I hope you enjoyed our video, featuring the fantastic Matt Easton. Want to watch more of his videos? Here's the link: ukposts.info/the/t14YOvYhd5FCGCwcjhrOdA.html

Next you should have "politician reacts to all senate scenes in Prequels"

“Maul should of stayed around longer” Me: ahh should we tell him?

The whole "high ground" thing was 100% Obi-Wan trolling Anakin to get him to make a mistake. Obi-Wan's true force strength was trolling his opponents to literal death.

The theory about the 17:30 bit is that they're both predicting the other one's move, and readjusting for it, over and over again. Not only are they force sensitive, so they have insanely fast reflexes, but they're also basically brothers. They've been sparring together for years and years during Anakin's apprenticeship and the Clone Wars, putting in thousands of hours of fighting each other, so on top of their reflexes and the force, they know each others moves very well.

9:00 Christopher Lee didn't ask specifically for a curved handle. He brought his rapier, showed how he could use it and asked for a lightsaber that would allow him to fight as such.

You guys should have him react to the Old Republic trailers like Decieved, he will definitely like the movement in the Malgus fight

18:00 Actually if you didn't know, they also use the force to help predict where the enemy is going to strike next! So with that in mind, I'd have to guess they were stuck in a ridiculous loop of trying to get through the other's defense.

My favorite aspect of Darth Maul wasn't his fighting. It was how convincingly PREDATORY he came across. He had like 3 lines the entire movie, but his body language, his facial expressions, his snarls, they all said "don't...fuck...with...me".

Thanks for having me on! It's great fun doing these fight reviews.

You also have to understand that Obi Wan didn’t want to kill Anakin. He really wanted to save him. Bring him back to the light side. And Anakin didn’t really want to kill Obi Wan either. Really enjoyed your analytics, but it would also be interesting to see what your opinions are concerning the emotional factors involved in a fight, and the motivations of two people engaged in combat.

Regarding lightsabers being cutty or thrusty, it's probably worth remembering that with steel weapons, one advantage of the thrust is that it's easier to get through to vital organs while cuts can often be more superficial unless they are really committed to, but with lightsabers going clean through limbs or bodies with no resistance, they can be _more_ effective in a cut than a sword would be.

8:47 To answer this, this is intentional. Darth Maul let his overconfidence get to him, thus Obi-Wan returning to kill him caught Maul off guard. This happens with a lot of Sith, such as Anakin fighting Obi-Wan

A small background information for Matt on Dookus curved handle: When Dooku was a Padawan, there weren't any other lightsaber users then the Jedi in the Republic. The Sith thought to be extinct and the Jedi trained more for Blaster Defense. But because Dooku always wanted to be the best, he decided to make this kind of handle to be better prepared for duels. His whole fighting form was designed to fight sword wielders.

From my point of view they twirl the swords so much because as many times was explained these guys can slightly predict the actions of their rivals due to the force. Imaging two guys constantly knowing what the rival is going to do. If they stop enough to think about it (as Anakin and Obi Wan do in Mustafar) that can be an endless loop.

The reason why (in universe) there is a bunch of twirling with the lightsabers is because all force sensitives have such attuned senses that they can pretty much see into the future slightly with the opponents' next move. The twirling helps make the next move be more unpredictable

The “twirling” thing can be viewed as an aesthetic stunt but I’m pretty sure it comes from the defensive technique against blaster shots. It’s very useful when being surrounded and shot from different angles.

If you want to see thrusting of blades, look at Chancellor Papatine, his fighting style is full of trusting.

Fun fact: The high ground statement Obi-Wan made was a bait to get Anakin to make the jump. When Anakin attempted the exact move Obi-Wan used when Darth Maul had the high ground.

I’d like to say the choreography took into account the philosophies of both combatants. Obi-Wan being incredibly defensive and Anakin overtly aggressive

0:37 - The Phantom Menance 9:07 - Attack of the Clones 14:10 - Revenge of the Sith

Obi-wan and the high ground; in the phantom menace obi-wan jumped over maul, while maul had the high ground. That move he made haunted him for the next decade, he always came back to how it could have failed. Then in revenge of the sith, Anakin tried the same move on him, that he did to maul. This is why Obi-wan won over Anakin with the high ground. It was all he thought about.

Obi wan got over maul because from his point of view, he had the high ground

a very important thing to remember about force users in a lightsaber fight is that both users are attempting to read the future of their opponents moves. Seeing things JUST before they happen is a Jedi and Sith trait that they continue to use through out their lives. So the bit where Obi Wan and Anakin are "twirling their swords around each other" they are trying to see an opening in the near future and making a move only to see that its blocked and another opening is there and then its blocked and so on until they strike yet again. Most all light saber duels are also being fought in the force. Knowing also the different lightsaber forms 1-7 and their variants could inform a lot of their moves as well, such as Obi Wans affinity to form 3 which is more of a defensive form and Anakin's affinity to form 5 was characterized by power attacks and defense immediately followed by a counterstrike. So they were very well suited to fight each other in that one is very reserved yet not as powerful but also more defensive and the other is powerful, and attack forward with little defense. You will notice that the major majority of the Obi Wan and Anakin fight is Obi Wan backing up and Anakin pushing forward.

In the bane novels, it was explained that the Double Bladed Lightsaber is supposed to give the look of having multiple options, when in reality, you have fewer options, which is meant to confuse the opponent kinda, as they're expecting to be attacked in a large variety of ways, when it isn't the case

To be fair, in defense of the "twirling" (aside for the sake of visual show/flair), Force users have precognitive reflexes and abilities. So they aren't just regular swordsmen looking for simple openings, they basically have a "Spidey-sense" that predicts where they'll receive strikes. That's how they're able to deflect blaster fire. So when we see them twirling and turning they're actually trying to outwit each other's precognition and confuse their respective opponent to make a mistake. That's why Grievous ( a non Force-sensitive fighter) used 4 arms and furiously twirled all 4 of his sabers like a fan, to creative a cognitive load on his Jedi opponents and disarming them from that advantage. We also see it in the Naboo hangar duel, where Obi-Wan feigns a strike to trick Maul into parrying his side to give Qui Gon an opening, but Maul saw through it and parried Qui Gon instead. So the silly moment where Kenobi and Skywalker are twirling their lightsabers without striking each other, they're actually battling each other's Force senses. Still meme worthy though!

Seriously, you should show him The Old Republic trailers fights.

22:30 Obi-Wan had time to react because of the distance of the jump and Anakin's fatigue meant he couldn't use the Force to it's fullest extent. The other times we see Obi-Wan jump over his opponent it's from close range and at the start of the fight, when Obi-Wan isn't fatigued and can still use the Force to speed up his movements properly.

There's a factor in Jedi/Sith lightsaber fights that sword experts NEVER take into consideration. The fact that Both Jedi and Sith are using the Force to sense their opponents movements and position. You see it with the first TWO attacks from Obi Wan. Darth Maul blocks them without even looking at him. This is meant to show that even though he may SEEM outnumbered or outgunned HIS movements are supposed to be precognitive, so he's in position to block WHILE they are swinging at him.

So here's the thing about the infamous high ground situation, Anakin has to make a jump to engage Obi Wan no matter what. He could choose to land above or below him on the bank but both are losing positions due to the area they are fighting in and the abilities of the universe they are in. If Anakin jumps lower on the bank, Obi Wan simply has to give him a solid force push while he is trying to gain his footing and he'll be thrown into the lava. No chance of winning that way at all. However, he can try to jump over Obi Wan both avoiding that pitfall and placing Obi Wan into it. This won't work though because unlike a lot of the other times they do a flip over their opponent it is completely predictable. After all, it is the only move Anakin has open to him. Obi Wan knows what's coming and is ready to take his opportunity to strike Anakin while he is relatively defenseless. While it can be argued, and rightfully so, that this could have happened during any of the flips in the prequels. The main difference is that they had other options in other duels, meaning their opponent might not have expected it, but in this fight Obi Wan knows exactly what's coming and is essentially just waiting to swat Anakin out of the air. At least that's my take on it.

Qui-Gon's is stance is called hassō. Jodan stance is when you hold the sword above your head.

As the novel stated "Blade-to-blade, Obi-Wan and Anakin were identical. After thousands of hours lightsaber sparring, they knew each other better than brothers, more intimately than lovers; they were the complementary halves of a single warrior."

Interestingly enough in the legends book Darth Bane, they pretty much say the exact same thing you did about the double-bladed lightsaber. With the Saber instructor giving the lesson basically concluding that the only real strength of a dual bladed saber was that is made most opponents "think" the wielder had more combat options; when in fact if you know where one end is, you know where the other blade is as well.

Would love to see his reaction to the rebels obi wan and maul fight

The impressive thing about the ObiAni twirly scene is how they DON'T accidentally hit each other. If you look at the awkward angle Obi has to bring his blade across at the bottom, you can tell they are going out of their way not to hit each other while standing so close. The scene feels a bit like they practiced their twirls and someone thought "we GOT to put this into the movie somehow".

22:12 how you know they truly loved the Prequel trilogy.

Funny thing. The 1st point you made about darth mauls double blade and most people thinking he can take on 2 people because of that is also the point that was explained the darth bane in the first book of the trilogy! It gave his instructor an advantage because people THINK it does. But as you said the blades are connected. Great stuff

8:51 Well here his arrogance have blinded Darth Maul. He did not expect apprentice who on top of that is unarmed and in such dangerous position to counter him like that. He underestimated Obi-Wan

23:09 “Is highground an advantage ? For an army yes” Napoleon at Austerlitz : don’t be so certain

In this special case you should take into consideration, that the swirling in ep.3 can be explained with the force sensitivity to feel where each others blow would hit, resulting in a rather psychological duel which is displayed greatly imho.

The fight scenes in the Obi wan Kenobi series show can seriously be so much epic than ever.

We can all agree that a lightsaber has the best penetration

For the record, every fight in the prequel trilogy is for spectacle. The last fight between Obi Wan and Anakin is more about positioning than anything else. The “High Ground” is about where Anakin can land safely more than battle tactics. And Anakin’s hubris is what ultimately defeats him. It’s ultimately all for storytelling purposes and near entirely unrealistic. But it looks so damn cool!

12:50 Anakin doing this makes sense. He is a padawan after all, still learning.

If this guy finds mistakes in the prequels’ duels, he would have a field day with the sequels’ choreography

A point people always seem to forget when criticizing Obi-wan's lack of taking advantage of openings is that Obi-wan as a jedi doesn't necessarily just want to murder Anakin unless absolutely necessary Was also hoping to see Matt comment on one of the grappling moves in the RotS fight that was left out here but oh well

You mean Sword Expert learns about the High Ground!

Just remember obi wasn't trying to hurt Vader, and was the master of the "deflective" style of combat.

the technique used by obi wan and jinn in the first fight consumes a lot of energy with continuous attacks so they alternate so that the other can catch his breath. in fact, after this battle, obi wan will abandon this technique to move to a more defensive one which is based on exploiting the opponent's mistakes and tiring them.

We need Matt to react to some of the Animated fights like the Old Republic trailers

Most of the jumping over the opponent was Obi Wan and that moment was Anakin bolding saying he was better than Obi Wan at his own move.

There’s actually a reason for the twirling in lightsaber combat. Lightsabers blades are weightless therefore gravity is no longer a factor, because of this twirling your blade is extremely easy. Furthermore with how bright lightsabers are and the fact that they leave a light trail behind them it makes it very difficult for the opponent to find an opening in your gaurd. With the combination of it’s weightlessness and blinding beam the lightsaber becomes a much more versatile weapon, so during a lightsaber duel you must remember you’re opponents weapon is just as light and versatile as yours. You can change gaurds and position in a tenth of a second with a lightsaber. The twirling is a way of not only guarding but using it as a distraction while you find an opening. The first of the two opponents to stop twirling there lightsaber would be the one to get hit unless they choose to go on the offensive and in this case they both did. Edit: a lot of times professional swordsman forget a few factors about lightsaber blades 1. They have no weight 2. They’re very bright 3. They’re very hot 4. They can cut from any angle

Gotta love the entire segment dedicated to analyzing The High Ground. Every star wars fan appreciated that.

“They should’ve kept Maul around for longer”… sir, he’s still appearing in stuff to this day lol we still have an entire Obiwan series to get through.

With knowing more of the subtext of the characters in the prequel trilogy, the body language and how they carry themselves, this gave me an extra layer of understanding. Anakin moves his feet more because he was SUPPOSED to be the better fighter. Qui-Gon's lightsaber form actually IS a real martial form for swordplay. There's alot of foreshadowing done in these lightsaber battles. Some of it was showy, but some was placed there on purpose.

Awesome to see more of Matt, he's got great insight and seems like a chill guy too. Combine that with Star Wars and we've got a great video! :)

The in-verse explanation for the turn-based attacks in the darth maul fight could be because obi-wan just waits until he could properly attck again and qui-gon is less of a straight up attacker, as seen when he had the opportunity he meditated so it's probably because he's trying to think for a strategy while not being useless

8:20 the thing about lightsabers is that even you hit another saber the sort of bind to each other like metal to another metal when welding. They aren't slippery like your traditional sword do that's why in my opinion you could sort of stand and just parry because the blade won't slip and you don't need to jockey for position on the blade.

Matt says Qui gon should attack Darth mauls hands but then skips over the part where obi wan literally goes for mauls hands and cuts mauls hilt in half

Regarding the sabers "Stuck" moment. It actually is a thing in SW, that sometimes the blades can be physically locked. So they have to bend them loose again (or simply shut the blade off)

That exchange between anakin and obi wan where they don’t touch blades for a little bit was explained by one of the cast as a nod to how well anakin and obi wan know each other and their fighting styles

This makes me want to go back and rewatch Shadiversity's 1 hour and 20 minute breakdown of the Anakin and Obi-Wan fight.

20:23 That is why Obi-Wan actually has the low ground and not the high ground, because Anakin jump over his head (Anakin has the high ground) gave Obi-Wan the advantage to cut off his limbs. 🤷‍♂️

It's so great seeing Matt Easton appreciated by a broader audience, and being used in programs like this.

This is the first time I've ever seen one of these IGN, Buzzfeed, etc, videos of 'expert talks about x' where they get an *actual* expert. Very well done IGN, you actually did your research on who to have on!

He said often: "Missed opportunity from Obi-Wan!" That's why he has the High Ground!

Easton should cover the LOTR trilogy and its sword scenes!

3:02 'Bear in mind, that Darth Maul has got a double-ended laser-staff.' Lol, can't stress that enough! 😅👍

Pretty awesome breakdown, love to hear the experts talk about what they love.

maybe Obi Wan held up in the fight due to his love towards his padawan... and that final moment he did the slash while Anakin jumped over could be because he has had enough with Anakin.

To be fair, Anakin was very obvious with his high jump, with the clip of Grievous for example, he went for more of a thrust while Obi Wan jumped over him, it looked like Grievous had to adjust to the jump and react to turn around. Obi Wan in the Mustafar clip had time to patiently wait for him to jump, but that’s just my view of it.

But Darth Maul is also occasionally - actually very often - redirecting their lightsabers by sweeping one side of his double edged end over end. So I'm assuming THAT is his counter to their attacks. Like in one shot Gui Gon attacks and Darth Maul turns his lightsaber over into a more vulnerable position, by twisting his underside saber over. Surely that action is his counter to their constant offense.

Really great video at all. Enjoyed to watch it and get information and thoughts about the fights. Don't know that much about real life fighting

Something important to point out about Obi-wan having the high ground is that he had thought about the battle with maul more than just about any aspect of his career as a jedi, he new every movement that happened like it was the back of his hand. He knew exactly what Anakin was about to try because he did it to maul all those years ago, and he knew how to exactly counter it, his entire fighting style was defensive (in canon maybe that is) based on his experience from that fight. So when he told Anakin it was over because he had the high ground it was because he had analyzed every possible outcome and knew exactly how to counter it

Being fair, when Obi-Wan jumps over Maul, you can see he defended against Maul sticking out the back-end of his saberstaff.

A bit of justification for the part where they stand still and twirl their blades: force users have an ability called precognition, and the twirls could be them attempting to throw off each other's precog, because they both know it's happening, and the fight will definitely keep going on for awhile if neither of them get confused. Is that what the choreographers thought of while they wrote that bit of choreography? Maybe not, it could be justification that was made after the fact.

Glad to see Matt in the video, being him on again

The twirling of light sabers is actually to distract your opponent with the flashing of the blades having a strobe effect. Presumably jedi train to fight opponents not using light sabers (the exception being the sith who were SUPPOSED to be extonct) so when two jedi fight all that baton twirling is just training kicking in.

"should've kept Darth maul around for longer". Well.........

So the reason for the twirling and whatnot is actually due to FEELING for an opening as opposed to LOOKING for one. The whole premise is that Jedi, through the force, have a sort of precognition, some have it stronger than others (like anakin or yoda) but all jedi have it to some extent, so what's effectively happening is that all the twirls are essentially feints and redirects, where they are realizing that the attack would fail, feeling that through the force, and deciding to redirect, and FEELING for an opening, a point where things get muddied to their force-related senses and an attack could potentially land, and that's when they strike, and at THAT point it simply comes down to who has the better reactions and skills. In particular the reason he was able to get the opening at the end, when anakin jumped, was because his emotions and arrogance were clouding his connection to the force and created an opening for obi-wan to attack, at which point anakin didn't have the force to rely on and was also in a disadvantageous position. Most critiques on lightsaber duels are perfectly accurate for normal people using them, but for jedi using them specifically it makes sense, from a lore perspective, to be attacking predominantly through feints, redirects, and defensive motions, where every twirl was the START of an attack that they could feel, through the force, would fail, and move onto another motion, and sometimes will go through a series of many, many motions before sensing that opening (such as the standing still and twirling scene).

My favorite description of the strength of a double sided lightsaber came from the first of the Darth Bane book trilogy. Essentially it doesn’t give you any real advantage because while it “looks” like two weapons, it’s really just one. However, if you have never fought against that weapon or don’t understand it’s limitations then it might as well be two weapons. In a battle with such a weapon, an inexperienced opponent won’t be able to properly deal with it.

You guys skipped the best light saber fight scene ever! Yoga vs Douku is dope as all hell! Unrealistic and amazing!

Interesting that he points out how Maul's reliance on flashy staff-twirls leaves him vulnerable, considering that is EXACTLY what led to both his and the Grand Inquisitor's deaths in "Star Wars: Rebels" at the hands of Obi-Wan and Kanan, respectively. For all the issues that these movies have, they do correct/fill-in the holes later on.

High ground has meaning from universe perspective. Those 'over head' jumps are out of hit range normally. However if you are forced to jump from lower position then you end up being in range of light saber.

mentioning how mauls hands are vulnerable when he spins his lightsabers reminds me of Kanan destroying the grand inquisitors spinning blades by slicing through the handle

Obi wan was expecting the jump in that scene, in all the other fight scenes it happened in a split second in the middle of a duel or when somone was of balance or dueling somone else while that person was jumping over

The best part of this is that you give a nod to the fact that this is for film and therefore the flashy twirly moves aren’t practical but you acknowledge their “cool” factor

THANK YOU. The "Obi Wan High Ground Eureka Moment" made me laugh out loud in the theater a long time ago in a city far far away.... 🙄🤣👌

Wonderful star wars light sabre vids. Thanks! Just curious about Matt's opinion on the fights with General Grievous. Would the 4 sabres, especially the two just spinning, be especially effective, guessing both on offense and defense?

Deleted Maul dialogue: "hello boys. Care for a little turn-based combat?"

One of the best fight sequences was in Rebels the last fight between Obiwan as an old man and Darth Maul-it was only 3 moves in the entire fight but you have to know the history of them and you can understand the beauty of the fight.

Never realized Maul kicks Obi-wan with a fancy behind the back move. My spine twisted just watching it 4:20

20:06 This is a happy moment. The happiest moment of my life.

In the Maul Fight and in the Ani/Obi fight they did lift their weapons up when the opponent jumped over them. You can see the clash of their weapons, seeing as they do a flip over the top their head and weapons are closer to the enemy making it easier to block There are times they didn't do it but some of the examples shown they actually did so maybe it's just an editing miss

I’ve been looking forward to this

the twirling that you talked about in revenge of the sith is kind of like when in pickle ball you hit in the same spot many of times and both people do it until one of them hits hit hard in the opposite direction to catch them off gaurd. this is basically what Obi Wan and Aniken did with the spins.

Obi wan and anikan doing the “twirling” makes it to where your opponent won’t know what you would do until you stop

In defense of 17:40, two things. 1: they were spinning it to gain more power in their swings and 2: they were trying to fake each other out. More of a Star Wars thing that makes sense in that universe then the real world.

Wish he knew that Anakin Vs Obi fight was supposed to look like that because they were basically fighting themselves.

@IGN. - You have to keep in mind that many of these fights incorporated an amalgamation of force powers and physical prowess. This means that most actions are theoretically negotiated much faster than the eye can see. Try analyzing these over whilst incorporating that concept in your dynamic.