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The high ground has tactical advantages in a fight, but it also has some disadvantages too:
- The air is less dense up there, so your body operates with less efficient oxygen usage. You're more susceptible to developing altitude sickness.
- It's colder at altitude, so this can affect heat retention and induce shivering.
- You're closer to the sun, with less atmosphere protecting you against damaging ultraviolet rays. So you're more likely to develop skin cancer and eye cataracts than your foe who is on the low ground.
- If you're higher up, statistically you're both more likely to fall off a cliff and to suffer more damage when you do so.
- Mean wind speed is higher at altitude, so you're more likely to experience wind chill effects and suffer from exposure. The higher wind is also more likely to interfere with your combat moves.
- Greater risk of experiencing an avalanche.
- If the sky falls, it will hit you first, by Toutatis!
- If bombs are dropped, you have further to go to reach the safety of an underground bomb shelter.
- You're further from any sources of running water, so will suffer dehydration earlier.
- Wildfires spread uphill faster than downhill, so you're more likely to be incinerated.
- You are the most likely target for lightning.
- You are the one who will be picked up by a giant eagle looking for morsels to feed its chicks.
- You're closer to the horrific vacuum of space and the insane gibbering things that occupy the cold, unfeeling universe just beyond the limits of our perception.
Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)
I would too, Rey. The only two people I remember losing their legs without immediately dying are Anakin and Maul. Maul shouldn't be familiar in the slightest to either Kylo or Rey, while Anakin would probably go for another Force Possession on Rey. That probably wouldn't be as strong an attack as it was against Luke given the familial distance between son and granddaughter, but it's still the same lineage.
It's a little hard to tell, but it looks like Rey backed into the ravine, climbed up a bit, then stepped on Kylo's head to jump behind him. Now that's a pretty neat trick. It's probably slightly different in the movie as this situation seems more serious than that stunt would allow and the text doesn't mention it. It really is hard for me to see otherwise in panel four though.
Transcript
[SFX]: whooom!
Rey: I fall back along this small ravine.
[SFX]: whooom!
Kylo Ren: I press my advantage!
[SFX]: whooom!
Rey: You have no advantage!
[SFX]: whmmmm...
Rey: I climb to the high ground.
Kylo Ren: I attack her feet!
[SFX]: whooom!
Rey: Parry!
GM: Parrying a blow from below the level of your feet is tricky. Fortunately Kylo hits only rock.
[SFX]: whooom!
[SFX]: Krzzakk!!
GM: Rey gets a brief mental flash of a future without legs.
Rey: That can’t be good. I leap off the rocks and tumble away in the snow.
[SFX]: whmmmm...
GM: You get a flash of the past. An oddly familiar rasping whisper.
Voice: Hold your ground... or these will be your last steps.
Rey: Hmm. I stop, turn, and stand to fight.
[SFX]: Whmmmm...
[SFX]: whmmmm...
Kylo Ren: Where is this coming from?!
[SFX]: Whooom!
Rey: Wouldn’t you like to know?
[SFX]: Whooom!
Rey: I know I would.