The Sith from The Acolyte has more than one trick up his sleeve. He fights well, he is powerful in the Force, his equipment uses very particular materials… and what's more, he has equipment that allows him to get out of a bad situation.
A shoto lightsaber for the Sith Qimir
Episode 5 is full of twists and turns. We discover the identity of the Sith (Qimir). We see that his armor and his helmet are based on cortosis, a kind of metal capable of resisting the blade of a lightsaber (but also of short-circuiting it). We also notice that the Jedi team around Sol is really no match.
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The Sith, however, still had an ace up his sleeve: a small lightsaber hidden in his main weapon. We call this a “shoto”. We could consider it as the equivalent of the wakizashi among the samurai: it is in fact a small sword which comes in addition to the katana. Besides, shoto means small sword in Japanese.
This secret weapon was indeed very secret, since the small saber was in short the extension of the large one. During his fight against padawan Jecki Lon, the Sith then unscrews the two parts of the hilt to reveal the shoto. He lights it and pierces the young woman three times, who had not seen anything coming.
Shoto is used in particular by those who practice the two-lightsaber combat form (Jar'Kai). In the extended universe, characters like Mara Jade Skywalker And Luke Skywalker were led to use it. In the barrel, Ahsoka Tano has one. Same thing for Yoda, but as a main saber, because more adapted to his size.
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