[CaptainCrunch]

I've always loved the Maul versus Obi-Wan and Qui-gon fight.


I remember watching George talking about the Phantom Menace while it was being made and the duels that had taken place in the OT


When you break it down


ANH - Obi versus Vader - Obi was old, and out of practice, also there was a theory that he went into that fight knowing he was dead but the Force moved him into that confrontation to save Luke, and to move him on his path. Meanwhile Vader had aged a great deal and combined with his injuries and again rustiness as he really hadn't (at that time) fought Jedi for a while.



ESB - Vader vs Skywalker - Luke wasn't completely trained, he was still tentative in his use of the Force and was fearful of the dark Side. Vader in this movie was back to his aggressive powerful self, but was held back because he knew Luke's secret and didn't really want to kill him. We saw not the full power of the force, but a portion of it when Vader through the mining facility at Luke.


ROTJ - Luke was really still a fledging Jedi, he was also conflicted, he didn't want to kill his father he wanted to save him. Vader was conflicted as well. Luke hadn't gone through a life time of training in lighsaber duels, Vader was aging and trapped in a suit that had stripped many of Anakin's force abilities away.


So when George was making the Phantom Menace he had the question, what was a properly trained Jedi with years of training like. So instead of bashing lightsabers we saw stylized duels and they were a lot faster and a lot more crisp.


Qui-gon and Obi vs Maul - First of all Ray Park is awesome at what he did. He was blinding speed and agility but there was a ferocity to it especially when he killed Qui-gon, and a bit of arrogance when he turned on Obi. I loved the Obi vs Maul duel, there was speed and technique and fury.



Anakin and Obi vs Dooku - The problem with this duel is that they hadn't become good at face replacement yet so we got a lot of zoom shots of Christopher Lee sneering while swinging his saber. However, in terms of the duel, Dooku was one of the best swordsmen in Jedi history and I loved that they gave him the curved saber. He was a pure duelist and it showed. Obi-Wan was technical, Anakin was all arrogance and fury. But I liked this duel because when you watch it Dooku just outwaited them and baited them into mistakes.


Yoda vs Dooku - I didn't like this one as much but it made sense, Yoda was small so he would be all speed and agility. The problem was that there was no impact to the clash. It just felt too much like the cheesy samuri movies of the 80's that was style over substance.


Anakin vs Dooku - I loved this duel for one key moment. When they were clashing sabers and Dooku said "You have much fear in you and anger but you don't know how to use it" and there was this pause where you could almost see Anakin's mind click and he was given permission to unleash his fury and his style changed to something that was powerful and impactful and he basically beat Dooku down.



Anakin vs Obi-Wan - I really liked the speed of the battle. But it was interesting because Anakin and Obi were brothers who had fought together and trained together and knew each others moves intimately. There was the one moment where Anakin overpowered Obi and was pushing him down that was to me awesome. The duel force push was a neat bit of story telling, because it was two guys fighting that knew each other so well.


Filoni really understood duels when you watch Clone Wars, especially the last few episodes. But if you go back and watch the Sidious vs Maul and Savage duel or the Anakin vs Dooku duels they were awesome to watch.


And yeah, I would love to see Filoni take over the Star Wars movies, he's the new George in that he understands and values that at the center of these movies its about the story and lore. That's where the ST really failed. The story throughout the whole thing was fractured and confusing and disconnected and a lot of that is due to Rian's idiotic story in the second movie forcing Abrahms to toss most of it away to try to fix the triology.