Oooh, I'm feeling really confident here! I can see his style already, and I've trained for this. I hope he's good so I get to use some of the more complicated move-sets instead of just the basics." or "Wow, I can't tell if he's completely untrained and ignorantly confident, or if he's been trained in a style I've never seen before. Yikes, I'm nervous. Hope my foundational skills are enough to let me endure until I get his style down."
Then this would be followed by a brief summary of expectations defied/realized, maybe some emotional transition as things change, and the conclusion/outcome of the engagement.
- Location
- Livin' in the Land of the LOST! *roar*
This is sounds awesome, but apparently Chs. 1-32 have been removed to be published on KU.
- Location
- Mt. Holly, North Carolina
The funny thing, from my semi-neckbeard point, is both of them know the basics of Makashi, otherwise known as Form 1. They went to form 2/3 because that's where they felt most... How do I say this in a way that makes sense... they felt most comfortable with how their relevant style moves/reacts/feels for how their life has gone. Obi-wan with 3 acts as a shield wall providing defence and limited offensive moves but if he has a friend you are screwed. Meanwhile, John with 2 is a charging, flicking, assault where if you don't have a counter to a lightsaber in hand, you probably got stabbed at force speed enhanced rate in somewhere important and are either no longer a problem in his way, or quickly going that way.
Fencer
Writer
- Location
- 2nd shift
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Very true. The only fight this story has had so far was a spar on level open ground but There are all sorts of scenarios with uneven footing where I would have to stop step back and go through it all step by step in my head confined spaces, low high ground, forest area or similar with lots of irregularly spaced obstacles which might come tumbling down on top of you from sloppy swings. Like I said I'm not a dedicated sword master or anything my frame of reference gives me a good foundation to build off of but for more involved fights I absolutely have to slow myself down and think it through.
- Location
- Montana
While I normally vote for more realism in a lot of writing...here I do not. I agree that a fully detailed fight is a painful slog only enjoyed by a small subset. The focus of any good fight scene needs to be in telling the story of the fight instead of getting dragged down in the nitty gritty details of what happened.
- Location
- Scotland
I think one thing needs to be said: Lightsabers aren't swords, they don't have edges, they don't behave in a way that makes them weightless either. They have substance. The darksaber is most famous for this nature, but it isn't unique to it. All sabers have this weighted element to some degree, possibly depending on the makers desires. So something that's 3 feet long could behave like a 4.5 foot claymore if so desired.
Like you said Force speed, mobility (ie positioning and footwork) would be far more important in a duel than merely knowing specific moves or parries. Its why I'm not really a fan of the 'lightsaber forms' themselves, they seem rather stunted when you have the mother of all abilities capable of allowing you to adapt on the fly with battle prescience. I always imagined that the best duelists would flow with the force around their opponents and disect said opponent metaphysically and physically at the same time. A sort of ultra force instinct that isn't based on a massive collection of built up reflexes (thats is exploitable) but is a state of some sort of battle zen.
Trying to explain in prose a lightsaber duel is pointless, better to explain in broader terms and the battle of the minds of the participants.
Like you said Force speed, mobility (ie positioning and footwork) would be far more important in a duel than merely knowing specific moves or parries. Its why I'm not really a fan of the 'lightsaber forms' themselves, they seem rather stunted when you have the mother of all abilities capable of allowing you to adapt on the fly with battle prescience. I always imagined that the best duelists would flow with the force around their opponents and disect said opponent metaphysically and physically at the same time. A sort of ultra force instinct that isn't based on a massive collection of built up reflexes (thats is exploitable) but is a state of some sort of battle zen.
Trying to explain in prose a lightsaber duel is pointless, better to explain in broader terms and the battle of the minds of the participants.
I think the MC would be the type of person who'd use some of the Alternate Lightsaber Techniques from the memes. They don't really work for Jedi since they require someone to be deceitful... and because some of them would really mess you up if you use it against a skilled opponent.
Which of course, would likely make a fight between two jedi being a sees like it goes forever, until one screws up and it's over. Jedi vs non-jedi would be very lopsided, and anyone whom could hold their own at all would likely be very impressive. And then there is the sith, whom MAY not benefit as much from future sight, but the raw stat boosts from the dark side would make it a an exercise of endurance.
- Location
- State of Confusion
Obi-Wan arguably does it right in the very first cantina scene when that guy draws a blaster on him. His first move ignites his saber and blocks the blaster shot, his second move disarms the guy.
I would suggest using detail in a singular decisive moment of the fight, and/or the final moves. Everything else leave more vague to keep things moving.
- Location
- miami
God I loved that series before whatever madness griped the author and the books starting being 50% "realpolitik" nonsense and the last couple books have been covering the same events from different angles for the last decade. Probably never going to see how manticore handles the league or the cloner Nazis.
I feel like all I read anymore is good and bad fanfiction lol.
Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
It is highly unusual for a real fight to last more than a minute at max, yeah. There are a number of reasons for this, one of which is that adrenaline overclocks everything; not just your body, but your mind as well. People in the throes of an adrenaline rush often describe it as feeling like time has slowed down, that is because adrenaline literally makes your brain think faster.
Now, I used the word 'overlock' for a reason; because much like overclocking a computer causes it to suffer greater material strain and generate more heat, overclocking your body with adrenaline does the same. Unlike with a computer however, you cannot stuff water cooling tubes into your brain to deal with the excess heat and upgrade your meat with better materials able to take the increased strain.
So your brain can only maintain this level of increased performance for a relatively short period of time before your neurons literally start overheating and dying, and as it turns out the average amount of time that a healthy human brain can maintain 'maximum performance' is in fact around about 1 minute.
So the longer a fight lasts, the more likely it is that someone involved in it will reach their limit, at which point they will inevitably make a mistake that the other person, who has not reached their limit quite yet, will be able to capitalize on.
And in a real fight to the death, defeat is usually decided by the first person to make a mistake.
This is by absolutely no means the only reason why real fights tend to be extremely quick, vicious things that rely more on conditioned reflex actions than actual conscious thought, but it is one of the bigger reasons: A human being simply cannot act at maximum 100% capacity for longer than around a minute or so, and the first person to hit their limit is usually going to be the first person to lose.
The superspeed isn't, but the precognition definitely is: Remember that we see Jedi younglings practicing saber exercises by blindfolding themselves and blocking blaster shots from a floaty ball droid.
Sensing and responding to attacks made against you using only the Force and none of your biological senses is literally one of the first things the Jedi teach.
Note that the appearance of 'weight' behind a lightsaber is, canonically, the result of a gyroscopic force that attempts to 'twist' the saber in the direction of its magnetic field. This twisting force is why lightsabers are really hard to wield and require quite a lot of strength to do so; as the wielder must constantly 'fight' the twisting force to prevent the lightsaber from trying to drag itself into the wielder's own limbs. This is also why the majority of lightsaber fighting styles involve sweeping, arcing movements, as they are taking advantage of that twisting force to enhance their blows. It is also also why the whole 'throw lightsaber like a spinning disc of doom' trick works; once spun like that the twisting force maintains the spin all by itself and the Jedi only needs to control the direction it is going in with telekinesis.
In short; lightsabers want to spin around in circles and try very hard to do that, which makes wielding them without cutting your own limbs off rather tricky.
Incidentally, that is indeed generally how fights involving Jedi and\or Sith tend to go: Non-Force Adepts tend to get merked instantly, whereas battles between Force Adepts tend to last until one of them pulls some trick that catches the other one off balance, at which point one side or the other either flees the scene or gets chopped in half.
And when the Force Adepts in question are masters, they tend to just chain tricks together in-between or alongside sword fighting. It's not at all uncommon for master-level fights to involve one side throwing a trick at the other, who catches the trick and throws it back as a new trick at the first guy, who catches it and throws it back as a new trick, etc etc until one of them pulls something that catches the other off guard.
Last edited:
- Location
- Oslo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Huh. If you watch literally any videos on clever evolutionary mechanisms of mimicry and camouflage, you'd find a lot of the same patterns. I assume it is true for most survival mechanisms.
It might be paperthin disguise or a subtle change, but if it's good enough to throw the opposition off just for a glimpse, it works. It only has to be consistent against the opponents you are usually dealing with for you to fall into a habit and either become an unparalleled master or a story of fall from grace after a string of early successes.
Last edited:
OolongTeaDrinker
Transgender Trickster And Tea-Drinker
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'll give a second recommendation on Strongest Fencer, it's a great novel.
wtdtd
slow thinker, with crippling abundance of time
- Location
- The Netherlands
Errrm the link is dead. Maybe fix it?*Sees thread has updated*
*Opens thread and. . .*
The directions this thread goes sometimes . . .
Um I have a question would soon to be count dooku be interested
Cause he was a Jedi that was convinced the sith still existed and were becoming stronger was told to give up after asking yoda for opinions and became disillusioned with the Jedi leaving to find the truth no matter what and in the end finding them but becoming a sith himself
If he is still looking for the sith and saw the show I think he would be interested to go on and give some truths about them and diss the Jedi for thinking there gone and he would probably end up joining because "your causing such a disturbance that they have to try to kill you especially when I'm here showing there secrets"
Cause he was a Jedi that was convinced the sith still existed and were becoming stronger was told to give up after asking yoda for opinions and became disillusioned with the Jedi leaving to find the truth no matter what and in the end finding them but becoming a sith himself
If he is still looking for the sith and saw the show I think he would be interested to go on and give some truths about them and diss the Jedi for thinking there gone and he would probably end up joining because "your causing such a disturbance that they have to try to kill you especially when I'm here showing there secrets"
- Location
- The City of Tears, Hallownest
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Fencer
Writer
- Location
- 2nd shift
- Pronouns
- He/Him
just sent rough draft of the Dooku update to the beta. waiting to see what @Functionality thinks but it should be up sometime soon. still got like a week before I need to go back to work. With any luck I'll get a few more updates finished before then. really want to get an Archer update out and I'm toying with a second post for a plot bunny from a little while back.
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Are there rogue fundamentalist jedi running about? Something like the Jedi Coveant?
Ch. 17
Fencer
Writer
- Location
- 2nd shift
- Pronouns
- He/Him
AN: Everyone thank the awesome beta Functionality for their great work. This is the long awaited and asked after Sith react. I did my best, but I'm not a sociopath so guessing at Sidious' thought process is… yuck. I tried my best. This is what I came up with. I'm going to run with it.
{}{}{}{} Count Dooku
Coming down the shuttle ramp after another successful off world venture to Mr. Carson's professionally neutral face was in many ways the best indicator that I was well and truly home.
It was not, necessarily, a good thing. Reaching out with the Force to get a feel for the man's mood solidified the thought. Mr. Carson was a consummate professional at all times, but something had him rattled. Not afraid, or angry, merely off balance.
"Mr. Carson, dare I hope that you are only here to welcome me home?"
"I'm afraid not, m'Lord. It would appear that Mr. Branson's hobby of trawling through the forums has finally turned up something you'll wish to know about."
That was unlikely. While the boy imagined himself as a political activist, I kept a number of trained analysts on staff. That he would discover something they missed was unlikely in the extreme.
"Oh, do tell? Rumblings of dissent among the lower classes? Some scandalous bit of trivia to do with the love affairs of one of my contemporaries perhaps?"
Carson cleared his throat which was as close as his self control would allow him to fidgeting in place like a child.
"Actually, m'Lord, this seems to be more along the lines of Jedi business."
"I beg your pardon?" How the young man could possibly have discovered anything I might find relevant about the order I couldn't imagine. Never mind impressing Carson enough to actually bring it to my attention.
"It'll be easier to show you, m'Lord. Your office might be best. I've kept it away from the rest of the staff so far. Wasn't sure what your opinion might be."
Now thoroughly confused and more that a bit curious, I nodded my assent and headed into the mansion.
{}{}{}{}
As the final video ended, I leaned back in my chair and eyed the screen thoughtfully.
The audacity of it. The sheer disregard for the inevitable consequences the utter mad simplicity of the idea.
I could no longer hold it in. I laughed.
"M'Lord?" Carson asked cautiously.
"That, that boy has the kind of nerve needed to steal from a Hutt." I shook my head. "His reasons for leaving the order are not particularly in line with my own. And yet I can't help but to wonder if this chaos won't force some of the changes I tried to push for, by sheer happenstance. It's certainly going to force the Jedi to change. They won't have any choice."
"Sir, aren't you concerned? Surely this will have repercussions?"
"More than you or I can possibly imagine, Mr. Carson. We could see just a trickle of new Force users and the Galaxy might have time to mostly adapt. We could see a flood of them that will overwhelm governments from one end of the galaxy to the other and see an age of turmoil unprecedented since the days of the Sith Wars of old. We could see criminal organizations bolstered with Force abilities make war against planetary security until every planet is forced to turn all their attention inward. Most likely we will see some mad combination of all these possibilities and more besides."
"Then, why laugh, m'Lord?"
I chuckled again for a moment before answering.
"Mr. Carson. In the coming months and years, I will no doubt find myself cursing this, Captain Kesel to no end. But for all that, I can't help but laugh when I imagine just how much worse it must be for my former contemporaries in the Jedi order."
Carson's lips twitched upward for a brief moment acknowledging my point.
"Well then, m'Lord. Much as I hate to spoil your good mood… I may have the first instance where you'll feel compelled to curse the lad already waiting." Oh, well that didn't bode well. "Mr. Branson has been practicing these lessons for going on three weeks now. So far, he hasn't reported any success, but he has been diligent."
"Ah… Let Mr. Branson be for the moment, Mr. Carson. I'm afraid I'll have to give the matter far more thought before I set any household policy on the topic."
"Very good, Sir. Will there be anything else, m'Lord?"
"No, not at this time. I'm afraid I need to make several calls and I must insist that I not be disturbed. If I don't make it down in time for dinner tell the chefs to set it aside and I'll eat when I finish."
"Very good, sir." Mr. Carson bowed and left the room.
Now then. This wasn't the sort of information I could delay sharing with my Master, and I doubted he would receive things in such good humor as I had. And while I might find this amusing in the abstract the real long term implication for all of this would no doubt be staggering. We would need a strategy for how we might best turn this to our advantage.
{}{}{}{}
Sidious watched the videos in silence, only small tells in his expression giving any hint to his feelings as he watched the videos. Though I admittedly only glanced up occasionally to observe him as I started on my own research.
Surprise, anger, disgust, amusement at times, but all in all he stayed true to his core being and mostly radiated unending fury. When the final video ended, he took near three minutes to compose himself fully before speaking.
"This should not have gone on for nearly so long without being brought to my attention."
I opened my mouth to remind my Master that I had only just learned of it myself, but he waved me to silence.
"I have sources of information within the order. Granted, I've been kept unusually busy the past few months with a number of topics, but…" His words trailed off into muttered imprecations as he began searching through digital files. It took several minutes to find what he was searching for and slammed a fist angrily on the top of his desk.
"Damn it! It was reported, but the sorting algorithms were never programmed to pick up on something like this!"
Unfortunate, but it did make a certain amount of sense that he wouldn't trust a living person to go through such sensitive data. And there were limits on how free thinking a program could be.
Sidious cursed quietly and sulphurously. As his eyes skimmed document after document.
"The Jedi are in turmoil." He finally spoke clearly. "They know they need to act but are divided on how to act."
"Unsurprising." I knew this game well. My master was assimilating all the new information and soon he would be plotting. Trying to feel through the Force how each plan might affect the greater plan which we were only a few years from implementing.
"How wide spread is the knowledge? Obviously, it's too late to fully contain the spread…"
I had been looking into that and several other topics as he watched the videos.
"I've only just begun to search, but I've already found copies on several other video sharing sites, and at least three message boards or similar things where informal groups are discussing their minimal successes. So far that is minimal, but if the Captain's claims about this martial art style are to believed, those numbers will grow with time."
"Any signs of official news coverage?"
"I've yet to find any, so likely nothing which has made it to the galactic networks. Though I'm sure it's appeared on smaller local agencies somewhere. That won't last though. Not after Yoda has lent it his credibility."
"True." My master's fingers drummed a rapid beat on his table top scowling at nothing.
I waited in silence, but not for long.
"The information cannot be stopped at this point. This should not prevent the Grand Plan from progressing… But it will sow chaos beyond anyone's ability to predict. We will have to be vigilant, and adapt as things change." Sidious scowled. "Which was never going to be simple, but this will only make things more difficult."
"The question then," Sidious mused, "is if killing the boy would reduce the chaos appreciably… or if it would be more valuable to see what information we might be able to take from these lessons and improve."
"Master?"
"This trick of his, conjuring fire. It should be simple enough to reproduce and weaponize. The question is what if anything else he may have rediscovered or invented."
That was… hmm.
"It may also bear consideration that even if the masses of the galaxy are incompetent in the extreme… an army of idiots experimenting with abilities beyond their understanding may just invent something valuable by sheer number backed probability." I offered.
Sidious face twisted as if he had bitten into something unspeakably foul.
"He is certainly setting the groundwork for the masses to fall to the Dark Side. It would make finding disposable tools simpler, however… it would be essentially impossible to track them all… I don't like the idea of allowing potential rivals to gain strength in obscurity. The rule of two has served our order for a thousand years, but some fool with delusions of grandeur will doubtless declare himself the leader of a new sith order." Sidious hissed like an offended feline.
"Doubtless, Master. And likely more than one."
"… Perhaps then the solution is not fighting to maintain the status quo, but instead changing to match the reality we must face…"
"Master?"
"If we must face a galaxy where any ambitious fool with delusions of adequacy might claim the title of Sith… Perhaps it would be for the best that we put them to work, rather than let them run loose. They would certainly prove useful in countering whatever self taught fools might have delusions of heroism when we begin to move in earnest."
My eyebrows shot into my hairline.
"That is… a bold strategy, Master. And when things come to a head neither of us will have much time to spare for teaching."
"But we have some time now. You more than I." Sidious mused. "Did you not recently acquire a potential disciple of your own?"
Ah. I'd not thought he would be aware of her yet. I'd hoped to have a bit more time to work on her before he became aware of her existence. How had he learned of her existence?
"She shows potential." I admitted.
"Push her, impress on her that she will be trained beyond the rabble, and that she will be expected to bring others to a minimum level of competence. Even pathetic, half trained Sith acolytes could be useful."
"Hmm, and so long as they are only half trained, they will never be strong enough to pose any true threat."
"Indeed."
"And what of the source of this chaos, Captain Kesel?"
"For now… For now, he may live. If only for the damage his actions are causing to the Jedi order. However, when he has outlived his usefulness… Well, such a major disruption of our plans deserves a response." Sidious' smirk was a thing to behold, but not for the faint of heart.
"As you wish, my Master." I bowed to the holoprojector.
"That still leaves the matter of the Senate." Sidious mused. "Once this reaches galactic news it will spread like wildfire. It would be prudent to have some sort of stance in place beforehand. The fools in the Senate are most easily swayed when I can present them a plan to follow."
"You could outlaw the practice." I suggested. "It would likely dissuade some of those that would follow in the footsteps of the Jedi."
"It would… but I doubt such a measure would ever make it through the Senate. I can think of a few dozen planets and species that would reject such a push on religious or spiritual grounds. A number of warrior and militant cultures will want this as a form of self improvement, and governing bodies. And once this spreads to the criminal elements of the galaxy…" Sidious shook his head.
"No. Much as it galls me to say this, unless we want to spend all of our time personally disciplining criminal groups of Force users, planetary security groups will need to be capable of handling some of the fools."
Sensible, and annoying.
"Perhaps, the Jedi could be distracted dealing with major cartels, and criminal empires for a time? Throwing them against seasoned fighters with a modicum of power and skill might at least thin their numbers, and keep them distracted."
"A good thought." Sidious admitted. "Perhaps…"
Sidious's face shifted to a mocking exaggeration of how he presented himself to the galaxy as a whole and when he spoke his voice lost its customary sharpness in favor of his kindly old man tone.
"In this unprecedented time of change, and uncontrolled transition, we the people of the galaxy must lean on our long time protectors, as never before. The Jedi order have long served as a force for peace and stability in the galaxy and now we must place our faith in them to help guide us through the coming turmoil. We must go forward, united as we face the coming trials." Sidious cackled and dropped the facade.
"Good, good. Not a bad start at all. I'll need to find some strings to pull behind the scenes, but with Kesel's lessons acting as a counterpoint to the Jedi there should be no end of fools falling to the Dark Side. Yes, we can make this work to our advantage."
"Then by your leave, my Master. I believe I have things to begin putting into motion." Starting with Ventress, and perhaps paying a visit to Mr. Branson.
"Yes, we both have tasks to be about. Keep me apprised, particularly about this apprentice of yours. If she is not up to the task, we may need to find you another."
"As you wish, my Master." With a final bow I ended the call. Now then, dinner first. And then on to business.
{}{}{}{} Count Dooku
Coming down the shuttle ramp after another successful off world venture to Mr. Carson's professionally neutral face was in many ways the best indicator that I was well and truly home.
It was not, necessarily, a good thing. Reaching out with the Force to get a feel for the man's mood solidified the thought. Mr. Carson was a consummate professional at all times, but something had him rattled. Not afraid, or angry, merely off balance.
"Mr. Carson, dare I hope that you are only here to welcome me home?"
"I'm afraid not, m'Lord. It would appear that Mr. Branson's hobby of trawling through the forums has finally turned up something you'll wish to know about."
That was unlikely. While the boy imagined himself as a political activist, I kept a number of trained analysts on staff. That he would discover something they missed was unlikely in the extreme.
"Oh, do tell? Rumblings of dissent among the lower classes? Some scandalous bit of trivia to do with the love affairs of one of my contemporaries perhaps?"
Carson cleared his throat which was as close as his self control would allow him to fidgeting in place like a child.
"Actually, m'Lord, this seems to be more along the lines of Jedi business."
"I beg your pardon?" How the young man could possibly have discovered anything I might find relevant about the order I couldn't imagine. Never mind impressing Carson enough to actually bring it to my attention.
"It'll be easier to show you, m'Lord. Your office might be best. I've kept it away from the rest of the staff so far. Wasn't sure what your opinion might be."
Now thoroughly confused and more that a bit curious, I nodded my assent and headed into the mansion.
{}{}{}{}
As the final video ended, I leaned back in my chair and eyed the screen thoughtfully.
The audacity of it. The sheer disregard for the inevitable consequences the utter mad simplicity of the idea.
I could no longer hold it in. I laughed.
"M'Lord?" Carson asked cautiously.
"That, that boy has the kind of nerve needed to steal from a Hutt." I shook my head. "His reasons for leaving the order are not particularly in line with my own. And yet I can't help but to wonder if this chaos won't force some of the changes I tried to push for, by sheer happenstance. It's certainly going to force the Jedi to change. They won't have any choice."
"Sir, aren't you concerned? Surely this will have repercussions?"
"More than you or I can possibly imagine, Mr. Carson. We could see just a trickle of new Force users and the Galaxy might have time to mostly adapt. We could see a flood of them that will overwhelm governments from one end of the galaxy to the other and see an age of turmoil unprecedented since the days of the Sith Wars of old. We could see criminal organizations bolstered with Force abilities make war against planetary security until every planet is forced to turn all their attention inward. Most likely we will see some mad combination of all these possibilities and more besides."
"Then, why laugh, m'Lord?"
I chuckled again for a moment before answering.
"Mr. Carson. In the coming months and years, I will no doubt find myself cursing this, Captain Kesel to no end. But for all that, I can't help but laugh when I imagine just how much worse it must be for my former contemporaries in the Jedi order."
Carson's lips twitched upward for a brief moment acknowledging my point.
"Well then, m'Lord. Much as I hate to spoil your good mood… I may have the first instance where you'll feel compelled to curse the lad already waiting." Oh, well that didn't bode well. "Mr. Branson has been practicing these lessons for going on three weeks now. So far, he hasn't reported any success, but he has been diligent."
"Ah… Let Mr. Branson be for the moment, Mr. Carson. I'm afraid I'll have to give the matter far more thought before I set any household policy on the topic."
"Very good, Sir. Will there be anything else, m'Lord?"
"No, not at this time. I'm afraid I need to make several calls and I must insist that I not be disturbed. If I don't make it down in time for dinner tell the chefs to set it aside and I'll eat when I finish."
"Very good, sir." Mr. Carson bowed and left the room.
Now then. This wasn't the sort of information I could delay sharing with my Master, and I doubted he would receive things in such good humor as I had. And while I might find this amusing in the abstract the real long term implication for all of this would no doubt be staggering. We would need a strategy for how we might best turn this to our advantage.
{}{}{}{}
Sidious watched the videos in silence, only small tells in his expression giving any hint to his feelings as he watched the videos. Though I admittedly only glanced up occasionally to observe him as I started on my own research.
Surprise, anger, disgust, amusement at times, but all in all he stayed true to his core being and mostly radiated unending fury. When the final video ended, he took near three minutes to compose himself fully before speaking.
"This should not have gone on for nearly so long without being brought to my attention."
I opened my mouth to remind my Master that I had only just learned of it myself, but he waved me to silence.
"I have sources of information within the order. Granted, I've been kept unusually busy the past few months with a number of topics, but…" His words trailed off into muttered imprecations as he began searching through digital files. It took several minutes to find what he was searching for and slammed a fist angrily on the top of his desk.
"Damn it! It was reported, but the sorting algorithms were never programmed to pick up on something like this!"
Unfortunate, but it did make a certain amount of sense that he wouldn't trust a living person to go through such sensitive data. And there were limits on how free thinking a program could be.
Sidious cursed quietly and sulphurously. As his eyes skimmed document after document.
"The Jedi are in turmoil." He finally spoke clearly. "They know they need to act but are divided on how to act."
"Unsurprising." I knew this game well. My master was assimilating all the new information and soon he would be plotting. Trying to feel through the Force how each plan might affect the greater plan which we were only a few years from implementing.
"How wide spread is the knowledge? Obviously, it's too late to fully contain the spread…"
I had been looking into that and several other topics as he watched the videos.
"I've only just begun to search, but I've already found copies on several other video sharing sites, and at least three message boards or similar things where informal groups are discussing their minimal successes. So far that is minimal, but if the Captain's claims about this martial art style are to believed, those numbers will grow with time."
"Any signs of official news coverage?"
"I've yet to find any, so likely nothing which has made it to the galactic networks. Though I'm sure it's appeared on smaller local agencies somewhere. That won't last though. Not after Yoda has lent it his credibility."
"True." My master's fingers drummed a rapid beat on his table top scowling at nothing.
I waited in silence, but not for long.
"The information cannot be stopped at this point. This should not prevent the Grand Plan from progressing… But it will sow chaos beyond anyone's ability to predict. We will have to be vigilant, and adapt as things change." Sidious scowled. "Which was never going to be simple, but this will only make things more difficult."
"The question then," Sidious mused, "is if killing the boy would reduce the chaos appreciably… or if it would be more valuable to see what information we might be able to take from these lessons and improve."
"Master?"
"This trick of his, conjuring fire. It should be simple enough to reproduce and weaponize. The question is what if anything else he may have rediscovered or invented."
That was… hmm.
"It may also bear consideration that even if the masses of the galaxy are incompetent in the extreme… an army of idiots experimenting with abilities beyond their understanding may just invent something valuable by sheer number backed probability." I offered.
Sidious face twisted as if he had bitten into something unspeakably foul.
"He is certainly setting the groundwork for the masses to fall to the Dark Side. It would make finding disposable tools simpler, however… it would be essentially impossible to track them all… I don't like the idea of allowing potential rivals to gain strength in obscurity. The rule of two has served our order for a thousand years, but some fool with delusions of grandeur will doubtless declare himself the leader of a new sith order." Sidious hissed like an offended feline.
"Doubtless, Master. And likely more than one."
"… Perhaps then the solution is not fighting to maintain the status quo, but instead changing to match the reality we must face…"
"Master?"
"If we must face a galaxy where any ambitious fool with delusions of adequacy might claim the title of Sith… Perhaps it would be for the best that we put them to work, rather than let them run loose. They would certainly prove useful in countering whatever self taught fools might have delusions of heroism when we begin to move in earnest."
My eyebrows shot into my hairline.
"That is… a bold strategy, Master. And when things come to a head neither of us will have much time to spare for teaching."
"But we have some time now. You more than I." Sidious mused. "Did you not recently acquire a potential disciple of your own?"
Ah. I'd not thought he would be aware of her yet. I'd hoped to have a bit more time to work on her before he became aware of her existence. How had he learned of her existence?
"She shows potential." I admitted.
"Push her, impress on her that she will be trained beyond the rabble, and that she will be expected to bring others to a minimum level of competence. Even pathetic, half trained Sith acolytes could be useful."
"Hmm, and so long as they are only half trained, they will never be strong enough to pose any true threat."
"Indeed."
"And what of the source of this chaos, Captain Kesel?"
"For now… For now, he may live. If only for the damage his actions are causing to the Jedi order. However, when he has outlived his usefulness… Well, such a major disruption of our plans deserves a response." Sidious' smirk was a thing to behold, but not for the faint of heart.
"As you wish, my Master." I bowed to the holoprojector.
"That still leaves the matter of the Senate." Sidious mused. "Once this reaches galactic news it will spread like wildfire. It would be prudent to have some sort of stance in place beforehand. The fools in the Senate are most easily swayed when I can present them a plan to follow."
"You could outlaw the practice." I suggested. "It would likely dissuade some of those that would follow in the footsteps of the Jedi."
"It would… but I doubt such a measure would ever make it through the Senate. I can think of a few dozen planets and species that would reject such a push on religious or spiritual grounds. A number of warrior and militant cultures will want this as a form of self improvement, and governing bodies. And once this spreads to the criminal elements of the galaxy…" Sidious shook his head.
"No. Much as it galls me to say this, unless we want to spend all of our time personally disciplining criminal groups of Force users, planetary security groups will need to be capable of handling some of the fools."
Sensible, and annoying.
"Perhaps, the Jedi could be distracted dealing with major cartels, and criminal empires for a time? Throwing them against seasoned fighters with a modicum of power and skill might at least thin their numbers, and keep them distracted."
"A good thought." Sidious admitted. "Perhaps…"
Sidious's face shifted to a mocking exaggeration of how he presented himself to the galaxy as a whole and when he spoke his voice lost its customary sharpness in favor of his kindly old man tone.
"In this unprecedented time of change, and uncontrolled transition, we the people of the galaxy must lean on our long time protectors, as never before. The Jedi order have long served as a force for peace and stability in the galaxy and now we must place our faith in them to help guide us through the coming turmoil. We must go forward, united as we face the coming trials." Sidious cackled and dropped the facade.
"Good, good. Not a bad start at all. I'll need to find some strings to pull behind the scenes, but with Kesel's lessons acting as a counterpoint to the Jedi there should be no end of fools falling to the Dark Side. Yes, we can make this work to our advantage."
"Then by your leave, my Master. I believe I have things to begin putting into motion." Starting with Ventress, and perhaps paying a visit to Mr. Branson.
"Yes, we both have tasks to be about. Keep me apprised, particularly about this apprentice of yours. If she is not up to the task, we may need to find you another."
"As you wish, my Master." With a final bow I ended the call. Now then, dinner first. And then on to business.
