Within the twirl of a lightsaber hilt and the flick of a wrist on The Acolyte last week, Jedi Grasp Vernestra Rwoh delivered to display screen a Star Wars thought practically 40 years within the making: the Lightwhip. It’s removed from Star Wars‘ weirdest lightsaber, and even with its surprising on-screen appearance, it’s not a wholly new one both.
How Does a Lightwhip Work?
In present continuity, we solely have one instance of a Lightwhip: Vernestra’s lightsaber, the place it’s offered as a modification to her conventional lightsaber quite than its personal specific weapon. Little is thought how Vernestra’s whip works in present continuity, however within the Expanded Universe, Lightwhips operated through the use of a collection of smaller emitters and crystals that featured no cells across the plasma power they fashioned, permitting for a versatile beam of power that may very well be operated like a conventional whip, over an extended vary than an ordinary lightsaber. Buying and selling a number of the coherent beam power of a conventional lightsaber for that flexibility and attain, lightwhips sometimes lacked a number of the reducing power of a lightsaber, capable of be rebuffed by extra sorts of armor {that a} lightsaber would in any other case minimize. They may be broken extra simply, and as a result of risky nature of the blade, have been liable to shorting out.
The unconventional nature of the lightwhip was as a lot an asset as its versatile blade. Uncommon and tough to grasp in comparison with a lightsaber (additionally one of many weapon’s downsides, resulting in its rarity), the lightwhip preyed on an opponent’s unfamiliarity—particularly Jedi, who have been primarily skilled in fight towards conventional martial weapons. Lightwhips may assault a lightsaber wielder from an extended vary, flex round blocks and parries one other lightsaber couldn’t, and in some configurations with a number of tassels, may overwhelm an opponent with strikes from a number of angles directly.
The place Did the Lightwhip Come From?
Within the Expanded Universe, the Lightwhip was launched because the weapon of the Darkish Woman Lumiya, a Sith and one of many Emperor’s Fingers (an elite order of the Empire’s high brokers and secret operatives) from Marvel’s ongoing Star Wars comedian. First showing in 1985’s Star Wars #95, Lumiya’s lightwhip operated barely otherwise to what the weapon would finally turn into in additional interpretations—in addition to a singular, prolonged power beam, Lumiya’s whip had a number of further tassels created from leather-based and studded with lightsaber-resistant Mandalorian Iron (higher identified in each present continuity and the EU by its identify within the Mandalorian language, beskar).
Lumiya’s weapon result in Luke Skywalker crafting one other kind of Lightsaber that will 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 would counter the lightwhip’s a number of tassels, wrapping them up round his main saber’s blade whereas utilizing the shoto to sever the bodily extensions.
After Lumiya’s weapon birthed the existence of the Lightwhip, extra conventional types have been codified as historical and intensely uncommon weapons wielded by the Sith through the time of the New Sith Wars, hundreds of years earlier than the occasions of the movies. In contrast to Lumiya’s weapon nevertheless, most of the time earlier lightwhips had a singular power beam, just like the lightwhip wielded by the Sith Lord Githany.
Was the Lightwhip Canon Earlier than The Acolyte?
As is the case in The Acolyte itself, Vernestra is the one identified wielder of a lightwhip in present Star Wars continuity. Her saber’s alternate type was launched within the 2021 Excessive Republic center grade novel A Check of Braveness. There, the lightwhip modifcation got here to Vernestra as a imaginative and prescient within the Power whereas she was nonetheless a comparatively recent Jedi Knight. As soon as full, she stored the modification a secret from her former grasp and different senior Jedi, fearing that the Lightwhip’s historical past as an unorthodox weapon—and their historic affiliation with the Nightsisters of Dathomir—may very well be regarded down upon.
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