Obi-Wan as a duelist

i forget exactly what is said but in the ROTS novel obi wonders why he is the one the council decides should go after grevious. he figures there is someone with better lightsaber technique that would do the job better..
he talks to mace about it and mace says of all the jedi he is the one with the best chance the beat grevious. mace says he and yoda's style is a counter to their own weaknesses. mace's vaapad channels the darkness inside him so he can use it as a weapon for light and yoda's ataro style is a counter to his size disadvantage.
obiwan's basic style of soresu is not an answer to any weakness. mace calls him THE master of a classic form
of course that just could have been a pep talk...
and against a droid basically..(or a cyborg or whatever grevious is) they're wouldn't be any weaknesses in form to capitilize on so perhaps that's why obiwan fared so well. against a master like dooku, the count can take advantage of the fact that he just has more knowledge of dueling than kenobi has

 

When Jedi/Sith are dueling they are also tapped into the force, so dueling for them is a combination of actual saber skills and force strength.

 

Exactly.

What I absolutely love about the Kenobi/Grievous duel is that it shows quite well what it would be like for a non-Force user to go against a Jedi (Jango was lucky and had the rain and Slave I to help him).

Grievous is advancing, with 4 arms whirling, and Kenobi is just standing there, watching and waiting. He doesn't take huge swings, it's almost surgical. And what does he do? Remove the threat - takes off 2 arms, and thus 2 sabers.

Obi-Wan is probably not the most skilled duelist of the Jedi Order, but he's very calm and steady and is probably the most underrated.

 

along those same lines, Obi-Wan believes in his training. Even if he is temporarily losing, he stands his ground, keeps his patience, knowing that if he sticks to his training, he will eventually prevail. While Mace channels some dark side energies with his style, leading him to be more aggressive, Obi-Wan's greatest strength as a duelist is patience. He rarely if ever makes a mistake in technique, allowing him to just sit and wait until his opponent screws up and then goes in for the kill. If you don't make mistakes, eventually your opponent will. That makes Obi-Wan deadly. He is good enough to wait until the opportunity presents itself, instead of having to make his own.

 

He was above average - at best but NOWHERE NEAR the levels of the people he had to combat. That makes him a great warrior in itself.

1. Even though Darth Maul and Obi Wan are equals in every sense, Maul was OBVIOUSLY more powerful. His skills with the doublebladed lightsaber, his skills in the jedi arts, his use of the force and manipulating and beating two Jedi at the same time. The force was definitely with Obi Wan at the end.

2. Jango Fett was the start to Obi Wan learning to survive a foe without Jedi powers. There is no reference for defense. Jango and all his weapons and gadgets would keep the average Jedi at bay but Obi Wan keeps advancing - he just couldnt beat him.

3. Darth Tyrannus was a clear mismatch. He is not expected to be able to beat the man who trained his own Master. Dooku knows every move, every parry, and every Jedi power or trick Obi Wan would think of. Moreover Dooku was taking it easy on him. Anakin was the key to Dooku's end. He could not anticipate Anakin's moves, his speed, his power, or the darkside of the force.

4. The battle with General Greivous was more of showing us how his style had changed and how strong he had become. What he didnt and couldnt do with Dooku, he was able to read in this foe. The warrior side of Obi Wan was full force after so many years and defensives NOT offensive moves would be his signature.

5. Anakin/ Darth Vader is everything that Obi Wan is not. And this goes without saying that his lightsaber skills were a match for Anakin but not his power. The duel was basically Anakin having a temper tantrum and Obi Wan just trying to survive it long enough to find a way out of this situation - and it happened. Obi Wan knows all of Anakin's moves because he is his Master. At the same time Anakin had such a flagrant style of fighting it showed just how FAR beyond Obi Wan he had grown.

How he survives all these fights is what makes him a great Jedi.
oNE

 

That's a pretty fair assessment of Obi-Wan's various battles.

Let's not forget that he's the only Jedi in the last 1000 years to defeat TWO Sith.

 

Obi-wan probably is one of the best duelist in the order. Most of the jedi haven't fought any major duels. Obi-Wan Would've lasted a lot longer against sidious then any of the three jedi mace had with him. Anakin is a bit better then obi-wan, but not by much. I think anakin was in controle of the fight more then obi-wan, but he was unable to finish him, which aloud obiwan to take advantage of Anakin's eventual mistake and take him out.

 

2. Jango Fett was the start to Obi Wan learning to survive a foe without Jedi powers. There is no reference for defense. Jango and all his weapons and gadgets would keep the average Jedi at bay but Obi Wan keeps advancing - he just couldnt beat him.

3. Darth Tyrannus was a clear mismatch. He is not expected to be able to beat the man who trained his own Master. Dooku knows every move, every parry, and every Jedi power or trick Obi Wan would think of. Moreover Dooku was taking it easy on him. Anakin was the key to Dooku's end. He could not anticipate Anakin's moves, his speed, his power, or the darkside of the force.

Obi-Wan's job was to bring Jango in for questioning, not fight to the death. If you're fighting someone under those circumstances, and can avoid killing the other party in self defense,who is trying to kill you, you'll probably hold back a bit. Under other circumstances, Obi-Wan may have done better.

I posted in another thread that Obi-Wan was ineffective against Dooku largely because of Dooku's years of experience and style of fighting, one rarely seen or trained against by the Jedi. Dooku was a master with years of experience, and used his blade very differently from others. In AoTC, when Obi-Wan went to parry a swing, Dooku retracted his blade so there was nothing to block, then extended his blade into Obi-Wan's shoulder and repeated this to his thigh. Obi-Wan was astounded at this move (source: novel).

Seems to me Obi-Wan did pretty well, considering.