(no subject)

[forcecalls]

(scattered excerpts from the writings of Ben Solo, formerly Kylo Ren, formerly Jedi, formerly Sith, now undefined)

[What follows are the musings of a man trying to wrap his mind around what he is, to define a new generation, and to keep himself busy in the way his wife asked him to. They will be in no particular order, probably not even chronological.]

[relevant psl]

Comments

Training Remotes

[forcecalls]

When I studied under Luke Skywalker, he sometimes used marksman training droids as a practice exercise for predicting and deflecting blaster fire. They were harmless and simple, a good enough drill for a beginner, but quickly boring. As soon as one learned to sense its movements, the challenge was gone. They were designed with target practice in mind, but with no way to attack them with a lightsaber without destroying them, that functionality was limited. Skywalker's teachings were always focused on defense, anyway.

The ones we had in the First Order lacked this limitation; they were designed to be destroyed. Perhaps that's wasteful, but it makes for both a more realistic and more engaging exercise, when the simulated enemy poses a real threat and there's nothing holding one back from attacking it at full force. This is the sort of thing a small, simple, and very replaceable droid like this is good for.

They were still harmless--their blasts were designed to cause brief pain but no lasting damage--but significantly more vicious, with an attack rate that only increased the longer the remote was active. There was no method for turning them off. The trainee would have no choice but to destroy it or allow it to ramp to an overwhelming level of difficulty.

Attacking something like this proved a more useful challenge. There is skill in being able to track a small and highly mobile target, capable in a way of defending itself, enough to land a damaging strike. There is also skill in not attacking something like this. Leaving it active as a test of endurance, continuing to deflect the onslaught of fire until it finally runs itself out of battery life. It was in doing the latter that I learned not just how to defend fire with a lightsaber, but with the Force itself, holding the blaster shot still in midair. Without this sort of challenge, I expect the thought would never have occurred to me.

There are many ways in which Snoke's methods were, in retrospect, too harsh. There are also many in which Luke Skywalker's were too soft. This is one of them. I wonder if any of these First Order models still exist by now. They are one of the few things I miss.