Cortosis
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NeuroPirate
Is cortosis (a material that is at least in part resistant to lightsaber blades) a good idea? I think it deffinately can be. In the EU the limitations of a lightsaber have only been trickled out one-by-one. It seems most authors don't want to mess with the mythically powerful aspect of the famous weapons. I think it's a good idea to play it safe and only add limiting details if it's absolutely necessary. Cortosis, as long as it doesn't crop up everywhere, like kryptonite for Superman, could be a great addition. It is featured prominently in SW: KOTOR, and is necessary to explain why melee weapons could still be effective. It wouldn't be a fun game if lightsaber strikes destroyd every non-lightsaber weapon. KOTOR takes place 4000 years before the rise of the Empire, so it seems plausible that the existence of the material could have been lost to legend.
LanceWindu
I think that it would be pretty cool for it to be official, but like I voted, I would hate for characters to be totally immune to lightsabers.
Maybe if Cortosis were extremely rare it would work.
VengeanceGOD
I'm pretty sure Cortosis IS extremely rare, so it works, IMO.

Julie
eh it should be ok....but I didn't think it was all that big in KOTOR....only OBi-Wan
Ushgarak
Can't stand it.
I am not against the principle of dense materials being able to better resist sabres, but I would be thinking in the sense of huge blast doors and the like, being slower to cut through. To translate that into building effective sabre-proof armour and- even worse- WEAPONS- really annoys me. It seems to be violating a principle of how Star Wars works. In most ways a lightsabre is a ridiculous weapon (a melee weapon in an era of hi-tech ranged weaponry) so you have to put it in the context of a Galaxy where it works and the way cortosis has been applied has gone against that.
And hell yeah you should have your melee weapons cut in half if you go up against a Jedi with a conventional weapon! Why the heck WOULD any sane person do such a thing? Melee weapons are overpowered in KOTOR anyway.
It is also such a lazy development, Lighsabre =best weapon... oh... let's make something that resists it...
Writers should make more effort than that.
Still, I don't want to sound like I am deifying lightsabres. They should have plenty of liabilities. A material that effecitvely resists it on a personal level should not be one, though.
Dirty Vader
Well cortosis first came out in Jedi Knight 2:Jedi Outcast. It was used to make shadowtrooper armour, so that it would be lightsaber resistant. You could still kill them with a lightsaber though, so I suppose it could be official and I think it already is.
yerssot
no, if it's official, it got GL's aproval, and he didn't gave it
Gotwa
Here's a post from a forum I roleplay on. Gives the background and stuff on Cortosis, from a roleplayers point of view.
GABRIEL05
well to only rebuttle your one point

it's not the saber that makes the weapon so dangerous, it's the wielder.
Ushgarak
Force proof? PLEASE tell me you are kidding...
BTW, I understand that even in the EU, Cortosis is said to be brittle, so it should make rubbish swords, or even alloyed swords.
And yes, OBVIOUSLY, a weapon like a sabre is useless unless in the hands of a skilled- and for that matter, force aware- wielder.
Captain REX
Hey Ush, CORTOSIS BULLETS!!!
Nah, just kiddin, those would just be a pain. Jedi would doge anyway.
yerssot
technical, but I'm sure writers will find a way to pass that too
like force-clouding weapons or something

§pearhead
So I'm assuming that means you have a problem with ysalmari (sp?) that dispels the force energy in an area?
yerssot
I do not much like the idea of it no, but on the other hand if people can use the force, why not animals? and why not animals who have to defend themselves from these creatures?
but people making weapons for that, that's kinda showing the authors are rather lazy in finding more interesting ways of keeping suspence
Ushgarak
Because, clearly, you have to be truly sentient to use the Force, so that sorts that out. I think ysalamari are highly objectionable also.
Lazy authorship is at the heart of all of this.
VengeanceGOD
The way they explained the Vong being able to block lightsabers was much better. It's not that the saber can't cut the amphistaffs, it's just that the amphistaffs heal so damn fast that it won't go through.
Dirty Vader
Official is not cannon Yerssot. Official stuff mostly doesent have Lucas'es approval, like EU books and comics. Those are not canon but OFFICIAL.
NeuroPirate
If you'd read my post you would have seen that I specifically mentioned yslamari, citing that the circumstances under which they were introduced (i.e. the quality of the Thrawn books) justified their existence perfectly. It isn't accurate to assume too many parallels between yslamari and cortosis objects, though, because the simple nature of a living thing generally makes it more difficult to use effectively. It's easy to put on a cortosis helmet to insulate yourself from Force powers (assuming, for the sake of argument, that cortosis can block out the use of Force powers at all) but getting an yslamari to stand on your head is an entirely different affair.
Someone mentioned lazy authorship and for a time I'd have agreed with them. Since then, though, it's occurred to me that strictly obeying a formula is also lazy authorship. A truly excellent work that exists within a collective setting has to carefully balance new material with an adherence to the spirit of the larger saga. Perhaps cortosis, or the Vong's separation from the force, or yslamari effectively utilize the collective setting and break new ground. Perhaps their use simply suggests 'lazy authorship' (although I'm sure you'd find plenty of Zahn fans that would eviscerate you for suggesting such a thing). Perhaps any deviation from the formula of (lightsabers=near invincible) and (the Force=all powerful) will ruin the EU forever.
Personally, I don't think any of those things are terrible, if they aren't overexposed or conjectured upon too far.
Ushgarak
Well, I really do not like Zahn, so his fan base does not interest me.
And yes, their use is lazy. If you are going to challenge basic concepts of the setting, far more effort has to be made than 'x that counters it'. Frankly, however, you should not need to do anything of the sort to create an interesting story, and to challenge such precepts purely just to break new ground is, again, lazy authorship.
It is simply a culture of authors trying to break through a setting for their own purposes rather than work with it, and I deplore it. And to call working within a setting 'strictly observing a formula' strikes me as very strange, and to call it lazy simply untrue. A good author can push boundaries without creating lazy nonsense like cortosis and yslamari.
Captain REX
I sorta liked the Zahn/Thrawn trilogy...
Dirty Vader
Same here, but you cant argue with anti-EU people.
VengeanceGOD
Nah, they'll just start screaming about how the EU sucks again.
yerssot
but it does

Dirty Vader
through your eyes

yerssot
what? you want to get finti in this discussion too?

rudysseus
Authors seem to have the "how do i content with this" problem. thats why you get stuff like cortosis. a jedi master with lightsaber vs. some bounty hunter with a blaster isnt a whole lot of a battle, barring that bounty hunter being Boba Fett, i guess. now, instead of giving every new bounty hunter a jet pack to help evade lightsabers, they give them something resistant to them, thus hurting the mythos behind the lightsaber. its lazy, i agree.
the only point i may back up an author on is this: "how do you make an interesting fight against a jedi master?" you either pit them against a load of people with blasters, or you put them against another dark jedi or whatever you want to refer to them as. thats really about it. sure, maybe Boba Fett can hang, but supposedly Jango was one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy and we saw how far that got him against Mace Windu. As old as Boba has to be at this point, I can't imagine him being as effective against as difficult an opponent as any jedi higher than beginning padawan. but you cant have everyone be a dark jedi, or have a an entire entourage of blaster carrying cannon fodder. I hate hate hate hate the idea of cortosis and anything that dulls lightsabers and the Force, aside from other lightsabers and other Force users. Unfortunately, I dont know the solution, short of getting rid of all that garbage, which doesnt seem likely.
Ushgarak
Well, for a start, people should stop using Jedi Masters as protagonists- an enemy like Jango can give a much better fight against a mid-ranking Jedi.
Secondly, using technology to fight Jedi can be far better explored than 'lightsabre resistant armour'. Durge in the Clone Wars shorts was just fine.
Julie
cortosis......hmmm....those guys in the game died with or without the stuff so it doesn't matter to me whether it's cannon or not
Cortosis
Ok well i think this should really be wraped up. as it has been said a number of times "Cortosis is a RARE lightsaber RESISTING material" keywords there rare and resisting. this means it wouldnt appear all over the place and it would only resist lightsabers. As to say like in JK2:JO the armor would only defend against glancing blows. You score a decent hit and there out of there. So it has my support. It would ad an interesting twist to the Star Wars world, making more feared foes. Oh and not to gun down your ideas or anything but you cant have a cortosis sword since the material is brittle and only RESISTS lightsabers. a saber blow would slice straight through it and be useless. Oh and force clouding weapons. sorry but not gonna happen. the force is generated through the force user interacting with midiclorians (prob spelt wronfg but this is not my point). these flow through all LIVING things so a weapon (which isnt alive) would not have this ability. Also it is implied that only a sith lord can cloud the vision of the force at multiple instances since they are the only ones powerful enough!

Morridini
Did the cortosis resist the lightsabers? I thought they made the lightsabers turn themselves off. That's at least what happend in the Hand of Thrwan duology.
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