When I first saw The Phantom Menace, like everyone else, I was blown away by the Jinn-Kenobi-Maul duel. Here, at last, was what real Jedi combat looked like. Constant motion, Force pushes, light and color flying and cracking everywhere. But my opinion of it faded over time. Why do they keep moving their blades out of a sensibe guard position into dramatic poses? Why do they keep spinning their sabers around pointlessly?

Somewhere on the web, I read an essay on the duel that made me reappraise it (again). One of its points stuck with me: When Kenobi pauses to twirl his lightsaber like a showman, Maul kicks him in the face. This, I thought, was the beginning of the evolution that would give us the Kenobi of A New Hope. By Episode III, I expected Kenobi to keep his center of gravity low, make only controlled movements, focus on defense, and save his energy for one or two really devastating attacks.

Of course, that's not what happened. Kenobi in Episode III is just as showy as ever. At one point, Kenobi and Skywalker stand face-to-face and twirl their blades about to no apparent effect for several seconds. Either one could've kneed the other in the groin at that part and ended the fight. (Probably against the Jedi code duello which, as I've pointed out before, is a highly ritualized affair.)

My only experience with swordplay is fencing foil under the FIE rules. Sport fencing is so formalized as to be almost useless when the subject is real combat, but I'd like to think a few of the things I've learned are applicable. Mainly, masters don't play around. Kenobi must've had a decade on Skywalker's training, and should have been objectively the better lightsabrist. I would've expected Skywalker to use powerful, if ill-timed, blows, combined with Force attacks (he is the Chosen One with more midiclorians than Midiclorianmart); while Kenobi kept his distance, parried and retreated from every attack, and waited to strike until he could choose the time and place. (The last, at least, sort of happened.)

Am I way off track here? Did anyone else expect Ewan-Obi to end up fighting just like Sir-Alec-Obi, and Hayder to fight like Daver? Should I believe that Obi-wan and Darth Vader were also meant to fight like kendo monkeys on crack, but Lucas didn't have the technology to inject Guinness and Prowse with that much crack? Or his latest rationalization, that cyborg-Vader just wasn't a very good swordfighter and Obi-wan was too old for that game?