What really happened in Kanan vs Grand Inquisitor in the Rebels Season 1 finale?
In Comic Vine, I've seen people place Kanan Jarrus in the level of or superior to the Grand Inquisitor, based on their fight in "Fire Across the Galaxy", which Kanan won. But there is more to it than that. In this blog, I will show that Kanan's victory over the Inquisitor was circumstancial, and would not happen in an even playing field.
First, we must analyze their three other fights in Rebels.
For their first fight...
For their second fight...
For their first two fights, Kanan is pretty much no challenge for the Inquisitor, and gets his butt kicked all over the place. As for their third fight...
Kanan has improved from the second to the third fight, as the Inquisitor notes. The fight begins with the Inquisitor on the offense, forcing Kanan to give a bit of ground. Due to Kanan's improvement, which the Inquisitor did not expect, Kanan landed a kick on the Inquisitor's stomach, that made little to no effect.
After the Ghost crew arrives, The Inquisitor literally drags Kanan back in a bladelock for five seconds. In 3:20, shortly after Kanan narrowly escaped from the bladelock, the GI pins Jarrus to the wall with the Force, and holds the Jedi there for forty seconds. Then the Inquisitor releases Jarrus, and holds him at saberpoint.
Even after improving, Kanan gets his butt kicked by the Inquisitor- again.
He is held captive for a day or two, then he is released, and then, finally, the grand fight in which the Inquisitor perishes. Between the third and fourth fights, there really was no big gap, and Kanan was held captive during said gap- he did not improve.
We've completely established the fact GI>S1 Kanan by a considerable margin; even in Season 2, which gave Kanan an year to improve (he did improve) he still gets dominated by FB at 4:54.
4:41 Kicked by SS to somewhat of an effect.
4:51 Staggered by a blow from FB.
6:59-7:13 Stalemates Ezra in a sparring match, and Ezra says "another tie" in a tone that depicts those two drawing lots of times.
We've now established that GI is completely above S1 Kanan, and that S2 Kanan, that is superior to S1 Kanan, keeps losing to or stalemating with Inquisitors below GI, given that GI is the "Grand" Inquisitor and he was a Temple Guard and full-fledged Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars.
So, how could Kanan beat the Grand Inquisitor?
Freddie Prinze Jr., the actor who voices Kanan in Rebels, has stated that during the final fight with the Inquisitor, Kanan let go of his attachment and fear. Doing this is very important in a fight, because it was the main reason Obi-Wan defeated a superior combatant, Anakin, on Mustafar.
Freddie Prinze Jr.: "Kanan vs The Grand Inquisitor, that's Kanan releasing his fear and attachment, and sort of being like water."
First Order Transmissions #197: Star Wars Rebels Finale Interview
This was after Ezra attempted to join the fight and got nearly killed by the Inquisitor (Kanan believed Ezra to be dead, given how Ezra was hit by GI's saber throw and fell a few levels.
Now, the actual fight...
Kanan gets Ezra's saber, and runs at the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor smiles, expecting Kanan to attack with his saber. But The Inquisitor does not know Ezra's saber has a blaster function, and is not prepared for it when Kanan uses it. Another factor- Grand Inquisitor was not expecting this, and was caught off balance. The two clash for a bit, with GI missing two kicks and slightly overpowering Kanan in a bladelock. Kanan gets to a safe distance, and uses the blaster thing to again force GI back. The two then begin dueling again, in which GI gets an upper hand and overpowers Kanan in a bladelock. Ezra calls Kanan's saber to his hand. The Inquisitor considers a fight with Kanan AND Ezra "worthy of his time", meaning that he thought dueling Kanan was too easy and a waste of time.
Ezra is basically a non-factor, giving ground every time the Inquisitor attacked him. Then, GI pushes Ezra. After Ezra is temporarily removed from the fight, The Inquisitor lands two kicks on Kanan and Force Pushes him. Then Ezra gets up, and gets hit by Grand Inquisitor's saber throw.
Kanan gets up, calls his lightsaber to his hand, and tells the Inquisitor "killing" Ezra was a mistake, because he had no more fear. The two briefly clash, and Kanan uses the stun blaster thing on Ezra's saber to force the Inquisitor back quite a long bit. Kanan, with an expression of rage he never has, keeps attacking the Inquisitor, forcing the Inquisitor back. With the stun feature, he continues staggering GI, to a point where there's no more ground. The GI is cornered. Then Kanan cuts the Dark sider's weapon in two, making the GI lose balance. Clinging for his life, The Inquisitor knows that punishment at the hand of Vader for failure is worse than death, and commits suicide.
GI>Kanan is definitely confirmed, and the reasons to Kanan's victory too. He was amped after Ezra's apparent death, letting go of fear and attachment, and the stun feature on Ezra's saber was what really drove back the Inquisitor. When Kanan didn't use the stun feature, he did no real damage to the Inquisitor except when the latter was cornered; on the other hand, GI landed two kicks on Kanan, the latter of which made Kanan bring his hand to his stomach. Then, Jarrus was Force Pushed and floored long enough for Ezra to be defeated. The environment, too, was vital; Kanan only managed to defeat the Inquisitor by cutting his saber in two after GI was cornered; if this was a barren wasteland or somewhere completely flat, Kanan would not be able to defeat GI like that.
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