Why Obi-Wan Changed His Lightsaber Form After Dueling Dooku - Star Wars Explained

[Music] the master of sarisu Obi-Wan Kenobi made a statement of what form 3 lightsaber combat truly meant his skill with that style is one of the things that put him on the High Council and earn him his life on more than one occasion specifically against Dooku Grievous Maul and later Vader but while his style has been broken down and analyzed many times before there are many things that not a lot of people talk about and that is the Obi-Wan didn't actually start with form 3 and didn't adopt it until around the beginning of the Clone Wars from padawan's ship into Knighthood Obi-Wan largely used lightsaber form 4 and was an ataru practitioner Having learned form 4 from the style of Qui-Gon Jinn so what we wanted to do in today's holocron my friends is go through the evolution of Kenobi's lightsaber form and talk about specifically why he switched from ataru to sarisu but before we dive in we'd like to thank the sponsor for this video kamikoto knives do you want a blade that's sharper 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smells amazing right now kamikoto is running a limited time Father's Day Sale where you could get your father something that Luke Skywalker never could and by using promo code Jedi you will receive 50 off of your order by using the link in the description down below thank you again to kamikoto for sponsoring today's video and with that let's open the holocron as a Jedi Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi learned the fourth form of lightsaber combat under his master Qui-Gon Jinn who in turn learned it from observing Dooku's master in Yoda Qui-Gon hidden an expert at the form having been drilled constantly by Dooku who was a stickler for proper blade work as a result Qui-Gon was a truly formidable Jedi even as a much older man when he was not able to perform the acrobatics of form four Qui-Gon modified his ataru style to rely more on heavy two-handed attacks followed by quick flourishes in order to cover up his blind spots as well as incorporating lots of unarmed strikes into his sequences we noticed though that Qui-Gon retains the footwork of ataru which is how he is able to move so nimbly on the battlefield despite not doing very many acrobatics in turn he would teach as Padawan the same but obviously the much younger Kenobi was able to perform the more physical aspects of form 4. we see him doing a lot of jumping split kicking on Droids twice during The Phantom Menace and he is able to flip all around Darth Maul impressively keeping up with the Sith assassins Julio we learned in the Canon novel master and Apprentice that Kenobi has an incredibly reliable blade style because Qui-Gon constantly kept Obi-Wan Drilling in the basics of the lightsaber form though Kenobi became frustrated with his master's refusal to teach him the more Advanced Techniques he soon came to appreciate the value of teaching it as it made him using the lightsaber completely effortless and thoughtless something that would help him a great deal with cerisu later because Qui-Gon also seemed to have taught Obi-Wan the nine man style of employing force attacks in his blade work both Jedi at times were able to break off from their blade sequences and seamlessly weave into Quick Force pushes it's necessary to note that this is considered Advanced for even Jedi Knights to pull off usually when in saber combat Jedi are so focused on using their saber that it takes a moment to build a proper concentration to manifest the force in a combative way even the great Anakin Skywalker would need a moment to compose himself and break off an attack however for Kenobi due to his training under Qui-Gon using the force in tandem with his lightsaber is as easy as moving but with all of that said in which all of these many advantages and the extremely impressive variant of form for the Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon used why was Obi-Wan compelled to change what made this near perfect form of ataru for a young Padawan ultimately become obsolete most might claim this happened after Maul on the world of Naboo but in actuality this was only the first part of the change on Tatooine Qui-Gon found himself tired after a brief Exchange in a lightsaber duel with Maul Obi-Wan was shocked to see just how taxed Qui-Gon Jinn was after engaging Darth Maul on Tatooine Maul was like nothing they had ever seen before and had nearly defeated Qui-Gon on the sand dunes why this is important is ataru was a form that relies on overwhelming an opponent with quick bursts of energy and aggression therefore making it unstable for much longer engagements even Grandmaster Yoda becomes tired when he cannot take out an opponent quickly and second as Obi-Wan would learn ataru requires a user to utilize the space effectively needing a large amount of room in order to operate to its highest extent Maul likely understood all of this from fighting Qui-Gon Jinn one time which is why he chose to adore the Jedi Master into the plasma Refinery a place where he found it was appropriate to end the Jedi a more isolated environment this caused Qui-Gon to tire out and unable to use the full mobility of ataru ataru not only requires a lot of physical energy but demands even more Force energy Obi-Wan would later say that this was a weakness that compounded on claiming his master's life but again Darth Maul was only what made Obi-Wan consider changing forms not the full Catalyst what solidified Obi-Wan's decision was Count Dooku and the beginning of the Clone War Obi-Wan was still using ataru in Attack of the Clones but was learning cerisu in the process so he was a bit in a transition period between forms Dooku nuataru backwards and forwards for obvious reasons an utterly dismantled Obi-Wan in a duel that lasted a humiliating 31 seconds pinpoint accurate strikes treated Obi-Wan's wild ataru blade work like it wasn't even there and he dropped the Jedi knight in two flicks of his wrist it was at this moment that Obi-Wan knew that his days of using the fourth form were over and then of course there was the Clone Wars once the War Began blast deflection essentially became the new meta for the Jedi forms like sarisu and Xi'an exploded in popularity since they were best suited for fighting against blasters Jedi would need these on the open Battlefield which was another thing that Obi-Wan observed from the Jedi orders embarrassing loss of life in the geonosian battle arena over the Clone Wars Obi-Wan would hone his skills on the battlefield environment by the end it was said that Kenobi could walk through a battlefield swarming with blasterfire and be completely unscathed in the now Legends novelization of Revenge of the Sith Dooku was so stunned by Obi-Wan's bewilderingly fast defect events that he was rendered at a complete loss for how to react but the cherry on top of it all was the Obi-Wan retained the energetic footwork of Atari allowing Kenobi to cover distance incredibly effectively and keep up with more mobile enemies we see this properly displayed in his duel on Mustafar with Anakin as well as with his multiple engagements with Dooku and Canon not to mention how well it served him against Maul and Savage but most importantly against General Grievous Not only was Kenobi able to deflect his many lightsabers but he jumped Dodge and rolled all around Grievous forcing the Droid to be constantly moving and changing his positioning to keep up thus creating openings for Kenobi to slip his defenses and take out each arm one by one so now the question remains why sirisu specifically Kenobi made the direct effort to change his forms because of what he observed and experienced at the hands of two Sith Lords he watched Qui-Gon a renowned Master of the blade get his defenses broken down and then impaled and then some years later he experienced his own defenses get effortlessly slipped by Dooku who very well could have killed him not to mention that on the Battle of Naboo blade to Blade Maul 2 defeated a young Kenobi because of this Obi-Wan sought the opposite and by definition the direct opposite of ataru its high energy and aggression is sarisu beyond this and because of his many defeats Obi-Wan choosing form 3 was the ultimate statement of humility mastering cerisu announces that Obi-Wan knows he is not and likely will never be the strongest Jedi there will always be someone more powerful more skilled and more cunning but when these enemies arise Kenobi will always face the challenge cerisu is the way of being able to outlast an opponent much stronger and that is something that Kenobi time and time again proves in his old age ironically Kenobi falls out of practice with sarisu having not kept up his drills on Tatooine but there is some thing that will never go away and always come back like muscle memory those being his drills as a Padawan in the basic lightsaber combat with Qui-Gon Jinn ironically as an old man Ben Kenobi uses Atari with Qui-Gon Jin's two-handed variant on the form we did a holocron last year about how in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series Kenobi actually utilized ataru in his final duel with Vader defeating the Sith Lord by using a style of lightsaber combat that his former Apprentice would have no knowledge of Defending against that being Qui-Gon jinn's ataru Kenobi again fools another Sith Maul this time on Tatooine by faking him out with qui-gon's form and by A New Hope Ben is old and out of practice and he is unable to stand against the strength of Vader still though at the end he uses qui-gon's ataru mixed with what he remembers and practices with sarisu but anyway my friends this is the evolution of Kenobi's lightsaber style and the real reason why he switched from ataru to Serene sue if you enjoyed this breakdown be sure to let us know in the comments down below and as always share your thoughts and insights and until next time my friends in acolytes May the force be with you [Music] foreign

Channel: The Stupendous Wave

Views: 47,847

Keywords: Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars Theory, Star Wars Explained, Revenge of the Sith, Return of the Jedi, Dark Side, Obi-Wan Lightsaber Form

Id: OwLXUpR6fAs

Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 05 2023