Form III is one of the more popular styles practiced by the Lucasian Order Jedi, as well as many other Jedi outside of that group. It's high emphasis on defensive manuvers, counter attacks, and balanced movements have made it a favorite among Jedi for centuries. Because of it's somewhat non-aggreseive flavor, it has been held in favor by many more concervative minded Jedi who feel it represents how a Jedi should act overal; passively. Of course, one can argue that in a swordfight, one generally has to be willing to be offensive in order to to win the fight, but that's an essay for another time.

Form III owes a great deal of its development to a master swordsman of the Rei Samurai Jedi Clan. He was known to have had developed amazing defensive and counter attacking techniques in combat, and was readily invited to be one of the masters who were to develop the style of Form III. He was the one who would stress the importance of balance in movement, offensive as well as defensive blocking, and sharp counters. He also formed some of the basic theories that would later be devloped into the blaster deflecting system that is one of hte major Form III pillars.

However, many of that Jedi Master's ideas and techniques would later be weeded out, and some were just not accepted at all. The swordsman was in the end,a practical minded warrior, and he had a mindset of "kill or be killed" when it came to swordfighting. There were some many vicious movements and devious counters he showed them that some Lucasians didn't agree with. They felt that the emphasis on killing through deception was more of a darkside trait. They also didn't go with his idea that Form III blaster defence should incompass both defelction and redirection. The Rei Samurai Jedi would soon leave the project after having had enough with the many disagremments. He would go on to develop the famous "Eight Gate Swordplay", a style that many say is even more impenitrable than Form III.

Despite these events, Form III still became a powerful system in it's own right. Many advancements were made in it's art of defense, that many of its masters would be considered to be invincible. Various tales were passed on about Jedi Knights repelling blaster fire from numerous sources, or taking on many lightsabre weilding foes at once and keeping all attacking blades in check with their own. There is even a joke among several Jedi about Form III experts; basically they call them human or walking shelids.

Form III still has it's weaknesses though. Cheif among them is its biggest strength, actually. Since the style focuses so much on defence, and because many of the counters that the Rei Samurai wanted in there were taken out, and/or watered down, a user of this Form sometimes has a hard time finishing a fight against a skillful opponent. Also, a Jedi who hasn't trained in the deflection techniques of Form V will not be very effective in redirecting blaster fire back at opponents shooting at her, since Form III mostly focused on just deflecting the deadly projectiles. It is up to the practitioner to devise techniques to offset these shortcomings, usually by picking up the benefits of other forms and/or styles. There have been several experts in the past who had done that, to great success.

In the end, Form III has a lot to offer the training Jedi Knight overal. It provides excellent defensive techniques, and it teaches him to mvoe about efficently with balanced steps and movements without wasting energy. The style is still a worthwhile one to learn for the up and coming Jedi.