system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] Why didn't Obi-Wan just drop straight on top of General Grievous and chop him in half then? Why the elaborate duel which prolonged the conflict, risked failure, and got lots of other people killed?

His mission was to kill him, so it's not like there were many other outcomes possible except more deaths.

In any case, why does he think it's more civilized to chop someone in half than to shoot them in the head from a distance?
gpt
To answer your first question, it's because of the enormous droid army surrounding Grievous. Had Obi-Wan leapt down and killed Grievous immediately, he'd have been gunned down by the army surrounding him on all sides. But by engaging Grievous directly, he could play into the General's pride, getting him to order the droids to stand down and let him handle it directly. Obi-Wan knew he needed to stall for time for his 212th Clone Battalion to get in position, or else he'd be killed, and the duel was his way of distracting the droids to improve the chances of that attack.