In Star Wars, there are some spectacular duels, but one of the most exciting couldn’t happen because a detail from the movie Revenge of the Sith prevented it.
Which characters are involved? Anakin Skywalker and General Grievous are two of the best lightsaber fighters in the galaxy. A duel between the two would therefore be an eye-catching event.
Who knows, maybe such a duel could have taken place if the two characters had crossed paths during the series The Clone Wars. Unfortunately, that never happened. This is anything but a coincidence.
For a single scene from Revenge of the Sith has unambiguously made it clear that Anakin and Grievous had never met before Episode 3.
Barely Missed in the Service of Logic
Which scene is meant? In Episode 3, there is the rescue operation of Chancellor Palpatine. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker board General Grievous’s flagship and confront the villain.
In doing so, both characters each speak a consequential line. Grievous notes that he would have expected an older Jedi given Anakin’s reputation. Anakin, on the other hand, counters with the statement that he imagined Grievous to be larger.
Both dialogue lines make it clear: the two characters are meeting for the first time. This alone rules out any confrontation during the events of The Clone Wars – a series that takes place before Episode 3.
Dave Filoni, the creative mind behind The Clone Wars, had to refrain from bringing Anakin and Grievous together within the seven seasons. The logic within the series could not be compromised.
Did the two get close? One time or another, it almost happened that the two characters could have shaken hands – or lightsabers. In one case, it was particularly close.
In Season 4, Anakin and Grievous come dangerously close. On the planet Naboo, both fighters are captured. During a prisoner exchange, Anakin is unconscious and does not perceive Grievous. The latter is bound and does not seem to pay attention. A snippet of the scene can be seen on YouTube.
Whether this is an explanation for his surprise in Episode 3 is debatable. For Dave Filoni and his team, it certainly wasn’t easy to consider all aspects of the canon without mistakes. Star Wars is a franchise full of little details that, as in this case, unfortunately denied a certainly exciting duel within The Clone Wars. Appropriately: After 42 years, Star Wars fans are still arguing about a logic error that might not be one at all
