A lot has been said about the prequel trilogy’s cheesy dialogue or the fact that George Lucas decided the epic fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan should boil down to one of them claiming the high ground, but thanks to a meticulously detailed drawing of the scene, Star Wars fans are now convinced that there was no other way to go about it.
Fans of the galaxy far, far away have recently unearthed a hidden internet gem over at Quora. It involves a certain scene from Revenge of the Sith that we’ve all memed to death ever since the movie’s release in 2005, where Obi-Wan “The High Ground” Kenobi finally gains an edge over his opponent and cuts off three of his limbs.
Now, if you’re the sort of exceptionally clever person to wonder how Obi-Wan managed to get both of Anakin’s legs and one of his arms in one swing, then perhaps this hilarious diagram and a slowed-down rewatch will show you exactly how that move went down.
As you can see, Obi-Wan takes two swings in a matter of milliseconds, one for slicing off Anakin’s leg and another for cutting his lightsaber hand. Of course, if you slow down the movie itself, you’ll notice that Obi-Wan cuts off Anakin’s arm first and then swings around for his legs. Barring that, the diagram above is the perfect representation of the scene, and Obi-Wan doing the dab and leaving Anakin to burn is a hundred percent canon.
I guess if we’re feeling particularly nitpicky, we could argue that there’s still no viable explanation as to why Obi-Wan didn’t just finish the job. I suppose we wouldn’t have an original trilogy then. Yet those movies came out first, so let’s just say plot convenience demanded it and leave it at that.
Hopefully, Darth Vader has learned a valuable lesson about the importance of the high ground when he soon squares off against his old master again in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
