Form XII: Sapendo

"Let me sum it up for you. Sapendo is the art of attacking where the enemy should be, while not being where the enemy should attack."

- Valek Kotonn

Sapendo was a form of lightsaber combat developed over the course of thousands of years by the Force-sensitive Amara. The style took advantage of Amara's natural predisposition towards the prophecy and farseeing areas of Force skills, and blended these skills with long years of learning of complex statistical probabilities.

Conceptual Basis
The form relied on the concept that combat is statistically repetitive, with the combatants likely to move into particular positions and stances to capitalise on their own skills or the environment. Through thousands of years of analysis, Amara developed formulae to identify the statistically-probably geometric distribution of combatants in many different types of environments. By treating the lightsaber not simply as a limited weapon but a device that creates a theoretical killzone that shifts based on its fluid positioning, the practitioners of Sapendo could learn the most likely ways to inflict maximum damage on the maximum number of targets with the minimum of effort and the minimum of risk to themselves. This practice also resulted in the user naturally and reflexively moving out of the statistically-traditional lines of enemy response, to remove them from harm's way.

While there was a great deal of mathematics and statistical memorisation involved in properly learning Sapendo it was just as vital that the user be competent in the mental Force talents. Primarily the form used the passive talents that did not physically impact upon any area of the battlefield, but rather could reinforce the user in their surety of being out of the enemy's line of attack whilst keeping the enemy within their own. This blending was important, as Force-users were known to perform statistically improbably actions on occasion, even with all of Amara's data on lightsaber combat. Thus the precognitive skills relied upon for this form were vital.

Sapendo's "lines of attack" concepts resulted in a need for the user to be able to quickly displace themselves from these probable attack lines whilst also positioning themselve for improved chances of attack. Because of this, Amara and later users would draw upon Form IV: Ataru to grant the greatest mobility, and relied heavily on to create the greatest margins of success in combat.

Strengths and Weaknesses
Sapendo was a strange form in that it didn't have any particular physical strengths. Because it focused on not being where the opponent should attack, Sapendo wasn't strongly defensive, nor strongly offensive. It did not have a central tenet of power like Form V: Djem So or grace and finesse found in Form II: Makashi. These physical attributes were utilised judiciously, being applied only when the user deemed them the most statistically probably techniques to overwhelm and defeat an enemy. In the same manner, th form did not have a focused form of defence, and as such it was always up to the user how to apply the form.

Because of this, Sapendo was relatively difficult to master, as users generally needed to have a basic grasp of other lightsaber forms to work into it at the opportune moment. This was the main reason that Form VI: Niman was considered to be the foundation of Sapendo. Additionally, given the basic usage of Ataru techniques, Sapendo could be seen to suffer some of the same advantages and disadvantages in terms of mobility and exhaustion.

However, the main benefits and disadvantages were in the form's own probability and precognition techniques. When applied properly and effectively these techniques could be devestating, allowing a user to carve their way through rooms filled with enemeies without getting hit, but because Sapendo relied so much on probability its effectiveness was greatly reduced against unorthodox combatants or weapons, or in unexpected environments and conditions. Simiilarly, interruptions to the user's ability to tell the future or touch the minds of their enemies would also reduce the effectiveness of the style. This disadvantaged users against combatats whose minds were significantly different to them, such as any regular organically-based Force-user fighting an, any species with natural mind resistances, such as Hutts or Toydarians, or droids, as they didn't have minds to be read. However, the inherent logic functions of droids helped to mitigate this factor, making lower end droids especially prone to Sapendo.

Behind the scenes

 * Sapendo is Italian for "to know", which relates to knowing where to attack where the enemy should be and knowing not to be where the enemy should attack.
 * This form is based on Gun Kata, which was a martial art style created for the film Equilibrium.