I just want to talk about this scene for a moment. Because it is such a perfect mess of subverting expectations in just the right way to create a comedic masterpiece without really meaning to. I know there has been an immeasurable amount of memes that have spawned from the prequel trilogy, but this one always stuck out to me due to how absurd it is when you really think about it. 

The first subversion is the amount of weight placed on “the high ground” being a win condition. I’m sure there’s some fight choreographer or combat specialist out there who can give me all the details of how having the high ground is a legitimate advantage in real life combat but that’s not the point here. It’s the fact that the delivery of the line is made with utmost confidence, like a verbal checkmate. There hasn’t really been any precedent for the high ground being a win condition in the past. No instances of it being used before, no Chekhov’s gun wink/nod, no history of either characters having an experience with winning via the high ground or anything (if anything it’s more ironic since Obiwan once won a duel against Maul while having the low ground). It’s just kind of casually dropped into the scene like a new bit of lightsaber combat lore that we as the audience just have to take at face value. Obiwan is a level headed reasonable character so the audience has no reason to believe he is feigning overconfidence or bluffing at the moment. He just casually objectively declares “it’s over” like Anakin has zero chance.

So normally in a situation like this, there’s several things that could happen. It would be rather anticlimactic for Anakin to just give up and yield. So you do expect him to ignore Obiwan’s warning. But this would usually be an excellent time for the writers to showcase how truly powerful Anakin has become by overcoming his disadvantage. So assuming we grant that Obiwan is actually 100% serious in this scenario (which he is), having Anakin jump over and continue the fight would be a great narrative tool. The audience is left wondering how will Obiwan actually defeat Anakin, or even survive at the fight at all. Moreover, Anakin responds to Obiwan’s declaration with a fierce “You underestimate my power!”. So at this point the audience is probably thinking Obiwan is fucked, since this entire fight they have been mostly evenly matched with Anakin seemingly having the upper hand for the most part. After all, the final goal is to portray Vader as an unstoppable force. But no, Anakin just completely misses the mark and Obiwan casually cuts him in half almost effortlessly. It is such a “fuck-around-and-find-out” moment that practically summarizes their relationship throughout the entirety of Clone Wars. Which once again, is heightened by the fact that the writers most likely was not intending to write it this way.

” ‘Anakin no!’ – Obi, ‘Anakin yes!’ – Ani ” followed by immediate regret is a formula that is repeated many times in the two’s time together. So from a thematic point of view, having the most powerful jedi, the future sith lord Darth Vader, ultimately get defeated by “lack of impulse control” and “the propensity to ignore Obiwan” is just perfect. But the reason this scene is still so funny is because you can tell the writers were not trying to portray this tone. And the actual tone was supposed to be that Obiwan’s tact gave him a legitimate advantage and Anakin was too arrogant to consider that. But due to poor execution, the scene came off as a bit anticlimactic, attributing the villain’s defeat to poor terrain. There’s so much shock value from seeing Anakin just get obliterated in one fell swoop, that we don’t perceive it as anticlimactic. 

And that’s why I think the “It’s over Anakin, I have the high ground!” scene is one of my favorite scenes in all of Star Wars.