There's no denying that Duel of the Fates was the most innovative and ambitious lightsaber fight that we ever got.

So naturally, Attack of the Clones needed its duel to live up to that same hype.

With such big shoes to fill, this was going to be a big challenge.

And George Lucas needed to do something that had never been done before.

But the original plan was just another two-on-one fight.

At one time, I was going to have them both fight him at the same time.

But that didn't really seem to work as well as me doing each one individually.

The idea was that by having everyone fight one-on-one, it wouldn't be just another flashy lightsaber spectacle.

Instead, it focuses on each character's personal journeys and how they're intertwined through the overarching story.

Nick Gillard creates a unique fighting style for each of the Jedi and how it sort of reveals a certain element of their personality.

You see, Qui-Gon was like the ideal master.

And naturally, he and Obi-Wan had the perfect master and apprentice bond.

So they were able to work as a team against Maul.

And for Maul to have any real chance of defeating them, he needed to separate them.

This wasn't the case for Dooku because during episode 2, Obi-Wan and Anakin are far from the perfect team.

It's all Obi-Wan's fault.

He's jealous.

He's holding me back.

Obi-Wan starts telling Anakin, we'll take him together.

But the Padawan's fatal flaw is his lack of patience and need to prove himself.

I'm going slowly on the left.

I'm taking him now.

No, Anakin, no!

No!

Anakin maybe loses control a little bit and some of the darkness emerges, whereas a Jedi normally would have to be much more in control of the situation.

At this point in time, Obi-Wan is a bit of a better Jedi than Anakin, but he's still no match for Dooku.

On screen is actually a few seconds of extended footage from this portion of the fight, but the significance is that it's intentionally short.

From their first clash, it takes the Sith Lord only 33 seconds to defeat Obi-Wan.

This complete and utter failure of a fight allows us to see how much Obi-Wan and Anakin have grown and matured over the course of the Clone Wars when we see them finally duel Dooku again.

For one, they're so much more like brothers in Episode III, and now they're actually a pretty good team against Dooku, just like how Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon once were.

And on top of this, we see how much more powerful Anakin has become.

He and Obi-Wan both got destroyed in less than a minute last time, but now it's Anakin who's actually able to best Dooku.

Anyway, let's get back to the attack of the clones fight.

All the way!

Sure, the emphasis was on the storytelling aspects, but at this point, there was nothing really making this fight unique.

So that's when George ordered Nick Giller to come up with some choreography for the duel-wielding style of Jar-Kai.

Nick Giller is the fight master.

Brilliant man.

He choreographs the fights.

Really good at what he does.

He brings a story arc to the fights.

Obi-Wan knew his apprentice didn't stand a chance.

Throwing Anakin that second saber was just like a Hail Mary to maybe catch Dooku off guard, but let's be honest, it's a pretty disappointing sequence.

Dooku disarms the green blade in literally five seconds, and I think Anakin knew he was outmatched, so he tries something desperate and kills the lights.

I really don't know why he thought this would be an advantage, but I just have to say, this is easily the worst part of the entire duel.

This isn't edited.

This 10-second close-up shot of nothingness is actually in the movie.

I'll never understand why George loves these close-up shots during the duels instead of wide shots.

He did the same thing with the Palpatine and Mace Windu duel and just wasted some beautiful lightsaber choreography.

George can do so much right, but sometimes it's just like, what are you thinking, man?

Anyway, here's another little bit of deleted footage from Dooku and Anakin's duel.

Again, nothing major, because all of Dooku's quick victories are purposeful to prove that he's a genuine threat.

The big surprise of Attack of the Clones is the debut of Yoda's lightsaber skills, and they needed a proven adversary who was worthy of facing off against the legendary master.

And I was sort of depending on that surprise.

I very much liked the idea from Empire Strikes Back when you first see him, is he's this funny little green frog living in the swamps, and then eventually you realize that this is a great Jedi master.

Well, in this sequence, it's the same idea.

You have this funny little wizened old man who's very old and walks with a cane, and then he pulls out his laser sword and he jumps around like a kid and is really powerful.

As excited and passionate as George was about this surprise, he was also very terrified.

For one, there was the challenge of actually creating a realistic Yoda that was entirely computer-generated, and the other big worry was that the tiny frog man might look goofy jumping around a six-foot-tall Sith Lord.

If not handled just right, it's gonna look silly.

So when they were filming the duel, Christopher Lee and his stunt double Kyle Rowling were just doing the fight against nothing.

All they had to go by was this Yoda model that they would run around the set with to give an idea of where they should be swinging their lightsabers.

In some respects, it's more difficult, because you don't know what is in front of you.

Since George Lucas was so worried about how this would turn out, he just decided to film a variety of different lightsaber choreography as insurance.

This way, he could pick and choose whatever actually worked.

In one version, Dooku begins getting overwhelmed and uses both his red and Obi-Wan's blue lightsaber to better defend against Master Yoda's acrobatic Ataru style.

Like Darth Vader, Dooku is also a fallen Jedi, so having him wield a blue Jedi lightsaber just like he did back when he was Yoda's apprentice could have maybe brought more dimension to the character.

A lot of people claim that Dooku's really boring and came out of nowhere, but ask anyone who's seen The Clone Wars or Tales of the Jedi, and they'll tell you how interesting and complex his character really is.

Ultimately, George Lucas liked the way the scene looked and decided it was better off without this dual-wielding sequence.

It's just the very first rough thing, but you do get a sense of what he looks like, and I think he's gonna work out great.

Although in the novel Labyrinth of Evil, it's mentioned that Count Dooku was disgusted by wielders of two lightsabers and believed that a true Jedi should be capable of surviving with just one.

So this dual-wielding sequence would have made Dooku a bit of a hypocrite.

Do you think George made the right call removing it?

Regardless, getting rid of this extra Palpatine versus four Jedi choreography was definitely one of George's biggest mistakes, so tap right over here to watch this absolutely insane extended footage.