The Star Wars Rants:

[Kudos]

Originally Posted by Andrew.poole

I still think Anakins "turning" was one of the weakest parts of ROTS. Second only to the completely crap "I have the high ground!" rubbish.

Don't forget "She's lost the will to live..."

[glunark]

^ worse hospital ever!

Or how the force runs through all living things, but the person with the most force skills ever cant tell his wife is having two kids, rather than just one, a day before she is far enough along for them to be born and not need incubators.

[Andrew.poole]

Ack!! I 'd forgotten about that bit. Yep that was very dire as well. probably joint second with Anakins turning I think.

The whole "high ground" thing is still number 1 though I think.

[daveshans]

Originally Posted by Andrew.poole

The whole "high ground" thing is still number 1 though I think.

It's been a while since I've seen RotS, what's so bad about the high ground bit?

[Andrew.poole]

For me it smacks of desperation on Darth Beards part as the only way he could draw the duel to an end was the "I have the high ground" thing from Obi-Wan.

The fact that he had to say it and spell out that this was obviously a duel winner, (Unlike every other duel between Jedi we have seen in all the other films where its not made a jot of difference) is just clumsy and tired plotting.

There are plenty of cool ways that the Duel could have ended with Obi wan victorious against a better, faster, stronger opponent, (Anakin throwing lava about and in his rage and lack of control burning himself, Obi-Wan utilizing a subtle non-offensive force trick to distract Anakin at a critical moment just as examples).

[Veela Magnet]

Originally Posted by Andrew.poole

The fact that he had to say it and spell out that this was obviously a duel winner, (Unlike every other duel between Jedi we have seen in all the other films where its not made a jot of difference) is just clumsy and tired plotting.

I didn't get it either; in TPM, Darth Maul has the high ground when Obi Wan is dangling on the edge of the vacuum/pit/tube thing, yet he manages to flip right over Maul and cleave him in twain.

I thought he was speaking metaphorically about "having the high ground".

[glunark]

Anakin fights with a metal hand, Jedi can bend metal with the force.

The end of the fight should have been a no brainer.

[daveshans]

I didn't see it that way. I saw it as Obi-Wan giving Anakin a chance to surrender in a situation he couldn't win, no different than in the police in an action movie having bank robbers surrounded and calling for their surrender.

Was Anakin supposed to be a better duellist? There's a line in AotC about him neglecting his lightsaber training.

Obi-Wan vs Maul in TPM isn't the same, he was over-confident after killing Qui-Gonn (the master) and toying with Obi-Wan (the student) which is what got him killed.

[Andrew.poole]

Originally Posted by daveshans

Obi-Wan vs Maul in TPM isn't the same, he was over-confident after killing Qui-Gonn (the master) and toying with Obi-Wan (the student) which is what got him killed.

I can see what your saying about the giving him a chance to surrender, but I still think the "Winning move" it just feels so blunt and direct when I see it.

Your example above is a much better duel and Obi wan wins it by taking advantage of Maul's over confidence and the fact that Qui gons lightsabre is at hand and Maul has missed it as a threat.
Its a cool end to the duel and shows how lucky Obi Wan was to overcome the better skilled Sith.

Thats why I hate the whole "High ground" thing, as what is the longest most important duel we have seen so far is decided and resolved at the end on the fact that Obi Wan is standing on a hill. It diminishes the conflict and does nothing to show us the things going behind the actual duel as we have seen in previous ones.

[Space Cadet]

I'm just dreading a future release of A New Hope where Lucas uses CGI to replace the duel between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader on the Death Star with lots of unnecessary gymnastics and twirling lightsabers because "that's what I always envisaged but film-making technology wasn't good enough back then."