The Star Wars Prequels' Most Iconic Scene Just Got A New Outlook from Hayden Christensen

Key Takeaways

Hayden Christensen’s explanation of Anakin’s defeat confirms a long-held fan theory about the high ground moment.
Fans have long suspected Anakin emulated Obi-Wan’s duel tactics, adding depth to their relationship.
The article highlights how the Star Wars prequels inspire fan contemplation and validation from the actors.

The Star Wars prequel trilogy has seen a rise in appreciation in recent years thanks in no small part to the stars that brought it to life, and now one of the trilogy’s main players has given credence to a popular fan idea about the motivations behind his character’s most iconic moment.

While Star Wars has never been a franchise short of exciting scenes and concepts, there are still a few important moments that stand out from the rest, especially for fans. Many of these are fights between important characters with massive stakes, and one clash stands far above the rest as the most impactful battle between the most important players in the prequel era: the final duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and the newly crowned Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Vader, formerly Anakin Skywalker. Despite the wave of criticism that besieged the prequels, this encounter between Hayden Christensen’s Anakin and Ewan McGregor’s Kenobi is almost universally praised as one of the Best Scenes In The Star Wars prequel trilogy.

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The climax of the battle has long since become an iconic moment in its own right, with Obi-Wan’s declaration that he has the high ground and Anakin’s aggressive leap spawning memes and more than two decades of discourse at this point. As relayed by Inverse, Christensen was in attendance at SPACECON San Antonio and fielded questions from fans concerning his iconic role in the prequels. When the questions turned to that fateful moment during the Duel of the Fates, where Anakin leaps over his former Master and enables his immediate defeat, the actor blamed it on the “arrogance of youth,” often given as the reason why Anakin couldn’t defeat Obi-Wan, before going into more detail and (likely) inadvertently stumbling into confirming a long-held fan theory.“When Obi-Wan defeated Darth Maul, Darth Maul had the high ground, and [Obi-Wan] did this amazing flip,” Christensen explained. “So Anakin, in the back of his head, he hears Obi-Wan say, ‘I have the high ground,’ and he’s like, ‘I’m gonna show him!’ It just didn’t play out the way he’d hoped.”

Fans have long suspected that Kenobi’s account of The Duel of the Fates, where he managed to defeat the Sith Lord Darth Maul after the latter killed Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, would have become something of a legend within the order and especially among the young Jedi in training. The fan theory takes this assumption and postulates that rather than simply being hotheaded, overconfident, or desperate to end things, Anakin actually thought back to Obi-Wan’s most gallant moment and thought he could use the same tactic against his former Master. This moment in the duel is important to the story, as it highlights the differences between the two former brothers. Without it, Anakin might have never become the Vader fans knew and feared from the original trilogy, and people wouldn’t still be making memes about having the high ground some 20-odd years later.

Some of the best things about the Star Wars Prequel trilogy are found in the things that fans have to intuit and figure out for themselves. Christensen’s agreement on this particular issue is comforting, and there are likely tons of other things about the franchise that have similarly been figured out by fans and might be validated sometime down the line. So long as the franchise can inspire the sort of contemplation that the prequels did, it’ll keep its place in the popular zeitgeist.

The Star Wars franchise is available to stream on Disney+.

Star Wars

Star Wars is a multimedia franchise originally created by George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd with the 1977 motion picture. The science fiction franchise follows the adventures of characters (both humanoid and alien) in outer space including those who can wield a mystical power known as the Force. Since the release of the original trilogy of movies, the franchise has expanded to include multiple films and branched out to other media like comics, video games, tv shows, theme park attractions, and more. The IP and Lucasfilm were sold to Disney in 2012.