Thorn

The current battle of Thorn and Squall versus Kara, Kayma and Draejan has given me quite a bit of insight into Thorn's personality, history, skills and abilities—both Force and lightsaber combat abilities.

Thorn is excellent at coordination and other mental powers. He is skilled at tracking people mentally and Force-throwing more than one object at a time. He has extremely quick reflexes and is rarely surprised by an opponent's move, since he's fought so many times and seen so many tactics. His mental skills are such that he could deflect bullets by pulling debris in their way, but not in the midst of a fierce hand-to-hand fight.

Thorn is a powerful Force-caster. He is proficient in the Force Push, Pull, Disarm, Stun and Stasis abilities, and his mental strength allows him to unleash an extremely focused, though restricted, Force Wave to clear the vicinity of opponents and allow himself to regain his mental balance.

Thorn is less skilled in Force shielding abilities. He could create a rudimentary barrier to block a punch or a cloud of toxic gas, but he cannot create powerful Force shields or block laser blasts with his hands. To compensate, Thorn tends to use Force Pushes to knock bullets off course and his mental coordination to deflect blasts with his lightsaber. He wears durasteel Republic armour, undecorated, to further protect himself, but he only wears a helmet in the thick of battle.

Thorn was elected to the Council on account of his long history as a warrior. He is a skilled commander, able to keep his cool under heavy fire and damaging losses, and is also an able combatant. Thorn's preferred lightsaber style is Ataru, with which he is devastating on the open battlefield. He is also a powerful practitioner of Soresu because of his mental coordination and reflexes, but he uses this as a backup form to deflect blasts and face opponents in confined spaces such as alleys. Thorn is also skilled in Force valour and uses this to move quickly in confined spaces, besides using it to face multiple opponents in open spaces.

Thorn's limitations in lightsaber combat focus around his inability to fully utilise Ataru in restricted spaces, where he is forced to use defensive tactics. He also prefers to incapacitate his opponents if he intends to capture them, which limits him where beskar'gam is involved. Thorn also uses Soresu to tire out superior opponents, but as a Jedi Master and a member of the Jedi Council on Ossus, plus a warrior and commander all his life, few opponents can match his skill.

Now the personal application side, and here I'm interpreting the abilities of characters based on what I've seen. If Thorn had chosen a more open location in which to fight, if he was trying to kill Kara, Kayma and Draejan instead of trying to capture them, and if he didn't have to worry about Squall being dismembered, the battle would have gone quite differently. Kara could possibly be stronger in raw Force powers than Thorn, but Thorn is better coordinated and stronger in focused Force powers. As an Ataru practitioner empowered with Force valour, he would likely be able to take down Kayma very quickly; and, finally, based on his vast knowledge of opponents' tricks and ploys, his abilities in hand-to-hand combat, and his mental abilities in deflecting bullets and blasts, he could also take down Draejan without being injured. This paragraph is my personal interpretation of Thorn's powers, and an actual battle might go very differently.

This is Thorn.

Dmitri Pendragon
Jedi Artisan