Lagi browsing reddit, terus nemu pembahasan menarik tentang kenapa lightsaber battle di original trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, The Return of the Jedi) jauh lebih bagus daripada lightsaber battle di prequel trilogy.
Inilah sebabnya gw suka reddit, komunitasnya lebih cerdas, nggak kayak 9gag yang isinya cuma repost dari reddit dan joke di komentarnya cuma muter di situ-situ lagi.
Kalau lagi malas baca, scroll ke bawah. Ada tl;dr-nya. (too long, didn’t read)
original link: http://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comments/p6ed2/zero_punctuation_star_wars_the_o…
Note. This is my opinion and it’s long but I broke down the major fights and why 4,5, and 6 are better. Yes there’s a tl;dr:
With 4, 5, and 6, the battle may not be as flashy but they are incredibly engaging and arguably more entertaining to watch because of the emotion the fights externalize.
Darth Maul v. Qui-gon & Obi-Wan doesn’t really have much meaning behind it. “We’re here to protect the queen while they recapture the capital, oh it’s that Sith guy we were talking about earlier, may as well fight him since we have lightsabers.” It does take an interesting twist with Qui-gon’s defeat since Obi-wan is then fueled by anger (Righteous fury maybe?). Obi-wan’s attacks are then incredibly agressive and risky and he overcomes Maul. Now if there was a hint during the end of the film that Obi-wan’s troubled by his actions creating doubt over the strength of the light side when his emotions/passion helped him win, I’d have cared a lot more.
Dooku v. Obi-Wan & Anakin is also prety “meh.” War has just broken out so they’re trying to end it early by capturing the leader. They only discover he’s a sith when he pulls out his lightsaber and shoots lightning but we don’t realize Dooku is Darth Tyrannus until the very end. The only significant part is Anakin’s impatience. In the end, it gets his arm cut off. There’s no real emotion getting externalized.
Of all the prequel fights, I enjoyed Anakin v. Obi-Wan the most. It weighs up to the emotion behind the fights in to 4,5, and 6 (more on that later) but we lose that emotion in the fight. Why are they fighting exactly? Obi-Wan just saw Anakin murder kids. It’s not hard for Obi-wan to think that Anakin’s beyond reasoning and needs to be stopped if he can’t be saved. Anakin’s explanation “Obi-wan, you != ally, then must == enemy” is rather weak. Anakin just seems to be trying to show off his new strength (“you underestimate my power!”). Obi-Wan’s in a life or death situation against his former Padawan and long time friend. Hell, he’s watched the boy grow up for 12+ years. That must be torture on his heart. However, you don’t really get that sense of anguish in the fight. I don’t see Obi-wan’s reluctance or Anakin’s agression in the combat. What we’re watching essentially amounts to a dance. It’s very appealing to the eye but you tend to lose the meaning behind the fight which to me is no good.
While I enjoy the prequel fights as eye candy, I like the original trilogy style fights more. In the original trilogy, the fights felt like they carried a lot more weight than the prequels. The phrase I heard before regarding Obi-wan v. Darth Vader in Episode 4 is “a battle of wills.” While Lucas originally intended for lightsabers to be heavy, the slow pace of the fighting shows two men both past their prime bent on resolving their “beef.”(Anakin’s betrayal v. Obi-Wan mutliating Anakin/Anakin proving Dark Side is better). That context and weight behind the encounter is far more deep on an emotional level than Obi-wan v. Dooku where we have a guy who we’re told was respected in the Jedi Order turn out to be a sith.
Luke v. Vader in both Episode 5 & 6 were externalizations of the struggles going on inside of the characters. In 5, Luke was trying to prove to himself that’s he’s not a farmboy anymore and that he’s now a Jedi (or his idea of Jedi). He sets out to rescue his friends and confront/defeat the man who killed his mentor. He fails. Hard. Not only does he fail to rescue to his friends, but he loses one (Han). Minutes later he battles Vader trying to put his skills to the test. Luke’s trying to prove he’s not a kid but he’s beaten soundly. Then he discovers the man who killed his mentor is his father. Ouch. How do we eat more humble pie? Try getting rescued by the people you tried to rescue in the first place. It was an incredibly humbling experience for Luke. Then, on top of that, you have Darth Vader’s side. What do you think he was feeling while he knowingly fights his own son.
6 is a biggie so I’ll split it in two. In 6, Luke is trying to prove to himself that there’s good not just in Vader, but in the world. He’s putting his beliefs that he learned second hand through Yoda & Obi-Wan up against the source of the Dark Side in this time period. Each time he withdraws his saber, it’s him falling to the dark side. The first: strike me down and save your friends before they die. Second: Hey if you won’t turn evil, I’ll make your sister, the person you care most of in the universe, evil. It’s only when he slices off Vader’s hand, he realises he is about to make the same mistake Vader did some 20 odd years ago. Anakin wanted to save Padme; Luke, his friends on Endor. The Emperor’s solution to both? The Dark side. He comes to senses and in that moment completes his Jedi training (topped off with the classic line “I’m a Jedi like my father before me”). While it takes some lightning, Vader is finally able to redeem himself and bring balance to the force.
Luke v. Vader is largely (but not completely) a battle over Vader’s soul. On the one hand, we have Luke trying to pull Vader back into the light; on the other, we have the Emperor goading Luke into succumbing to the dark side to prove it’s stronger than light. While Vader’s actually fighting Luke, it’s the Emperor instigating and so Vader’s caught in the middle. We can assume his confidence is waving at this point. He already told Luke “it’s too late for me” to come back to the light side and by the fact that the Emperor is willing to trash his most trusted/best servant if his kid proves stronger. Why take a chance on some kid if you’ve already got a best man? To me, that shows the emperor doesn’t trust him. It’s not until Luke snaps (thanks to Vader threatening to turn Leia) and nearly succumbs to the dark side himself that Vader is redeemed. Luke trying to save his father’s life, for me, resonates far more on an emotional level and when I watch that fight, I’m not captivated by the parries and dodges, but by what’s casuing them.
tl;dr: You use fights as a substitute for words in movies and the words substituted in 4,5,6 carry a lot more emotional weight than the admittedly cool but unncessarily flashy combat of 1, 2, and 3.
Agoes Santosa's Journal 