Do you fight in Advance-the-Line at Star Wars movies?

[Tycho]

Are you bringing your lightsaber to Revenge of the Sith?

Which one will you carry?

Do you fight to advance in line?

For the past several movies and the Special Edition, lightsaber combatants have agreed to the rules:


Pick a fighter from your group.
Challenge a fighter from a group further ahead in line than you.
Actually fight and let the group decide who's clearly the better bladesman.
If you win, your whole group trades places with the other group.

If you're in the front of the line, you can refuse a challenge, but someone ahead of you might still accept.

If you lose, you move further back. If you win - you can literally lead the galaxy into Star Wars!

I've always enjoyed meeting other martial artists this way and testing myself against different styles. It's also enjoyable taking advantage of others who think they're better than they really are and sending them to the back of the line :D Especially for this movie, I'll fight like a Sith! (but I think I'm a Jedi underneathe it all).

Will I be able to show no mercy? How far will I get on May 18th (by May 19th I better be in the front of the line refusing any new challenges lest I be unseated from my throne).

Do you guys fight like this?

What saber will you use?

Do you allow kicks and round house elbows?

How about grappling moves?

Does sloppiness count against you? (such as touching the blade, whether it's a Hasbro or Master Replicas saber, if it was real, well sloppiness would be a literal loss in of something in that case)

The shopping center's security always threatens to call the police to stop people from fighting, but you just have to cool it if the real cops come.

I like to go no holds barred, nothing held back. For TPM I got pretty far and even used the double blades (Hasbro electronic). I put some good dents into it but I won like 4 fights. For AOTC I got my butt kicked by someone really good who fought with a single blade (Obi-Wan's). I used my Obi-Wan's (Hasbro) for that one. This guy was really good - I think he was an instructor somewhere. Anyway, I did win 2 fights, but this guy was undefeatable. Not everyone fights, so he wasn't the first one to go in, but I think his group were amongst the first 10-15.

I hope I see him again. I've improved considerably since then and I'm bringing Master Replicas DARTH VADER lightsaber this time.

The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities....

What will you choose?

[JediTricks]

Dear friends, it has come to my attention that this is possibly my last chance to be a major dork, so I am planning to bring plastic and/or metal toys with me while I wait in line for a movie. I likely will break my plastic and/or metal lightsaber toy while waiting in line, and possibly hurt myself in the proccess, so if you wish to witness my public humiliation, you can find me at [theater name, location] starting at [time], about 150th in line.

Sincerely,
-Star Wars fan

I won't be bringing anything simply because I know for sure I will break whatever I bring. ;)

[DarthQuack]

I brought my Vader F/X Lightsaber not in the line, but once I got my seat at 9:15 I got it and brought it in the theater. After about 10 minutes two guys started a duel down in front of everyone. One of them had Luke's and the other had a Vader as well. So I let them go at it for a few minutes, then I stood up and ignited mine to a nice applause and I jumped down about 7 feet and engaged the duel as well. It was a great time, and we had a nice applause for our efforts. I wouldn't have traded anything in for it, had a blast.

[Tycho]

We had like 20 lightsaber fights going at our theater!

I won almost all my fights against male and female combatants. I was in the very first fight of the night - as I was first in line - and I fought Courtney, a girl from a group of college chicks who ALL brought sabers and hung out with us in line. The theater manager said we were the first lightsaber fight of the night and the employees had taken bets on how long it would take for "violence to break out in a Star Wars crowd." They decided that they'd let us go and they put the front 4 lines (there were 8) across the way from each other in the theater lobby, and made a lightsaber arena area for us to fight in at the center.

I used every Hasbro blade they make except Dooku's - none were there. I took on 2 and even 3 Jedi with my Darth Maul blade and worked really well with it. The little kids who fought with no talent or skill kicked everyone's butt though, because they'd just keep hacking at you even when they'd already been "struck dead" and you'd turned your back on them. Now I know what "Sithspawn" means.

Anyway, only my friend Derek was better than me. The crowd voted. And once we got in the actual theater - they let us in 2 hours early - (still not showing the movie until midnight) - they turned down the lights low so that everyone could really see our lightsabers glow. We went at it in front of the whole full theater. Some guys were really good - total front and back flips were part of the performance - and one guy really landed hard.

Kids and girls really held their own in some cases. In a few instances, people got in close on each other. My friend Derek outranks me in martial arts. He was the best fighter, but since he was in our group - I couldn't lose my place in line. But his blade left cuts on my arm and two bloody knuckes. My Qui-Gon blade has some blood and paint scrape stains on it from contact with another saber hilt (there's silver scrapes from a hilt on the green blade).

I fought my best with Maul's saber and my Obi-Wan TPM's. I fought with every saber made and Obi-Wan's TPM is by far the best hilt out there for control and grip. I swear I need them to make a Master Replicas Obi-Wan TPM FX!

Anyway, not too many people had (or brought to fight with) Master Replicas sabers - but one guy (in the theater) fought with a MR Vader FX Blade and cut a guy's Hasbro Mace Windu blade in half - as the audience cheered as several pieces of glow-in-the-dark purple went spinning off in different directions falling into the theater audience.

Derek and I went hand to hand at one point when we locked sabers and got to kicking and grappling. That's not a big deal - we do that every week in practice at the studio. It was fun for an audience to cheer again. I haven't done any martial arts competitions in an arena in quite some time. I have to go back soon!

Anyway, most of the Hasbro stuff is really sturdy. The sabers are only $20 I think (maybe prices went up since I bought the 3 TPM ones in 1999). Well my idea was to even BREAK THEM if I could - going all out. They held up - though we completely drained the batteries in my Qui-Gon blade and the Darth Maul batteries are really low.

My Master Replicas arrive tomorrow and I wished I'd had them for opening night - but there are still 1-2 sabers in the audience at the later shows I've gone to. - OH - and Saturday one of my martial arts INSTRUCTORS was at the show. He wasn't armed, but I could have loaned him one of mine if I really felt like getting my *** kicked could. But my friends suggested I might want to refrain.

Overall, it was really fun. I love combat and dueling. I plan to take my MR to a show late this week. Hopefully there will be somebody wanting to fight.

Also when ROTS hits the $1 theater, there is often so few in the audience that you can go to the front and fight DURING the movie duels - if everyone who's actually attending agrees it won't spoil anything for them. That's a lot of fun!

[LTBasker]

Lines? Lines... We went opening day (sadly not midnight showing) and yet dealt with no lines. The joys of living in a small city. :D

[DarthQuack]

Just curious Tycho what MR's did you order? I just have the F/X Vader saber for now, but am trying to talk my sister who works at a Borders to get me another one for cheap :)

[Tycho]

I'm getting Vader and Anakin's. Those are really cool.

I think they arrived today and are in our property management office. I can pick them up tomorrow morning.

Like I said, I'll order more FX sabers from Master Replicas as soon as the models I want become available - most notably Obi-Wan's TPM saber. Oh what a perfect lightsaber that would make!