Originally posted by MythLord
So you're saying Katarn having great sense feats means he's using Battle Meld? I'm pretty sure passive sense is a thing even in battle. It doesn't mean Kyle is braindead enough to leave himself exposed to an amputation.
I'm afraid you've misunderstood the point here so I'll try to explain in a little more depth. The nature of this dispute is whether or not Katarn would have fought Caedus in the exact same manner, had their not been a team of coordinated individuals to aid him. You seem to think the fight would be nil unchanged, and that someone who Jacen originally perceived as a threat, would be one leg shorter after a mere 15 seconds of battle... but Katarn wasn't alone.
He notes they're coordinating and that somehow means Katarn's willing to open himself up to get his leg skewered by Caedus? It means they're there to save/protect their allies, much like any good Jedi should Meld or not.
Premise 1. The New Jedi Order were notorious for using Force melds among small groups of people, even when piloting star fighters, so it's very likely that the team's alleged coordination is in small thanks to said ability
Premise 2. Even without a Force meld, Katarn can afford to overextend himself with the backup of another three lightsabers behind him. You must remember that Katarn like all Jedi can perceive the world in a spectrum far beyond the five senses. Imagine that the Force creates a spherical barrier allowing Katarn to not only detect the shapes and movements of his teammates, but also their emotions.
Premise 3. On top of his other perceptive abilities, the Force gives him premonitions into the future. However slight these fore-warnings may be, they still allow Katarn to predict the attacks of an opponent before they happen. In accordance to this fact, they also allow him to foresee the actions of his squad, perhaps envisioning a blue-bladed lightsaber coming to save his leg, rather than a scarlet one amputating it. I hope you'll agree with this particular point, otherwise you might as well argue that Dooku would have been killed Coleman Trebor, if not for the interception of the most dangerous bounty hunter in the galaxy.
Premise 4. If the Force meld was used, then Katarn can almost certainly perform riskier moves to subdue Caedus, while relying on his squad to provide sufficient support. It's not really question after that, the battle meld can link the minds of a group so well that it will often cause the users to start finishing each other's sentences or thoughts.
Conclusion : Katarn would have approached a fight with Caedus very differently had he been alone, and would have probably lost in long and good fight.
Except here they didn't really act as a single person, given how they kept being taken out by Caedus, and the only time they actually coordinated was when Kolir saved Katarn from an amputation and Katarn saved Hu'lya.
Force melds do not assure that the group using it will become invincible. As noted in The Unseen Queen, It is true that if the meld participants were distracted in thoughts and could not focus to a common objective, then the meld could become a liability or break off altogether. So I hope you realize that by his own admittance, Jacen was on the loosing end of the duel against the strike team in question, until the Plaza's alarm was raised with the presence of several speeders, which did distract the team. From there of course, he started picking apart the lesser team members with his Force abilities.
It doesn't mean Kyle is braindead enough to leave himself exposed to an amputation.
It's certainly less brain dead than the assumption that Katarn's fight would have played out in the exact same manner, had there not been other circumstances attached.