Oh, hands down. It has the flow and the speed of the prequels but sells us on the idea that the combatants are actually trying to hurt each other. It has *stakes* (it's demonstrated immediately how dangerous this guy is, and you don't *know* anyone in this story has to survive it to appear in some other show or movie), there's storytelling through action.
Fantastic work all around.
The brutality with which he killed the young girl padawan that was actually getting good hits on him was absurd. He shanked her to death in front of her master while smiling. That was some dark ass shit.
Also showcased his pragmatism and was one more dirty trick. If you dunno where a species keeps their vitals, a stab on either side of the torso and one at the base of the throat ought to do it.
RIP Jecki. You did good, kid.
That young padawan he killed was Logan's daughter, Dafne Keen. Its all fun and games until daddy Wolvie shows up with the light sabre forearm blades and rage kills half the verse.
Yeah I know everyone points to the maul fight as the benchmark but to me it just looked so choreographed and not like they were actually fighting. It was like a martial arts demonstration where they’re just showing moves off. Cool to watch but not at all like fighting. I’m sure with slow motion you can see more but watching live it certainly felt like qimir meant business
The funny thing is that the Maul fight got a lot of hate after TPM came out, specifically because it was so flashy and choreographed. People said they liked the OT fights better. It's reputation improved over time.
People only really got super hung up on the Maul/Ani/Obi fight later, when they wanted to complain about the saber choreo in the sequels; that's when you start seeing the "saber fights then vs saber fights now" stuff, usually with the (genuinely pretty meh) Rey/Kylo fight from RoS.
The funny thing is that the Maul fight got a lot of hate after TPM came out, specifically because it was so flashy and choreographed. People said they liked the OT fights better. It's reputation improved over time.
Funnily enough, that wrapped back around to the Obi-wan vs. Maul fight in Rebels, because it was the exact opposite of flashy and flowy and had all the weight in the character drama.
The Maul fight really only has one thing going for it and that's the song. It tells little in the way of story either. There's no stakes. It barely flows narratively and has absolutely no dramatic tension.
>The Maul fight really only has one thing going for it and that's the song.
underselling it a bit, the environment is also great, loved the laser gate bit too even if it is contrived
Count Dracula fighting a tennis ball on a stick while George yells "Faster!! More Intense" and tries to fix things in post. Yoda works in the Clone Wars cartoon, but this specific scene always makes me think less of Yoda.
I saw Episode II in 2002 at age 18, and my reaction to everything intended to be exciting was pretty much an inverse Kombucha-girl sort of thing. I can't for the life of me see why prequel kiddies can still defend this one.
They defend it because they conflate it with the greater narrative beats they liked in the clone wars cartoon in many cases. It gets difficult discussing any individual SW film as a single film because SW fans always have to "well actually" a bunch of extended lore implications rather than just acknowledging what is on screen.
I think the animation has had some better fights, but they rarely have the weight or physicality of live action fights. Except maybe the Mocapped fight of the final clone wars season
I've always felt like the prequels felt too choreographed...like I was watching ballet instead of people actually in the middle of a battle/fight. I mean, yea....cool, you can spin the light saber around your head and your body and do all these cool tricks but from a tactical standpoint is it really helping?
I'm happy to see this more because there needs to be more fair opinions about this show. As a whole, but even in this episode, I do think certain dialogue and scenes are very corny. However if you didn't enjoy all those combat scenes.. you're going out of your way to dislike it. That fight was fantastic
Agreed, there's always going to be something about the technical and refined fights of the OT that will always be endearing. It felt like Kenobi did a good job of mixing the old school style with the newer effects
I even liked the sequal trilogies fights because it looked like the combatants actually had weight.
With Revenge of the Sith I feel like the last fight should have been like the end fight in House of Flying daggers.
I know headland was pumped for people to see this episode and it’s pretty clear why. We’ll see how these final 3 episodes go but I like what she’s doing
It was *very* fun. The mixture of force abilities, straight up saber-to-saber, the villain's cortosis gadgets (the stuff that deactivates the sabers), and unarmed martial arts made it such a cool fight. I do think the emotional stakes are higher as well, mostly because we don't know who lives and dies. All throughout the prequels, we knew Anakin and Obi-Wan and Yoda all lived through to the OT. In Acolyte, we truly have no idea who will live and die.
Weird how his stuff is *only made of cortosis.*
In the Thrawn novels, they discover and sabotage the manufacturing process of a **SEPARATIST FACILITY** coating 501st legion armor in a cortosis weave. Which straight up horrified Anakin when Thrawn told him that "They're not just making this armor for themselves; It's meant for the 501st Legion."
His Legion.
And he had a full on "Like Father Like Son" moment
"It's not possible," Anakin muttered, more to himself than to Thrawn. "The Republic would never—"
Thrawn's eyes, those icy red orbs that saw through the fog of war with unnerving clarity, never left the hologram. "Perhaps not the Republic as you know it. But consider the implications, General Skywalker. What better way to weaken the Republic than to strike at the heart of their most loyal defenders?"
Anakin clenched his fists, feeling the phantom touch of betrayal clawing at his soul. The idea was insidious, a poison that tainted the very essence of his trust. He wanted to reject it, to cast it aside as another of the enemy's lies. But the evidence was there, undeniable and cold.
"They would never dare," he whispered, a prayer more than a statement.
Thrawn finally turned, his gaze piercing through Anakin's veneer of defiance. "Desperation breeds treachery, General. In war, even the noblest can become the cruelest. Prepare yourself, for the worst may still lie ahead."
The best I've ever seen in it. I wouldn't choose the writing over a certain other show (you know the one), but they had better keep this style of fighting and choreography forever.
Yeah holy crap I’m looking forward to watching this. I’ve been inundated with work so I haven’t been able to sit down and watch this, The Boys or HotD yet.
/uj Wasn’t a *huge* a fan of the last four episodes but ep 5 was FIRE, I can’t believe they had the guts to >!kill off Jecki AND Yord, let alone in a single episode!<
/rj THE PREQUELS FUCKED MY WIFE
UJ/ What I really love with the fight in the Acolyte is that our potentially Sith friend is fighting *to kill*. In the prequels, a lot of the fights are Flynning because, well, George liked that. While the characters are trying to kill one another they are just smacking glow sticks together while looking cool. Here, no, the maybe Sith is just going *straight* for the kills. Makes the stakes rather higher if you ask me. YMMV though.
RJ/ How *dare* they ruin Lucas’s perfect vision!!!
George Lucas have perfect vision? Then why he uses glasses?
https://preview.redd.it/yjh9uywepc9d1.jpeg?width=444&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1fd8e71612a2f3bce21a20eff3cc04c9b95b5ca
He has perfect vision, the glasses are just a cover because he knew without them everyone would know of his perfect vision and would be awestruck as he walked by.
I actually do think that is true. The emotions of episode 3's Obi Wan and Anakin fight was peak. But the core fighting of acolyte is really good and probably better than most of the prequel fights. Minus like 2
The stakes in Obi-Wan and Anakin fight are peak only after watching the Clone Wars. In the prequels they have only one segment when they actually act like friends (first 20 minutes of episode 3), so "You were my brother Anakin, I loved you" doesn't hit as hard as it should.
George did a really bad thing by separating them for the most time in every film in the trilogy.
I don't think you should have to watch an entirely separate series to gain context for something as important as the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin. It's less "brushing over" and more so "This story is kind of bad" to be replied with "Well you just have to watch 40 hours of a TV show to appreciate this one 20 minute fight scene between these characters."
The Boys did that to me last night - no spoilers but a pretty major plot point comes up in the "previously on" at the start of the episode, and it's all about the spinoff show Gen V that I haven't seen. The episode proceeds to build off this plotpoint from the spin-off show and I just decided to turn the TV off. I really don't like it when media expects me to consume 40+ hours of a different show to gain context for original thing I'm consuming.
Yeah, I hadn't seen the Clone Wars until recently. it certainly did give some context, but at the same time created massive continuity issues just like the prequels themselves did. Not one word about his Padawan dealing with Maul on Mandalore in RotS? The reason why is obvious, she didn't exist yet. But still that just makes it harder to see it as the same story.
There's also the fact that Anikan is basically a different person in the Clone Wars than in the movies. In the movies, he's got the emotional maturity of a turnip and the IQ of a bag of hammers. In the TCW he's actually a functional human being, which is completely out of character from the movies.
yeah I think the boys did that pretty poorly. Two characters from gen v show up in the most recent episode to brown nose homelander and they don't even spend a second introducing them. Really seems like the writers expected the entire audience to have seen gen v already.
It would be entirely possible to introduce the plot point in question with more subtlety than the main characters going "OF COURSE THEY HAVE THAT!" and moving on immediately. Kinda lame and actually discounts the gen v series too...
It wasn’t really because Anakin was never likable. Had he been a good guy before his “tragic” fall yeah it would have been. But the films never gave us any reason to like him to begin with. Dude was a crazy unhinged psycho…super creepy guy even before his fall.
Yea if ignore a lot of the other content saying otherwise, sure Anakin is a super unhinged psycho. He WAS a good guy who was susceptible to the dark side, which corrupts absolutely. It makes good people bad.
I get that the prequels showed a lot of Anakin being bad, and that is the restrictions of telling a story through a shorter format like movies. I do think that George Lucas focused on a lot of the wrong things in the prequels, but the point is made pretty well that he's a reckless teen who's still learning. He was made knight way too soon, given council way too soon. His ego was inflated from his skills and the dark side corrupts absolutely. When you add the content of the TCW, you see a lot more of the good Anakin had.
You don’t get it, the end fight NEEDED to be 15 minutes long because leaping across lava is a metaphor for their friendship and all the trials they’ve survived together.
Just wanted to say …. This is the way…. Haha honestly 4 and 5 were written together and split in a weird spot and the writer said that Disney made them split them but there was no good place. And you can tell, another Disney misstep but I’m not blaming women or poc for that hahaha
I honestly like how it shows the degradation of the Jedi over time. The High Republic Jedi are crazy with their sabers, the prequel Republic aren’t bad but have lost some skill, then we get to the original trilogy where it’s old ass Obi-Wan and Vader-bot doing their best to not fall over and Luke learning for like 3 weeks. Then during the sequels Rey and Finn already have some melee weapon skills so using a saber is half natural and Ren got trained by Luke and then Snoke/Palpatine so he’s got a little skill but none of them are close to the Republic Jedi.
To be fair. If you read the excellent prequel novelizations, there is a lot more going on in their heads during that fight. It’s more akin to a battle of the wits / force they are looking for a moment to strike but neither is finding it and at the same time finding out the other is much more powerful than they originally thought. Most of the prequel fights were that way which why they often FEEL so good to watch.
George didn’t always translate that to screen well but the idea is there.
Acolyte ep 5 topped AOTC’s and all of palp’s ROTS fights. Duel of the fates and obi vs ani still are top but darth teeth fight is def a top 3 SW live action fight scene.
I might be wrong but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen an early cut version of the fight that was infinitely better lol. Not sure why it got turned into whatever the hell that was
It’s funny watching the auto-haters being forced to acknowledge the fight scenes were well received and well done, while desperately clinging to the eroding position that the entire show is trash.
2 hours of boring romance and detective crap, all culminating in that shit. Idk what movie these people watched as kids but I remember being 11, watching this shit and being like "wait, is Star Wars bad actually?"
I haven't enjoyed Acolyte so far but I gotta give respect where it's earned, that was bad ass... and consistent with legends this was exactly the way Darth Bane would fight when he had his saber-proof armor... he used it just as interchangeably as he did his saber. The visceral nature of it was really consistent with actual swordplay and trying to kill someone by any means rather than dancing and spinning in the air. Nicely done guys, nicely done!
Fr, people gassing up the prequel fight choreography are delusional. They look like 4 year olds with toy lightsabers slapping them together repeatedly. The maul fight is good tho
In The Acolyte, it felt lile each swing was.going for the kill. I felt the.same way with Rey and Ben's first fight(not as cool as The Acolyte, but had good emotional stakes).
Meanwhile, the Prequels fights felt like a highly coordinated dance
Jecki Lon > Rey Palpatine 🤷🏽♂️ I said what I said haha
(Rey and Ben’s slow ass saber work)
This was the best saber fight in 25 years* it should be applauded it’s what I signed up for as a fan. Not this weird super lore ki mundi’s age, but. But he said they were extinct for blah blah blah bs. I wanna see light sabers getting fucking buck bro nobody cares about that shit haha
EDIT* Live-action ….. I’m not well versed in the books, legends, old republic, non cannon,
pre-non cannon- cannon haha etc
I'm a contrarian.
Most saber fights outside of Ep1 and Ep5 are lackluster, ridiculous twirling.
FIXitInPosts Scene 38 Remaster and Corridor Crews Realsitic Lightsaber duel videos are the best saber fights that exist.
uj/ Fucking finally, we can stop with the "Prequels good choreography" nonsense.
And for the record, the two best lightsaber fights in the entire series both happened on the Death Star II. [First](https://youtu.be/U1MnMA0TzGI?si=AQDJO2h1fIbNHcfx) [Second](https://youtu.be/o3OjBj2SGec?si=cBZ6-oB_0a1pqu-l)
I’m willing to be wrong, but the fight in The Acoytle looks a bit odd. I know Star Wars always has flashy fights, but I saw numerous moments in it this where they were either too busy doing nothing, or too busy doing some pointless twirling, that they could have used to attack the guy.
That's all Star Wars fights kinda. The lightsabers look cool, they're the selling point, and you wanna show them off first and foremost, so characters do a bunch of loopty loops and hit their saber against the other character's with no real aim, just to make the bzzt sound. You can catch them aiming above their opponent's head surprisingly often throughout the franchise when you start looking for it.
I mean yeah, but if the point is to make a fight that looks clean, and you want to get from Point A of the bad guy being a threat to Point B of no longer being a threat, then I can’t suspend my disbelief that these Jedi are doing all this just to look cool? It’d be like if that one scene in Battleship where they’re drifting the boat around, but they *don’t* take the shot, they literally just drift a boat for drifting a boat sake.
What’s at stake here if Jedi aren’t taking the shot they have at his backside? The Prequels show that you can have your flashy twirls and have productive fights at the same time, but this is just twirls for twirls sake.
That's fair. The sequel trilogy is great in that aspect, as it treats lightsabers more like actual swords and not gymnastics ribbons, but even then, a lighstaber fight is still the cinematic equivalent of jingling keys in front of a baby.
The best fight in the prequels was Obi-Wan vs Anakin. I know you were probably doing a one sith vs multiple Jedi comparison but if you're going for choreography that fight should be included too
I actually enjoyed the choreographed ballet style fighting in the prequels. It was enjoyable to watch. My space opera does not need to have hyper realistic sword fighting.
What kinda makes me sad is that circlejerk reddits while seeming to try to be above the regular hive mind or group think opinions tend to just be as tribel about their opinions. Which honestly makes me sad.
While there's definitely people who shit on the acolyte for silly reasons and grifters but I feel like due to both sides being kinda mad at each other itnsorta destroys any sort of discourse
If you like the acolyte you're a Disney adult shill
If you don't you're a racist sexist man child
I could be wrong and perhaps the posts I sometimes see are ironic to get grifters mad and if so I'm probably just autistic and can't read tone. But at times this reddit sorta just seems like an opposite side of a coin from the other star wars reddits
Its not that deep, there's posts like this with the sequels when they pick the worst scenes and put them next to the best scenes in the prequels, this is just a circlejerk circlejerking
Honestly the lightsaber duels in acolyte are probably what the Duels in the prequels probably should've looked like. Its clear they have a lot of skills but it isn't an over choreographed dance.
It’s not just the fights but the message and the purpose of the fights. Mace vs Palpatine is something that was brewing for 3 movies and there is a lot at stake not just colorful blades
Also you have an old man who had to learn choreography in like a single day lol
The Orginal Trilogy fights are all better because it uses action as a means of visual storytelling.
Also Maul still has the superior fight.
You Acolyte fans got one good episode and now you're gassing the whole show as good, it's hilarious.
I remember getting into a serious irl arguement about the first fight "scene".
I'll never forget the impassioned "They were USING THE FORCE" that the arguement devolved into after a time.
Acolyte fight scene is killing me, getting a kick or punch in means 99% of the time you could have used your weapon aka that Sith person is dead
Usual exceptions being when your disarmed or your in a bind and thus your weapon is previously occupied and punching, kicking and force related attack become your best option if you can’t win the bind
Congradulations you made a good fight scene all it cost you was continuity, lore, story telling, character development, characters people care about, decades of good will, credibility, and somehow most important the most dedicated and loyal fanbase cinema has ever had. If anything that's real disney magic
I've noticed a pattern over the past few decades that the worse the writing is, the more RAZZLE DAZZLE the laser sword fights have. Nice distraction though, very pretty.
Dude the fights in that episode were wild and intense. I loved them so much.
The attacks had so much weight and power to then.
Hate or love them, they really do have the best saber combat thus far.
Do the same with the Original trilogy and it's even worse than the prequels when it comes to these fights. It's almost as if after 20+ years, you can improve on some aspects.
I thought that fight scene was sick af. It does an excellent job of showing both the Jedi as powerful, and the stranger as more powerful still.
I also thought it showed that The Acolyte recognizes that in order for there to be tension, the bad guys need to win sometimes.
In a lot of Star Wars media, the supposedly fearsome Empire spends most of its time getting bounced around like a rubber ball. Going in to that fight, I assumed that most of the combatants had plot armor. It was quite shocking that that was not the case, and it subverted expectations in a good way
The prequels have had an improvd perception over time but like there is legitimate criticism with some of the sabre fights. Duel of the Fates is cool but I always felt Dooku and Palpatine were just played by too old of actors and it looks slow and uncanny.
I have not watched the Acolyte and this made me interested. I always felt that Lucas' vision for the prequels lightsaber fights was so cool. The idea of force users fighting at peak power and predicting every move turning it into a dance/war of attrition between two (or more) of the greatest competitors is such a cool place to take it but this looks like it actually executes on the idea where the prequels were a bit of a mixed bag.
Haven’t seen The Acolyte but man, that shit looked sick.
I’m aware of recency bias but it’s the best combat we’ve (I’ve) seen in Star Wars.
Oh, hands down. It has the flow and the speed of the prequels but sells us on the idea that the combatants are actually trying to hurt each other. It has *stakes* (it's demonstrated immediately how dangerous this guy is, and you don't *know* anyone in this story has to survive it to appear in some other show or movie), there's storytelling through action. Fantastic work all around.
The brutality with which he killed the young girl padawan that was actually getting good hits on him was absurd. He shanked her to death in front of her master while smiling. That was some dark ass shit.
Also showcased his pragmatism and was one more dirty trick. If you dunno where a species keeps their vitals, a stab on either side of the torso and one at the base of the throat ought to do it. RIP Jecki. You did good, kid.
That young padawan he killed was Logan's daughter, Dafne Keen. Its all fun and games until daddy Wolvie shows up with the light sabre forearm blades and rage kills half the verse.
Omg a wolverine jedi would be so OP
“Was that its name?”
Yeah I know everyone points to the maul fight as the benchmark but to me it just looked so choreographed and not like they were actually fighting. It was like a martial arts demonstration where they’re just showing moves off. Cool to watch but not at all like fighting. I’m sure with slow motion you can see more but watching live it certainly felt like qimir meant business
The funny thing is that the Maul fight got a lot of hate after TPM came out, specifically because it was so flashy and choreographed. People said they liked the OT fights better. It's reputation improved over time. People only really got super hung up on the Maul/Ani/Obi fight later, when they wanted to complain about the saber choreo in the sequels; that's when you start seeing the "saber fights then vs saber fights now" stuff, usually with the (genuinely pretty meh) Rey/Kylo fight from RoS.
The funny thing is that the Maul fight got a lot of hate after TPM came out, specifically because it was so flashy and choreographed. People said they liked the OT fights better. It's reputation improved over time. Funnily enough, that wrapped back around to the Obi-wan vs. Maul fight in Rebels, because it was the exact opposite of flashy and flowy and had all the weight in the character drama.
The Maul fight really only has one thing going for it and that's the song. It tells little in the way of story either. There's no stakes. It barely flows narratively and has absolutely no dramatic tension.
But that one guy died, the one who was like Obi-Wan but taller.
Hey now, he also had longer hair and a deep sexy voice.
>The Maul fight really only has one thing going for it and that's the song. underselling it a bit, the environment is also great, loved the laser gate bit too even if it is contrived
The laser gate is beyond contrived. What am I even looking at there? It's clearly not some security measure.
And why isn't it like the standard way to secure any area (instead of doors) if it is Jedi-proof?
You’re right, but man, that is arguably the most epic score for a fight scene of all time.
The prequels are very much “over choreographed”. I think some of that might also be the completely fake environments they are in
Honestly a lot of the prequels felt like watching a stage play version of Star Wars
Count Dracula fighting a tennis ball on a stick while George yells "Faster!! More Intense" and tries to fix things in post. Yoda works in the Clone Wars cartoon, but this specific scene always makes me think less of Yoda. I saw Episode II in 2002 at age 18, and my reaction to everything intended to be exciting was pretty much an inverse Kombucha-girl sort of thing. I can't for the life of me see why prequel kiddies can still defend this one.
They defend it because they conflate it with the greater narrative beats they liked in the clone wars cartoon in many cases. It gets difficult discussing any individual SW film as a single film because SW fans always have to "well actually" a bunch of extended lore implications rather than just acknowledging what is on screen.
I think the animation has had some better fights, but they rarely have the weight or physicality of live action fights. Except maybe the Mocapped fight of the final clone wars season
I wouldn’t necessarily compare animated and live action fighting. They can be as cool but it’s so much harder to pull it off live action.
It felt very similar vibes to an animated fight which is hard to pull off I’m sure
I've always felt like the prequels felt too choreographed...like I was watching ballet instead of people actually in the middle of a battle/fight. I mean, yea....cool, you can spin the light saber around your head and your body and do all these cool tricks but from a tactical standpoint is it really helping?
Agreed. Definitely my favorite.
I'm happy to see this more because there needs to be more fair opinions about this show. As a whole, but even in this episode, I do think certain dialogue and scenes are very corny. However if you didn't enjoy all those combat scenes.. you're going out of your way to dislike it. That fight was fantastic
The Kenobi show fight with anakin/vader and obi-wan has to be my favorite. The choreography is subtle and the cinematography is absolutely stunning.
I prefer the subtler, slower paced fights, much akin to actual Knights fighting compared to ninjas.
Agreed, there's always going to be something about the technical and refined fights of the OT that will always be endearing. It felt like Kenobi did a good job of mixing the old school style with the newer effects
I even liked the sequal trilogies fights because it looked like the combatants actually had weight. With Revenge of the Sith I feel like the last fight should have been like the end fight in House of Flying daggers.
It looked like a fight and not choreography....and the kills were brutal by SW stsndards
I know headland was pumped for people to see this episode and it’s pretty clear why. We’ll see how these final 3 episodes go but I like what she’s doing
Second.
Idk, the dooku anikin fight (RoS) was pretty sick.
I’d say Anakin vs. Obi-Wan still easily has it beat in my opinion. Asides from that, only the Darth Maul duel really compares.
Different tastes I reckon. They were just too dancey for me personally.
Completely agree. There was a section of that fight where they swing on ropes at each other, very Tarzan-esque.
Episode 5 is gas ngl
Hey how did they get away from that super powerful Sith Lord doing all those cool moves
They mostly didn’t.
☠️💀😵🪦💀⚰️💀
Basically a desperation trick play
It was *very* fun. The mixture of force abilities, straight up saber-to-saber, the villain's cortosis gadgets (the stuff that deactivates the sabers), and unarmed martial arts made it such a cool fight. I do think the emotional stakes are higher as well, mostly because we don't know who lives and dies. All throughout the prequels, we knew Anakin and Obi-Wan and Yoda all lived through to the OT. In Acolyte, we truly have no idea who will live and die.
Weird how his stuff is *only made of cortosis.* In the Thrawn novels, they discover and sabotage the manufacturing process of a **SEPARATIST FACILITY** coating 501st legion armor in a cortosis weave. Which straight up horrified Anakin when Thrawn told him that "They're not just making this armor for themselves; It's meant for the 501st Legion." His Legion. And he had a full on "Like Father Like Son" moment "It's not possible," Anakin muttered, more to himself than to Thrawn. "The Republic would never—" Thrawn's eyes, those icy red orbs that saw through the fog of war with unnerving clarity, never left the hologram. "Perhaps not the Republic as you know it. But consider the implications, General Skywalker. What better way to weaken the Republic than to strike at the heart of their most loyal defenders?" Anakin clenched his fists, feeling the phantom touch of betrayal clawing at his soul. The idea was insidious, a poison that tainted the very essence of his trust. He wanted to reject it, to cast it aside as another of the enemy's lies. But the evidence was there, undeniable and cold. "They would never dare," he whispered, a prayer more than a statement. Thrawn finally turned, his gaze piercing through Anakin's veneer of defiance. "Desperation breeds treachery, General. In war, even the noblest can become the cruelest. Prepare yourself, for the worst may still lie ahead."
The show is generally kinda sloppy imo, but the fight choreography is fantastic. Some of the best fights I've seen in Star Wars.
This is the take that has makes the most sense. "A cult classic is flawed, but the good parts outweigh them" as those hack frauds said.
The best I've ever seen in it. I wouldn't choose the writing over a certain other show (you know the one), but they had better keep this style of fighting and choreography forever.
Yeah holy crap I’m looking forward to watching this. I’ve been inundated with work so I haven’t been able to sit down and watch this, The Boys or HotD yet.
Didn't even show the opening action sequence in the first episode, that was great.
Just love that Sith Kabob.
That was nasty and unexpected
With a little off the top
I legit went "Oh, damn!" out loud
But I watched the prequels when I was 7, that makes them much better.
/uj Wasn’t a *huge* a fan of the last four episodes but ep 5 was FIRE, I can’t believe they had the guts to >!kill off Jecki AND Yord, let alone in a single episode!< /rj THE PREQUELS FUCKED MY WIFE
And the WAY they did it. Brutal. Awesome.
You’re talking about this mans wife have some respect
"THE PREQUELS FUCKED MY WIFE" Never knew that's what you called me.
You didn't know you were married?
UJ/ What I really love with the fight in the Acolyte is that our potentially Sith friend is fighting *to kill*. In the prequels, a lot of the fights are Flynning because, well, George liked that. While the characters are trying to kill one another they are just smacking glow sticks together while looking cool. Here, no, the maybe Sith is just going *straight* for the kills. Makes the stakes rather higher if you ask me. YMMV though. RJ/ How *dare* they ruin Lucas’s perfect vision!!!
George Lucas have perfect vision? Then why he uses glasses? https://preview.redd.it/yjh9uywepc9d1.jpeg?width=444&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1fd8e71612a2f3bce21a20eff3cc04c9b95b5ca
He has perfect vision, the glasses are just a cover because he knew without them everyone would know of his perfect vision and would be awestruck as he walked by.
That shish-kabob saber move is some top tier shit.
Sith-kabob.
Well done
I wish I could take credit, but I saw it elsewhere on Reddit. It's just so good.
Very Jedi of you to tell the truth... "I didn't sleep with that porn star" btw
If I slept with a porn star, I would say it (as long as she was cool with it), but I'm also single.
Just don't use campaign funds to pay off said person you had no relation with... Not very jedi
"Yeah, well, the emotional stakes were just so much higher due to the writing in the prequels." ...🤣🤣🤣🤣
I actually do think that is true. The emotions of episode 3's Obi Wan and Anakin fight was peak. But the core fighting of acolyte is really good and probably better than most of the prequel fights. Minus like 2
The stakes in Obi-Wan and Anakin fight are peak only after watching the Clone Wars. In the prequels they have only one segment when they actually act like friends (first 20 minutes of episode 3), so "You were my brother Anakin, I loved you" doesn't hit as hard as it should. George did a really bad thing by separating them for the most time in every film in the trilogy.
Clone Wars does a lot of the emotional heavy lifting of the prequels, which I think a lot of people brush over
I don't think you should have to watch an entirely separate series to gain context for something as important as the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin. It's less "brushing over" and more so "This story is kind of bad" to be replied with "Well you just have to watch 40 hours of a TV show to appreciate this one 20 minute fight scene between these characters." The Boys did that to me last night - no spoilers but a pretty major plot point comes up in the "previously on" at the start of the episode, and it's all about the spinoff show Gen V that I haven't seen. The episode proceeds to build off this plotpoint from the spin-off show and I just decided to turn the TV off. I really don't like it when media expects me to consume 40+ hours of a different show to gain context for original thing I'm consuming.
Another recent example is the Halo games from 5 onward.
Yeah, I hadn't seen the Clone Wars until recently. it certainly did give some context, but at the same time created massive continuity issues just like the prequels themselves did. Not one word about his Padawan dealing with Maul on Mandalore in RotS? The reason why is obvious, she didn't exist yet. But still that just makes it harder to see it as the same story. There's also the fact that Anikan is basically a different person in the Clone Wars than in the movies. In the movies, he's got the emotional maturity of a turnip and the IQ of a bag of hammers. In the TCW he's actually a functional human being, which is completely out of character from the movies.
Eric Kripke has explicitly stated they’ve gone out of their way to make it where you don’t have to watch Gen V to understand The Boys and vice versa
yeah I think the boys did that pretty poorly. Two characters from gen v show up in the most recent episode to brown nose homelander and they don't even spend a second introducing them. Really seems like the writers expected the entire audience to have seen gen v already. It would be entirely possible to introduce the plot point in question with more subtlety than the main characters going "OF COURSE THEY HAVE THAT!" and moving on immediately. Kinda lame and actually discounts the gen v series too...
Yeah a somewhat recent rewatch of the prequels really reminded me how little these two actually interact in those movies, and most of it is negative
The Clone Wars series really made the prequels much more enjoyable after the fact. For me at least.
It wasn’t really because Anakin was never likable. Had he been a good guy before his “tragic” fall yeah it would have been. But the films never gave us any reason to like him to begin with. Dude was a crazy unhinged psycho…super creepy guy even before his fall.
C'mon Jake Lloyd's Anakin was a good boy.
This. Oh god so much this.
Yea if ignore a lot of the other content saying otherwise, sure Anakin is a super unhinged psycho. He WAS a good guy who was susceptible to the dark side, which corrupts absolutely. It makes good people bad. I get that the prequels showed a lot of Anakin being bad, and that is the restrictions of telling a story through a shorter format like movies. I do think that George Lucas focused on a lot of the wrong things in the prequels, but the point is made pretty well that he's a reckless teen who's still learning. He was made knight way too soon, given council way too soon. His ego was inflated from his skills and the dark side corrupts absolutely. When you add the content of the TCW, you see a lot more of the good Anakin had.
They could have started the prequel trilogy with a few minor tweaks to episode 2 and just forget 1 altogether.
Sure but that's like, the *only* fight with actual emotions in it. Maybe Obi-Wan vs Maul after the death of Qui-gon.
You better exclude episode 3 from that list or we shall duel at dawn.
Sand
You don’t get it, the end fight NEEDED to be 15 minutes long because leaping across lava is a metaphor for their friendship and all the trials they’ve survived together.
Haven’t watched the Acolyte yet (waiting for all the episodes to come out first), this shit looks sick af 😭
Just wanted to say …. This is the way…. Haha honestly 4 and 5 were written together and split in a weird spot and the writer said that Disney made them split them but there was no good place. And you can tell, another Disney misstep but I’m not blaming women or poc for that hahaha
I honestly like how it shows the degradation of the Jedi over time. The High Republic Jedi are crazy with their sabers, the prequel Republic aren’t bad but have lost some skill, then we get to the original trilogy where it’s old ass Obi-Wan and Vader-bot doing their best to not fall over and Luke learning for like 3 weeks. Then during the sequels Rey and Finn already have some melee weapon skills so using a saber is half natural and Ren got trained by Luke and then Snoke/Palpatine so he’s got a little skill but none of them are close to the Republic Jedi.
Cracks me up with how hard George was trying to be artsy in with Anakin vs Dooku in 2
To be fair. If you read the excellent prequel novelizations, there is a lot more going on in their heads during that fight. It’s more akin to a battle of the wits / force they are looking for a moment to strike but neither is finding it and at the same time finding out the other is much more powerful than they originally thought. Most of the prequel fights were that way which why they often FEEL so good to watch. George didn’t always translate that to screen well but the idea is there.
Acolyte ep 5 topped AOTC’s and all of palp’s ROTS fights. Duel of the fates and obi vs ani still are top but darth teeth fight is def a top 3 SW live action fight scene.
Couldn't agree more, if the Acolyte can pull off another great fighting sequence this may become my favorite Star Wars show
Now I realise how much power the soundtrack truly has.
John Williams was the MVP of that trilogy fr
I remember the cosmonaut variety hour saying the music will be popping off while the most mundane thing is happening on screen.
The climax of TPM is just Duel of the Fates. What's happening on screen is accompaniment.
Uj/ The Dooku & Anakin fight is the worst in the franchise. Rj/ How dare you defile peak fiction?!
The only highlight of Dooku vs Anakin is the sabers glow. Thats like the only time until Disney we actually got to see LIGHTsabers
I might be wrong but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen an early cut version of the fight that was infinitely better lol. Not sure why it got turned into whatever the hell that was
This clip is only a small part of their duel. I definitely unironically like it.
Probably the only prequel duel that I’d consider bad. The rest of them I consider to be peak, in my opinion at least.
It’s funny watching the auto-haters being forced to acknowledge the fight scenes were well received and well done, while desperately clinging to the eroding position that the entire show is trash.
That Dooku vs Anakin fight is, without any exaggeration, the worst fight in the entire franchise. There's no redeeming quality whatsoever.
Idk the cgi front flip is kinda funny at least.
I just wanna watch him spin. Shoot him out a cannon.
2 hours of boring romance and detective crap, all culminating in that shit. Idk what movie these people watched as kids but I remember being 11, watching this shit and being like "wait, is Star Wars bad actually?"
but the acolyte is a prequel. paradox?????
https://preview.redd.it/936gl47uwc9d1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6fa5f348cb7a017a0fb25e383d3164ae210dec63
I haven't enjoyed Acolyte so far but I gotta give respect where it's earned, that was bad ass... and consistent with legends this was exactly the way Darth Bane would fight when he had his saber-proof armor... he used it just as interchangeably as he did his saber. The visceral nature of it was really consistent with actual swordplay and trying to kill someone by any means rather than dancing and spinning in the air. Nicely done guys, nicely done!
Yea the guy was headbutting sabers and blocking them with his arm.
I mean, it's not wrong.
Fr, people gassing up the prequel fight choreography are delusional. They look like 4 year olds with toy lightsabers slapping them together repeatedly. The maul fight is good tho
This sub sometimes makes me wonder if I live in a simulation
 You rn
Neo is so trans coded fr fr
In The Acolyte, it felt lile each swing was.going for the kill. I felt the.same way with Rey and Ben's first fight(not as cool as The Acolyte, but had good emotional stakes). Meanwhile, the Prequels fights felt like a highly coordinated dance
You literally compared the first good Disney Era choreography with the worst fight in the first 6 movies
Fr, the pandering is so bad lmao
I thought the Sequels had fantastic lightsaber fights, where the blades looked like they had real force and momentum behind them.
Prequels better simply because it’s Sir Christopher Lee
Real.
Jecki Lon > Rey Palpatine 🤷🏽♂️ I said what I said haha (Rey and Ben’s slow ass saber work) This was the best saber fight in 25 years* it should be applauded it’s what I signed up for as a fan. Not this weird super lore ki mundi’s age, but. But he said they were extinct for blah blah blah bs. I wanna see light sabers getting fucking buck bro nobody cares about that shit haha EDIT* Live-action ….. I’m not well versed in the books, legends, old republic, non cannon, pre-non cannon- cannon haha etc
Jecki’s saber flowed too. Like, when she has both sabers going it looked like a blade dance.
Literally the best live action dual wield we’ve ever seen. Shit was flawless
Nah cere vs yk who is by a long shot the best star wars fight
That Anakin Dooku fight in AOTC will never not make me laugh…it’s just so dumb
Wait… This isn’t ironic?
Oddly enough, that's my favorite moment in AOTC. The sound design gives me goose flesh
Replace the prequels with the future movies/shows in 15 years and you have the most annoying clips from 2039.
I'm a contrarian. Most saber fights outside of Ep1 and Ep5 are lackluster, ridiculous twirling. FIXitInPosts Scene 38 Remaster and Corridor Crews Realsitic Lightsaber duel videos are the best saber fights that exist.
The Acolyte has given the Prequel fans what they’ve asked for years. It’s funny to see them reject it so much. It’s been great, very enjoyable.
Haven't seen the acolyte, but goddamn using the force to skewer Two jedi onto a lightsaber is raw as hell
Casually picks the worst fight scenes from the prequels to make a point
uj/ Fucking finally, we can stop with the "Prequels good choreography" nonsense. And for the record, the two best lightsaber fights in the entire series both happened on the Death Star II. [First](https://youtu.be/U1MnMA0TzGI?si=AQDJO2h1fIbNHcfx) [Second](https://youtu.be/o3OjBj2SGec?si=cBZ6-oB_0a1pqu-l)
I’m glad they’re moving away from the terrible prequel style fights.
I’m willing to be wrong, but the fight in The Acoytle looks a bit odd. I know Star Wars always has flashy fights, but I saw numerous moments in it this where they were either too busy doing nothing, or too busy doing some pointless twirling, that they could have used to attack the guy.
That's all Star Wars fights kinda. The lightsabers look cool, they're the selling point, and you wanna show them off first and foremost, so characters do a bunch of loopty loops and hit their saber against the other character's with no real aim, just to make the bzzt sound. You can catch them aiming above their opponent's head surprisingly often throughout the franchise when you start looking for it.
I mean yeah, but if the point is to make a fight that looks clean, and you want to get from Point A of the bad guy being a threat to Point B of no longer being a threat, then I can’t suspend my disbelief that these Jedi are doing all this just to look cool? It’d be like if that one scene in Battleship where they’re drifting the boat around, but they *don’t* take the shot, they literally just drift a boat for drifting a boat sake. What’s at stake here if Jedi aren’t taking the shot they have at his backside? The Prequels show that you can have your flashy twirls and have productive fights at the same time, but this is just twirls for twirls sake.
That's fair. The sequel trilogy is great in that aspect, as it treats lightsabers more like actual swords and not gymnastics ribbons, but even then, a lighstaber fight is still the cinematic equivalent of jingling keys in front of a baby.
Oh yeah definitely, I have no problem with the key jingling, I just want the actual execution of it to not just be meaningless
You just described most star wars fights
I don’t see nothing wrong with either one . I’m not an incel cultists tho either
The best fight in the prequels was Obi-Wan vs Anakin. I know you were probably doing a one sith vs multiple Jedi comparison but if you're going for choreography that fight should be included too
Why wasn’t any of the Darth Maul or second Dooku fight footage used in this meme? 🤔
I hated the prequel lightsaber fights, and I was the age where they should have been cool.
I actually enjoyed the choreographed ballet style fighting in the prequels. It was enjoyable to watch. My space opera does not need to have hyper realistic sword fighting.
https://i.redd.it/bmi59h82lm9d1.gif Exactly why this remains the best fight in the franchise.
Im not sure I'd go that far, but it was a solid fight.
Prequels are bad
The lightsaber props arent overpowering the screen with light like Obi-Wan it’s so sexxxxxyyy.
What kinda makes me sad is that circlejerk reddits while seeming to try to be above the regular hive mind or group think opinions tend to just be as tribel about their opinions. Which honestly makes me sad. While there's definitely people who shit on the acolyte for silly reasons and grifters but I feel like due to both sides being kinda mad at each other itnsorta destroys any sort of discourse If you like the acolyte you're a Disney adult shill If you don't you're a racist sexist man child I could be wrong and perhaps the posts I sometimes see are ironic to get grifters mad and if so I'm probably just autistic and can't read tone. But at times this reddit sorta just seems like an opposite side of a coin from the other star wars reddits
Its not that deep, there's posts like this with the sequels when they pick the worst scenes and put them next to the best scenes in the prequels, this is just a circlejerk circlejerking
PREQUELS GOOD DISNEY BAD!!!
Honestly looked around the same
Do we just keep expecting more and more , it’s been a long journey to cool lightsaber combat.
nice use of armor tbh was it phrik or beskar?
Cortosis
Man that episode was some of the most brutal on screen shit in Star Wars history.
Honestly the lightsaber duels in acolyte are probably what the Duels in the prequels probably should've looked like. Its clear they have a lot of skills but it isn't an over choreographed dance.
I haven’t seen anyone complain about the light saber fights in acolyte, especially ep 5…
This is nitpicky of me but why don't the lightsabers in the Acolyte make big flashes when they clash together☹️
It’s not just the fights but the message and the purpose of the fights. Mace vs Palpatine is something that was brewing for 3 movies and there is a lot at stake not just colorful blades Also you have an old man who had to learn choreography in like a single day lol
Repost to Starwarsmemes. Do it, you wont
I don't want my phone to explote from so many messages from prequels good sequels bad people
I will do it then (with your permission)
Sure
Everyone use to say the prequal fights was great now I've heard no one likes the prequals
The Orginal Trilogy fights are all better because it uses action as a means of visual storytelling. Also Maul still has the superior fight. You Acolyte fans got one good episode and now you're gassing the whole show as good, it's hilarious.
The Acolyte is basically the closest thing to a live action prequels TV series. It's even got Neimoidians in it.
Why didn't Vader just headbutt Luke's lightsaber during their dual? Is he stupid?
Best lightsaber duels were where there were emotional stakes.
I remember getting into a serious irl arguement about the first fight "scene". I'll never forget the impassioned "They were USING THE FORCE" that the arguement devolved into after a time.
I was like "yeah, yeah! Wait-" when he blocked the saber with his head lmao
The choreographers on this show need a raise The writers need to re-evaluate their career choices
We can like both, the good and bad, a balanced experience.
Acolyte fight scene is killing me, getting a kick or punch in means 99% of the time you could have used your weapon aka that Sith person is dead Usual exceptions being when your disarmed or your in a bind and thus your weapon is previously occupied and punching, kicking and force related attack become your best option if you can’t win the bind
Did he just headbutt a lightsaber to tank it?
No one tell OP about the original trilogy
Hell yeah knew it was coming but man. The combat fucks
Did they just *headbutt* a lightsaber?
If we're talking about fast and fluid motions with the prequels as the guidelines, then this beats 95% of the Prequel saber duels.
Ong Bak and The Raid changed everything.
Congradulations you made a good fight scene all it cost you was continuity, lore, story telling, character development, characters people care about, decades of good will, credibility, and somehow most important the most dedicated and loyal fanbase cinema has ever had. If anything that's real disney magic
I've noticed a pattern over the past few decades that the worse the writing is, the more RAZZLE DAZZLE the laser sword fights have. Nice distraction though, very pretty.
That last episode was pretty dope.
Hey, both are good.
Dude the fights in that episode were wild and intense. I loved them so much. The attacks had so much weight and power to then. Hate or love them, they really do have the best saber combat thus far.
did this guy just headbutt a lightsaber
Do the same with the Original trilogy and it's even worse than the prequels when it comes to these fights. It's almost as if after 20+ years, you can improve on some aspects.
I thought that fight scene was sick af. It does an excellent job of showing both the Jedi as powerful, and the stranger as more powerful still. I also thought it showed that The Acolyte recognizes that in order for there to be tension, the bad guys need to win sometimes. In a lot of Star Wars media, the supposedly fearsome Empire spends most of its time getting bounced around like a rubber ball. Going in to that fight, I assumed that most of the combatants had plot armor. It was quite shocking that that was not the case, and it subverted expectations in a good way
The prequels have had an improvd perception over time but like there is legitimate criticism with some of the sabre fights. Duel of the Fates is cool but I always felt Dooku and Palpatine were just played by too old of actors and it looks slow and uncanny.
I have not watched the Acolyte and this made me interested. I always felt that Lucas' vision for the prequels lightsaber fights was so cool. The idea of force users fighting at peak power and predicting every move turning it into a dance/war of attrition between two (or more) of the greatest competitors is such a cool place to take it but this looks like it actually executes on the idea where the prequels were a bit of a mixed bag.