Best Lightsaber Battle

1) Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs Maul. While long, it has the most grounded while still being flashy of the prequel duels. It also sets the dominos into place for Anakin's fall.
1A) Luke vs Kylo it's an emotional confrontation that harkins back to the prequels, where it's the whole "it's like poetry, it rhymes." It does something new for the duels, while in the same process making Luke powerful and not resorting to "let's just cut down hundreds of stormtroopers."

--- Double Post Merged, Jun 1, 2020, Original Post Date: Jun 1, 2020 ---

I'm curious as to why?

 

Because it has the perfect mixture of both the OT and PT. It has the emotional weight and grounded realism which was absence in the PT. Then it's more flashy and cinematic pleasing than in the OT without being a silly dance like in the PT.

What I like about the lightsaber fights in the ST is the strength and brutality. You feel every hit and a lightsaber actually looks dangerous. Especially when Adam Driver lays his full strength into the fight.

 

I'm pretty sure this is an unpopular opinion to have, but at least when it comes to the films, I much prefer the ST duels to the OT and PT. I know there are purists out there who get down on the duels in the ST because they don't really follow any official form of lightsaber combat, to that I say... should they though? But that's an entirely different discussion. I love how the sabers feel and react in the ST. They feel strong, they feel powerful, they feel dangerous, they feel REAL and that adds SO much to the duels. Unlike the PT, every strike feels like it's done with purpose, and while not nearly as acrobatic or flashy as the PT, they never feel stilted in the way they did in the OT. Combine that with emotion, score and characters that I think at the very least rival the OT, it takes the best parts of the trilogies that came before it, balances them out and makes for what I consider to be very entertaining, edge-of-your-seat engaging duels.

 

yeah unlike legends star wars jesus GRANDMASTER LUUKE!

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For me the ST duels are nice because it shows that while Rey and Kylo are powerful force users, they are still inexperienced enough that they swing their lightsabers around like baseball bats.

 

As an avid dancer, I really admire the choreo of duels and the artistry of the more showy moves (Totally haven't memorized the first 2:37... not at all...). So I really enjoyed the fight between Obi and Annie for those reasons and also the emotion that is brought throughout it.

 

Picking one from each trilogy...
1. Luke vs Vader ROTJ
2. Toss up: Rey vs Kylo TFA & Rey & Kylo vs Palps TROS
3. Dooku vs Anikan AOTC

Just enjoyment ranking...
1. Luke vs Vader - ROTJ
2. Rey & Kylo vs Palps - TROS
3. Rey vs Kylo - TFA
4. Kylo vs Rey - Forcetime Fight, TROS
5. Luke vs Vader - ESB
6. Kylo vs Luke - TLJ
7. Kylo vs Rey - Death Star Ruins, TROS
8. Obi vs Vader - ANH
9. Dooku vs Anakin - AOTC
10...meh, blur the rest in here - shiny swords, flashy moves. Kung-Fu Star Wars.

My enjoyment ranking is based entirely off of one principle:
Does the saber fight function by the saber exchanges being metaphorical extensions of the character's argument's with each other, and are the characters pushed forward in their growth through their arguments in the duel?

As such, most, but not all of my picks have quite a bit of stopping, or pausing the fight and talking. The less dialogue a saber fight has, the less I'm going to like it.
There is an exception to this, to some degree, in that if the fight doesn't have a lot of talking, but the weight of the outcome of the fight has a strong emotional push upon the character, or characters, then I don't mind too much that there's a lack of talking - especially if the "talking" is replaced with emoting in the combat at least.

For example, Kylo vs Rey on the Death Star bordered on Kung-Fu Star Wars, but staved off that classification because there was A) a narrative push and pull taking place with Kylo testing Rey and pushing her, Rey not really getting this and losing control and blindly just going for the kill when Kylo was clearly unguarded, and B) it ended with a massive character motivator for both Rey and Kylo (but especially for Kylo/Ben).

In this way, it is, to me, similar to Luke vs Vader in ESB, which also borders on being Kung-Fu Star Wars (which, for the record, the OT absolutely has in the Jaba fight - it's just, instead of "King Fu" which wasn't yet everywhere in f****** film it was just fancy swashbuckling action).

Saber fights that aren't on this list are basically where I take a break and go get a refill of drink or snacks, maybe use the restroom, etc...
They're meaningless to me. While neat, they are pretty much Kung-Fu fights with light sabers that don't really serve any further point than showing off saber battles.

The one exception here, a bit, is Obi vs Anakin in ROTS.
I used to forgive this one because the ending is meaningful, but over time it lost that value because, ultimately, that ending wasn't meaningful.
We already knew where this was going long before we ever got here, and nothing new was really brought out in Anakin's psychological growth for us to know was buried under that helmet in the OT in this fight.
It didn't add anything to the Obi vs Vader fight of ANH.

In fact, it kind of undermined it.
When you first watched ANH's Obi vs Vader fight and Vader states that he was once the pupil, but now he is the master, you implicitly get the idea that Obi-Wan beat him in the past.

ROTS supports that, sure, but...well...honestly, Anakin really just beats the crap out of Obi-Wan for quite a while before he slips up in the final moments.
So...I mean. It's not so much that he was a pupil instead of a master, as it was that he made a blind mistake (that didn't even make sense in either direction).

But really, this fight didn't make me see Vader differently. Dooku's death by Anakin somewhat did because Anakin's pause echoed how Vader would pretty regularly pause before doing something, or ending up not being able to do something. What looked previously like Vader was just kind of mentally slow on acumen shifted to being read as Anakin's conscience sorting through a flow of possibilities and decisions, and still not fully having an absolute cold-hearted resolve - which makes his exchange in ROTJ with Luke on Endor less left-field as it originally seemed (I mean...come on...Vader having a heart or conscience was really out of left-field in the OT - it was half-a-step away from if Jaws had swung left at the last minute and pointed out that the shark was confused and terrified and maybe could just be coaxed into a rescue operation and transported).

So the Dooku fight does what the ROTS fight doesn't - it pushes an echo through into the OT that adds to Vader's growth and narrative path.
For all of it's "OOOs" and "AHHs", the ROTS fight just doesn't give me anything more than what we already knew, so ultimately, it's just Kung-Fu Star Wars.
(And a god awful silliness about "high ground" that makes no sense at any level - not even in-world, and not even allegorically.)

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Now, conversely, the straight highlight of all battles for me, then, is Luke vs. Vader in ROTJ.
It just doesn't get more meat and potatoes of the narrative thrust of two characters arguing than this, and it's so dam# well crafted it's like I'm watching a Stained Glass story come to life, and that to me is the best of what Star Wars sabers can become, and so few ever have.

A truly great Saber scene is a pseudo-religious live action stain glass portrait of the story's central allegorical message and ambition.

ROTJ's battle is effectively the entire OT allegory wrapped up into one combative scene.

In a similar way, so is the battle of Rey & Kylo vs Palps in the ST. It's effectively everything the trilogy has been allegorically saying through the whole story all in one scene, done in a very poetic and stunningly visual manner. Stunningly visual does not mean complex choreography in some flashy Kung-Fu mix-mash - it means it paints with film a very vivid imagery that reinforces the meaning of the scene, which is all the more valuable since this kind of scene is reinforcing the meaning of the entire story.

Story Meaning < Scene Meaning < Vivid imagery = Dam# good saber battle.
Lettuce < Tomato < Bacon = Dam# good sandwich.

TLJ doesn't rate. It's Obi & Qui vs Maul 2.0 with even less narrative value.
I could cut out TLJ's saber battle, keep the Snoke killing before, and the force tug-o-war and argument between Rey and Kylo after and I wouldn't have lost anything of value to either character's narrative growth.

At least Obi/Qui/Maul have something to Obi in Qui dying...all be it...very weakly because it almost doesn't really matter other than to make room for Obi to take on Anakin...but it doesn't seem to change anything about Obi's ontological views on life. He's just kind of Obi-Rage for a moment, then Obi-Sad for a moment, and then just back to Obi-Crunchy-Good-Guy. Meh.

Anyway, there's my list and reasoning of the logic behind it.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

You continue to have great analogies

 

Great list. Tbh honest, I didn’t love TROS, but the end fighting scene was so good! It really saved it. Plus they fought on really cool structures. Made good for some cool posters...

i didn’t care for the TFA fight, but im glad you liked it!

and the count dooku vs Obi vs Annie duel was so good! ROTS was just such a good movie with so many great duels and characters! I just hated Dooku’s fate! Anyway, what a good duel. Very good opening to a movie in my opinion.

--- Double Post Merged, Jun 1, 2020, Original Post Date: Jun 1, 2020 ---

Great list! All of those fights were great! Good dueling and with such high emotion. With Vader’s indecision in ROTJ, Anakin’s hate vs Obi-Wan’s master jedi skills, and the master vs old apprentice battle in Rebels, makes your list amazing! I have to say, the Ahsoka vs Vader makes as my favorite Rebels episode, I think...

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I did indeed love that duel on Naboo. I loved getting to know Qui-Gon and young Obi-Wan! Plus, we get a loads more characters from the movie! That duel in general was high action and, at the time of the release of the movie, included the first duel-lightsaber! That made for a really cool fight. And the way Maul killed Qui-Gon was sad, but brilliant! What a fight indeed.

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Nice! I liked the whole battle of Crait personally I just love Luke Skywalker and how he didn’t die when the walkers blasted him, just amazing. And you are right about it’s emotional balance. Quite good fight actually. Underrated too! Good one!

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Respectable opinion. I do not agree but yeah...

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What an emotional fight that was too! Sabers clashing and constant movement. I loved the acting too. The voice lines were quite extraordinary! That fight makes me cry and/or sends chills down my spine. But still, Luke vs Vader TESB was the best duel. Change my mind lol

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Hold up. Is no one going to laugh at my joke in the poll. Cornoabot gener- never mind!

 

Just a question: why aren't the ST fights included in the poll?
After all these movies still unbeaten for me: Luke vs Vader on Bespin. Storywise and choreographically. Also the Visuals and the atmosphere of the seemingly bottomless shaft of Bespin. I also liked the Kylo Ren vs Rey fight on Starkiller Base + the one on Kef Bir. I allways thought the PT fights were overrated. Yes, great Visuals and very fast and intense. But no realism and no story, that's why they feel flat to me. Not a big fan of the Kylo and Rey vs Palpatine scenes. Once I watched a YouTube video in which the ROTJ fight with the emperor and the TROS emperor fight were combined. I realized that the TROS end batlle was way over the top while the ROTJ was more subtle in a 'less is more' way.

 

Couldn’t agree more, the prequel fights are so over the top and over choreographed I can’t take them seriously. You can see them aiming for each other’s blades, rather than trying to attack the body. The Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon vs Maul one is ridiculous...if they both attacked high or low, Maul literally wouldn’t be able to block both. Yet every time one attacks high, the other goes low to meet Maul’s other blade. Nonsense.

I actually think my favourite might be Rey/Finn Vs Kylo on Starkiller. It looks great, the sabers sound heavy & brutal, ever clash of blades feels dangerous, you feel every hit they take (especially Finn) and it feels like they’re are genuinely trying to kill each other anyway they can!

 

*clears throat*

Cheers,
Jayson

 

LOL Thanks for sharing. I hope someday someone will make a parody of this fight with the two contestants mirroring each other constantly (doing a polka dance together, looking at their watch simultaneously, playing helicopter with their lightsabres…)

 

1 - Luke x Vader (TESB)
2 - Rey x Kylo (TFA)
3 - Luke x Kylo (TLJ)
4 - Luke x Vader (ROTJ)

The duels from the ST are out of the poll. Why? They are so much better than the fake duels from the PT.

 

1. Luke vs. Vader II
2. Kenobi/Jinn vs. Maul
3. Rey & Kylo vs. The Preatarion Guard
4. Luke vs. Vader I
5. Luke vs. Kylo
6. Yoda vs. Tyrannus (sue me)
7. Finn & Rey vs. Wounded Kylo (all raw emotion!)
8. Kenobi vs. Vader I (the stakes, fireworks, and emotion are offset by the choreography being so extreme feeling that it doesn't seem real)
9. Anakin vs. Tyrannus I (with guest star Kenobi)
10. Windu vs. Sidious
11. Anakin vs. Tyrannus II (with guest star Kenobi)
12. Yoda vs. Sidious
13. Rey vs. Kylo on the wreckage of the second Death Star
14. Kenobi vs. Grievous
15. Kenobi vs. Vader II (this is probably at least #2 if you had ILM spruce up of the SC 38 reimagined version with proper editing)

 

1: Anakin vs Obi Wan (I voted for it).
2: Obi-wan and Qui-gon vs Mau
3: Luke vs Vader and Palpatine
4: Ahsoka vs Vader
5: Yoda vs Palpatine
6: Obi Wan vs General Grievous

 

Simple answer. Sequel Trilogy fights are trash and nothing more. If you like them cool.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 2, 2020, Original Post Date: Aug 2, 2020 ---

Sequel Trilogy fights suck. At least the PT fights had emotion. If you wanna make a thread about the best Sequel Trilogy fights then do it. I don’t wanna seem rude, but everyone here is saying the same dang thing.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 2, 2020 ---

Final note. PT fights are amazing. OT fights are better. I hate the way Disney ruined SW. Thats me. We all have opinions. But in my thread, I excluded those trashy ST fights. Plus, I only have room in a poll for so many duels. I tried to include *clears throat* good duels. I am thinking about making a thread about just the Sequel duels for you sequel fans

 

One of my main beefs with those battles is how almost none of them actually very much mattered or carried much weight.

I could cut them out and lose almost nothing from any character's growth.

The only two of strong exception to this are Obi vs Ani, and Ani killing Dooku, but aside from that just about all of them are benign things I could clip out in an edit without losing any solid information about character growth that I couldn't fill in rather easily in other ways.

The OT has zero duels between sabers that are not critical to character growth.

The ST is mixed. There's one that's just a straight toss away in Snoke's ship and makes no difference if you cut it out or not, and one in TROS that's Forcetimed that's pretty much able to be cut without any real big deal, but the rest are critical to character growth.

How you feel is subjective, but I think how much it matters to understanding characters if you cut them out is an easy way to evaluate them in terms of how much they matter to the story.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

Jayson, wonderful counter argument. Im sorry, but I respectfully disagree. I think the PT duels were vibrant and amazing. But, in my opinion, the OT was slightly better than the PT. The OT had great duels. Including the final duel where Anakin redeems himself as the chosen one. But, I understand where you are coming from. I just despise the ST. I guess the only ST film that is good is TFA. Also, I was just angry. Everyone here kept on complaining how I excluded ST duels from the poll when they easily could have put them on this thread. Well anyway, I understand your argument and I hope you understand mine.

 

Of course I respect your opinion.
I don't think anything in Star Wars is trash, but I think certain things in certain films are weaker than others or pragmatically narratively irrelevant.

Solo is almost entirely narratively irrelevant to the bigger story, but I still enjoyed it.

I'd be interested in seeing how you see each of the prequels' saber duels as functionally relevant to the main characters' growths.

Or if you'd rather, I can set it up with all saber duels in a list from all trilogies and whether I think they matter to the main character growths and you can go through and show me your counter view where applicable.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

You set it up and we can go from there. And you are right. Nothing is trash in SW, it just may seem inferior to other scenes or whatever. Im gonna go back and remove my disagrees cuz I feel bad now lol