Gillard had very little advance notice when it came to Yoda's first duel with count Dooku, and gave no input to the way the old master fought. Yoda's fights are the most flashy and extreme, and it is noteworthy that his movements were devised entirely by animators. Jedi Master Yoda's fights in the prequels depicted him as constantly in motion, spinning and twirling around his larger opponents in a spectacle of animation that still hasn't been revisited outside fully CGI works such as The Clone Wars. The style that most prominently features superhuman acrobatics and twirls is called Form 4 by Legends material, and it is used most notably by characters that rely completely on the force. The duels between Kenobi and Vader were miniature stories, and an excellent return to the type of choreography that defined the prequels' action scenes. In Disney+'s Obi-Wan Kenobi, the style makes another appearance, once again serving to compare Obi-Wan and Anakin, this time as Darth Vader. Related: Obi-Wan Kenobi: Why the Series Doesn't Need a Season 2 Having the two characters fight side by side helped the audience see this difference, even if they didn't realize it at first. This added to the distinction between the two characters, and painted Kenobi as an archetypical Jedi character with a devotion to peace and serenity. In the prequel trilogy, Obi-Wan's focus on defense over everything else serves as a foil for the more aggressive and dominating style that Anakin used. This technique is about defense, only ever striking out in answer to an attack and maximizing the possibility of a surrender, rather than death, as the final outcome. The defensive technique employed by Obi-Wan Kenobi has been labeled as "Form 3" by the original expanded universe, and it is one of the few styles that remains consistently depicted after Disney's acquisition. This is a good example of how the expansions to the lore of the series worked with the core films, enhancing the world building that was in place with additional information that didn't clash with it. In the "legends" continuity, it was established that this technique is designed especially for fighting against other lightsabers, and this lines up with every appearance that Count Dooku has in the prequel trilogy, never once fighting anyone or anything that wasn't wielding a lightsaber. By painting his movements as deliberate and tactical, the character is portrayed as using experience and intelligence to his advantage, distracting from the limitations imposed by the actor's age. From a practical perspective, having the elderly Lee utilize a sort of minimalist style of fighting allows his character to retain a sense of capability, and even menace, when pitted against the more aggressive and kinetic styles that define the younger actors. Using a style of fighting that employs single-handed movements derived from fencing adds a sense of aristocracy to the character. Heavily inspired by fencing, and featured most prominently anytime Christopher Lee's character, Count Dooku, is on-screen. Let’s take a look at each of the seven forms as described in the “Legends” continuity, and how they each serve to enhance the characteristics of their users. While this isn’t what Gillard originally had in mind, the seven forms mesh remarkably well with the characters that they are attributed to, and can even serve as additional characterization for when the dialogue ends and the fighting begins. However, the expanded universe, now referred to as “Legends” post-Disney, expanded this idea into seven distinct forms of lightsaber combat, each one with its own techniques and philosophies. Gillard created the fight choreography in the prequels with the physicality and the personality of the characters in mind, as quoted in the Tatooine Times. The choreography of the prequels, as created by stunt coordinator Nick Gillard, has been particularly expanded upon in the franchise’s many spin-off novels, video games, and comics. This elegant weapon for a more civilized age is such an icon of the films that it has spawned mountains of merchandise, choreography competitions, and even recognized leagues among established fencing bodies, as detailed by ESPN. The Star Wars franchise, as a whole, is a setting that grew and evolved over time prior to Disney’s acquisition, and nowhere is this more true than with the classic symbol of the Jedi order: the lightsaber.
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