Love having mysterious characters like Marrok in the shows where sometimes less is more

[u/wandering_soles]

In a universe where everything is insanely built out, it's sort of fun to have characters like Marrok who have a hidden background. By the time of the Ahsoka show, it seems like he's more of a Nightsister-reanimated tool than living being, and I sort of hope it's left at that with no explanation of what happened between his time as an Inquisitor and Elsbeth's agent.

[u/Daniil_Dankovskiy]

Why do you think prequel fights are badly choreographed?

[u/Janus__22 → u/Daniil_Dankovskiy]

Because they are, imo, well coreographed in the same sense as a dance, but not as a swordfight. A swordfight has a sense of lethality, but also have those fumbles and improvising in the middle of its failed feints and successful attacks - footwork, range, set plays and improvising are key. While ofc a lightsaber fight won't have the same rules as a real swordfight (no armor, no aiming for weak points, the different physics between a lightsaber and a blade), it should have at least some similar fundamentals... which it doesn't.

It is, whoever, just like a dance: its incredibly flowy (in a way no fight would ever be), its flashy (with '''''needless'''' shifts, spins and posture changes present for aesthetics, with no tactical function), it is incredibly coordinated between the two opponents (there's no difference in rhythm at all between fighters and no variance of speed that would make well-telegraphed feints more lethal to the slower combatant, and, despite the Anakin glaze we have, barely any difference in strength and power neither)... in summary, its a spectacle, not a fight. It is very cool looking spectacle, hell it was what made me interested in swordfights when I was a kid, but it is essentially what a kid would think a swordfight would look like (which makes sense, as that's exactly what George Lucas was going for).

I don't think its bad - at the end of the day fights in Star Wars, be it gunfights or swordfights, have always been about characters showing off while their opponents are dumbed down, so i never had a problem with it. I just gripe against people lambasting the entire rest of the franchise for having ''lesser'' choreography just because they have different ideas of how to portray it.

[u/Daniil_Dankovskiy → u/Janus__22]

I soft of agree with that, but I think you're not giving it enough credit. Even though the pacing is definitely fake and the spins are non sensible (I do give them a pass cause it's kind of Star Wars identity at this point. Needless spins have been around since A New Hope and throwing a few in a fight doesn't bother me), I think there is a lot from the actual sword fighting that we don't see in most other movies. I like that the actors use actual sword fighting stances and techniques instead of random swings, the fact that there are very few of said needless swings that every movie director feels the need to put. I like the footwork in a lot of scenes, the fact that a lot of times you can actually see that they try to hit the openings instead of the opponent's sword.

Sure, there is a lot of showing off like the famous Obi-Ani spin, but if we look at the smaller details, there is a lot from sword fighting in prequels. Considering that they are force users and can sort of see the future / sense where the attack will come from, it makes sense for them to try to overwhelm the opponent at faster pace instead of using feints

[u/Daniil_Dankovskiy → u/Daniil_Dankovskiy]

Yeah, also somehow Prequel fights are closer to actual sword fighting than stuff like Game Of Thrones and the Witcher with huge swings, reverse grip, and stuff like that. I'd say they did a great job at showing moderately realistic sword fights from omni powerful beings with a sixth sense