Fighting Style

[ihateflying]

Kenobi, now - he was something else entirely; a classic of his obsolete kind. He simply stood gazing calmly up at Dooku and the super battle droids that flanked him, hands open, utterly relaxed and on his face only an expression of mild interest.

---

This image, this plan, was so clearly in Dooku's mind, that he almost failed to notice that Kenobi met every single one of his thrusts without so much as moving his feet, staying perfectly centered, perfectly balanced, blade never moving a milimeter more than was necessary, deflecting without effort, riposting with flickering strikes and stabs swifter than the tongue of a Garollian ghost viper and when Dooku felt Skywalker regain his feet and move toward his back he finally registered the source of that blinding defensive velocity Kenobi had used a moment ago, and only then, belatedly, did he understand that Kenobi's Ataro and Shii-Cho had been ploys, as well.

Kenobi had become a master of Soresu.

--

There is an understated elegance in Obi-Wan Kenobi's Lightsaber technique, one that is quite unlike the feel one might get from the other great swordsbeings of the Jedi Order. He lacks entirely the flash, the pure bold elan of Anakin Skywalker; there is nowhere in him with the penumbral ferocity ferocity of a Mace Windu or a Depa Billaba, nor the stylish grace of a Shaak Ti or a Dooku, and he's nothing resembling the whirlwind of destruction Yoda can become.

He is simplicity itself.

That is his power.

...

"I am very flattered that you would consider me a master, but really-"

"Not a Master, the Master," Mace had said, "be who you are and Grievous will never defeat you."


So now, facing the tornado of annihilating energy that is Grievous's attack, Obi-Wan is simply who he is.


...


Countering 12 blows per second was only difficult, not impossible. His blade wove an intricate web of angles and curves, never truly fast but always just fast enough, each motion of his lightsaber subtly interfering with three or four or eight of the general's strikes, the rest sizzling past him, his precise, minimal, shifts of weight and stance slipping them by centimeters.

Grievous, snarling fury ramped up in the intensity and velocity of his attacks - 16 per second, 18 - until finally, at twenty strikes per second, he overloaded Obi-Wan's defense.


--Matt Stover, RoTS Novelization