Skip to main content

star wars - Which lightsaber form did Obi-Wan use against Maul on Tatooine?


    In their final fateful duel on Tatooine, Obi-Wan ignited his lightsaber and took opening stance of Soresu, or Form III. Soresu is a defensive form, and Kenobi was master of it, so Maul hesitated with his attack. Maul was a user of Juyo, or Form VII, very aggressive form.


    But then Obi-Wan changed his stance to Ataru, or Form IV. Presumably to trick Maul into overconfidence, because long time ago Maul defeated Kenobi's master Qui-Gon Jinn, and Qui-Gon Jinn was user of Ataru. Maul even attempted same trick (hilt strike in the head) , but Kenobi was ready for that.


    What bothers me is the question: did Obi-Wan actually used Ataru in this final duel ? Ataru is also described as very aggressive and acrobatic form, with somersaults, flips, jumps etc (Yoda was best known Ataru master) and Obi-Wan didn't use any of that. He just waited for Maul's attack, blocked two of his strikes and cut him down in third. Did Obi-Wan switched back to Soresu despite Ataru opening stance, or he used some other form ( Form I Shii-Cho perhaps) ?







Answer



Yes, Kenobi used Ataru


This is an interesting question. In part because it's difficult to read much into a three-strike duel.


slow-mo duel


To break down the duel, as you mention in the question, Kenobi starts with a Soresu stance and shifts to Ataru (presumably to trick Maul). One of the characteristics of Ataru is broad, sweeping, strikes. And Kenobi's first strike/parry is definitely this as he brings the saber in a full 360 degree rotation to block Maul's strike to his head.


However, Kenobi's second strike is more in keeping with a Soresu defense. You can see that he takes a small hop backwards and brings his saber down to block with the smallest amount of movement necessary. Minimization of motion is one of the characteristics of Soresu, and is in keeping with Kenobi's prefered style.


Finally, the third, and killing blow was another full circle strike from around behind Kenobi's head, through Maul's saber and torso, and following through back to nearly the original position. The sweeping nature of the blow is Ataru, but the choice of action is very much Soresu (capitalizing instantly on mistakes).


We could discuss this duel until the cows come home, talking about motivations and the like, but I think I would break down the fight as follows.


Kenobi opens with Ataru, his stance almost mandates this. Additionally, he chooses to meet the strength of Maul's blow, so for that reason, the sweeping blow was the one he used. His second strike was instinctive, as evidenced by the small hop backwards that is universal for, "I need to move right now without thinking about it", as well as being in the Soresu style. Had he continued focusing in Ataru after Naboo, this instinct would have almost certainly been a flip over Maul's saber. The third and final strike returns to Ataru, his choice for the duel (or at least the beginning), to bring an overhand blow down on Maul.



Ultimately, what we see is a true dueling master. One able to hybridize the forms and adjust as necessary. The second strike betrays Kenobi's love of Soresu, but I think the final answer is that Kenobi chose to open the dual in Ataru, and ended the fight before needing to reevaluate.



To answer the question posed in your comment above: Yes, it is still Ataru without the acrobatics. "Another characteristic of the form was it's fast, powerful strikes from multiple directions", which Kenobi did utilize.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.
Post a Comment
Read more

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...
Post a Comment
Read more