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Ultra Sabers Discussion => Ultra Sabers Reviews => Topic started by: James Casey on October 19, 2016, 10:00:40 PM



Title: Bane, Take Two
Post by: James Casey on October 19, 2016, 10:00:40 PM
Post 5,000, which must (http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=17192.0) mean it's time (http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=19591.0) for another (http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=23606) review (http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=27677.0). I have a backlog I'm trying to clear at the moment - Manticore CE, Dark Initiate, Monarch, Electrum Wind - but it's a matter of taking all the photos and, in the case of the Electrum Wind, finding quotes from a certain actor that don't include a certain word with which he's become synonymous...

*

Settle in, everyone, it’s story time again...

Please allow me to introduce Lumas Etima and Joclad Danva, Jedi in the waning years of the Old Republic.

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/Lumas_Etima.jpg)(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/Joclad_Danva.jpg)
Etima, Danva

Both Jedi took part in the mission to Geonosis to both save Obi-Wan, Padme Amidala and Anakin Skywalker from brutal execution, and to uncover more of the truth of what Count Dooku’s Confederation were up to. It was a mission fraught with sacrifice. The unexpected appearance of the Confederation’s droid army resulted in a ground and space battle that cost the lives of 179 Jedi, many thousands of clone troopers, and almost five thousand clone commandos, with around twenty thousand clones injured – but the mission was a success, of sorts. The truth about Dooku and his droid army was out, and the captured Jedi and the Senator were safe and well. Ish.

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/Udewh.jpg)
I said I wanted him unharmed! H! H!

Among the dead were Danva and Etima.

Obviously, that kind of sucked for them. Danva, by all accounts, was a skilled fighter, a dual ‘sabre wielding specialist and also a master of unarmed combat, a finalist in a Teras Kasi tournament just before Geonosis. Taking on the galaxy’s best fighters, unarmed, and without using the Force he made it all the way to the final fight before being bested. Clearly, he was a heck of a fighter.

Etima, on the other hand, was a Padawan who was completing his training under Master Ekim Ryelli. I wonder at his presence on Geonosis – did the Jedi know what they were walking into? Did they have any idea of the scale of the droid factories, and the carnage they were about to experience? Etima’s fate was to be overwhelmed by the droids, leaving his master so distraught that he retired from frontline duty even as the Clone Wars kicked in.

I hope the Council was in the dark about what lay on Geonosis. I’m a Jedi at heart, and I’d hate to think that the Council might have had any idea of the extent of danger they were exposing their ranks to. Perhaps it was felt that an overwhelming Jedi presence would have been sufficient to force the Geonosians to stand down? Perhaps, even with the known presence of Count Dooku and the other members of the Trade Federation, the arrival of so many Jedi would have forced the release of the Senator and her Jedi friends.

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/Wedding_of_Anakin_and_Padme.png)
‘Friends’.

But we’re entering into the realms of speculation here. We can only say for certain what did happen – the Separatist’s Droid Army was discovered and unleashed, and the Jedi were dealt the first – and worst – of many heavy blows over the course of the Clone Wars.

What links Danva and Etima is the use of a “clan saber” – a common hilt design that marks them as having been trained in the same class. Given the apparent disparity between their levels of experience, it seems that a Jedi’s clan will extend forward and backward in time – that Etima and Danva were linked even in spite of their age difference. Given the lack of a family for Jedi of this era, I suppose that a clan would be the substitute, providing emotional support for younglings who can no longer experience a mother’s love, or a father’s strength.

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/younglings.jpg)
“Master Skywalker, can I have a hug?”

Which is all a roundabout way of getting to the lightsabre hilts used by Etima, Danva and possibly a few other background Jedi during the arena scene.

(http://i.imgur.com/ORB8VKh.jpg)
This one

Even by the standards of most people on here, I’m a geek for lightsabres. I like reading up on the different hilts used by different characters. I like theorising about what different changes in hilts mean for different characters. The Concordance of Fealty, a ceremony/ritual/practise in which Old Republic Jedi traded hilts for a time to build a bond between owners, strikes me as a wonderful way of getting your hands on a different lightsabre for a time. The sections in various EU novels (Crosscurrent, Riptide and I, Jedi spring to mind) where the construction and anatomy of lightsabres is discussed tend to stick with me. The episode with the padawans in the Clone Wars cartoon where they spend 5 minutes putting their first ‘sabres together from a big box of parts was... disappointing.

There used to be a wonderful site, about 10 years ago, simply called The Lightsaber which detailed the various hilts wielded by Jedi in their film, cartoon and comic appearances. The owner was an even bigger geek about this than I am, collecting any and every hilt imaginable, commissioning a scaled up version of the Lego hilt complete with a Perspex blade and having several designs custom machined when Master Replicas etc. were slow to produce them. One of his own designs became canon when used as a reference for a comic, and his glee was palpable (on a tangent, a friend of mine wrote a paper for her doctorate on the climate of Alderaan, based on what’s shown in the Star Wars films, which I only mention here as it’s very cool that she got away with it!).

It was on The Lightsaber that I first came across the hilt used by Etima and Danva. Trawling through the various photos used, I may have briefly succumbed to the temptation of coveting the hilts of Quinlan Vos and Aurra Sing...

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/IMG_9445.jpg)
‘Briefly’ = For several years, until I found someone to build replicas

...but the Etima/Danva hilt would, I feared, be forever beyond my reach.

Enter UltraSabers.

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/IMG_9424.jpg)

I don’t remember, now, exactly how I found this site. I imagine I clicked on a banner ad; I know I’d visited members of the competition before, and may even have looked at US back in the PVC days, but when I landed on this site back in late 2012 I became enamoured with their lineup. I really liked the Bellicose, and dug the Manticore and Shock, too. I didn’t care for the Catalyst at first, but no-one’s perfect.

It dawned on me, over time, that the US lineup at the time also included the hilt I’d been looking for... almost. The main body of the Bane is very close to that of the Etima/Danva hilt – plain black, ridged for a solid grip and with a silver collar in the middle. It was very close indeed.

The pommel... Well, the pommel is a matter of taste. I have a Manticore low-profile pommel I may spray-paint black to suit, but I also like the contrast from the heavy silver pommel used on the Bane.

The emitter... Here, we run into the limits of coveting a lightsabre based on a 100x30 jpg of it. Is the emitter an exact match? Probably not – but then, I believe the image on the website was an extrapolation from a handful of stills from a chaotic battle scene. It’s close enough, for my mind. I’d like it if the emitter was MHS compatible but, well...

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/IMG_9416.jpg)
It’s not.

I can live with my Bane being 90% of the hilt I drooled over when I was 23. I waited long enough to get my hands on it, I can accept some compromises when, most likely, it was never intended to be an exact replica of a weapon that gets maybe three seconds of screentime in the chaos of a battle scene where dozens of other Jedi are whirling around like getting shot by droids was going out of style. For all I know, it was never intended to be a replica – not in the way that the Guardian and Consular hilts are, to pick two examples.

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/Zannah_Before_Bane.jpg) (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Bane/Legends)
Maybe there was another inspiration. Not sure what makes me think that...

What matters is what the Bane feels like in hand. I’ve spoken about this before, of course, when I bought my first Bane... but at the time I was a neophyte, less than a year into collecting ‘sabres. 3 years later, I have a clearer idea on what works, what doesn’t, and how to overcome any issues.

So, does the Bane have any issues?

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/IMG_9423.jpg)
You tell me

The Bane isn’t a small hilt. It’s one of the longest (at 13 inches) that Ultrasabers produce. The Bane is a brute, much like its namesake. But then, a longer hilt is actually my preference. I’m tall enough to benefit from the greater length, as it means I have space for both my hands. By separating my hands, with one by the emitter and the other by the pommel, I gain added leverage and finger control of the blade. When single-wielding, that suits my style.

Indeed, a longer hilt and shorter blade is a trade I’m happy to make. When staff-wielding, I use 24” blades, keeping the whole staff around 6’ (70-72 inches or so) in length. How people shorter than me ever become comfortable using staffs in the 80 inch range, I have no idea – a skill I lack entirely.

The Bane, then, is very much my kind of hilt. When single-wielding, the central collar becomes the pivot point for the hilt, more so than the emitter. I like the feel of that, and that with a small adjustment in I can move to a reverse grip with the blade inverted, letting me strike at my opponent’s legs, and deliver an ‘uppercut’ capable of slashing upwards from feet to crown. It’s an unusual technique – used by the Jensaarai in I, Jedi – and not one I’d use much in a normal duel, but it’s there if I need it.

The Bane is a comfortable hilt to hold, too. It’s no thicker than the majority of the premium hilts (Bellicose, Shocks etc.) in spite of its greater length. The heavy emitter gives it a lot of heft, but the thick spacing between the ridges means that the Bane offers a solid grip. The ridges don’t have sharp edges, so there’s nowhere that gives an uncomfortable grip on the hilt, other than maybe right up against the underside of the emitter. The top edges of the ‘body’ of the hilt can be quite sharp, so if you grip around there (and I do with some hilts, like the Menace) then it’s something to be aware of.

The Bane has an MHS pommel that flares out slightly from the main width of the hilt. As with most MHS pommels, there’s a lot of weight to it, and it balances the weight of the emitter somewhat, but this is still a top-heavy hilt.

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/IMG_9422.jpg)
Balance point with 32” mid-grade blade

I ordered the Bane with a Guardian Blue blade and Bane’s Heart flash. I have the same setup on my Guardian, but that doesn’t have quick disconnects, and the Bane does. It’s a high contrast combination, and one I like... but it’s not, for me, the right colour for a Bane.

This is actually my second Bane. I bought my first just after the Emerald driver was first released, and that seemed ideal – the chance to switch quickly between different colours worked for me on a hilt that didn’t have a definitive colour in my head.

But, as documented elsewhere, I erred in choosing the ‘always on’ AV switch for my first Bane. With the constant drain on the batteries, and no recharge port, I never really used that Bane as much as I liked – Basically, I was too lazy to change the batteries very often. Embarrassing, but true.

Lesson learned, this Bane has quick disconnects instead. I have a veritable rainbow of MLS units with quick disconnects available for swapping in and out of the Bane, and I’m sure I’ll use them over time... but as soon I drew this from its box, I looked it and thought “Pyrestone Orange. This needs to be Pyrestone Orange.”

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/IMG_9431.jpg)

So that’s what it is; The first colour I ever got from US, that was staring me in the face for a long time... I could have saved myself a lot of trouble and just got it like that in the first place. Still, that’s the nature of collecting, and what is experience but the accumulation of mistakes that you – hopefully – learn to stop making?

So, that’s the Bane. It’s big, it’s heavy, it suits me... and one other thing:

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/IMG_9444.jpg)

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/IMG_9439.jpg)
Brothers

Dual-wielding a Bane? As I discussed during my twin Guardian review, I’d want a hilt of comparable size to balance the Bane. The Bellicose isn’t too similar in weight or balance – it’s pommel-end heavy, if anything – but the two hilts just look too cool together.

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/AhsokaLightsabers-Overlords.png) (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jar%27Kai/Legends)
One up, one down, perhaps?

I make no bones about the Bellicose being my favourite hilt; The Bane runs it close, and having the two in my hands together?

(http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q81/jamescasey_photos/Ultrasabers/Z%20Reviews/Bane/ExarKunTraining-DLOTS.jpg)

I like it.


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: Dauntless Seven on October 19, 2016, 10:47:20 PM
Hey James.  Congrats on reaching your 5000th post.  Am giving you a well deserved appreciation point in advance and will read this epic review later tonight.  Bows, curtsies, brings tea and cake...  ;D

EDIT:  Now where are you hiding the saber that Prowl wants so much and I think that Haz is wanting one as well.  ;)


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: Lord Japarco on October 19, 2016, 10:53:00 PM
Thanks James for a great review, nice story and very informative... This review makes me want a Bane again. Congrats for the 5000 posts...+1


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: JediApprenticeChris37 on October 20, 2016, 12:38:11 AM
what amazing review james and story to the bane saber


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: Corwyn VonBeck on October 20, 2016, 01:05:49 AM
Now that is what I call an epic review..... history, backstory, and the saber itself. Nicely done sir! Much pointage for you!


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: Lord Canterbury on October 20, 2016, 01:47:14 AM
Point for the hard work & happy 5000!  :)

I'm eventually going to join the Bane Club though my customization plans & inspiration for it are . . . umm . . . quite a bit different than yours.


(http://s1300.photobucket.com/component/Download-File?file=%2Falbums%2Fag93%2FLord_Canterbury%2FIMG_4134_zpstbnnrjuk.png)


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: scifidude79 on October 20, 2016, 01:55:42 PM
Your knowledge of two droid fodder characters is certainly impressive.  (sorry, but that's what they were; extras who were slaughtered by the droids in the arena)  Point for that and the review.  :)


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: Lord Japarco on October 20, 2016, 02:19:25 PM
Hey, another hilt emitter similar to the Bane's is Darth Vaders saber in the original cinema poster of Start Wars "a new hope", it looks like a square emmiter, but as you can't see the corner very clearly, it could also be a circle round emitter like the Bane's... I shall post a pic later...


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: Rapine on October 20, 2016, 03:20:50 PM
Hey James.

Awesome review!  Very thorough and informative indeed. :)

I love all of the accompanying pics. ;D 

Very sound logic, and stunning visuals - as usual from you. ;)

Congrats on the 5K as well.

+1


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: Zren Tobas on October 20, 2016, 03:31:50 PM
Nice. So some big details from Attack Of The Clones we probably missed. Unless these were the 2 that threw Obi-wan and Anakin their new lightsabers?


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: Lord Japarco on October 20, 2016, 04:49:03 PM
Hey, another hilt emitter similar to the Bane's is Darth Vaders saber in the original cinema poster of Start Wars "a new hope", it looks like a square emmiter, but as you can't see the corner very clearly, it could also be a circle round emitter like the Bane's... I shall post a pic later...

Here it is, the original Star Wars cinema poster:
(http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w407/Japarco/Starwarsposter_zpsyrxqdihc.jpg) (http://s1074.photobucket.com/user/Japarco/media/Starwarsposter_zpsyrxqdihc.jpg.html)
And here you can see the emitter of Darth Vaders saber...
(http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w407/Japarco/3e1de0f7-5efe-4422-9bb1-2802d07d62ab_zpsxxbypis4.jpg) (http://s1074.photobucket.com/user/Japarco/media/3e1de0f7-5efe-4422-9bb1-2802d07d62ab_zpsxxbypis4.jpg.html)
So, "the Bane" was the first lightsaber to appear and not "the graflex" , since everyone who went to the cinema to watch the film saw this poster before watching the film, so you should all be buying blimmin Banes instead of Graflexes...(just joking)...


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: MavRick on October 20, 2016, 10:52:46 PM
Excellent as always James, very cool and informative. Point to you good sir.


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: Iram on October 26, 2016, 01:37:55 PM
Here it is, the original Star Wars cinema poster:
([url]http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w407/Japarco/Starwarsposter_zpsyrxqdihc.jpg[/url]) ([url]http://s1074.photobucket.com/user/Japarco/media/Starwarsposter_zpsyrxqdihc.jpg.html[/url])
And here you can see the emitter of Darth Vaders saber...
([url]http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w407/Japarco/3e1de0f7-5efe-4422-9bb1-2802d07d62ab_zpsxxbypis4.jpg[/url]) ([url]http://s1074.photobucket.com/user/Japarco/media/3e1de0f7-5efe-4422-9bb1-2802d07d62ab_zpsxxbypis4.jpg.html[/url])
So, "the Bane" was the first lightsaber to appear and not "the graflex" , since everyone who went to the cinema to watch the film saw this poster before watching the film, so you should all be buying blimmin Banes instead of Graflexes...(just joking)...



lol I should consider getting one in that case


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: Greywolf on October 27, 2016, 08:34:39 AM
Darn, I should stop reading your fantastic reviews ;)

Just when I think 'Well, perhaps someday I'll get a Prophecy, but that's it.' you come along and now I'm back to 'I want a Prophecy, a Bane, a Bellicose, an Ahsoka, ...' ;D


Title: Re: Bane, Take Two
Post by: hazard502 on October 27, 2016, 02:27:33 PM
Excellent!  The Bane is sure pretty and i've always liked it and maybe would've already gotten one if it weren't for it's epic out of stock run.  As of now i check the US site and it's available so there you have it.  The Bellicose does look at home beside the Bane i think it's a nice pair.