What's fucking wild is you could have literally ended the fight with this:
This is literally the most genuinely interesting part of the entire fight. The first couple minutes of the battle are literally the same left-right exchange between the two of them, and it's fucking weightless and shitty and so fucking boring. So much of this fight feels like them repeating the same five moves again and again and again.
But this bit has some actual fucking character. Anakin choking Obi-Wan with his metal hand, forcing Obi-Wan's own lightsaber to his face. It's sadistic, it's forceful, it's Anakin venting his bloodlust that isn't just twirling like a jackass for 15 minutes. You can build a moment around this. Like, y'know, a
movie. Anakin is so fixated on killing the person he hates, he's ignoring how this facility is coming down around him. Obi-Wan could even be trying to warn him. Or Obi-Wan's grasp of the force, not built around hatred for Anakin, enables him to save himself or just end the fight another way. Like, if not this, you would have think Anakin would vent his rage more strongly by literally pinning Obi-Wan to the ground and bashing his face in with his metal hand. Like.. that thing would fucking hurt, wouldn't it? Surely that's a more powerful image of someone venting their hatred than some fancy dance moves.
Instead, Obi-Wan just gives him a little kick in the bum and then they get back to their routine left-right-left-right--counter-spin-right-left-stagger. Well, y'know, until Obi-Wan discovers a hill, a jedi's kryptonite.
Know what movie has a fun externalized conflict of internalized ideas that plays directly into the thematic core of its characters? X-Men: First Class.
As humanity indiscriminately fires upon all the mutants on the beach, X-Men and Brotherhood alike, Magneto stops the attack, and retaliates. As Xavier tries to stop him, it is just two men scuffling on a beach, but every strike Charles lands weakens Magneto's attack. And likewise, every strike Magneto chooses to take upon Xavier only distracts him from his goal of fighting humanity. But as Moira, the sole homo sapien on the beach, tries to strike back against Magneto, Erik inadvertently ends up crippling Charles - one of his own, someone at this point he views as only a misguided brother. And as Magneto is about to exact vengeance on Moira who he blames, Charles pointedly tells Erik it wasn't her fault, but his own.
That shit is literally the fucking conflict between Magneto and Xavier made manifest as Mags wages his war on humankind. It isn't subtle, but it screams about who these characters are and what is happening with them. The theater fucking gasped when Xavier gets hit with the bullet that ultimately cripples him.
Whereas Anakin loses to Obi-Wan because... he over-estimates his vaulting ability?
