Well now, yesterday, it was King Joker’s birthday, and today it is the birthday of another one of my droogies, Fated Xtasy. Ever since doing Luke’s fighting style post, I’ve wanted to do one for another NJO duelist, given their unique fighting styles and greater degree of personalization. The information on Jaden’s forms provided by Fated Xtasy on this thread (http://www.comicvine.com/profile/fated_xtasy/blog/jaden-korrs-lightsaber-skills-overview/99032/ ) makes Jaden the ideal candidate for my next fighting style post, being an NJO duelist, having information already provided for him, and being one of Xtasy’s favorite characters. The funny thing is that I actually helped Xtasy with that thread in the first place. He provided the information on Jaden, whom I knew little about, I assisted him with picking out Jaden’s forms, and he created that thread, which I will now draw information from to culminate in my fighting style post for Jaden Korr, as my present to Xtasy. Happy birthday my nice droogie!
Jaden’s fighting style consists of the fast and medium styles, with an emphasis on Shien blast deflection, and the incorporation of physical strikes into his lightsaber sequences. The Jedi of the New Jedi Order favor their order’s three styles over the seven traditional forms of the old Jedi order. Though these styles carried over elements from the traditional forms, they were not as developed and defined, which despite the seemingly obvious weakness in this trait, it also provides the Jedi of the NJO a greater opportunity and flexibility to further personalize their styles, which would provide them with a greater deal of unpredictability, and allow them to better tool their style to their needs. Jaden Korr does exactly this, working the elements of his fighting style together and further personalizing them and building off of them to achieve the fighting style best suited for him.
The first element of his personalized fighting style is the Medium Style, which was the first style he learned, and thus served as the subsequent basis for which he built the rest of his fighting style off of. The Medium Style appears to have much in common with Niman and Shii-Cho, as well as containing trace elements of Soresu. This is a very effective style to start off with, given that Shii-Cho’s focus on the basics, and Niman’s ability to be easily learned and maintained by design make it the ideal style for one, such as Jaden, to begin with. The focus of Shii-Cho on the basics of lightsaber combat grant Jaden a complete fundamental understanding of the basics of lightsaber combat, and the generalization of Niman grants him a great deal of versatility and well roundedness. The trace elements of Soresu, coupled with the Medium Style’s derivation of Niman, provide Jaden with a defensive technique to fall back on and a wide array of abilities for adaptability, providing him with something at the core and base of his fighting style to fall back on effectively, should he be pressed into a difficult situation. The Medium Style is also the perfect style to build off of, as proven by Darth Vader’s usage and implementation of Niman and Shii-Cho. Though Jaden wasn’t completely rebuilding his fighting style after a horrific accident like Vader, he was creating his fighting style for the first time, and makes use of the properties of Shii-Cho and Niman in much the same way Vader does. Shii-Cho’s focus on the basics provides Jaden with a strong foundation to build off of, while the Jack-of-all-trades property of Niman serves to link the various elements of his fighting style together effectively and efficiently.
The other primary component of Jaden Korr’s fighting style is the NJO’s Fast Style. The Fast Style is based off of Ataru and Soresu, and carries trace elements of Shien. Through the Fast Style’s base in Ataru, Jaden is granted a fast paced offensive to utilize against his enemies. Through the Style’s base in Soresu, Jaden is provided a swift defense which enables him to block an offensive flurry with deft and quick movements, the speed of the blade when wielding the “Fast” Style providing him with a great deal of defensive coverage. His defense is also supplemented by the Ataru component of the Fast Style, as it grants him agility and acrobatics with which to evade his opponent’s attacks when blocking them is not possible or necessary. So the Fast Style for Jaden serves as both his effective offense, and his effective defense. The trace elements of Shien in the Fast Style allow Jaden to more effectively parry and respond to his opponent’s attacks, which allows him a more seamless transition between offense and defense in combat.
Shien is a particular form in which Jaden has developed a high level of expertise, demonstrating his proclivity for and proficiency with it several times. Shien is a form geared around targeted blast deflection, and Jaden is an expert at angling his deflections back at the attackers. This ability in blast deflection is also supplemented by the Fast Style, which both provides greater speed to his blade for him to defend with via greater defensive coverage, and the element of Soresu, which is also geared towards blast deflection. In short, blast deflection is an invaluable skill for a Jedi such as Jaden to possess on the battlefield, and he has this ability pushed to perfection from both a stylistic point of view, and a practical one. The Shien reverse grip also provides Jaden with more options in combat, aiding his general versatility.
Jaden Korr is also an expert at chaining physical strikes, primarily kicks, into his fighting style. Jaden often waits for an opening, and when provided with one, seems to favor driving his leg into his opponent’s torso with a force augmented kick, effectively wounding or off balancing them. This ability likely stems from the principles of Ataru’s cadence for using one’s whole body as a weapon in Fast Style, the generalization and versatility of Niman in Medium Style, and likely Korr’s own personalization and specialization given his personal proclivity for such attacks.
Though he doesn’t have exposure with this technique, it is very likely that Jaden has some talent in Jar’kai, given that he keeps two blades on him, and has familiarity with Ataru and Niman, through the Fast and Medium styles respectively. Jar’kai in practice would thus increase his speed with Fast Style, and it leaves him with Jar’kai as an option, adding to the versatility and adaptability of Medium Style.
Jaden seems to have some skill and familiarity with the Strong Style, derived from Djem So with trace elements of trace elements of Juyo, Makashi, Shii-Cho, and Ataru, though he only ever appears to make use of individual power blows from Strong Style. Jaden’s use of Strong Style seems to only involve chaining in a power attack here and there whenever needed, and never seems to rely on it as a style of combat itself. nevertheless, it is an effective supplement to his fighting style.
So through Medium Style, Jaden established a basis on which to build the rest of his style. He then developed off of it using the Fast Style, and relying on the Fast Style for both his offense and defense. Though despite his apparent favoring of Fast Style in offense and defense, his application of Medium Style grants him with a general versatility to incorporate into his offense and defense, as well as a back up defense to fall back on or use to supplement his Fast Style defense with. He also incorporates powerful physical strikes and power attacks when needed to off balance or power through an opponent, and his practice of these techniques, as well as an implied familiarity with Jar’kai serves to broaden his skill set, and thus his versatility. His personalization and combination of all of these elements grants him his own personalized fighting style tailored to what suits and serves him best, what he could implement the most effectively, and what would be the most effective decision in combat. For these reasons I judge Jaden Korr’s fighting style to be unique, resourceful, and effective.