This is why I hope they bring Hayden or Ewan back for more content, they're so talented at being Anakin and Obi-Wan and it feels like a waste not to use them.
Hayden's acting came to a whole new light when I heard that he was trying to duplicate Vader's speech style from the original trilogy: but yeah his saber play is next level.
@@Darth_Xionn It really depends on what director wants and his commitment. Under Lucas they practiced for months. Would it be the same under su someone else? I wonder.
I distinctly remember Hayden Christensen doing an interview before Episode III came out, and he said that he couldn't give away too much, but said that the fans should look forward to one of the greatest swordfights ever put on film. It makes me sad to think that when he said that... he was talking about this one.
@@Solocase right😂 people just like to pretend what they didn't get will always be better than anything they've ever gotten. Anakin v obi wan is still the best fight in the series
0:55 anakin jumping over dooku would have been SO amazing because this would actually justify his overconfidence and it would go hand in hand with the fact that his ability to pull off this move wasn't as much based on his powers but more of his opponents overconfidence. just amazing
Holy hell. Hayden puts in the work. That move was so fluid. I can't believe they didn't use it. Definitely cements the idea that Vader was an S tier duelist.
Hayden really put his all into the role, not his fault his script had so many cringe moments, and I'm sure he was instructed to deliver them the way he did.
My only issue with Hayden's fights is he looks to sword contact. (Ewan did it a few times. ) I know they are rehearsing, but tapping swords is alittle weak too.
@@ironheadedDoF at least for this context he's training her. So him doing "rehearsed" attacks makes sense. But yea it does take away a little. Cough Kylo ren with his back lightsaber, and buddy attacks it directly, or rey holding his saber with the force and attacking the saber cough
The little Easter eggs throughout make this fight SO MUCH better then what we got 1) Anakin getting mad and gaining power showing his strength when tapping into the dark side 2) Anakin’s flip foreshadowing his attempt vs Obi Wan 3) Blinding Dooku in the same place as Anakin’s scar 4) Dooku failing to cut Anakin’s hand off showing his growth Plus the fight just looks better.
He leaps over Obi-Wan successfully once during their fight while they are on the lava. I don't know if this one is THAT necessary, especially since Obi-Wan isn't here to see it and thus be able to better prepare for it in their fight.
@@LucianDevine It's not that he uses it once and gets away with it, it's that he insists on doing it without understanding that every halfway decent move can be countered and beaten. Had he known that, he would've assessed that he didn't have the high ground and therefore shouldn't do the thing, instead of insisting he could fight how he wanted and get what he wanted out of it. It's not about the move, but about Anakin hammering in his bad habits (which HAVE helped him) and yet not wanting to think through different circumstances with a different mindset.
@@jjhh320 With so much anger and hatred blinding him, as well as his innate arrogance, even if he knew it, he still probably wouldn't have taken the time to assess the situation and chosen a different course of action. Obi-Wan knew what he was going to do, and Anakin knew that Obi-Wan knew, but he tried it anyway. That in and of itself shows us everything we need, without the Dooku jump.
If this particular duel featured in the movie it would have more clearly, and very quickly, established for the audience just how much Anakin had grown in combat and force ability. Gotta appreciate as well just how dedicated and skilled Hayden was to achieve this level of proficiency with a lightsaber/sword. So good!
@@paulpatine6638 the duel is far too long in this uncut version and shows that Anakin was not that much powerful yet. makes his fall to obi wan less of a feat for obi wan. Once anakin turned a bit into his dark side, it only took a few seconds to dispatch dooku. This shows how powerful anakin was at this point. He was on another level. This is the reason why i believe that if yoda went to mustafar, yoda would have met a similar fate. Yoda was so much wiser that he sent Obi wan.
That is a good point regarding the moment Anakin taps into the Dark Side and how he suddenly displays an increased ability to overpower Dooku, who was revered as one of the greatest swordsmasters in the galaxy. It was still an impressive display of technical ability with a lightsaber in the uncut version, however.
It's such a shame for both the fans and the actors they don't add these epic duels into the final cut. Those actors worked so long and hard to learn the choreography.
@@sonoftheway3528 I don't know, I like a lot of Rey and Kylo vs Praetorian Guards in Ep 8. Not a huge fan of the rest of the film but it has some great shots visually.
@@filippomonaco2303 I think the cheapest saber trick still goes to turning your saber off for a hot second when clashing, taking your opponent off balance (the only example I can think of would be Cal Kestis doing it in Fallen Order) but this looked dope.
Man, I can't believe Lucas didn't go with this one. It's absolutely brilliant. I hope we will get a version with these included someday. Epic, and Hayden's skills are most impressive.
The main reason this scene is better is because Anakin discovers that anger makes him stronger - important as part of his being seduced by the dark side. The arc we got stuck with left a lot to be desired.
It's a great example of how George Lucas really did have a terrific framework of a story, but just couldn't stick the landing on the details and plot evolution because he was too caught up in the VFX and the caricaturist aspects of the characters. If he had someone who could rein in his excesses and keep him focused, the overall quality of the prequels probably would have been a lot better.
You got it backwards. While this LOOKS cool, it’s the Hollywood stereotype fighting choreography rife with signature money shot poses, whereas the movie version is more “realistic” with the slightly boring continuous barrage movements. George knew what he was doing. He purposely chose integrity of the story vs fan service. And some of it were just limitations out of George’s hands - it was only Hayden and the choreographer himself who could do these stunts, the other actors weren’t good enough. They had to cgi their heads on stuntmen’s torsos which wasn’t working, so either they put inexplicable masks/helmets on the characters or go with a “simpler” routine.
@@LilacSreya Get out of here with that "realistic" bs. We're talking about beings that are able to do things that go way beyond of what a regular human can do. Trying to make a battle between them "realistic" is actually the most unrealistic thing.
I'm guessing the Christopher Lee headswap would be too difficult for that much choreography.. that and Lee probably didn't like the idea of his face being singed by a lightsaber
@@chakkra69 you did not get what Lilac said. Other actors have limitations, and this fight would’ve surpassed others and would not look consistent throughout the movie
i cant stop thinking about how amazing that idea was of anakin basically learning from his mistake of their last duel, and stops dooku from taking his arm off again lol. thats just amazing art right there!!
Lmfao I'm feeling sick with the whole idea here of their last duel being that one from EP II, I mean, if you watched clone wars you know what I am talking about
@@warpdarkmatter To be fair, that probably was the original intention when Lucas wrote Revenge of the Sith. Just look at lines like "THIS time, we will do it together" and "my power have doubled since the last time we met, Count." There's also Grievous talking as if Utapau was the first time he's ever fought Obi-Wan. The way he drew his sabers and dramatically declared "I have been trained in your Jedi arts by Count Dooku!", it's like he hasn't fought Obi-Wan a bunch of times already.
@@MarsellusWallace Indeed! The only exception was the moment Anakin met Grievous in the begging of ROTS. Although Grievous already knew obi wan as implied in that same meeting, that dialogue between both as if it was like their first duel doesn't make much sense even if there wasn't a clone wars show
If only Lucas had given him proper lines and character development. Anakin was butchered by showing a whining teenager instead of the tragic hero Filoni depicted in clones wars and rebels.
@@vlad78th problem is in aotc he is a teenager, basically a socially awkward monk that had never spoken to girls. Plus he was fixated on Padmé for years. So he was meant to be akward. Then we just timeskip to badass Anakin, but we never saw that development on screen
@@vlad78thWell clone wars just shows the better parts of him and aotc shows right before he started maturing, the recent book brotherhood takes place after aotc and kenobi talks about it and then the films so his darker side while the show intends to show what caused all of that
@@TheRogueJedii i agree on that. While TCW and the rest of the oldschool EU does help flesh out Anakin's character a bit more, it would have been nice to just start the prequel trilogy at AOTC, timeline-wise, have the 2nd movie be sort of in the middle of the Clone Wars, and then have Episode 3 be ROTS
The fact that Hayden did all of this, while also being able to convey Anakin's battle-hardened rage is so good! My theory is that the sacrifice must have been made in favor of more CGI and having Christopher Lee in more scenes than the stunt double.
That saber drop is FIRE. The jump over Obi Wan would have SO MUCH MORE MEANING if he did it successfully over Dooku. Such a great fight seen. I love BTS stuff!! #MTFBWY
like Bohun's saber hand switch in With Fire and Sword. He sucsessfully did it in one fight with Cossacks and then he was dueling Wołodyjowski and processed to do so called his best move but it didn't go as planned and he lost that duel.
He leaps over Obi-Wan successfully once during their fight while they are on the lava. I don't know if this one is THAT necessary, especially since Obi-Wan isn't here to see it and thus be able to better prepare for it in their fight.
I can't remember which video it was, but I think there was a video commentary on Ep. 3 where they showed Hayden and Ewan practicing the final duel and someone shows someone else the footage and the 2nd guy asks the first guy why he sped it up and they first guy has to tell him it's not sped up, that's how fast they were really going. Hayden put his all into this.
The drop-switch to Anakin's other hand with the lightsaber is an awesome move. Even more awesome? The extremely subtle taunting smile he gives Dooku at 1:00 and he knows full well that he's going to win this duel with no uncertainty whatsoever. Hayden's portrayal of Anakin has always been perfect.
Yeah, even with the change and having Obi-Wan be there, they still should've worked him leaping over Dooku and the drop switch into the fight, the drop switch was a crazy good move.
It doesnt make much sense though, why go for his arm when his whole body is exposed? maybe take out his legs? or torso instead? The problem with the lightsaber is that its so overpowered that you can go for any body part at any time
Hayden Christensen's moves are catually insane. You can say whatever you want about the man, but he gave his 100% to every lightsaber fight. Rarely do you see an actor give this much dedication to fighting choreography. To be this fast, and precise in your moves requires more than just acting and practicing some moves, in requires a level of martial arts competency.
Both him and Ewan deserve massive props for their dedication to learning it. I mean if you just look at the final duel of theirs and whats in the movie is supposedly slowed down from the speed they were going at it, which if true is insane, i mean even whats in the movie is insanely fast and beatiful to watch, and most of it is them going at it, not just doubles all the time
George Lucas made a terrible mistake removing this entire fight, this captures how skilled and powerful Anakin truly was. I watched this movie 5 times in the theatre, but if all the lightsaber fight scenes were kept I would've watched it 10 times more! Remember folks, we never saw what a lightsaber fight looked like prior to Return of the Jedi and even though at the time that was impressive, it was nothing compared to when Anakin and the Jedi were in their prime (if you will).
@@KrushKrills lol - I would love to see that fight done like the re-imagined fight. Yes, it is a classic style of sword fighting they originally used but given what we know of Anakin and Obi-wan now, the re-imagined scene seems way more appropriate of their fighting styles.
A lot of people tend to dismiss the Prequels' duels as just pointless twirling and twisting, but the choreography and fencing sessions were *insane*... So much training and intricate blink-and-you-miss-it moves! Nick Gillard was even made into the in-universe Jedi Battle Master Cin Drallig (very briefly seen in RotS) after his faithful service on all 3 Prequels.
Yes, it's extremely impressive the amount of skill and dedication they put into this choreography, but it doesn't change that the twirling and twisting is entirely unbelievable. If you did this in a real fight with an opponent actually trying to kill you instead of with a compliant dancing partner, you'd die. The instant you turn your back to your opponent, you're dead. The reason we talk about the twirling and twisting is in the hopes that one day Hollywood makes more believable fights, that they get their facts right first, THEN distort them. There's a LOT of REALLY COOL things you can do in fight choreography while maintaining a sense of believability and it would make the end result a lot better when you can look at the duel and know the two people fighting actually know what they're doing instead of spotting one thing after another that just a newbie medieval knight could've capitalized on and gotten a deathblow.
@@spikem5950 While everything you just said is true, you should also consider that this isn't a normal fight with normal swords or normal people. I know lots of people tend to use that as an excuse to cover non-sensical writing, but that isn't exactly what I'm saying. Jedi and Sith do battle with the Force; the lightsaber simply makes force battles less boring to watch. Sure, the Force can give you lightning fingers and the power to bend blaster bolts in midair, but not everyone is powerful enough to do that. Now do lightsaber battles with lots of spinning and twirling entirely make sense? Well, no, not really, but do they completely not make sense? Not really either. A lightsaber has different weight than a sword, we're led to believe, so it makes sense they'd be swung differently, at the very least.
@@sgoldendragon3603 This is using it as an excuse to cover non-sensical writing. Your opponent being a Force user with all sorts of super abilities wouldn't make you want to do moves that open you up to them, it would make you be even more careful but to make a mistake. Go take a look at the lightsaber duel titled To The Death, it shows what lightsaber fighting should be just taking into account the difference in weight and edge alignment with two non-Force users, and then go take a look at the fights and multiple shorts by a channel called Sellsword Arts, they have lots of shorts explaining why lightsaber choreography makes no sense and what jedi should fight like taking from real historical manuscripts that include some flourishing motions, and they also have fights taking Force use into account, adding some fantasy to the fighting, and all without making you wonder how any of these combatants made it this long when they make mistakes a child with a stick could kill you for every 0.2 seconds of a fight.
Excellent! Dooku mostly fights one-handed with his lightsaber which is interesting. It gives credence to the Form II style that's described where he's able to quickly maneuver his lightsaber but doesn't really deliver any heavy blows with it. This is why Anakin eventually overpowers him.
In Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover the duel is fought from Dooku’s perspective and Stover does a good job describing Dooku’s emotions throughout the duel going from arrogant to concerned to outright frightened at the level of power Anakin is fighting with as well as his mastery of Form V which focuses on large, heavy blows. This cut footage would follow that logic as Anakins blows would be too much for Dooku’s 1 handed technique and even then Dooku’s wouldn’t be able to stop Anakin from pushing his lightsaber into Dooku’s eye
Plenty of powerful strikes were taught in 1 handed sword systems such as the moulinets. What does in reality happen is the 1 handed sword systems become tiring quicker than holding the same weight in both hands. A rapier is about 1200 grams in weight. This is the about the same for longsword(2handed), katana (2handed), and scottish broadsword/heavy cav sabres (1handed). As for parrying 2 handed strikes with 1 hand; biomechanicaly the most comfortable are hanging guards such as prime and second. Fun info I know.
The inspiration for that actually came from Christopher Lee, he had actual formal training in fencing, he had several rapiers in his private sword collection, this inspired the costume designers to come up with a curved hilt, better design for single handed wielding which suited christopher Lee's own sword fighting style.
I do not know how fans can complain that these fights create no tension. It is a beautiful lightsaber dance, minding the lore and styles, it is just so satisfying to look at, tension or not. The Disney shows do not replicate these in general, except when Luke demolished the hallway in Mandalorian.
I think because it looks so much like a choreographed dance and less like 2 people actually trying to kill and injure each other. When you see all the spins, even as quick as they are going, you wonder why they can't just hit the guy while he's spinning and his back is turned or his blade is out of position like at 0:30. Now we, as the audience understand why he didn't, but it breaks the suspension of disbelief at the same time.
@@LucianDevineI agree with you both. They just need to do an extended cut. Meld both versions of the fights, fill in the gaps (like Ani's hair and Lee's likeness) with the CG, provide a more natural arc in the film with carefully placed scenes, maybe fix some minor continuity issues, update the blue screen, then boom. Not only would it sell well, it might actually result in a film agreed to be one of the best ever made.
Those spins have their lightsabers flying threw the air mid fight! That’s insane! Why would they delete this? They need to polish this up add some cgi hair and face swap the stunt doubles with the actors. This is a gem and shouldn’t go to waste
Because George Lucas shouldn't be allowed to produce only direct and that is a maybe as well. He left so much on the cutting floor that was better both visually and in storyline and put things, cutesy in his mind I guess, in their place.
@@jayh6997 I mean it looks mesmerizing but I understand him not wanting a duel that did anything to shadow the much more emotionally charged dual with Kenobi. There is never enough good star wars duels but they all mean nothing without the story and the emotional stakes. It was the correct call.
@@Wand422 The dooku/shmi reveal sounds pretty good though. Aligns with everything before and after. And puts Anakin a step further into a dark side mindset making his turn seem less immediate later.
What Dooku said to Anakin to enrage him was that he was the one who orchestrated Shmi's death. He visited the Tuskens and paid them in fresh food, water, and resources to locate, kidnap, and slowly torture her to death. Yes, her abduction and brutal treatment wasn't an unfortunate accident, it was his plan.
@@lxizch7876 I think this is far more likely. Because at this point Sidious was already looking to recruit anakin and the chances that dooku took it upon himself to go out and ensure a jedis mother get kidnapped and tortured is far below him. In addition to the fact that only sidious and padme knew about his mother.
They could have easily replaced Dooku's dialogue so that he says something that would still make Anakin mad without being out of character for Dooku. For example: "I notice you have some sand in your hair Anakin"
Not only did we get cheated with this being cut, but the extended duel between Dooku and Yoda in Attak of The Clones was amazing as well because Dooku switched to TWO Sabers against Yoda. Dooku was a tilt a whirl and yoda became way more controlled and focused. Damn you guys for cutting everything that would have made kids lose their minds.
It’s sad that all this was discarded. They put a lot of effort and talent into it. Also, it helped to show all the manipulation suffered for so many years by a young person as Anakin. The story would’ve been more complex, and Anakin’s reactions (and Hayden’s performance) more reasonable and sympathetic.
The story is more complex. Read the novelization of Revenge of the Sith. It's quite good. However, I'm not sure where this channel gets their info because in the novelization Anakin also fights Dooku with Obi-Wan similar to the movie. Sources would be nice beyond these fan-theories, because Anakin fought Dooku alone anyhow after Obi-Wan was knocked unconcious, so all that this video really "reveals" is that the choreography was changed. Big woop.
Oh my God! That fight would've been SO much better! It really demonstrated just how much more powerful and skilful Anakin had grown while also showing that he did learn from their last encounter. Would LOVE to see this redone!
Hayden Christensen's performance as a Jedi with a lightsaber is superlative, he's perfectly in sync, with harmonious moves, like a dance it's perfection! He's outstanding and his dedication shows!
I can't even describe the excitement I felt when Anakin let go of the saber and grasped it again. It was like I was a teenager in the theater again. That was such a good night.
The amount of practice and dedication they had when making these lightsaber duels in the prequel trilogy is just amazing. You see none of that in the Disney trilogy where their lightsaber fights are just pathetic.
No, the sequel trilogy’s fights took just as much choreography. Not mention the choreography’s a lot better, since the characters are swinging for each other rather than swinging for each other’s sabers. Plus the camera work is a ton better in the sequels, which is a marked improvement from the prequels.
@@birdthebird3396 eughhh imma be real honest I can't remember anything from the sequels... like not a single duel from the sequels. At least from the prequels I can actually remember something
@@eomex8379 I've only watch TFA and only when it was release on dvd just to see how much i was right about that shit ( my prédictions) ,EP 8-9 just dont f**k**g care about. And your right about choreography's The Prequel got the best one's
@@eerieolie7204 Exactly. Like yeah, in lightsaber fights you're normally going to aim at your target and not the saber, but even the sequels do that. And terribly too. It just looks like a bunch of kids with glowing bats swinging around with no real sense of order. The duels in the prequels at least have that clear order. The choreography will always be some of the best.
1:19 Is nobody gonna talk about the fact Dooku litterally *stretched* his neck into the blade of the saber as if he was examining just which shade of blue it is!?
I grew up loving Star Wars, just to hate it now because they've ruined it, but this might be one of the coolest lightsaber duels I've ever seen. When he drops his lightsaber and then catches it again so his hand doesn't get chopped off, just amazing!
Definitely should’ve kept this version. Clearly shows how stronger anakin had become plus the foreshadowing of the jump over his opponent would’ve been great
Man him letting go of the lightsaber right before his arm would have gotten cut off again and then grabbing the lightsaber again midair was sick and I really wish they would have left that in the movie. Especially since it transitioned to Dooku’s hands getting cut off right after he did that move.
OMG - there is soo much here to really dig into, the call backs, the foreshadowing - awesome choreography that may be the best in the entire movie universe.... Hayden being awesome...This would have made sense why Anakin thought he could have taken the high ground ! Aaarrrggghhh wish they would have left it in. Awesome !!! Thanks for sharing. It would be great to add it to the blue ray or the collectors set....Its showing how far Anakin had progressed from the last duel and far exceeding Dooku.... The one in the move was too short...Whoever that stunt guy is get him on the new series stat! Both these guys did great. Showing Dooku as a bad ass too even though he lost.
Omg love this truly display how powerful and skilled Anakin was. I can't believe they deleted this out of the movie . I guess they didn't want this scene in the movie to top the final battle with obi one . Truly a badass fight scene .
Ahhhhh this is so friggin' badass! ✊ Fantastic choreography that absolutely should have made its way into this film, even if it was only in an extended version DVD release after the theatrical. Insane the amount of training that went into crafting these fights. Would have been bonkers to get these incredible sequences in the finished product. They're the best in all of Star Wars.
Man, things like this take me back to the mid-2000s, when Star Wars was my life and... y'know... still worth getting hyped over. Always nice to get a little nostalgia bomb.
Ugh, that would have been so much more cinematic. The flip over dooku gives precedent to the move, which adds even more impact to Anakin’s later attempt to use the (previously successful) maneuver on Obi-wan; it’s no longer just a wild jump, it’s a move we’ve seen him use before, but he’s so blinded by his rage he fails to notice that this situation is different, because Obi-wan has the high ground.
The choreography is crazy, and considering they had to practice and memorize all that, it's a shame it got cut. Only gripe I have with that ending move though, when Dooku misses his arm, he could have easily swept Anakin's torso, but he kind of twirls it in between the two of them passing up the winning stroke. Choreography is better than the horrid new sequel trilogy, but it does seem similar to the throne room scene with Rey when that guard just spins away rather than killing her..
I cant understand why they didnt put the 1:35 part in the final version. It would make the movie like, 3 seconds longer and they thought it was too much? That move alone makes the scene 100x better
It’s beautiful… and to think this duel was already one of my favorites in the whole franchise- yet it could have been so much more impressive and poetic from a narrative standpoint if they had completed the scene with this choreography in its entirety.
This was prime Anakin here and we were blatantly robbed of seeing it. This duel between him and Dooku confirmed why Palpatine wanted Anakin as his apprentice.
Most people might disagree with me, but even though this has insanely good coreography, the og makes Dooku seem more powerful. Here it seems like Anakin has no trouble which kinda sucks. Wish he would do a bit worse at the beginning and only after the dialogue he goes full pre-sith mode on him
Yeah, but this version of the fight depicts the fight more accurately than the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, which depicts Dooku as being completely outclassed by Anakin, so it makes sense for Dooku to be underperforming since the duel began. Palpatine even asked Dooku if he was sure he could beat Anakin this time after Dooku boasted that he'd have to go easy on Anakin so his anger could be built up, when in fact Anakin was stronger than him from the start and Dooku angering Anakin during their brief conversation during the duel only aggravated things in an even worse manner for him.
@@kagamiuchihathebeast5862 It is actually the same, and you are one google away to find out. I'm not going to waste time arguing nonsense with a random internet user. Have a wonderful day.
@@kagamiuchihathebeast5862 😂 Anakin completely destroyed a trying dooku in seconds while holding back from killing him and only going for the disarm. Anakin is solidly above dooku in power and as a duelists during rots and is backed up and confirmed by George Lucas, Dave filoni, nick Gillard, and a overwhelming amount of canon and even legend sources and shown in the movie and even said in the movie that Anakin is more powerful. George and canon sources already confirmed Anakin during rots is on par with yoda and sidious. Shoot Anakin literally stalemated a going all out dooku a lil before rots in the dark disciple novel.
The Anakin vs Dooku lightsaber fight scene in Revenge of the Sith was pretty good. I often wonder what it would look like if Anakin turned to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader and then fought Dooku after that?
Its an interesting thought. Legends Vader had some limitations that present canon Vader doesn't. I think both Vaders would ultimately win, but Legends Vader would have a WAY harder time fending off Dooku due to his suits limited mobility and weakness to force lightning (Plus legends Vader is supposedly only about 80% as powerful as Palpatine) So that one would be a really close contest. Canon Vader though wouldn't have too much difficulty, the only thing that might give Dooku a bit of breathing room is that Vader doesn't primarily focus on form 5 the way Anakin did (5 being 2's biggest weakness). Well that's how I see it going, Vader wins either way, just one version has a harder fight than the other.
@@dreadrath A pretty good answer you posted. I see in your answer that you mentioned 2 different versions of Darth Vader: Legends Vader and canon Vader. What's the difference between the 2? Another interesting concept: Legends Vader vs canon Vader. Which version would win?
@@tima.curtis2488 Basically Canon Vader has none of the limitations of Legends Vader i.e. the suit didn't hinder mobility, he didn't lose any force potential, etc
Gotta say, that is a SWEET choreography and I am sure not evereybody could pull this off. Incredible! And it towers highly over whatever the "sequels" put out. I have always liked the prequels and never understood why they got so much flak over the years. I have always liked them a lot and watched them countless times.
As much as I love the choreography that goes on, I feel like having Anakin be this level of powerful to basically from the start be in control and more powerful than Dooku would have made the Obi-Wan final battle even less believable. Having Anakin and Obi-Wan basically have to wear down Dooku together and only after Obi-Wan gets taken out to provide the anger does Anakin become powerful enough to beat Dooku makes more sense story wise for me personally when it comes to Anakin vs Obi-Wan.
I feel you use the first half of this, showing Anakin and Dooku being well matched, and then Obi Wan joins and they finish the fight together. It would bring in some of this amazing choreography without making Anakin feel unstoppable.
GREAT JOB!!!! 🤯 My favorite part of ep3 , what i was looking for , was the duel between Dooku and Anakin (more than Obi vs Ani ) thoses footages make it more pleasant for me !!!!!! P.S about the full Palpatine vs jedis duel..... DEW IT !!!!
I think this right here is a big part of why it was cut. The choreography shows how skilled Anakin is. How could Obi-Wan defeat THIS GUY?! Might've felt cheated with this duel in the beginning and their duel in the third act not being as well choreographed... Maybe?
@@danielsmith9130 At many point i agreed , ,,, BUT!!! dont forget that Dooku his not on the rigth mindset for the Duel ( he think its already wrapped , a quick formality for having Anakin on their side ) he do not know that Sidious betrayed him already and ( a realy stupid thing to do ) he gasligth a unstable full testosteroned far younger men who was on ``BEAST MODE`` someone also who do not really rely on ``following the rule by the book`` ( but it is mostly because of some visuals and makeing the duel longer that i enjoyed it ) p.s what do you think of it ? ruclips.net/video/mFZ9vOag0TE/видео.html
My problem with this scene is that anakin and dooku have fought like 30 times since attack of the clones so the doubled in power line doesn't make sense since its been like a max of a month since they last fought
@@paulmccloud9395 yeah well to be fair I've watched the clone wars hundreds of times through now and one thing I am impressed about is that they never had grievous and anakin actually meet or fight so that the line your shorter than I expected still stands true to this day. So a 50/50 score isn't the worst we could ask for
Yeah while it's not outright stated, I always sensed that the intention was that Anakin and Tyranus had no duels between _AotC_ and _RotS_ . Same goes for Kenobi and Vader between _RotS_ and _ANH_ .
God it's goosebump inducing... as much as Revenge of the Sith wasn't well recieved, I loved how cool the sabre fights looked as a child - it was actually my favorite SW film for that reason. Wish they kept more of this in.
It wasn't well received because Lucas had lost a lot of goodwill after the Phantom Menace. However, we were optimistic he would give us something better in AOTC. Arguably what we got was worse. I never saw 3 in the theaters, I no longer cared much. I saw it years later on TV, and it was okay, but not the OT. Much improved from the first two though.
Man, I love the fights in Revenge of the Sith, they are the best fights in all of Star Wars. BUT GOD DAMN! I did not expect to see even more amazing fighting in the deleted scenes. I wish we got this in there, that dropping of the blade, into grabbing it again is SO cool.
These films didn’t get there due, look at Hayden doing his own choreography like that. I’m blown away, it’s like he really had the force. Such a shame people hated on these films and pissed off George. They were a masterpiece and the choreography in the fight scenes was mind blowing
We hated the first two because they weren't good. We waited in line for days to be told by Lucas essentially grow up the films are just for kids. The last one of the prequels was okay with some good scenes. Not Empire by any means though.
I love how all the stuff in Star Wars that people love the most is often significantly better and lore-expanding in the unused concepts and footage for the films
To paraphrase Red Letter Media: the idea to have Anakin separated from Obi-Wan on the ship, resulting in him encounter and dueling Dooku alone without the presence of his friend and master to keep him level and give him an opportunity to dip into anger and the dark side during the duel is such a good idea I wager that Lucas had nothing to do with it and actively fought to have it changed to what ended up in the movie.
We pretty much get the same impact by having Obi wan get knocked unconscious. It makes Anakin alone, and also angry. But meanwhile we also get an opening sequence that makes Anakin and Obi wan feel like brothers; ultimately making Anakin’s betrayal all the more tragic
@@StarWarsAnalyst I think Obi-wan being present and then unconscious is meaningfully different than him being absent entirely. It's a different kind of alone, and there is a lack of a need to defend him, nor mental space taken up by Obi-wan simply be him being near and something Anakin has to worry about. I think there's plenty of examples of how Anakin/Obi-wan as brothers is told to us rather than shown, something the Red Letter Media reviews go through in exhaustive detail, and you'd need to do a lot of work across the entire two movies of ep 2 and 3 to actually make it feel believable. It's too late to try to hang their entire relationship on that scene. Here are all the reasons why the solo scene is better: 1) Obi-wan being absent also removes any element of his contribution to the fight; it's just straight up Anakin v Dooku and he steamrolls him in just about two minutes in the solo fight. The fight itself is better characterization of Anakin, foreshowing and call back than the theatrical version is. Dooku's initial underestimation of Anakin, then taking him seriously and it not mattering at all, Anakin doing something cruel like burning Dooku's eye and clearly kinda liking it, Dooku getting desperate and trying to win the fit in the same way he did years ago only to have Anakin dunk on him with an unnecessarily flashy counter into an immediate victory doing what Dooku just tried to do to him is all great storytelling through combat. The duel not even being close *shows* the audience without any clunky, angsty "my powers have doubled since then" lines, which is *telling* us how much stronger Anakin is; he curb stomped Dooku in record time solo when he couldn't win against him before with significant help, a man who fought Yoda to a draw for twice that time after fighting two other Jedi without rest between...and the same Anakin beats him like he was a mild warm up. That Dooku isn't a rival but just a moderate obstacle for him now is a far better scene to start Ep3 with. It makes Anakin's feelings of the council disrespecting him and not recognizing his power and skill formally feel more justified and less like a winey child. It's so, so much better than what they ultimately put in the movie it's actually kinda mind boggling. 2) Obi-wan being absent removes a lot of clunky dialogue that wasn't good and didn't make that much sense, it removes visuals that don't make sense like Dooku dropping a giant metal platform on Obi-wan's body and then he's....fine? 3) Anakin getting a little too pissed off and going straight from the hand sever move to decapitation of Dooku with only a moment pause to think about it and then do it anyway is better characterization of his turning than him spinelessly just listening to Palpatine, and also removes the problem of Palpatine acting like that and that not being questioned at all by the other characters. It's a better character moment for Anakin and removes non-sense dialogue and plot that just pulls the viewer out of the story; Obi-wan's complete absence from the start of the fight facilitates Anakin acting like that, his presence, even unconscious at that point, grounds Anakin and makes him think to stop. Do you want a headstrong and self righteous Anakin that turned to the dark side because of power and his lack of control, or do you want a Anakin that is a spineless pushover that just kinda gets manipulated and tricked to the darkside through obvious lies and doing what he's told by Palpatine? 4) Anakin's split second to kill Dooku is something Obi-wan could question later, and there could be interesting dialogue. Anakin, knowing in retrospect that he made ethically wrong but emotionally gratifying decision out of anger in the moment, just like he did in Ep 2 when he committed mass murder against a village of Tuskens, would then choose to hide the truth from Obi-wan just as he did last time. Except this time he has to either: ---a) Lie to Obi-wan's face about how he had no choice and the battle was much closer than it really. Anakin as a rule lacks the emotional control for a Jedi of Obi-wan's ability to not sense he wasn't being truthful and that would be all the harder given he's having to down play his real power which he is already upset the Jedi don't respect him for. ---b) Admit what he did to Obi-wan and try to justify/rationalize it to him. Either way seeds of doubt and concern are planted in Obi-wan's mind about Anakin and Anakin has either outright shown the audience he has chosen to not to trust Obi-wan and hide actions he knows were wrong from his closest friend....or else strongly double down on his self-righteous and totalitarian black and white view of the world. Either scenario organically pushes him down the path to the dark side in a way that *shows* the audience and makes perfect sense. 5) Removes additionally clunky dialogue and suspicious actions from Palpatine concerning leaving Obi-wan behind that goes completely unquestioned then or later and requires the audience to ignore how little that makes sense. It allows it to continue being believable that no one suspects Palpatine of being more than he appears. I have to assume this moment of making Anakin do something good immediately after killing Dooku even though he knew it was wrong so there's an excuse for him not having turned yet was the sort of shallow and lazy thing that Luca was fight for over a better scene, but one that more clearly framed Anakin as essentially having turned then and just not realizing it yet.
It’s baffling. Honestly what on earth was going through his head? Did he really need those few seconds of runtime that badly? I always felt the scene could’ve been so much more and I’m not a super fan so I never saw this footage here. He had a whole other fight?! The setting was great with Chancellor Palpatine locked to the chair watching (in control but seeming to be a victim, mimicking how he sits as Darth Sidious) and the battle going on behind them out the window, the quietness of that huge room- it was all so perfect. Then we get a few moments and it’s literally over. Obiwan serves very little function and the thing that falls on him looks so fake. It’s just bizarro what Lucas ended up doing (although the double hand cut and beheading delivered).
![[NEW Footage] Dooku VS Yoda was almost 10X CRAZIER](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/p-LMujfwY4E/mqdefault.jpg)
![[NEW Footage] Dooku VS Yoda was almost 10X CRAZIER](/img/tr.png)
Buy 1 Saber, Get 2 More FREE
👉 SWAsabers.com
I can't watching it because its members only I wish everyone can watch it
@@deadpoolskinghost3672 it will be available for everyone in part 1 of my battle of Coruscant video soon
@@StarWarsAnalyst keep us update on shaktie vs general grievous video soon and i enjoy the videos
do u have the entire battle between Anakin and Dooku? I wanna see what the origonal was suppse to be like .
@@joshprice9508 this is the whole thing
Bro hayden is crazy talented at the swordplay choreography. Always makes it look dope af
This is why I hope they bring Hayden or Ewan back for more content, they're so talented at being Anakin and Obi-Wan and it feels like a waste not to use them.
@@Darth_Xionn Totally
Hayden's acting came to a whole new light when I heard that he was trying to duplicate Vader's speech style from the original trilogy: but yeah his saber play is next level.
@@dalimoreomali2994 People always gave him shit for that Vader speech thing, but I think it was a good idea on his part.
@@Darth_Xionn
It really depends on what director wants and his commitment.
Under Lucas they practiced for months.
Would it be the same under su someone else?
I wonder.
Imagine having the best duel in the whole series and leaving it on the cutting room floor.
A freaking tragedy, this chorography is absolutely stunning and should of been used .
I distinctly remember Hayden Christensen doing an interview before Episode III came out, and he said that he couldn't give away too much, but said that the fans should look forward to one of the greatest swordfights ever put on film. It makes me sad to think that when he said that... he was talking about this one.
@@LamanKnight no? Y’all forget about Obi-wan vs Anakin? Longest sword fight scene in any movie?
@@Solocase right😂 people just like to pretend what they didn't get will always be better than anything they've ever gotten. Anakin v obi wan is still the best fight in the series
@@Picmanreborn bro chose to speak in pure facts 🥶
0:55 anakin jumping over dooku would have been SO amazing because this would actually justify his overconfidence and it would go hand in hand with the fact that his ability to pull off this move wasn't as much based on his powers but more of his opponents overconfidence. just amazing
Doesn't go hand in hand at all.
@@genetenz i disagree but respect your opinion fine gentleman
Planting the seed of his overconfidence by successfully flipping over dooku would have perfectly foreshadowed his defeat against obi wan. Dang!
@@yeef3493 MY GODS, you're RIGHT!!! This bit of foredshadowing was SORELY MISSED!!!!
@@yeef3493but they instead used the excuse of Anakin using the same move that he learnt from Obi Wan when cutting Maul
Holy hell. Hayden puts in the work. That move was so fluid. I can't believe they didn't use it. Definitely cements the idea that Vader was an S tier duelist.
I can understand why he got fed up with the criticism and movie industry and left it altogether, he gave it all
Hayden really put his all into the role, not his fault his script had so many cringe moments, and I'm sure he was instructed to deliver them the way he did.
@@coyote000i mean hes back
My only issue with Hayden's fights is he looks to sword contact. (Ewan did it a few times. ) I know they are rehearsing, but tapping swords is alittle weak too.
@@ironheadedDoF at least for this context he's training her. So him doing "rehearsed" attacks makes sense. But yea it does take away a little. Cough Kylo ren with his back lightsaber, and buddy attacks it directly, or rey holding his saber with the force and attacking the saber cough
The little Easter eggs throughout make this fight SO MUCH better then what we got
1) Anakin getting mad and gaining power showing his strength when tapping into the dark side
2) Anakin’s flip foreshadowing his attempt vs Obi Wan
3) Blinding Dooku in the same place as Anakin’s scar
4) Dooku failing to cut Anakin’s hand off showing his growth
Plus the fight just looks better.
He leaps over Obi-Wan successfully once during their fight while they are on the lava. I don't know if this one is THAT necessary, especially since Obi-Wan isn't here to see it and thus be able to better prepare for it in their fight.
@@LucianDevine It's not that he uses it once and gets away with it, it's that he insists on doing it without understanding that every halfway decent move can be countered and beaten. Had he known that, he would've assessed that he didn't have the high ground and therefore shouldn't do the thing, instead of insisting he could fight how he wanted and get what he wanted out of it. It's not about the move, but about Anakin hammering in his bad habits (which HAVE helped him) and yet not wanting to think through different circumstances with a different mindset.
@@jjhh320 With so much anger and hatred blinding him, as well as his innate arrogance, even if he knew it, he still probably wouldn't have taken the time to assess the situation and chosen a different course of action. Obi-Wan knew what he was going to do, and Anakin knew that Obi-Wan knew, but he tried it anyway. That in and of itself shows us everything we need, without the Dooku jump.
If this particular duel featured in the movie it would have more clearly, and very quickly, established for the audience just how much Anakin had grown in combat and force ability.
Gotta appreciate as well just how dedicated and skilled Hayden was to achieve this level of proficiency with a lightsaber/sword. So good!
not really... the duel in the theatrical version makes Anakin a lot more powerful.
In what particular way, do you think?
@@paulpatine6638 the duel is far too long in this uncut version and shows that Anakin was not that much powerful yet. makes his fall to obi wan less of a feat for obi wan.
Once anakin turned a bit into his dark side, it only took a few seconds to dispatch dooku. This shows how powerful anakin was at this point. He was on another level. This is the reason why i believe that if yoda went to mustafar, yoda would have met a similar fate. Yoda was so much wiser that he sent Obi wan.
@@highlanderc if Yoda held his own against Palpatine, he can hold his own against Anakin, and possibly destroy him.
That is a good point regarding the moment Anakin taps into the Dark Side and how he suddenly displays an increased ability to overpower Dooku, who was revered as one of the greatest swordsmasters in the galaxy.
It was still an impressive display of technical ability with a lightsaber in the uncut version, however.
It's such a shame for both the fans and the actors they don't add these epic duels into the final cut. Those actors worked so long and hard to learn the choreography.
What we got in the final cuts is still far better than anything Disney has made though
@@sonoftheway3528 I don't know, I like a lot of Rey and Kylo vs Praetorian Guards in Ep 8. Not a huge fan of the rest of the film but it has some great shots visually.
It's a crime is what it is
True. Why the hell cut it out? Everyone wants to see it. Are the directors dumb?
@@Settiis yup
That saber drop/catch was the best saber move I've ever seen!!!
Right
I was looking for some to comment about it!!! That was amazing!!!!
The cheapest saber trick
It's like Winter Soldier's knife trick.
@@filippomonaco2303 I think the cheapest saber trick still goes to turning your saber off for a hot second when clashing, taking your opponent off balance (the only example I can think of would be Cal Kestis doing it in Fallen Order) but this looked dope.
Man, I can't believe Lucas didn't go with this one. It's absolutely brilliant. I hope we will get a version with these included someday. Epic, and Hayden's skills are most impressive.
Possible though. Lucas always edits it after their release anyway.
@@JaceTan-90 not gonna happen, Lucas sold Star Wars IP to Disney. They probably just make another shitty trilogy. Sad
We can all agree George Lucas had a streak of poor decisions while making the prequels.
@@alexlun4464 he looks like a goddamned creative genius compared to what Disney put out tho
@@alexlun4464 we can all agree George is the mf GOAT 🐐
The main reason this scene is better is because Anakin discovers that anger makes him stronger - important as part of his being seduced by the dark side. The arc we got stuck with left a lot to be desired.
True
@@StarWarsAnalystnot really.
This in tandem with the lightsaber moves.
Palpatine: Use your aggressive feelings Anakin, call on your rage!!!
@@redips Yes, Master.
Damn man this looks way better than what we got. The fight looks so fluid and badass.
It's a great example of how George Lucas really did have a terrific framework of a story, but just couldn't stick the landing on the details and plot evolution because he was too caught up in the VFX and the caricaturist aspects of the characters. If he had someone who could rein in his excesses and keep him focused, the overall quality of the prequels probably would have been a lot better.
You got it backwards. While this LOOKS cool, it’s the Hollywood stereotype fighting choreography rife with signature money shot poses, whereas the movie version is more “realistic” with the slightly boring continuous barrage movements. George knew what he was doing. He purposely chose integrity of the story vs fan service.
And some of it were just limitations out of George’s hands - it was only Hayden and the choreographer himself who could do these stunts, the other actors weren’t good enough. They had to cgi their heads on stuntmen’s torsos which wasn’t working, so either they put inexplicable masks/helmets on the characters or go with a “simpler” routine.
@@LilacSreya Get out of here with that "realistic" bs. We're talking about beings that are able to do things that go way beyond of what a regular human can do. Trying to make a battle between them "realistic" is actually the most unrealistic thing.
I'm guessing the Christopher Lee headswap would be too difficult for that much choreography.. that and Lee probably didn't like the idea of his face being singed by a lightsaber
@@chakkra69 you did not get what Lilac said. Other actors have limitations, and this fight would’ve surpassed others and would not look consistent throughout the movie
i cant stop thinking about how amazing that idea was of anakin basically learning from his mistake of their last duel, and stops dooku from taking his arm off again lol. thats just amazing art right there!!
"Lesson learned: don't let Dooku chop off my arm."
Lmfao I'm feeling sick with the whole idea here of their last duel being that one from EP II, I mean, if you watched clone wars you know what I am talking about
@@warpdarkmatter To be fair, that probably was the original intention when Lucas wrote Revenge of the Sith. Just look at lines like "THIS time, we will do it together" and "my power have doubled since the last time we met, Count."
There's also Grievous talking as if Utapau was the first time he's ever fought Obi-Wan. The way he drew his sabers and dramatically declared "I have been trained in your Jedi arts by Count Dooku!", it's like he hasn't fought Obi-Wan a bunch of times already.
@@MarsellusWallace Indeed! The only exception was the moment Anakin met Grievous in the begging of ROTS. Although Grievous already knew obi wan as implied in that same meeting, that dialogue between both as if it was like their first duel doesn't make much sense even if there wasn't a clone wars show
@@warpdarkmatter Well, just because he's met him before doesn't mean they've fought with lightsabers yet.
Hayden was the perfect Anakin. I can't imagine anyone else in the role. His dedication in training for this scene alone deserves commendation.
If only Lucas had given him proper lines and character development. Anakin was butchered by showing a whining teenager instead of the tragic hero Filoni depicted in clones wars and rebels.
@@vlad78th problem is in aotc he is a teenager, basically a socially awkward monk that had never spoken to girls. Plus he was fixated on Padmé for years. So he was meant to be akward. Then we just timeskip to badass Anakin, but we never saw that development on screen
Anakin is just a teenager, all teenagers are awkward. Seems like everyone want anakin to be borne with darth vader mask on. 🤣
@@vlad78thWell clone wars just shows the better parts of him and aotc shows right before he started maturing, the recent book brotherhood takes place after aotc and kenobi talks about it and then the films so his darker side while the show intends to show what caused all of that
@@TheRogueJedii i agree on that. While TCW and the rest of the oldschool EU does help flesh out Anakin's character a bit more, it would have been nice to just start the prequel trilogy at AOTC, timeline-wise, have the 2nd movie be sort of in the middle of the Clone Wars, and then have Episode 3 be ROTS
The fact that Hayden did all of this, while also being able to convey Anakin's battle-hardened rage is so good! My theory is that the sacrifice must have been made in favor of more CGI and having Christopher Lee in more scenes than the stunt double.
Most likely yeah. That’s why the Palpatine vs mace choreography was changed. George wanted Ian himself to do it
That saber drop is FIRE. The jump over Obi Wan would have SO MUCH MORE MEANING if he did it successfully over Dooku. Such a great fight seen. I love BTS stuff!! #MTFBWY
like Bohun's saber hand switch in With Fire and Sword. He sucsessfully did it in one fight with Cossacks and then he was dueling Wołodyjowski and processed to do so called his best move but it didn't go as planned and he lost that duel.
He leaps over Obi-Wan successfully once during their fight while they are on the lava. I don't know if this one is THAT necessary, especially since Obi-Wan isn't here to see it and thus be able to better prepare for it in their fight.
As years go by Haden’s performance just looks better and better.
I can't remember which video it was, but I think there was a video commentary on Ep. 3 where they showed Hayden and Ewan practicing the final duel and someone shows someone else the footage and the 2nd guy asks the first guy why he sped it up and they first guy has to tell him it's not sped up, that's how fast they were really going. Hayden put his all into this.
@@trini_staple Hayden and Ewan were really the best at these duels. Ray Park too.
@@trini_stapleSame happened with Ewan and Ray Park. They suspected the audience wouldn't believe it wasn't sped up.
Because you now have the Disney trash to compare it against
His performance was incredible since day one, but people had to hate on it for some reason. They're all eating their words NOW...
This would have been better...especially the bit where Anakin jumps over Dooku, a foreshadowing of events to come.
"It's like poetry, it rhymes"
According to Nick, the high ground scene wasn't originally supposed to exist.
And also the way he kicks Dooku off the platform, like Luke kicked Vader down in Empire.
"a foreshadowing of events to come"
I'd say it would show why he was so confident he would pull it off.
Would it be foreshadowing or plot armour for the hero?
Obi Wan and Maul etc
If you didn't know the jump over is foreshadowed in the first movie....
The drop-switch to Anakin's other hand with the lightsaber is an awesome move.
Even more awesome? The extremely subtle taunting smile he gives Dooku at 1:00 and he knows full well that he's going to win this duel with no uncertainty whatsoever.
Hayden's portrayal of Anakin has always been perfect.
It's not a subtle smile the whole shot is literally zooming in on his face to show him doing that
Yeah, even with the change and having Obi-Wan be there, they still should've worked him leaping over Dooku and the drop switch into the fight, the drop switch was a crazy good move.
It doesnt make much sense though, why go for his arm when his whole body is exposed? maybe take out his legs? or torso instead? The problem with the lightsaber is that its so overpowered that you can go for any body part at any time
@@erikm9768 If he was at a further distance away it would make a lot of sense. The arm is often the closest target.
Hayden Christensen's moves are catually insane. You can say whatever you want about the man, but he gave his 100% to every lightsaber fight. Rarely do you see an actor give this much dedication to fighting choreography. To be this fast, and precise in your moves requires more than just acting and practicing some moves, in requires a level of martial arts competency.
Both him and Ewan deserve massive props for their dedication to learning it. I mean if you just look at the final duel of theirs and whats in the movie is supposedly slowed down from the speed they were going at it, which if true is insane, i mean even whats in the movie is insanely fast and beatiful to watch, and most of it is them going at it, not just doubles all the time
Not really
Good side blade kicks too
looks stupid af twirling their swords around like they’re dancing and not even trying to hurt each other. prequels are ass.
Wah wah. What a crybaby....@@Buttington_Headerson
THIS is how you execute storytelling in a fight. I’m so happy this exists
George Lucas made a terrible mistake removing this entire fight, this captures how skilled and powerful Anakin truly was. I watched this movie 5 times in the theatre, but if all the lightsaber fight scenes were kept I would've watched it 10 times more! Remember folks, we never saw what a lightsaber fight looked like prior to Return of the Jedi and even though at the time that was impressive, it was nothing compared to when Anakin and the Jedi were in their prime (if you will).
@@kagamiuchihathebeast5862 Yes, but if you think about it it wasn't much of a fight imo...
lol what ? theres a lightsaber fight between vader and obi wan in episode 4
Well stated!
@@KrushKrills man thats really not a lightsaber fight obiwan vs Vader isn't really a fight
@@KrushKrills lol - I would love to see that fight done like the re-imagined fight. Yes, it is a classic style of sword fighting they originally used but given what we know of Anakin and Obi-wan now, the re-imagined scene seems way more appropriate of their fighting styles.
A lot of people tend to dismiss the Prequels' duels as just pointless twirling and twisting, but the choreography and fencing sessions were *insane*...
So much training and intricate blink-and-you-miss-it moves!
Nick Gillard was even made into the in-universe Jedi Battle Master Cin Drallig (very briefly seen in RotS) after his faithful service on all 3 Prequels.
And then Anakin killed him in about 12 seconds...
Yes, it's extremely impressive the amount of skill and dedication they put into this choreography, but it doesn't change that the twirling and twisting is entirely unbelievable. If you did this in a real fight with an opponent actually trying to kill you instead of with a compliant dancing partner, you'd die. The instant you turn your back to your opponent, you're dead. The reason we talk about the twirling and twisting is in the hopes that one day Hollywood makes more believable fights, that they get their facts right first, THEN distort them. There's a LOT of REALLY COOL things you can do in fight choreography while maintaining a sense of believability and it would make the end result a lot better when you can look at the duel and know the two people fighting actually know what they're doing instead of spotting one thing after another that just a newbie medieval knight could've capitalized on and gotten a deathblow.
@@spikem5950 While everything you just said is true, you should also consider that this isn't a normal fight with normal swords or normal people. I know lots of people tend to use that as an excuse to cover non-sensical writing, but that isn't exactly what I'm saying. Jedi and Sith do battle with the Force; the lightsaber simply makes force battles less boring to watch. Sure, the Force can give you lightning fingers and the power to bend blaster bolts in midair, but not everyone is powerful enough to do that. Now do lightsaber battles with lots of spinning and twirling entirely make sense? Well, no, not really, but do they completely not make sense? Not really either. A lightsaber has different weight than a sword, we're led to believe, so it makes sense they'd be swung differently, at the very least.
@@sgoldendragon3603 This is using it as an excuse to cover non-sensical writing. Your opponent being a Force user with all sorts of super abilities wouldn't make you want to do moves that open you up to them, it would make you be even more careful but to make a mistake. Go take a look at the lightsaber duel titled To The Death, it shows what lightsaber fighting should be just taking into account the difference in weight and edge alignment with two non-Force users, and then go take a look at the fights and multiple shorts by a channel called Sellsword Arts, they have lots of shorts explaining why lightsaber choreography makes no sense and what jedi should fight like taking from real historical manuscripts that include some flourishing motions, and they also have fights taking Force use into account, adding some fantasy to the fighting, and all without making you wonder how any of these combatants made it this long when they make mistakes a child with a stick could kill you for every 0.2 seconds of a fight.
@@sgoldendragon3603 all the twisting and twirling would make it harder for your opponent to use the force to stop your blade
Excellent! Dooku mostly fights one-handed with his lightsaber which is interesting. It gives credence to the Form II style that's described where he's able to quickly maneuver his lightsaber but doesn't really deliver any heavy blows with it. This is why Anakin eventually overpowers him.
It's Makashi's biggest weakness as a lightsaber form. Poor kinetic energy
In Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover the duel is fought from Dooku’s perspective and Stover does a good job describing Dooku’s emotions throughout the duel going from arrogant to concerned to outright frightened at the level of power Anakin is fighting with as well as his mastery of Form V which focuses on large, heavy blows. This cut footage would follow that logic as Anakins blows would be too much for Dooku’s 1 handed technique and even then Dooku’s wouldn’t be able to stop Anakin from pushing his lightsaber into Dooku’s eye
Plenty of powerful strikes were taught in 1 handed sword systems such as the moulinets. What does in reality happen is the 1 handed sword systems become tiring quicker than holding the same weight in both hands. A rapier is about 1200 grams in weight. This is the about the same for longsword(2handed), katana (2handed), and scottish broadsword/heavy cav sabres (1handed). As for parrying 2 handed strikes with 1 hand; biomechanicaly the most comfortable are hanging guards such as prime and second. Fun info I know.
The inspiration for that actually came from Christopher Lee, he had actual formal training in fencing, he had several rapiers in his private sword collection, this inspired the costume designers to come up with a curved hilt, better design for single handed wielding which suited christopher Lee's own sword fighting style.
@@shannoncurry2037 the same for soresu i don't understand why obi wan was no defeated
Why in the world would they delete such a masterful scene!? That's unbelievable!
I do not know how fans can complain that these fights create no tension. It is a beautiful lightsaber dance, minding the lore and styles, it is just so satisfying to look at, tension or not. The Disney shows do not replicate these in general, except when Luke demolished the hallway in Mandalorian.
I think because it looks so much like a choreographed dance and less like 2 people actually trying to kill and injure each other. When you see all the spins, even as quick as they are going, you wonder why they can't just hit the guy while he's spinning and his back is turned or his blade is out of position like at 0:30. Now we, as the audience understand why he didn't, but it breaks the suspension of disbelief at the same time.
@@LucianDevineI agree with you both. They just need to do an extended cut.
Meld both versions of the fights, fill in the gaps (like Ani's hair and Lee's likeness) with the CG, provide a more natural arc in the film with carefully placed scenes, maybe fix some minor continuity issues, update the blue screen, then boom.
Not only would it sell well, it might actually result in a film agreed to be one of the best ever made.
Don't forget Maul v. Ahsoka and Vader's own hallway scene in Rogue One. Like father, like son. But yeah, that's about it from Disney Star Wars lol
Those spins have their lightsabers flying threw the air mid fight! That’s insane! Why would they delete this? They need to polish this up add some cgi hair and face swap the stunt doubles with the actors. This is a gem and shouldn’t go to waste
True! Also, Hayden did crazy in these scenes
For time. It's really a shame we didn't get to see this version on the big screen.
Because George Lucas shouldn't be allowed to produce only direct and that is a maybe as well. He left so much on the cutting floor that was better both visually and in storyline and put things, cutesy in his mind I guess, in their place.
@@jayh6997 I mean it looks mesmerizing but I understand him not wanting a duel that did anything to shadow the much more emotionally charged dual with Kenobi. There is never enough good star wars duels but they all mean nothing without the story and the emotional stakes. It was the correct call.
@@Wand422 The dooku/shmi reveal sounds pretty good though. Aligns with everything before and after. And puts Anakin a step further into a dark side mindset making his turn seem less immediate later.
Hayden is just incredible, all of his duels in the prequels were insane.
What Dooku said to Anakin to enrage him was that he was the one who orchestrated Shmi's death.
He visited the Tuskens and paid them in fresh food, water, and resources to locate, kidnap, and slowly torture her to death.
Yes, her abduction and brutal treatment wasn't an unfortunate accident, it was his plan.
Or maybe palpatine took advantage of what Anakin told him and instructed dooku to say this to enrage Anakin 🤔
WHAAAAAATTTTT GEORGE WHY
@@lxizch7876 I think this is far more likely. Because at this point Sidious was already looking to recruit anakin and the chances that dooku took it upon himself to go out and ensure a jedis mother get kidnapped and tortured is far below him. In addition to the fact that only sidious and padme knew about his mother.
@@zenraloc Yeah. Dooku doing that doesn't mesh with everything we know about him. Glad that part didn't make the cut.
They could have easily replaced Dooku's dialogue so that he says something that would still make Anakin mad without being out of character for Dooku. For example: "I notice you have some sand in your hair Anakin"
Not only did we get cheated with this being cut, but the extended duel between Dooku and Yoda in Attak of The Clones was amazing as well because Dooku switched to TWO Sabers against Yoda. Dooku was a tilt a whirl and yoda became way more controlled and focused. Damn you guys for cutting everything that would have made kids lose their minds.
Insane how crazy fast and nimble Hayden got with the sword fighting. Amazing finesse
It’s sad that all this was discarded. They put a lot of effort and talent into it. Also, it helped to show all the manipulation suffered for so many years by a young person as Anakin.
The story would’ve been more complex, and Anakin’s reactions (and Hayden’s performance) more reasonable and sympathetic.
The story is more complex. Read the novelization of Revenge of the Sith. It's quite good. However, I'm not sure where this channel gets their info because in the novelization Anakin also fights Dooku with Obi-Wan similar to the movie. Sources would be nice beyond these fan-theories, because Anakin fought Dooku alone anyhow after Obi-Wan was knocked unconcious, so all that this video really "reveals" is that the choreography was changed. Big woop.
@@Sykomyke
The novelization was released after the movie, I believe.
Oh my God! That fight would've been SO much better! It really demonstrated just how much more powerful and skilful Anakin had grown while also showing that he did learn from their last encounter. Would LOVE to see this redone!
Hayden Christensen's performance as a Jedi with a lightsaber is superlative, he's perfectly in sync, with harmonious moves, like a dance it's perfection! He's outstanding and his dedication shows!
That is actually insane. What a crazy sequence. They really show how powerful anakin actually is
Hayden is so badass with a lightsaber that he had to chill with Ahsoka's cast 😂
I can't even describe the excitement I felt when Anakin let go of the saber and grasped it again. It was like I was a teenager in the theater again. That was such a good night.
The amount of practice and dedication they had when making these lightsaber duels in the prequel trilogy is just amazing.
You see none of that in the Disney trilogy where their lightsaber fights are just pathetic.
No, the sequel trilogy’s fights took just as much choreography. Not mention the choreography’s a lot better, since the characters are swinging for each other rather than swinging for each other’s sabers. Plus the camera work is a ton better in the sequels, which is a marked improvement from the prequels.
@@birdthebird3396 eughhh imma be real honest I can't remember anything from the sequels... like not a single duel from the sequels. At least from the prequels I can actually remember something
@@eomex8379 I've only watch TFA and only when it was release on dvd just to see how much i was right about that shit ( my prédictions) ,EP 8-9 just dont f**k**g care about. And your right about choreography's
The Prequel got the best one's
@@eerieolie7204 Exactly. Like yeah, in lightsaber fights you're normally going to aim at your target and not the saber, but even the sequels do that. And terribly too. It just looks like a bunch of kids with glowing bats swinging around with no real sense of order. The duels in the prequels at least have that clear order. The choreography will always be some of the best.
I know. it's like they improvised on set. They just arrived at the studio one day and were handed lightsaber props and told to fight.
Such a shame George didn't end up going with Nick's full Palpatine vs the jedi duel 😱
1:19 Is nobody gonna talk about the fact Dooku litterally *stretched* his neck into the blade of the saber as if he was examining just which shade of blue it is!?
I grew up loving Star Wars, just to hate it now because they've ruined it, but this might be one of the coolest lightsaber duels I've ever seen. When he drops his lightsaber and then catches it again so his hand doesn't get chopped off, just amazing!
This is sick. Anakin is in control of the entire fight.
Man you can see the love and attention to detail that star wars had back when George and his old team were in charge. I miss this man....
Its absolutely glorious and the film would have been 10 times better with it.
the amount of things taken out of films is galling (2 hours! PG-13! I know better) - maybe just maybe they aren't geniuses?
Wtf. GEORGE WHY!? THIS WAS SO GOOD AND YOU CUT IT 😭
Wow huge HUGE respect to Hayden for pulling off all this intricate choreography
Definitely should’ve kept this version. Clearly shows how stronger anakin had become plus the foreshadowing of the jump over his opponent would’ve been great
Thank you for this! Hayden is absolutely wonderful. He has so much control over his body
😏
Man him letting go of the lightsaber right before his arm would have gotten cut off again and then grabbing the lightsaber again midair was sick and I really wish they would have left that in the movie. Especially since it transitioned to Dooku’s hands getting cut off right after he did that move.
Yeah.... the way that transitioned into the final moves.... that was flawless, and that they didnt include it is a huge shame
Fast forward 10 years and Disney can't give us a SINGLE good lightsaber duel...
Episode 1,2,3 still best lightsaber duels in any of the trilogy. The fact it could have e been this much better is a bit mindblowing
This version is better than what we got in the movie. Holy shit 😳
It truly shows just how skilled Anakin skywalker truly become..........
1:27 letting go of the light sabre to avoid his blade and catching with the other hand is the best thing I've ever seen
OMG - there is soo much here to really dig into, the call backs, the foreshadowing - awesome choreography that may be the best in the entire movie universe.... Hayden being awesome...This would have made sense why Anakin thought he could have taken the high ground ! Aaarrrggghhh wish they would have left it in. Awesome !!! Thanks for sharing. It would be great to add it to the blue ray or the collectors set....Its showing how far Anakin had progressed from the last duel and far exceeding Dooku.... The one in the move was too short...Whoever that stunt guy is get him on the new series stat! Both these guys did great. Showing Dooku as a bad ass too even though he lost.
Damn, my mans actually learned all of that choreo? Go'head, Hayden!
Omg love this truly display how powerful and skilled Anakin was. I can't believe they deleted this out of the movie . I guess they didn't want this scene in the movie to top the final battle with obi one . Truly a badass fight scene .
Ahhhhh this is so friggin' badass! ✊
Fantastic choreography that absolutely should have made its way into this film, even if it was only in an extended version DVD release after the theatrical.
Insane the amount of training that went into crafting these fights. Would have been bonkers to get these incredible sequences in the finished product. They're the best in all of Star Wars.
Man, things like this take me back to the mid-2000s, when Star Wars was my life and... y'know... still worth getting hyped over. Always nice to get a little nostalgia bomb.
Ugh, that would have been so much more cinematic. The flip over dooku gives precedent to the move, which adds even more impact to Anakin’s later attempt to use the (previously successful) maneuver on Obi-wan; it’s no longer just a wild jump, it’s a move we’ve seen him use before, but he’s so blinded by his rage he fails to notice that this situation is different, because Obi-wan has the high ground.
You should interview Nick gillard
Star Wars theory did a interview with Nick the other week, interesting what Nick has to say about these clips😉
This was awesome. Hope you hit 100K likes. Thanks for posting this. 😎
The choreography is crazy, and considering they had to practice and memorize all that, it's a shame it got cut. Only gripe I have with that ending move though, when Dooku misses his arm, he could have easily swept Anakin's torso, but he kind of twirls it in between the two of them passing up the winning stroke. Choreography is better than the horrid new sequel trilogy, but it does seem similar to the throne room scene with Rey when that guard just spins away rather than killing her..
cant believe how crazy good Hayden is with the lightsabre, probably the best ive ever seen. and at that point he had only been practicing for 3 years
Damn . . . It's soo rad. It's the choreography you expect to see from a master jedi.
This is 1000x better than what is in the movie. That lightsaber drop move from Anakin was insane.
I cant understand why they didnt put the 1:35 part in the final version. It would make the movie like, 3 seconds longer and they thought it was too much? That move alone makes the scene 100x better
It’s beautiful… and to think this duel was already one of my favorites in the whole franchise- yet it could have been so much more impressive and poetic from a narrative standpoint if they had completed the scene with this choreography in its entirety.
That was awesome! Great athleticism and choreography.
This was prime Anakin here and we were blatantly robbed of seeing it. This duel between him and Dooku confirmed why Palpatine wanted Anakin as his apprentice.
Yep!!! Have u seen the recent Darth Maul footage I posted?
@@StarWarsAnalyst I'll be sure to give it my utmost attention.
Most people might disagree with me, but even though this has insanely good coreography, the og makes Dooku seem more powerful. Here it seems like Anakin has no trouble which kinda sucks. Wish he would do a bit worse at the beginning and only after the dialogue he goes full pre-sith mode on him
Yeah, but this version of the fight depicts the fight more accurately than the novelization of Revenge of the Sith, which depicts Dooku as being completely outclassed by Anakin, so it makes sense for Dooku to be underperforming since the duel began.
Palpatine even asked Dooku if he was sure he could beat Anakin this time after Dooku boasted that he'd have to go easy on Anakin so his anger could be built up, when in fact Anakin was stronger than him from the start and Dooku angering Anakin during their brief conversation during the duel only aggravated things in an even worse manner for him.
@@kagamiuchihathebeast5862 It is actually the same, and you are one google away to find out.
I'm not going to waste time arguing nonsense with a random internet user. Have a wonderful day.
@@kagamiuchihathebeast5862 😂 Anakin completely destroyed a trying dooku in seconds while holding back from killing him and only going for the disarm.
Anakin is solidly above dooku in power and as a duelists during rots and is backed up and confirmed by George Lucas, Dave filoni, nick Gillard, and a overwhelming amount of canon and even legend sources and shown in the movie and even said in the movie that Anakin is more powerful.
George and canon sources already confirmed Anakin during rots is on par with yoda and sidious.
Shoot Anakin literally stalemated a going all out dooku a lil before rots in the dark disciple novel.
The Anakin vs Dooku lightsaber fight scene in Revenge of the Sith was pretty good. I often wonder what it would look like if Anakin turned to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader and then fought Dooku after that?
Its an interesting thought. Legends Vader had some limitations that present canon Vader doesn't. I think both Vaders would ultimately win, but Legends Vader would have a WAY harder time fending off Dooku due to his suits limited mobility and weakness to force lightning (Plus legends Vader is supposedly only about 80% as powerful as Palpatine) So that one would be a really close contest. Canon Vader though wouldn't have too much difficulty, the only thing that might give Dooku a bit of breathing room is that Vader doesn't primarily focus on form 5 the way Anakin did (5 being 2's biggest weakness). Well that's how I see it going, Vader wins either way, just one version has a harder fight than the other.
@@dreadrath A pretty good answer you posted. I see in your answer that you mentioned 2 different versions of Darth Vader: Legends Vader and canon Vader. What's the difference between the 2? Another interesting concept: Legends Vader vs canon Vader. Which version would win?
@@tima.curtis2488 Basically Canon Vader has none of the limitations of Legends Vader i.e. the suit didn't hinder mobility, he didn't lose any force potential, etc
The choreography on these fights is actually unbelievably impressive!
Come on, guys! Share the video and let’s get 100,000 likes!
Not too far now…!
This is unreal… why was it cut!
Gotta say, that is a SWEET choreography and I am sure not evereybody could pull this off. Incredible! And it towers highly over whatever the "sequels" put out.
I have always liked the prequels and never understood why they got so much flak over the years. I have always liked them a lot and watched them countless times.
As much as I love the choreography that goes on, I feel like having Anakin be this level of powerful to basically from the start be in control and more powerful than Dooku would have made the Obi-Wan final battle even less believable. Having Anakin and Obi-Wan basically have to wear down Dooku together and only after Obi-Wan gets taken out to provide the anger does Anakin become powerful enough to beat Dooku makes more sense story wise for me personally when it comes to Anakin vs Obi-Wan.
I feel you use the first half of this, showing Anakin and Dooku being well matched, and then Obi Wan joins and they finish the fight together. It would bring in some of this amazing choreography without making Anakin feel unstoppable.
GREAT JOB!!!! 🤯 My favorite part of ep3 , what i was looking for , was the duel between Dooku and Anakin
(more than Obi vs Ani ) thoses footages make it more pleasant for me !!!!!!
P.S about the full Palpatine vs jedis duel.....
DEW IT !!!!
I think this right here is a big part of why it was cut. The choreography shows how skilled Anakin is. How could Obi-Wan defeat THIS GUY?! Might've felt cheated with this duel in the beginning and their duel in the third act not being as well choreographed... Maybe?
@@danielsmith9130 At many point i agreed , ,,, BUT!!! dont forget that Dooku his not on the rigth mindset for the Duel ( he think its already wrapped , a quick formality for having Anakin on their side ) he do not know that Sidious betrayed him already and ( a realy stupid thing to do ) he gasligth a unstable full testosteroned far younger men who was on ``BEAST MODE`` someone also who do not really rely on ``following the rule by the book``
( but it is mostly because of some visuals and makeing the duel longer that i enjoyed it )
p.s what do you think of it ?
ruclips.net/video/mFZ9vOag0TE/видео.html
The choreography is really out of this world.
Really amazing stuff.
Holy cow that stunt double has hops
My problem with this scene is that anakin and dooku have fought like 30 times since attack of the clones so the doubled in power line doesn't make sense since its been like a max of a month since they last fought
That's what happens when they don't pay attention to their own canon and no pre planning of the overall story.
@@paulmccloud9395 yeah well to be fair I've watched the clone wars hundreds of times through now and one thing I am impressed about is that they never had grievous and anakin actually meet or fight so that the line your shorter than I expected still stands true to this day. So a 50/50 score isn't the worst we could ask for
Yeah while it's not outright stated, I always sensed that the intention was that Anakin and Tyranus had no duels between _AotC_ and _RotS_ . Same goes for Kenobi and Vader between _RotS_ and _ANH_ .
Filoni Wars was a kids cartoon that wasn't on the same level as movie canon. It also didn't debut until after ROTS was already made.
@@paulmccloud9395 Back in the day actual filmmakers didn't have shared universes with cartoons. That's a Disney thing.
God it's goosebump inducing... as much as Revenge of the Sith wasn't well recieved, I loved how cool the sabre fights looked as a child - it was actually my favorite SW film for that reason.
Wish they kept more of this in.
Revenge of the sith was well received
@@kickstart3974It wasn't. lol Mediocre reviews, rightfully so.
It wasn't well received because Lucas had lost a lot of goodwill after the Phantom Menace. However, we were optimistic he would give us something better in AOTC. Arguably what we got was worse. I never saw 3 in the theaters, I no longer cared much. I saw it years later on TV, and it was okay, but not the OT. Much improved from the first two though.
This deleted scene has better fight choreography than all of the sequel trilogy films combined
Facts
Their is no choreography in the sequels
Nick Gillard is the best lightsaber choreographer we've had on star wars
Man, I love the fights in Revenge of the Sith, they are the best fights in all of Star Wars. BUT GOD DAMN! I did not expect to see even more amazing fighting in the deleted scenes. I wish we got this in there, that dropping of the blade, into grabbing it again is SO cool.
Lets be honest, this shouldve been the films path. Its better in literally every way. Even providing a far more significant depth of story...
These films didn’t get there due, look at Hayden doing his own choreography like that. I’m blown away, it’s like he really had the force. Such a shame people hated on these films and pissed off George. They were a masterpiece and the choreography in the fight scenes was mind blowing
We hated the first two because they weren't good. We waited in line for days to be told by Lucas essentially grow up the films are just for kids. The last one of the prequels was okay with some good scenes. Not Empire by any means though.
1:30 okay I think that may have been a BIT overkill and would’ve been especially hard for an actor to pull off
BRUH... That duel... INSTANT COOMAGE.
Hayden is officially the best lightsaber duelist to ever exist
Daaaaaaamn~ That drop of the saber and then cutting off Dooku's hands was intense. Shiiit
I love how all the stuff in Star Wars that people love the most is often significantly better and lore-expanding in the unused concepts and footage for the films
one day this needs to be animators in the Clone Wars style
one could only imagine how epic that would be
Man Nick Gillard is such a great choreographer and fighter. Disney needs to use him again
To paraphrase Red Letter Media: the idea to have Anakin separated from Obi-Wan on the ship, resulting in him encounter and dueling Dooku alone without the presence of his friend and master to keep him level and give him an opportunity to dip into anger and the dark side during the duel is such a good idea I wager that Lucas had nothing to do with it and actively fought to have it changed to what ended up in the movie.
We pretty much get the same impact by having Obi wan get knocked unconscious. It makes Anakin alone, and also angry. But meanwhile we also get an opening sequence that makes Anakin and Obi wan feel like brothers; ultimately making Anakin’s betrayal all the more tragic
@@StarWarsAnalyst I think Obi-wan being present and then unconscious is meaningfully different than him being absent entirely. It's a different kind of alone, and there is a lack of a need to defend him, nor mental space taken up by Obi-wan simply be him being near and something Anakin has to worry about.
I think there's plenty of examples of how Anakin/Obi-wan as brothers is told to us rather than shown, something the Red Letter Media reviews go through in exhaustive detail, and you'd need to do a lot of work across the entire two movies of ep 2 and 3 to actually make it feel believable. It's too late to try to hang their entire relationship on that scene.
Here are all the reasons why the solo scene is better:
1) Obi-wan being absent also removes any element of his contribution to the fight; it's just straight up Anakin v Dooku and he steamrolls him in just about two minutes in the solo fight. The fight itself is better characterization of Anakin, foreshowing and call back than the theatrical version is. Dooku's initial underestimation of Anakin, then taking him seriously and it not mattering at all, Anakin doing something cruel like burning Dooku's eye and clearly kinda liking it, Dooku getting desperate and trying to win the fit in the same way he did years ago only to have Anakin dunk on him with an unnecessarily flashy counter into an immediate victory doing what Dooku just tried to do to him is all great storytelling through combat. The duel not even being close *shows* the audience without any clunky, angsty "my powers have doubled since then" lines, which is *telling* us how much stronger Anakin is; he curb stomped Dooku in record time solo when he couldn't win against him before with significant help, a man who fought Yoda to a draw for twice that time after fighting two other Jedi without rest between...and the same Anakin beats him like he was a mild warm up. That Dooku isn't a rival but just a moderate obstacle for him now is a far better scene to start Ep3 with. It makes Anakin's feelings of the council disrespecting him and not recognizing his power and skill formally feel more justified and less like a winey child. It's so, so much better than what they ultimately put in the movie it's actually kinda mind boggling.
2) Obi-wan being absent removes a lot of clunky dialogue that wasn't good and didn't make that much sense, it removes visuals that don't make sense like Dooku dropping a giant metal platform on Obi-wan's body and then he's....fine?
3) Anakin getting a little too pissed off and going straight from the hand sever move to decapitation of Dooku with only a moment pause to think about it and then do it anyway is better characterization of his turning than him spinelessly just listening to Palpatine, and also removes the problem of Palpatine acting like that and that not being questioned at all by the other characters. It's a better character moment for Anakin and removes non-sense dialogue and plot that just pulls the viewer out of the story; Obi-wan's complete absence from the start of the fight facilitates Anakin acting like that, his presence, even unconscious at that point, grounds Anakin and makes him think to stop. Do you want a headstrong and self righteous Anakin that turned to the dark side because of power and his lack of control, or do you want a Anakin that is a spineless pushover that just kinda gets manipulated and tricked to the darkside through obvious lies and doing what he's told by Palpatine?
4) Anakin's split second to kill Dooku is something Obi-wan could question later, and there could be interesting dialogue. Anakin, knowing in retrospect that he made ethically wrong but emotionally gratifying decision out of anger in the moment, just like he did in Ep 2 when he committed mass murder against a village of Tuskens, would then choose to hide the truth from Obi-wan just as he did last time. Except this time he has to either:
---a) Lie to Obi-wan's face about how he had no choice and the battle was much closer than it really. Anakin as a rule lacks the emotional control for a Jedi of Obi-wan's ability to not sense he wasn't being truthful and that would be all the harder given he's having to down play his real power which he is already upset the Jedi don't respect him for.
---b) Admit what he did to Obi-wan and try to justify/rationalize it to him.
Either way seeds of doubt and concern are planted in Obi-wan's mind about Anakin and Anakin has either outright shown the audience he has chosen to not to trust Obi-wan and hide actions he knows were wrong from his closest friend....or else strongly double down on his self-righteous and totalitarian black and white view of the world. Either scenario organically pushes him down the path to the dark side in a way that *shows* the audience and makes perfect sense.
5) Removes additionally clunky dialogue and suspicious actions from Palpatine concerning leaving Obi-wan behind that goes completely unquestioned then or later and requires the audience to ignore how little that makes sense. It allows it to continue being believable that no one suspects Palpatine of being more than he appears. I have to assume this moment of making Anakin do something good immediately after killing Dooku even though he knew it was wrong so there's an excuse for him not having turned yet was the sort of shallow and lazy thing that Luca was fight for over a better scene, but one that more clearly framed Anakin as essentially having turned then and just not realizing it yet.
Why would the writer/director/producer/owner/financier have to fight anyone over his own movie?
It’s baffling. Honestly what on earth was going through his head? Did he really need those few seconds of runtime that badly? I always felt the scene could’ve been so much more and I’m not a super fan so I never saw this footage here. He had a whole other fight?! The setting was great with Chancellor Palpatine locked to the chair watching (in control but seeming to be a victim, mimicking how he sits as Darth Sidious) and the battle going on behind them out the window, the quietness of that huge room- it was all so perfect. Then we get a few moments and it’s literally over. Obiwan serves very little function and the thing that falls on him looks so fake. It’s just bizarro what Lucas ended up doing (although the double hand cut and beheading delivered).
DUDE! WHAT!? THIS IS AWESOME!
@ 1:25 that's such a cool risky move.
Dear lord that is the coolest lightsaber fight I've ever seen. He lets go of his saber to style on him in mid fight..
Holy moly that letting go and regripping of the saber goes nuts
Jesus the catch into disarm at the end was lit. I wish they did this version for the movie. Also like how the flip sets up the Mustafar scene.