8

While amending my answer to Why didn't the Clones use vibroblades to fight against lightsabers?, I came upon what seemed like an inconsistency in the Wookieepedia article for cortosis-weave. Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, released in 2002, is noted as the first appearance of cortosis-weave, but they also note its appearance in the 2000 comic Jedi Council: Acts of War. Is the latter actually the first appearance? Or perhaps is there evidence that the Jedi Knight game had come up with the concept earlier in development, prior to the comic appearance, but the video game didn't get released until years later?

This is, of course, Legends continuity.

FuzzyBoots
  • 223,803
  • 23
  • 680
  • 1,039
  • 3
    "Cortosis-weave" is just typical Star Wars author-rando technobabble. Cortosis dates from at least 1998, with I, Jedi and the Hand of Thrawn novels, and is variously described as an ore, a metal, and a fibrous compound since Legends has no consistency and nobody cared. – DavidW Apr 21 '23 at 15:30
  • It could be that there's some unnamed flexible, lightsaber-resistant material featured in Acts of War and an enterprising Wookieepedia editor has retroactively decided it was cortosis-weave. The whole miniseries is available on Marvel Unlimited so I might try to find out this weekend... – Withad Apr 21 '23 at 16:44
  • 1
    "Cortosis shield" is used a few times in Acts of War, but not "cortosis weave" or used in any weapon or anything, other than an arm guard looking thing – fez Apr 21 '23 at 16:47
  • 1
    @DavidW Fwiw, its apparently-first-ever mention in I, Jedi is as "spun cortosis ore fibers"—it was like that from the start. You'd think they'd at least refine it from the ore before spinning it into fibers... – Milo P Apr 21 '23 at 17:16
  • 2
    @MiloP Unless the effect only occurs in the mineral and not the refined metal. Minerals with a fibrous nature aren't unknown; unfortunately, the one most people are probably most familiar with is asbestos. – Cadence Apr 21 '23 at 17:50
  • 1
    @DavidW Metals can be drawn into fibers, so saying 'fibers' isn't necessarily a continuity error. – user45623 Apr 21 '23 at 23:52

1 Answers1

10

I can confirm that cortosis ore appears in Jedi Council: Acts of War:

Adi Gallia: I don't understand... what's a "cortosis shield"?

Micah Giett: Contact with cortosis ore will cause a lightsaber to fail. By the time one realizes the cause of the failure... But cortosis ore is very rare. And now that we know of the shields, we have little to fear.

(Jedi Council: Acts of War, collected in Omnibus: Rise of the Sith, page 142)

However, as DavidW points out in the comments, cortosis itself is older, appearing at least as early as the 1998 novel I, Jedi:

They started with a basic armor shell and covered it with spun cortosis ore fibers, providing them some modicum of protection against all sorts of weapons.

(I, Jedi, chapter 47, page 530 of 1999 paperback edition)

Later in the novel, Corran's lightsaber fails when hitting the armor. Vision of the Future, published later in 1998, references this incident:

"There must be cortosis ore in this rock," he told her. He held his glow rod up to the rock face, the light dancing off tiny sparkles.

Mara shook her head. "Never heard of it."

"It's apparently fairly rare," Luke said. "All I really know about it is that it shuts down lightsabers. Corran and I ran into some Force-users once who'd made sets of body armor out of woven cortosis fibers. It was quite a surprise."

"I'll bet," Mara said, a memory of her own drifting up. "So that's what the slab of rock was Palpatine had between the double walls of his private residence."

(Vision of the Future, page 211 of 2011 edition, via Google Books)

The concept evolved for its later appearances in video games to only allow weapons and armor made with cortosis to deflect lightsaber strikes without disabling the lightsaber.

user45623
  • 2,185
  • 1
  • 14
  • 24
Milo P
  • 26,616
  • 8
  • 122
  • 185
  • 2
    Thank you. That is enlightening. And it does definitely sound like its association with vibroblades was a late one. – FuzzyBoots Apr 21 '23 at 16:51