There are no taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems too complicated to make me hate the Star Wars prequels. Nor does The Phantom Menace have too much Jar Jar Binks hijinks to make me ever wish the trilogy didn’t exist. And no amount of Darth Vader awkwardly screaming “Noooo!” will ever make me regret George Lucas’s messy movies. Not when they resulted in Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker’s “Battle of the Heroes” duel on Mustafar. Their epic, emotional, lengthy showdown will always make meesa happy the prequels exist. Now I have another reason to be grateful for them. A fan video recreated that legendary lightsaber showdown in the style of The Clone Wars animation.
This incredible video comes from the YouTube channel Hello There. It’s the work of animator Ben Johnson and a team of sound mixers and editors. They recreated Revenge of the Sith‘s famous fight between Master/Padawan fight in the style of the beloved animated series.
It’s a whole new way to experience this fantastic sequence, which boasts one of John Williams’ best songs. That alone makes it worth it. But what makes this special is that it also helps connect the characters of the animated show with their live-action counterparts. The Clone Wars‘ Obi-Wan and Anakin are the same characters from the movies. And yet, they’re different. They had their own stories. They had their own voice actors. And they shared a bond not fully developed in the films. This mashup of mediums serves as a visual bridge that strengthens the connection between different chapters in Star Wars story. This is a moving way to honor the cartoon’s important legacy.
The team behind this video wrote that it took “years of hard work and dedication.” All that effort was more than worth it, same as the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Both gave us a way to enjoy this incredible, intense, tragic moment.