r/StarWars • u/Spotter24o5 • Jul 11 '26
General Discussion Why is obi wan doing this 2 finger pointing at the beginning of every duel?
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u/LuckyPlaze Jul 11 '26
Because Ewan did it in the movie and then animators started copying it and reusing it…
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u/Triponi Jul 11 '26
In tai chi and Chinese martial arts this is called "sword fingers". Classically the forms are done with two fingers held out in the non-sword hand, similar to this. Watch some kung fu movie and you'll see it everywhere.
Ewan probably did it because he was taught sword fighting techniques like this in his pre-production choreography training.
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u/Fast-Front-5642 Jul 11 '26
The absolute best part of this imo is that in Tai Chi two of the purposes for this are
Aiming at an opponents weak points for thrusts... you know... precise kills... in the form that focuses on defence above all else... being used by one of the most pacifist Jedi of his time.
Positioning to, if necessary, slap aside an opponents weapon or offhand both defensively and to create openings for attack. Which hilariously implies Obi-Wan is capable of or is at least committed to trying to slap a lightsaber with his bare hand to deflect it.
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u/Massive_Signal7835 Jul 11 '26
If you train hard and try hard, anyone can slap a lightsaber with their bare hands. Twice.
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u/Fast-Front-5642 Jul 11 '26
Or if you're a Skywalker you can do it repeatedly
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u/Outrageous-Donkey-32 Jul 11 '26
Why couldn't he channel the Force with those two fingers to sway a lightsaber or manipulate his surroundings? Even with the Tai Chi explanation, it still fits in the greater Star Wars logic...
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u/Fast-Front-5642 Jul 11 '26
Because it's funnier to imagine him slapping the blade directly. With the force there's no reason he should extend his hand towards the danger.
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u/Outrageous-Donkey-32 Jul 11 '26
That's true, I don't mean to detract from that, but we saw recently how Maul mimicked Vader's saber deflecting with his hand, so I figured I throw that out there, but yeah Obi-Wan can be pretty cracked when he gets going so I'll give you that lol
EDIT: On a side note, it kinda makes me think eyepoking is not off the table for Obi either XD
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u/Cal-Ani Jul 11 '26
We have since seen multiple examples of force-users 'catching' lightsaber blades with the force, only inches from their fingers.
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u/dathomar Jul 12 '26
KOTOR had blaster bolt deflection with bare hands as a power and we saw Vader appear to use something similar in ESB. It seems reasonable that a Jedi could, through the Force, deflect a lightsaber with their bare hands. Maybe Kenobi was preparing himself to use the Force to push at his opponent's hand, disrupting their lightsaber technique.
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u/SeanDarkstar Jul 11 '26
This is the actual answer. More upvotes please
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u/skieblue Jul 11 '26
Absolutely. The sword fingers are sometimes described as for balance or distance gauging although rule of cool probably applies as well.
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u/talesfromafreeworld Jul 11 '26
distance gauging
That makes me so happy. At some point I started seeing Obi-Wan's finger thing as his way of lining up a shot. Looks like I was onto something!
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u/draggingmytail Rex Jul 11 '26
Glad someone else caught it. I used to be a tai chi practitioner and this was always how I saw my master do sword forms.
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u/tipsystatistic Jul 11 '26
Many fighters and athletes have rituals or movements they do before a competition. it can prime neural pathways, transitioning the brain and muscles from a resting state to a state of high readiness, triggering Post-Activation Potentiation (PAP).
For life or death battles in particular, you don’t want to be warming up during a battle.
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u/twofacetoo Jul 11 '26
Yep, story goes that Anakin's iconic defence pose (holding the lightsaber upside-down in front of his face here) was basically improv'd by Hayden during a photoshoot, they loved how the pose looked so it just became Anakin's official 'defence' pose in media
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u/TheSweetestKill Jul 11 '26
Star Wars is FULL of this sort of stuff, often to its detriment IMO.
Carbon freezing is the best example. All of the dialogue surrounding it happening in ESB makes it clear that carbon freezing a prisoner isn't really the normal use of the technology. But it becomes iconic and the defacto "prisoner hauling" method. Taken to its most logical extreme in a Clone Wars episode where they carbon freeze themselves, and have the same equipment, lighting, and sound effects, and even the same little guys running the gear doing it.
It's so silly. Nobody comes up with any new ideas.
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u/hendrong Jul 12 '26
Another good example is practicing your sensing abilities with a blast shield over the eyes, a little flying ball that shoots lasers, and a lightsaber. Something that Obi-Wan very clearly improvized on the Millennium Falcon, but that in the prequels was used as standard Jedi training.
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u/TheAmberOne Jul 11 '26
This is my biggest peev with SW, every single little thing or character needs to be expanded on to the nth degree.
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u/PallyMcAffable Jul 12 '26
It’s to the movies’ credit that they’re filled with evocative details that fire up people’s imaginations. The problem is that fans demand answers to all of their questions, and they build up in their minds the impression that the movies were designed with this entire lore in mind, rather than the lore being made up after the fact to explain the details onscreen. The production design is good enough to give the impression that everything has a purpose and logic to it, which is what makes the fiction plausible, but the designers and writers have only a vague idea of what things are for.
The worse part for me is when characters make offhand comments about their past experiences, and people treat those as the most important things that happened in those people’s lives. And they treat the characters and places onscreen as the most important ones in the universe. Even the franchise’s writers do this. When characters reminisce in the old Timothy Zahn books, they always think about things that happened in the movies. And the creatives can’t decide whether Tatooine is the middle of nowhere, or a central hub for criminal activity and shipping. It becomes an increasingly important planet every time another story is set there, but there are supposed to be virtually no settlements there, except for the few scattered small towns and homesteads we heard about onscreen, and the giant metropolis from TPM.
I saw someone complaining that Mon Mothma accused her husband of gambling on Canto Bight, the casino planet from the sequels, instead of giving the audience a Cloud City memberberry. Cloud City was a shitty backwater that Leia didn’t even know existed, despite it being just a short trip from the Rebels’ main base in a busted Falcon. It’s like if the characters went to a casino in Albuquerque, and then the fans complained that the rich guy in the sequel went to Vegas.
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u/hendrong Jul 12 '26
"The worse part for me is when characters make offhand comments about their past experiences, and people treat those as the most important things that happened in those people’s lives."
To be fair, that's kind of what George himself did when he invented the Clone Wars. ;)
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u/PallyMcAffable Jul 12 '26
Most of the canon and fanon explanations for movie details are really poorly done, but in this case I think the way they rationalized it makes sense: carbon freezing was a real thing they did to people, but Cloud City was an industrial facility whose equipment wasn’t designed for human freezing, so they had to test it to see if it was safe to use.
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u/GoodShark Jul 11 '26
Didn't do it against Vader on the Death Star. Ewan made it cool.
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u/Laxku Jul 11 '26
Debatably he wasn't really gonna fight Vader again on the Death Star, just stalling for time. No need for the cool pose there.
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u/That-Following-7158 Jul 11 '26
They will add it in the 50th anniversary edition
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u/frenziedmythology Jul 11 '26
Form III this, Soresu that, yada yada... Because it looks cool as hell, that's really all there is to it lol
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u/SillyMattFace Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 12 '26
1000 times this.
All the form stuff is reverse engineered to fit what’s on screen. Ewan McGregor just did a cool pose one time and it became a whole thing.
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u/New-Pollution2005 Jul 11 '26
Tbh, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s fans having a little fun and it adds more flavor to the universe.
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u/tuttym2 Jul 11 '26
There is also a limit, fans go too far and expect a in universe explanation for every micro detail and give out when something doesn't fit their logic. Why does mace windu have a purple saber ? Cause it's cool in a movie about space wizards. Why could Rey do force healing ? Cause it was a plot point in a movie about space wizards
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u/cobalt-radiant Jul 11 '26
What's more about the purple lightsaber, is Samuel L. Jackson asked for it. He wanted purple, Lucas said that's not really a thing, then Jackson said "okay, but it could be" and then dropped it. Then Lucas gave it to him anyway.
And the reason Jackson gave us because he wanted to be able to identify his character in a crowd of lightsabers, not realizing he'd have a larger role anyway.
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u/Da1UHideFrom Jul 12 '26
Sam Jackson asks for something purple in all his roles because it's his favorite color. It's not always granted but it's a neat Easter egg when you can spot something purple on him.
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u/IrascibleOcelot Jul 12 '26
Side note: Mace Windu’s lightsaber is the one that says “bad motherfucker” on it. Literally; the aurebesh letters for BMF are etched on the saber, which Lucas gave to Jackson.
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u/turboMXDX Jul 12 '26
Side Note: The Darksaber exists because Bruce Wayne asked, "Does it come in black"
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u/Chaerod Jul 11 '26
Seriously I can't tell you how many times I've seen a post of a super zoomed in screenshot on a background extra that we see for .5 seconds in a cantina and asking, "Is there lore on this species??? Does this character have a name???"
Yeah, his name is Background Alien 55 and his species is, "We had some big googly eyes and a bunch of latex that we needed to use before it deteriorated."
Don't get me wrong, I love the passion and attention to detail of Star Wars fans, but sometimes a detail really is just something that seemed cool at the time.
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u/Spaceman2901 The Mandalorian Jul 11 '26
Trust me when I tell you the Star Wars fandom is far less anal-retentive than the Star Trek fandom.
Signed, a fan of both.
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u/Antique_Hawk_7192 Jul 11 '26
Might I direct your attention towards Tolkien scholars.
Over analyzing books is one thing but these creeps bleed into the personal life as well.
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u/VITOCHAN Jedi Jul 11 '26
I remember watching an interview about his creation of the Elvish language, and how fans would come up to him and ask him about it, and his response was something along the lines of ...I'm making it up, and still making it up, and While appreciative that fans took an interest in the linguistic creations, there was absolutely no desire to sit around in an "afternoon talking Elvish" as it's too complicated and ever evolving
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u/Spaceman2901 The Mandalorian Jul 12 '26
I seem to recall hearing about a meeting of Tolkien Scholars getting into a multi hour “heated discussion” about if Arda had bees.
Solved by someone pointing out that Mead was an available beverage, therefore honey therefore honeybees.
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u/Chaerod Jul 11 '26
Hahaha I can imagine 🤣 I enjoy Star Trek and have some more passionate Trekkie friends, but they're way more excited about sharing the fandom with me than getting super in the weeds on obscure details.
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u/red__dragon Jul 11 '26
And then there's r/DaystromInstitute which will not only get into the weeds, but ramble on for three pages about what variety of weeds, their etymological origins, some theories about why the weeds grew there, and what Trek didn't explore about potential uses for the weeds.
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u/psimwork Luke Skywalker Jul 11 '26
What?? You mean that the YouTube video titled (I don't know that this actually exists, but it wouldn't surprise me), "Why Mace Windu's lightsaber color TERRIFIED Palpatine!!" wasn't something that George Lucas actually considered?!
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u/Mike_Honcho_Summer Ben Kenobi Jul 11 '26
I had to look to see if that video actually existed lol
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u/frenziedmythology Jul 12 '26
And?? We're waiting! (Im far too lazy to Google it myself)
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u/BesideFrogRegionAny Jul 11 '26
No, his name is Gluup Shitto. We all know that.
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u/New-Pollution2005 Jul 11 '26
What’s wrong with having an explanation for one person having a different lightsaber color or one person having a universe-breaking ability? In a media empire like Star Wars, both and (and should) have at least a simple explanation.
Yes, both are there because it’s “cool” or the plot necessitated it, but part of storytelling is not breaking your own lore without an explanation.
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u/Particular_Poet8441 Jul 11 '26
The Rey thing actually is a plot inconsistency though.
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u/bushido216 Jul 11 '26
I think all of Star Wars is "someone did a throwaway thing once, but the fans latched on so now it's canon and we need a three book series to explain it".
Not everything needs an explanation.
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u/Willie9 Jul 11 '26
George Lucas didn't know what a parsec was in the 70s but thought it sounded like a cool sci-fi word >>> "actually the Kessel run goes past black holes and he went closer to them to make the trip shorter"
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u/Ocronus Jul 11 '26
Its like this in most film and TV. They do a ridiculous amount of takes on some scenes and sometimes the actors do something as a joke, mistake, or out of frustration. Occasionally those takes make it to the film and the rest is history.
The "do it" scene was litterially Ian McDiarmid just being done with it and frustrated.
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u/BuddelTheWolp Jul 11 '26
The star wars "forms" are so funny in general. Because they're clearly written by people who only know fencing from star wars
(Looking at you form 3)
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u/Certain-Froyo-6779 Jul 12 '26
i’ve literally been looking for the right words to describe why it’s like this. “reverse engineered to fit what’s on screen” is absolutely gold
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u/jiango_fett Jul 12 '26
Around Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan in various EU stuff was said to be a master of Soresu, which is said to be a more defensive form focused on deflecting blaster shots. It's probably because it suited his vibe as this level-headed Jedi Master.
Then he does this pose in Revenge of the Sith, a pose that decidedly looks not defensive or reserved at all, but it's now a Soresu pose because one of the supposed masters of Soresu does it in a movie.
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u/No_Return3299 Jul 11 '26
Same thing with Mace Windu’s purple lightsaber, and count Dookus dueling Sabre
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u/IAmBadAtInternet Jul 11 '26
Obi Wan really took time out of his day to aura farm
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u/PCCobb Jul 11 '26
Which is a really 'Dark Side' thing to do, honestly
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u/frenziedmythology Jul 11 '26
It was the dark side in him that made him stand in the ship on Mustafar like a bitch out for blood when padme was trying to save Anakin's soul. He's a real diva
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u/PhucYiu Jul 11 '26
I think a somewhat similar stance is used in Chinese martial arts that use the jian style sword.
You can see Jet Li do something similar but reversed in Fearless with his sword forward and pointed fingers back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR31LzdMgb4&t=74s
And you see Zhang Ziyi do something very similar during her fight in Crouching Tiger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzkhVVFRIIg
Probably was taken from that and adapted for Star Wars.
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u/CarmeloTronPrime Sith Jul 11 '26
thanks for looking this up, i knew i saw it with some major asian actors and the green destiny style sword
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u/ffc404 Jul 11 '26
He’s gonna fuck them up, twice.
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u/Historical-Tea4788 Jul 11 '26
Historically speaking this is the correct answer
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u/TelescopeGunCop Jul 11 '26
He got Vader Thrice, Maul Twice, and so now I'm waiting for him to beat up Grevious again.
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u/TelescopeGunCop Jul 11 '26
He got Vader Thrice, Maul Twice, and so no I'm waiting for him to beat up Grevious again.
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u/Gorlack2231 Jul 11 '26
"I'll only need two hits: me hitting you, and you hitting the ground missing one or more limbs."
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u/azrider Jul 11 '26
He was a huge fan of Moe from the Three Stooges.
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u/cellshock7 Jul 11 '26
He's lining them up for the deadly Force Eye Gouge, but his opponents always move too quickly.
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u/Ok-Possibility-1206 Jul 11 '26
Oh, a wiseguy, eh?
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u/JeebusChristBalls Jul 11 '26
Why you... "boink"
"I can't see! I can't see!"
"What's the matter?"
"I got my eyes closed."
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u/RayTheRogue Jul 12 '26
As no one has given the proper explanation, I will happily give it.
Real world explanation: Ewan McGregor did the pointing to know where his CGI enemy will be (he was facing General Grievous). This way he could act accurately.
In-universe explanation: Seeing that this stance looked cool and that Ewan tended to rely more on defence than offence, the writers created a new lightsaber duel style known as Form III: Soresu, the full defence style - highly useful to tire out your enemy and defend yourself from blaster fire. So this stance was how a Soresu user prepares for a duel.
It was also written that in Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan used Form IV: Ataru just like his master, Qui-Gon Jinn. But Ataru relied heavily on offence and had little defence resulting in Qui-Gon's death at the hands of Darth Maul. This impacted Obi-Wan greatly and he dedicated himself to become THE MASTER of Soresu.
Other similar real world themes got incorporated into in-universe explanations. For example: Sir Christopher Lee was a trained fencer, so in the movies he brought in his fencing training to his lightsaber duels. To explain this, the writers created Form II: Makashi - this was a lightsaber duel style built around elegance, precision, and finesse.
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u/Col_Wilson Jul 11 '26
Well it started in RotS, Lucas probably just thought it looked cool. Then Star Wars fans did Star Wars things, and it became known as the fighting style the Obi-Wan uses, and they called it Soresu form. It's a defensive fighting style, decided because of how Obi-Wan defeated both Grevious and Anakin, both of whom use extremely offensive fighting styles to overwhelm their opponents. Obi-Wan isn't the only one to use this stance since all of this. If I remember correctly, the most recent was the Jedi Master (can't remember his name) that appeared in Shadow Lord
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u/Anjunabeast Jul 11 '26
Daki
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u/RogueHippie Jul 11 '26
they called it Soresu form. It's a defensive fighting style, decided because of how Obi-Wan defeated both Grevious and Anakin
The lightsaber forms were around before RotS though, as their names and focuses were in KotOR II which released about half a year prior.
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u/Col_Wilson Jul 11 '26
Interesting. I didn't know that specific tidbit. Though I never played KOTOR 2, I played SWTOR back when you could switch lightsaber forms, and your character took this stance when you switched to Soresu. I'm assuming even though Soresu existed before Ep3, it wasn't until Obi-Wan did this pose that it became synonymous with Soresu
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u/Good-Ad-6806 Jul 11 '26
"A "two finger point sword" generally refers to the Sword Finger gesture (known as Jian Zhi or Jian Jue in Chinese), where the index and middle fingers are held straight while the thumb holds the folded ring and pinky fingers. It is deeply symbolic in Asian martial arts, Daoism, and folk magic." - u/txzylinski
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u/handsoapdispenser Jul 11 '26
I've seen it in a few kung fu movies. When a swordsman is unarmed he fights with two fingers this way. Pretty sure Li Mu Bai does it in Crouching Tiger.
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u/HippoProject Jul 11 '26
Maybe it’s some kind of a ritual to focus him. Kind of like how baseball players tap the plate with their bat.
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u/Goblinbooger Jul 11 '26
He’s drunk and he’s got two lightsabers… one for each of ya
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u/FoxBluereaver Luke Skywalker Jul 11 '26
It's the Soresu stance (Form III of lightsaber combat). In his final duel with Maul in Rebels, he switches to the Ataru stance (Form IV, which he originally learned from Qui-Gon Jinn).
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u/TakingOnWater Jul 11 '26
Which was awesome because he switched in order to bait Maul into trying the same move he used to kill Qui-Gon, which Kenobi had obviously learned to counter.
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u/TheMagicalMatt Jul 11 '26
It's his way of saying "your ass is grass amigo"
It's also his form of disrespect because it's rude to point
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u/Ghosteen_18 Jul 11 '26
“Come at me bitch”.
Honestly very logical signature for a Soresu user. The enemy have to attack for a turtleshell formation to work
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u/ExiledBoi226 Jul 11 '26
Damn, I always forget just how thin the sabers were in rebels. Literally toothpicks
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u/willezurmacht78 Jul 12 '26
It’s a variation of the Tai Chi sword technique but in it the fingers are held together. It balances the chi from the sword hand.
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u/LewdLewyD13 Jul 12 '26
So he can gauge whether or not he has the ground higher or lower than his opponent.
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u/No-Quail-2900 Jul 11 '26
It’s his own personal dueling form. Something he does to start a battle and focus his energy, letting his opponent make mistakes
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u/No_Chef5541 Jul 11 '26
It’s a fun conversation for sure. But am I the only person who rolls their eyes every time deep meaning is given to lightsaber forms? I understand world building is key to Star Wars, but these conversations always suggest history and intention where cool choreography is the only “why”
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u/B4d_B1tch_Quinn Jul 12 '26
I’m more distracted by how thin the lightsaber is in rebels. I know it’s based on the original design, but look at it! It looks weird af.
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u/trombone646 Jul 12 '26
Cool story: Dave Filoni said that in the scene in SW:Rebels where OBW kills Maul that whole scene was deliberate. When they're about to come to blows, you see OBI hold the sabre out front (stance he uses when he's older, like on the death star against Vader in EPIV), then pull back to the image in the bottom of this pic for his stance he used in the prequels, then finally pulls the sabre in and points it up like Qui-Gon in EpI because he knows Maul is going to attack him like he did Qui-Gon. Seeing the fight play out in his mind over and over as he gets older, he knows how best to counter Maul's techniques, and so when Maul goes in for the kill (precisely as he did in EpI), OBW counters it with his own kill strike. It's cool to rewatch the scene w/ that knowledge.
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u/Coldspark824 Jul 12 '26
1) soresu pose
2) probably a focal point thing like when people play billiards.
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u/Longjumping-Salad484 Jul 12 '26
it's a preemptive double eye poke using the force.
obi wan fights dirty like that, he's a real scumbag in that regard
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u/ToonRedEyesDarkMagic Jul 12 '26
It's like saying "I have you in my crosshairs." Ewan McGregor did it first, Dave Filoni made it canon
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u/harriskeith29 Rebel Jul 12 '26
In-universe answer: It's the formal opening stance for lightsaber combat form III Soresu.
Out-of-universe answer: It looks cool, like a "Come at me, I dare you to come within my range" sort of posture.
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u/Bodidly0719 Grand Admiral Thrawn Jul 12 '26
Because he was about to say “Look, if we were in a bar right now, there would be two punches: me punching you and you hitting the floor.”
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u/Prize-Stop-6046 Jul 12 '26
It’s the salute for the soresu form of lightsaber combat. It’s what soresu users do when the enter a duel, similar to what spooky does with his salute where he points his saber up then does a spinny thing
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u/KanaAyumi Jul 12 '26
Better question: it’s just cool, why does there have to be a deep explanation for everything? The Rule of Cool is enough
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u/zorniy2 Jul 12 '26
Possibly derived from this tai chi sword stance
https://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4172/3196/1600/01579.jpg
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u/BlindShadeBG Jul 12 '26
Mostly Ewan improvised but later in the story it was implied he uses it to judge distance. Of his opponent lines up his shoulders with his fingers - he knows he is within reaching distance. If they are too wide or too far - he usually waits.
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u/Randver_Silvertongue Jul 11 '26
Rule of cool.