Form II/Legends



"He is a fencer. Leverage, position, advantage&mdash;they are as natural to him as breathing."

- Qui-Gon Jinn's spirit to Yoda on Count Dooku

Form II: Makashi or The Contention Form was the second form of the seven forms of lightsaber combat.

Description
After Form I's proliferation as a lightsaber combat technique, Form II, or Way of the Ysalamiri, came about as a means of lightsaber-to-lightsaber combat. It was described as being very elegant, powerful, and requiring extreme precision, allowing the user to attack and defend with minimal effort, often wielding the blade one-handed for greater range of movement and fluidity. The form relied on parries, thrusts, and small, precise cuts&mdash;as opposed to the blocking and slashing of the other forms. It required very fluid movements of both the blade and the body. Form II countered sun djem, the goal of early Form I masters, by being well trained in prevention of disarming and weapon destruction.



The opening stance for Makashi is a single-handed low guard, with the blade angled downward at the practitioner's side. The formal salute that Dooku offered Yoda on Geonosis was a "Makashi salute," while a Makashi flourish consisted of drawing a rapid X in the air with the blade.

Feints would also be commonly used to confuse or set-up their opponents for a trap, a tactic that Count Dooku commonly used in his duels during the Clone Wars. Precise footwork and movements were required for maintaining proper distance from the opponent during defense and/or when moving in for an attack. The blade manipulation required for this form was very refined and required intense focus. Timing, accuracy, and skill, rather than strength, were relied on to defeat one's opponent, and with a skilled practitioner, the results were extremely potent.



The footwork of Makashi practitioners followed a single line, front and back, shifting the feet to keep in perfect balance as the practitioner attacked and retreated. Makashi was a style based on balance, on back-and-forth charges, thrusts, and sudden retreats. Elegance, gallantry, enchantment, finesse, artfulness, and economy were the core of Makashi. Makashi duelists trained themselves to avoid enslavement to form, as such enslavement opened the practitioner to be defeated by unpredictability and the unforeseen.

When ranged weapons such as blasters came into play or more than one opponent was present, however, the advantages of this form became somewhat obsolete. During the time of the Clone Wars and many centuries preceding it, the Jedi Order seldom practiced this technique. There was, if at all, so little lightsaber-to-lightsaber and melee combat involved in a Jedi's life that many in the Order did not bother to teach and/or learn it as it was thought impractical. During this era, Soresu was developed to answer the threat of blasters, while Niman and Ataru became the more popular fighting forms being taught and learned. Makashi, however, was very common during the younger years of the Order, before the advent of blasters, when melee weapons were abundant. To most modern Jedi, Makashi did not seem to have much use; however, to a Sith or a Dark Jedi, learning and mastering Makashi would have been a goal.



The drawback of Makashi was a relatively lower level of defense against blaster bolts. When fighting a physically strong opponent, a Makashi user also needed be careful not to try and match them power for power. As mentioned before, Makashi users relied on timing and precision in both movement and blade manipulation, often wielding the blade one-handed, waiting for the momentum of the opponent to play out for an easy victory. Thus, they were not able to generate as much kinetic power as the two-handed slashes as in Djem So.

As a result, an Ataru master would attempt to disrupt the balance of a Makashi duelist by the Force-assisted acrobatics of Form IV, striking from every direction to disturb the balance and footwork of a Form II practitioner; while a Djem So practitioner would attempt to overwhelm the Makashi defense with pure strength and frontal, direct attacks. To answer such threats, Makashi duelists would call on the Force to assist their body movements when facing Form IV masters, or use the Force to strengthen their defense against Form V users. Dooku demonstrated such tactics against Yoda on Geonosis, his body movements unleashed in a way not seen against other enemies, in order to match the grand mastery of Yoda's Ataru acrobatics.

When facing multiple enemies, a single Makashi duelist would isolate the enemy from each other, so that the Makashi duelist would fight each of them in turn rather than all of them at the same time. A Makashi master would even attempt to force enemies to get in each other's way.

Dooku was a master of Form II to the highest degree, fighting with the precision built into the ancient technique. The handle of his lightsaber was curved, allowing for better manipulation of the blade during parries and thrusts. This was apparently common during the early years of the Republic, when many of the Jedi used the Makashi form. When Darth Tyranus wielded this form, it devastated the Jedi; the system of Jedi training immediately before and during the Clone Wars did not prepare many of them for the finesse and precise movements of a form bred for lightsaber dueling.



The Jedi Exile was a practitioner of Makashi. It was also one of the forms taught to General Grievous by Dooku himself, and the cyborg General in turn taught Makashi to his IG-100 MagnaGuards. Jedi Master Cin Drallig, the legendary lightsaber instructor, was another candidate of Makashi. The Sith apprentice Fohargh practiced Makashi besides Soresu during his training.

Makashi users were elegant, precise, calm, confident, even arrogant (as befit Dooku's personality). Form II users were supremely confident in their chances for victory, and often looked relaxed when they were fighting, or even appeared to be dancing.

Form II is believed to have been died out with Count Dooku's and Cin Drallig's death, as there is no record of its instruction after the Clone Wars in Luke Skywalker's new Jedi order. It is believed to have been lost.

Behind the scenes

 * The former Separatist general and Dark Jedi Sev'rance Tann was likely a practitioner of Form II, as she was trained by Count Dooku.


 * Darth Nihilus is sometimes considered to be using Makashi. However, there is no canonical info to confirm this.


 * In the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, it is said that Soresu lacks the grace of a Shaak Ti or a Count Dooku, leading to some speculations that Shaak Ti is a Makashi practitioner as well. The fact that she survived the Geonosis arena battle, where the Jedi were facing an overwhelming force of battle droids weakens this argument.


 * Master Tyvokka carried a curved lightsaber during the Stark Hyperspace War, and may have been a practitioner of this form. Notably, he is killed by blaster bolts.


 * Likewise, the Dark Jedi Lycan in the story Nomad who carried a curved hilt lightsaber was another possible Makashi candidate.


 * In Republic: Trackdown, Count Dooku commented that Master Tholme was keeping up the dueling skills instead of blast-deflecting skills; Dooku also mentioned that he and Tholme respected and followed the old ways, both suggesting Tholme may have been another practitioner of Makashi. This also may suggest that Quinlan Vos was trained in the forms Makashi as he is often seen using his lightsaber one-handed during battles.


 * Xanatos is a possible practitioner as well. However, it is nullified by as Qui-Gon Jinn put it "Your footwork is your weakness."


 * Ki Adi Mundi is seen using a one handed style in both Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. He's also cut down fairly easily by blaster fire, suggesting he might have been a Makashi practioner, or incorpoated elements of Makashi into his fighting. However, this is not confirmed by any official sources.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
 * Darth Bane: Path of Destruction
 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * Labyrinth of Evil
 * Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith novelization