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Ah, the age old debate. Amazing how, ever since the release of Attack of the Clones, this has been The Chosen Debate.

Here's how I see it:

Many people look at these duels simply as one duelist is better than another. Pish posh, I say.


There is a pantheon of Master duelists in this era. For simplicity's sake, only survivors of the Clone Wars (those that were alive during Revenge of the Sith) are included. Plo Koon is not, because I know he is an epic duelist, but I knew that in 2000 and I still haven't seen him duel.

Kit Fisto - Shii-cho
Dooku - Makashi
Obi-Wan Kenobi - Soresu
Yoda - Ataru
Anakin Skywalker - Shien/Djem-so
Sorry Niman, how'd Geonosis do you? Technically Asajj Ventress could go here, though I'm not aware of her skill level. Cin Drallig could also stand in here.
Mace Windu - Juyo/Vaapad
Darth Sidious - Juyo/Dun moch

Each of these Jedi or Sith has a specialty, a weakness. Each one has someone they could defeat or would be destroyed by.

Kit Fisto has honed the simple style of the younglings to become the foremost Shii-cho practitioner alive, possibly the best in history. The simplicity of this style is its strength, and he can react well before the speed of thought and vary his routine just as quickly. Now, this doesn't save him against the faster forms. There's nothing Fisto could do that Dooku couldn't pre-empt, and it's pretty obvious that he could neither hit Kenobi, nor defend against the two Juyo masters. I anticipate the Nautolan holding his own for longer than most could against the Ataru assault of Yoda, but not for long enough. However, against the slower, forceful strikes of Anakin Skywalker, Fisto has met his ideal opponent. Skywalker, typical of a Djem-so practitioner, is the only duelist on the list who is so arrogant as to not even register Kit as a threat. In addition, Djem-so's signature moves require a decent wind-up, such as an overhead chop, which leaves him vulnerable. Shii-cho's signature moves, on the other hand, are all from simple guard positions, and on the offensive, he would move quickly enough that the more sluggish and dramatic maneuvers of Skywalker don't have the chance to get into a position to do such things as lock lightsabers to take control of the duel. Skywalker is cut down.

Count Dooku has long been considered one of the most deadly lightsaber combatants in the galaxy. In part, this is because his entire style is designed to fuck up your lightsaber dueling. Try to hit him with "how many arms do you see?" and he just takes a step backward, or two or three. Try to strike him down with a halberd-like Djem-so strike? Watch helplessly as he lightly parries your strike and the full force of your weight plummets to the Earth just outside of the injury zone. It would take heavy Force use on either Mace Windu or Darth Sidious's part to throw Dooku off his game enough to hit him with a lightsaber. That said, Yoda employs pretty heavy Force use with every strike, and it's pretty obvious who was getting pwned when Dooku decided to flip the chess board upside down for checkers. I also don't see even the most powerful assault by Dooku getting through Obi-Wan's defenses.

I want to finish, but I ought to sleep in the next half hour or so.

I'll keep an eye out for that part when I read it again for my review, then.

While we're mentioning those details... anybody remember what styles Obi-Wan and Anakin were using for the beginning of the duel?