For the most part, the climactic showdown between Obi-Wan and his fallen apprentice on Mustafar at the end of Revenge of the Sith is appropriately heartbreaking. From Anakin being burned alive to Obi-Wan saying he thought of him as a brother, there are a lot of moments in this sequence that are difficult to watch for Star Wars fans who love this iconic duo. But one line that’s been widely mocked and heavily memed over the years is, “It’s over, Anakin! I have the high ground!”
Obi-Wan’s “high ground” comment is one of the most memorable Star Wars quotes, purely because it’s so silly. There have even been lengthy discussions about the effectiveness of the high ground as a combat strategy. Obi-Wan declares the duel to be “over” just because he has the high ground, so he’s pretty confident in that strategy. And surprisingly, that makes sense, because there are actually a ton of moments throughout Revenge of the Sith that confirm Kenobi’s unwavering faith in the effectiveness of the high ground.
Obi-Wan demonstrates the effectiveness of the high ground strategy a bunch of times ahead of the Mustafar duel. When he crash-lands into the Separatist ship in the opening scene, he leaps out of his starfighter to attack the battle droids from above and manages to effortlessly wipe them all out. On the other hand, when he and Anakin take on Count Dooku from the bottom of a staircase, Obi-Wan gets knocked out of contention almost immediately, because Dooku has the high ground.
In the middle act of Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan goes off on a side quest to Utapau. If he’d been back on Coruscant when Palpatine revealed to Anakin that he’s a Sith Lord and kickstarted his turn to the dark side, it might’ve been a different story. Palpatine always told Anakin what he wanted to hear, but Obi-Wan told him what he needed to hear. Unfortunately, thanks to his side quest, Obi-Wan doesn’t find out about Anakin’s tragic downfall until he’s already slaughtered a bunch of children and he’s too far gone.
On Utapau, Obi-Wan utilizes the high ground a few times. The most notable example is when he confronts General Grievous. He drops down from up in the rafters to catch Grievous by surprise and says, “Hello there.” There’s a long chase before Obi-Wan finally kills Grievous with an “uncivilized” blaster, but a surprise attack from above put him in good stead to eventually win the duel. Obi-Wan sends his troops to “higher levels” during the ensuing battle, and moments later, these clones are seen decimating Greivous’ droid armies from above.
When Obi-Wan’s clones shoot at him and he manages to escape, he becomes one of the few survivors of the Great Jedi Purge. After Palpatine tells the clones to “execute Order 66,” they promptly turn on the Jedi Knights they were sworn to protect and gun them down in cold blood. There were a few survivors of the purge, but they were mostly helped by other people. Yoda was taken to an escape pod by the Wookiees, while Kanan Jarrus and Cal Kestis managed to survive because of sacrifices made by their masters.
But Obi-Wan saved himself from the wrath of Order 66 using nothing but the high ground. He only survives the purge because he’s 100 feet up on a cliff face above the clones shooting at him. He’s too far away for them to land a direct hit, so they just blow a chunk out of the cliff to cause Obi-Wan and his varactyl, Boga, to fall into the water below. The clones have to assume that the fall killed Kenobi, but of course, it didn’t.
After all those victories, when he’s uphill from Anakin on Mustafar, of course he’s confident enough to declare victory and say, “It’s over, Anakin, I have the high ground!” Anakin claims that Obi-Wan underestimates his power, then proceeds to prove his point by leaping at his former master and getting promptly sliced and diced. Unfortunately, Kenobi didn’t quite finish the job, paving the way for the rise of Darth Vader, but he did leave his morally corrupted apprentice on permanent life support – all thanks to the high ground.
Having said that, the low ground isn’t necessarily a guaranteed deathtrap. Although Kenobi is confident that his enemies are doomed if they take the low ground, the legendary Jedi himself has proven that it’s still possible to win a lightsaber duel from the low ground. In The Phantom Menace, he was literally dangling in a bottomless pit seconds before bisecting Darth Maul with Qui-Gon’s weapon to avenge his fallen master. If anyone could defeat Obi-Wan Kenobi on the high ground, it’s Obi-Wan Kenobi on the low ground.