Why Lightsaber Duels Suck Now

lightsaber duels are undoubtedly one of the coolest parts of Star Wars I mean as kids we saw this and immediately begged our parents for those plastic lightsabers to reenact The Phantom Menace that is until I accidentally smacked my brother's fingers but the point is lightsaber duels have always had a special place in my heart and I'm sure you as well but sadly good lightsaber duels are hard to come by these days it's widely accepted by the community that the prequel battles are better than anything that has come after for the most part I agree with this but let's find out why why do lightsaber duels suck now before I start ripping into the sequel movies like every other Star Wars nerd I'm actually going to talk about what I liked from these fights first off the lightsaber effects look better than ever in the prequel films the light blade was added in post which is cool but ignores the most important aspect of the lightsaber the light even as a kid I always wonder why the lightsabers in those movies never actually lit anything up nowadays they actually use glowing blades during production so the actors are being lit up by the brightness of the saber in anyone who owns a lightsaber knows how bright these things are it's blindingly bright at times like you know when Rey ignites her saber in that cave to see yeah that's not how that works it's much more realistic and Obi-Wan dude is straight up blinded by a blue light when he ignites it anyways I also love the modern sound design of lightsabers different lightsabers have unique sound set [Music] I don't know I think that's pretty cool I know a lightsaber's sound design Is Not A New Concept but with more lightsabers being added to the Canon I think it provides a nice touch to the character wielding the blade and the last thing I like about the modern duels is how tired the fighters get I actually like that Rey and kylo show fatigue throughout their fights it makes it a little more realistic and rough but alright that's pretty much all the good things I have to say about the newer duels so let's get into the real reason why you're watching this video let's talk about why these new lightsaber duels belong in a trash no I don't actually think that I do think there are three main reasons why these fights suck the speed and pacing the production value of the duels and the emotional weight in the fights but first let's talk about speed humans like to go fast and we also like to watch things fast so it only makes sense that we'd favor the fast-paced fight scenes from the prequels over the sequels it makes sense canonically too I mean these duels happen during the height of the Jedi Order and include some of the most skilled Jedi in the Galaxy whereas Rey just picked up a lightsaber 30 minutes ago but it's not just about how fast they move during the duels it's the pacing of the duel itself a good fight should be like a great song it should start out small and build up to a great Crescendo with moments of Silence in between I like to compare the pacing in any fight scene to anime fights specifically what I like to call the anime leaf the anime leap is when a character goes 0-60 in 2.5 seconds actually it's like way less than that like when Tundra leaps into battle or when Naruto beats Sasuke's ass for the first time you know when the side character goes yeah the pacing from such a slow movement to such a fast one or vice versa just hits the spot and makes fight scenes way more Dynamic obviously humans can't move like anime characters I mean can you imagine Obi-Wan just like Gmail actually that looks pretty sick but it doesn't really work many live-action films achieve this speed ramp using slow motion which is also used in anime however this doesn't always work as intended and can come off as tacky I love the emotional significance of this fight but what the is this it just looks cheap and there's no reason for it being here slow motion in anime is more Justified because at least we get to hear the characters thoughts at that moment so if you can't use slow motion how do Star Wars duels achieve the anime leap effect just change how fast the characters fight in real time for example Anakin's leap to save Obi-Wan the mini monologue Grievous gives before Obi-Wan gets him or the Force battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin hell even this from Rise of Skywalker was pretty sick I'm not saying that prequel fights are all paced perfectly but somewhere throughout time it seems like the people filming these duels just lost their touch which leads me to the lack of production value I'll be honest the people making these newer duels aren't doing it right when I say their production value goes bad I'm mostly referring to how these fights are shot and edited the costuming set design and lighting are not what I'm criticizing here though honestly what the hell was that lighting during The Final Duel in Obi-Wan actually let's stay on this fight to talk about the camera was the camera operator riding a RipStik while shooting this shaky cam has never looked good in fights while we're on Obi-Wan fights let's also discuss music specifically in this show where is the iconic music during these emotional duels the prequels had some absolute bangers during their duels and I guess they just didn't want to reuse any of it like we don't care man reduce reuse recycle just give us back Duel of Fates please conversely the addition of Music can damper a duel such as this foreign but it's not the music or the shaky Cam that ruins a duel it's the cuts why for the love of God are there so many Cuts in these fights in this 22 second clip of the Dooku fight there are only nine cuts and that's mostly just them talking in between clashes compared to this 15 second clip of non-stop fighting from Rise of Skywalker with 12 cuts it basically Cuts every 1.25 seconds and it's not that it cuts a lot that bothers me well it kind of does but it's the fact that it cuts to I don't need to see like why do I need to see this angle or a close-up of just these lightsabers when watching a fight I like to see the whole thing like you wouldn't watch a real fight wearing binoculars this is just general advice for any fight scene but let the audience see the whole fight let me see the punches and the reactions in the same frame this has been a problem with American films for years now compared to foreign martial arts films which are by far much more entertaining to watch than this crap and it's also why this is so damn good good because it was made by people who know how a duel should look let's be honest though the real reason they have to fix it in post with cuts is because the actors aren't professionally trained in sword fighting I know Daisy and Adam trained for several months in preparation for their fights but it's nothing compared to the years of commitment people like Ray Park and Lauren Marie Kim put into their craft and it obviously shows in a final product even Liam Neeson stated he had experience sword fighting prior to The Phantom Menace and as for Edwin McGregor well this man can do no wrong nah but I see behind the scenes footage of Ewan training and I can see a spark of passion in his eyes that I can't find in Daisy it wins dedication both behind the scenes and in the films make people root for him it makes the audience emotionally attached to him and his fight in this movie the biggest reason why these newer lightsaber duels suck there's no emotional connection with these fights it's just two people fighting and that's it watching Rey vs kylo and Rise of Skywalker for the first time I just didn't care I don't care about Rey Finn I care call kylo a little bit but not enough to make me root for anyone compared to this a renowned Jedi Master desperately trying to bring his beloved Apprentice back to the light but eventually realizing there's nothing he can do but fight to the death to this day every time I hear Obi-Wan say I loved you my eyes well up a little hell man this premise was so good it worked twice sure the final fight in Obi-Wan had his flaws but I was still crying on the inside when this happened I understand the sequels tried to make it work with their characters but they ultimately failed no one cares about Rey no one cares that she's the chosen one no one can get behind our motivations granted not all their prequel fights are emotionally thrilling but they still had cooler characters that we could all get behind and even if a duel isn't edited properly or choreographed great the people will still love it if we have someone to genuinely root for you know what as a fun little exercise let's take our knowledge of a good lightsaber duel and analyze the best lightsaber Duel of all time Obi-Wan vs Darth Maul and The Phantom Menace if you thought it was anything else besides this there's the door this fight is the Pinnacle of lightsaber duels because it utilizes everything I've said perfectly its pacing is near perfect looking at this scene alone we can see moments of the anime leap in action the suspense of maul pacing back and forth until the moment the ratios drop and Obi-Wan explodes in the battle the saberlock leading into Maul's deadly force push from there the fight slows down with all hope seemingly lost until Obi-Wan does a literal anime leave to chop Maul in half the fight feels like an extremely fast roller coaster with huge drops sharp turns and a crazy finale at the end also look at the camera work mostly wide angle shots long tanks and minimal Cuts even when it cuts to a close-up we still understand what's happening while also getting a closer look at the character's facial expressions at all times we know what's going on in this fight it's actual Perfection not to mention lighting set design and choreography are all Flawless we all know Ray Park is a legendary swordsman in its obvious Ewan train relentlessly to keep up with his speed they got to a point where Ewan and Rey fought so fast and so precise the crew didn't think the audience would believe it's real and of course we gotta hand it to Nick Gillard for essentially inventing the lightsaber combat we all know and love today and guess what after the amazing work dealer did for episodes 2 and 3 he was not invited back to work on the sequel films by Disney coincidence I think not Gillard actually said working for lucasfilm was like family when you work on a big Studio based teacher it just isn't like that Disney really this up for us didn't they well at least this fight is perfect from the cinematography editing music oh my god I didn't even mention how perfect the music is obviously Doula Fates will be playing at my funeral but notice how most of this fight has no music letting the clashes really drive into your soul [Music] the music is reserved for significant moments like this thank you and this [Music] you know moments that really emphasize the gigantic emotional significance of this fight this duel has so much going for it story-wise before this the Jedi were chilling in a time of Peace the Sith were thought to be extinct and all disputes on the Galaxy were handled pretty well hell this whole beef with the Trade Federation probably didn't even trip anyone out over at the Jedi Temple that is until this shows up and tries to run over a kid and then he shows up again and hits these two with this the first real lightsaber duel in a thousand years then ensues the 2V1 is going all right until [Music] this right here is the reason I rewatched this fight Time After Time I can only imagine what Obi-Wan is thinking in this moment he knows he's not as strong as Qui-Gon yet the only thing on his mind is to avenge his master he's got blood in his eyes and does not hesitate to go at mall with every fiber in his being thematically it makes sense why Obi-Wan would be using anger in this fight as he's still a Padawan I just love these close-up shots of his aggressive face but Maul takes advantage of this anger to position Obi-Wan to be forced into a hole it's here that we see Obi-Wan transition from a Padawan to the master we know him as when he calms himself for his final calculated attack against Maul and it works see how the little details on the fight all line up with the overarching plot it's poetry and motion foreign that about wraps up my convoluted rant on lightsaber duels if you made it this far thank you for sticking with me I'd love to hear your thoughts on Modern lightsaber duels and also tell me what your favorite duel is I'm not going to judge if it's from the sequels as much as I complain I can honestly say I have enjoyed every lightsaber fight I've ever watched and here's to many more duels to come thank you very much for watching my video and I'll see you next time [Music] foreign

Channel: caprisanh

Views: 3,401,684

Keywords: star wars, lightsaber, duel

Id: HCph3O_BE80

Length: 12min 11sec (731 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 01 2023