Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
Think of Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back. Think of the Emperor from Return of the Jedi. I know I'm not the only person who thinks that fighting with lightsabers is just beneath them, plain and simple. Yoda is the mentor. He lifts X-Wings from the swamp and gives philsophical discussions on the Force. He prepares Luke for his battles. Palpatine is the instigator. He watches with glee from the comfort of his chair as his lackeys go at each other with colored blades. When he needs to exert his authority, he stands up and fries people with lightning bolts without so much as breaking a sweat. And when both of them are done, they simply pick up their canes and hobble away. Giving them lightsabers in the prequels weakened them so much by forcing them to fight on the same level as the main characters. It was just done as a pathetic attempt to make the prequels "more intense!!!"
EDIT: And then Revenge of the Sith added salt to the wound by having them fight each other! At least at one point, for a very short time, they did put away their lightsabers and start attacking each other with the manipulation of objects. That is how they should fight. With object manipulation, Force lightning, strangulation, and any other Force power that Lucas could have created. Instead, the only Force powers they seemed to gain were the ability to jump thousands of feet in the air and move really, really fast. Or, should I say, be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and run faster than a speeding bullet?
Think of Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back. Think of the Emperor from Return of the Jedi. I know I'm not the only person who thinks that fighting with lightsabers is just beneath them, plain and simple. Yoda is the mentor. He lifts X-Wings from the swamp and gives philsophical discussions on the Force. He prepares Luke for his battles. Palpatine is the instigator. He watches with glee from the comfort of his chair as his lackeys go at each other with colored blades. When he needs to exert his authority, he stands up and fries people with lightning bolts without so much as breaking a sweat. And when both of them are done, they simply pick up their canes and hobble away. Giving them lightsabers in the prequels weakened them so much by forcing them to fight on the same level as the main characters. It was just done as a pathetic attempt to make the prequels "more intense!!!"
EDIT: And then Revenge of the Sith added salt to the wound by having them fight each other! At least at one point, for a very short time, they did put away their lightsabers and start attacking each other with the manipulation of objects. That is how they should fight. With object manipulation, Force lightning, strangulation, and any other Force power that Lucas could have created. Instead, the only Force powers they seemed to gain were the ability to jump thousands of feet in the air and move really, really fast. Or, should I say, be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and run faster than a speeding bullet?
I agree with you there completely. Lucas totally removed any mystery to the Emperor and Yoda in the prequels. They lost all of their "badass" qualities. Darth Saruman should have never been given lightning powers. It made the sith into cookie-cutter bad guys.
As for Yoda, in Empire he said that the force should never be used to attack, only to defend. I always envisioned him as this awesome master of the force that focused solely on defense and redirecting the power of his opponents. Turning their agression back upon them so that they destroy themselves in the end. That would have been kickass. I even thought George was sort of going in that direction when Yoda was absorbing the lightning, but nope, we got a laughably unrealistic Yoda bouncing off the walls.