age would be a factor if the duel last for a longer time. but in these fights it didnt. One must take into consideration that both Anakin and Obi had been at it for awhile when they met Dooku. With fatigue comes carelessness and at least Anakin was pretty careless, the ligning bolt he took didnt help his cause either
so qui gon jinn wasnt fatigued right before he was killed? hmm.....im watching ep.1 right now, and maul just killed him. it looked like qui gon just ran out of gas. he is mainly blocking, not attacking like he was prior. ush, i'll agree with you that older more experienced swordsmen will defeat younger faster ones any day. i am getting ready to take aikido and kendo lessons, but i have to quit smoking these stinking cigarettes first. i sat in and watched a kendo session at a local school. the instructor was a japanese man about 55-60 years old. he took on guys in their 20s and 30s and just humiliated them. but, after about an hour of this, he began to show fatigue. he was mainly defensive, not being able to match his experience for youth and stamina. and this was with breaks between each opponent. qui gon was charging maul non stop and his attacks were vicious, especially when he and obi wan were seperated. qui gon was the better swordsman, and i think maul knew this. he exploited it and wore qui gon down. when qui gon began to slow down, maul turned up the heat, attacking nonstop. i just rewound it and am watching it again. qui gon is fighting bravely, but, despite his superior skill, he has very little left to give. as for mauls dual bladed saber: yes, it is a big a hazard to the user as it is to the opponent. unless, that is, you become a master with it. if obi wan tried to use it, he would probably bisect himself. maul, however, has mastered it. in his hands, it becomes twice as effective as a regular lightsaber.
It does not matter HOW much you master the double-ended sabre, it will never be tiwce as good as a normal sabre, or even AS good as. You can only use half of it anyway- because once you use one blade the other side is uselessly committed- it is a hafted weapon but you can only hold the centre, which removes the point of such a weapon, and with no guard the centre is horribly vulenerable to attack. If an opponent slashes at the centre there is almost nothing you can do about it. It is a USELESS weapon included only for its stylistic value. As I say, all the Masters in that film use single baldes, and no wonder.
No, we cannot trust the books, they mean nothing. QGJ did not look in the SLIGHTEST bit fatigued when he was beaten. His actual mistake was to make the same move twice in a row, and Maul was ready to bash his hilt into QGJ's face. Just outfought, simple.
Dooku, a generation older than QGJ, continued to fight for just as long and was not slowing down either- and as for Yoda! Fatigue really did not seem to be an issue.
if it is a useless weapon, then why didnt obiwan and quigon strike him down right away?look at it this way. lets say you and i are in a light saber duel. you have a single blade and i have mauls saber. we are both masters with our respective weapons. i swing at your mid section, right to left. you block the attack, but your single blade is now occupied with the blade i tried to strike you with. whats to keep me from bringing my other blade around and striking you down? after you intercept the first attack, i continue by using the momentum of the first attack to bring the other blade around to strike at you now EXPOSED and UNPROTECTED right side, which is now open for attack. a staff is an OFFENSIVE weapon. it can be used for defense, but it serves its bearer better if it used for attack. a single blade sword is more balanced, but not as strong an offensive weapon. staffs are used to ward off multiple enemies and be able to counterattack.
Yeah, Bob Brown's site, it is down now but I still have it saved.
You CANNOT use Mauls' weapon like a staff because you can ONLY hold the centre, you cannot hold it to your body and because your opponent can cut right through the hilt- like I said already, nearly all advantages it has from being a hafted weapon are lost by its very nature as a sabre. Your example is pretty irrelevant, also nonsensical- you bring the other blade towwards me, I block THAT as well. Bloody simple- you cannot bring both blades towards me at once and it is MUCH simpler for me to move a short distance to block than it is for you to bring your other blade around for a new attack. You don't HAVE any momentum on that side- your example makes no sense. I can block you all day doing slashes but you have a hell of a problem blocking my greater range of moves.
The advantages *I* can get by simply striking for your middle-and I have a greater reach because I can thrust without impaling myself on the other side of the weapon- are immense and the options you have to counter that few. You certainly cannot perform a circular disarm on me unless you want to neatly burn your own chest out in the process! NORMALLY a staff would have a longer reach than me because one can quickly move to hold it at the end, which is most of its advantage, certainly in bo staff fighting, but Maul's sabre- only holdable in the centre- does NOT. It has a decidedly shorter reach.
To quote the Bobmeister himself:
"THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS WEAPON TO USE. The nature of ''hafted'' weapons is that one or the other end regularly comes close (and often into contact with) the wielders own body. This would be FATAL with a lightsabre blade! It would be surprising if Maul does not regularly trim the dangling sleeves of his Sith robes!... skilled opponents will try to bash the "butt blade" into his body by striking at the ''front blade''. Maul is unable to assume most forms of ''centre'' guard (without exposing his belly)... Truly I sympathise with prequel weapons-choreographer Nick Gillard, who had to create believable techniques for this suicidally dangerous weapon!"
The list of problems with it is ridiculous- it is dangerous, complicated, ungainly and clumsy, whereas a sabre is simple and elegant. The weapon is rubbish and expert analysis of it that I have seen agrees so; it was my brother who pointed it out to me and I respect his sword fighting knowledge a great deal. The reason they did not beat him quickly is because they were interested in having an interesting fight, not a realistic one (they would all be fencing matches like in ANH if they were realistic), and Nick could come up with some cool looking sutff with a double-ended sabre and two opponents- as Bob Brown said, it was a miracle he made it look believable at all, so ridiculous is the weapon. But anyone who claims the double-ended lightsabre is a BETTER weapon than a normal one knows little of swordfighting. I am sorry, that is just how it is.
In the end, the point remains that if it were a better weapon, then ALL the Matsers would be using them. Dooku and Yoda and Windu are better swordsmen than Maul, and they use single blades. The use of the double by Maul was purely stylistic- and in film terms (film terms being the ones that make spaceships make noises in space, the force possible, and the double-ended sabre not SO rubbish that he was beaten at once), he fought just as well with the single. All it did for the fight was make him look good.
I think one of the reasons anakin went bad besides his mother is that his second father died(QGJ). He was just like his second dad, QGJ had all the confidence in the world for anakin. [/QUOTE]
Everyone says Qui Gon was like a second dad (when did he have a first one?) but I don't get it. He knew the guy for like 3 days! I get he really liked and respected him and they bonded or whatever and Qui Gon stood up for him but come on, he hardly knew the guy well enough for him to be like a dad.
ok, ush.... ill agree with you that a single bladed saber is a more sensible weapon, but ONLY if you are facing a single opponent.in maul and qui gons first battle on tattooine, maul uses a single blade because he has only one opponent. in the second battle, he uses both. why? because he is facing two jedi rather than one. next time you watch ep. 1, notice that when he whips out his lightsaber, he ignites the right blade as he looks at qui gon. as he ignites the 2nd blade, he looks at obiwan. he realizes that he needs both blades to face them. picture this: maul has only a single bladed lightsaber as he fights both jedi. how long would he have lasted? my guess is that qui gon would have struck him down in a matter of minutes, if that long. for instance: lets say obi wan tries to sweep mauls legs. maul blocks, but he doesnt have a blade left to deal with qui gon. he is wide open for attack. your point about the bearer of a dual bladed saber's mid section being vulnerable was validated when obi wan chopped his saber in half. when maul faced obi wan one on one, he should have went back to using one blade. 2 blades are better for facing multiple opponents, but against one opponent, they are more of a liability than an asset. P.S.: i appreciate it that you and the others here answer these replies without being harsh. some of the other sites i have been to(i.e.😖lackercentral) the people there are just plain rude. its great that we can debate this without being rude or immature.