Which is the best Lightsaber battle from Star Wars?
- Thread starter FléauDeDieu
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2006
- Messages
- 3,071
- Reaction score
- 2,551
The duels in ANH, ESB and ROTJ although much more meaningful and emotional, pale in comparison to the prequel trilogy duels as far as action and choreography. Maul vs Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon is my favorite. The Duel of the Fates itself elevates the whole sequence to goat level. The scene with Qui-Gon meditating while Maul just paces rabidly waiting for that door to open is just awesome as well.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2006
- Messages
- 3,071
- Reaction score
- 2,551
Completely agree. The whole final season was great, but those last 4 episodes were especially top notch. A real joy to watch.
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2009
- Messages
- 10,056
- Reaction score
- 11,035
Obi wan vs vader in the latest TV show was better than ROTS fight.
- Joined
- May 6, 2007
- Messages
- 6,899
- Reaction score
- 9,047
Debatable but that one was pretty great too. You disagree with their ROTS fight being the best of the OP choices?
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2006
- Messages
- 3,071
- Reaction score
- 2,551
Obi-Wan vs Anakin in ROTS should be the best, but there were some real cringe-worthy moments during that duel. Some of the effects weren't up to par as well. Swinging on ropes, "I've got the higher ground", etc...
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2018
- Messages
- 12,685
- Reaction score
- 10,904
Luke vs Vader in the ROTJ is the correct answer, but in a close second is QQJ vs DM and i can understand the confusion by neophytes
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2009
- Messages
- 10,056
- Reaction score
- 11,035
Yes because the Darth Maul fight is easily taking this.
That fight redefined how we viewed lightsaber battles and gave every star wars fan who had been waiting since 83 a boner.
ROTS suffered from being an exceptionally shitty movie and turned big bad Vader into Darth Babykiller.
It’s all incredibly goofy and cringeworthy. After our protagonist turns genocidal in the span of 10 minutes after an evil old man makes a very vague promise about cheating death, he has a 20-minute videogame-worthy fight filled with profound and resonating dialogue, such as “Love won’t save you, Padme. Only my new powers can.” and “From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!”, against a man who we are told is like “his brother”, even though the actual movies never show any semblance of deep friendship between the two.
By the time we got to the fight, yes it had the makings of a teacher vs Samurai and SHOULD have been better. Instead I felt like i was watching an 80's Ninja movie where they did flips and spins for no apparent reason. The choreography was nowhere near as crisp and fluid as Maul's fight.
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2024
- Messages
- 29
- Reaction score
- 114
I agree that it was the best but it was a little drawn out. Would have benefited from a bit of trimming.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2013
- Messages
- 25,266
- Reaction score
- 39,225
Obi Wan vs Darth Maul on Tatoinne
Rebels
This was the most realistic sword fight in the entirety of the star wars cannon imo.
Swords are lethal and no one can actually move and react fast enough to block every shot for a minute or more.
My daughter used to do fencing.
Hits are landed within seconds.
Rebels
This was the most realistic sword fight in the entirety of the star wars cannon imo.
Swords are lethal and no one can actually move and react fast enough to block every shot for a minute or more.
My daughter used to do fencing.
Hits are landed within seconds.
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2011
- Messages
- 51,054
- Reaction score
- 84,410
Was definitely the funniest.
Yoda bouncing around like a midget gymnast on speed was hilarious.
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2009
- Messages
- 10,056
- Reaction score
- 11,035
Frog on meth was the running joke at the time lol
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2013
- Messages
- 14,191
- Reaction score
- 3,892
It's definitely up there, but the whole sequence where they were balancing on those whatever-those-things-were got a little silly to me. I voted Maul vs QGJ & OWK.
I also noticed none of Darth Sidious' duels were on the poll. I guess consistently stomping Jedi ass wrecks the grading curve.
- Joined
- May 6, 2007
- Messages
- 6,899
- Reaction score
- 9,047
Yes because the Darth Maul fight is easily taking this.
That fight redefined how we viewed lightsaber battles and gave every star wars fan who had been waiting since 83 a boner.
ROTS suffered from being an exceptionally shitty movie and turned big bad Vader into Darth Babykiller.
It’s all incredibly goofy and cringeworthy. After our protagonist turns genocidal in the span of 10 minutes after an evil old man makes a very vague promise about cheating death, he has a 20-minute videogame-worthy fight filled with profound and resonating dialogue, such as “Love won’t save you, Padme. Only my new powers can.” and “From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!”, against a man who we are told is like “his brother”, even though the actual movies never show any semblance of deep friendship between the two.
By the time we got to the fight, yes it had the makings of a teacher vs Samurai and SHOULD have been better. Instead I felt like i was watching an 80's Ninja movie where they did flips and spins for no apparent reason. The choreography was nowhere near as crisp and fluid as Maul's fight.
View attachment 1026420
LOL. Have to disagree that ROTS was a shitty movie but I'll give you the Anakin + Padme scenes literally sucked and their "romantic" lines deserved to be coming out of Vince McMahon's ass. But 80's ninja movies were fucking AWESOME. I also think they showed plenty of bromance scenes in AOTC and ROTS but yeah, could have done more.
Agree 100%. I still think the scene rocked and things like this were great:
But yeah, the swinging from ropes and balancing on those lava skateboard things was pretty lame and detracted from the fight. All that came off like some parody fight between Peter and the chicken on Family Guy.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2009
- Messages
- 42,770
- Reaction score
- 8,198
It’s one of those things where I think you can debate best scene vs. best fight scene. For instance, the Empire Luke vs. Vader face off cannot compete in a strict fight scene sense with Phantom Menace or ROTS but it’s an epic scene that has more intensity and atmosphere than virtually any other in the series in my opinion.
If we are going just in terms of lightsaber battle/fight choreography though, I think Kenobi/Qui Gon vs. Maul is the best.
Return of the Jedi does have a badass one though. It was cool how it was at a much faster clip than the Empire one- helped show Luke’s improvement since the previous film.
ROTS is my favorite prequel and probably top 4 Star Wars film for me and I think that intercut dual fight sequence with Obi vs. Anakin and Palps vs. Yoda is a major highlight.
If we are going just in terms of lightsaber battle/fight choreography though, I think Kenobi/Qui Gon vs. Maul is the best.
Return of the Jedi does have a badass one though. It was cool how it was at a much faster clip than the Empire one- helped show Luke’s improvement since the previous film.
ROTS is my favorite prequel and probably top 4 Star Wars film for me and I think that intercut dual fight sequence with Obi vs. Anakin and Palps vs. Yoda is a major highlight.
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2005
- Messages
- 13,105
- Reaction score
- 3,424
Yes, some of the action scenes from older movies just don't age well. Really hard to convince viewers nowadays that these are the best swordsman across the galaxy. This is a fan edit of Vader vs Kenobi which I personally think is much superior to the original, and one of my favourite fan edit of Star Wars.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2009
- Messages
- 42,770
- Reaction score
- 8,198
yeah it’s got some cringe but for most of it, it’s an awesome scene.
People mock the high ground moment incessantly but I will give it this: it was a creative way to have Kenobi deal out all that damage to Anakin in one swing rather than having to go Monty Python and the Holy Grail Black Knight style.
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2019
- Messages
- 1,397
- Reaction score
- 2,339
Yoda vs Sidious was my favorite duel, but it sucks admitting he lost.It's definitely up there, but the whole sequence where they were balancing on those whatever-those-things-were got a little silly to me. I voted Maul vs QGJ & OWK.
I also noticed none of Darth Sidious' duels were on the poll. I guess consistently stomping Jedi ass wrecks the grading curve.
Mace did technically beat him until emo boy intervened.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2009
- Messages
- 42,770
- Reaction score
- 8,198
I’d have to rewatch both but the tv series one was pretty great. Too bad the rest of the show wasn’t as good as that and McGregor’s performance.
What I liked about it too was Kenobi = bad style match for Vader, confirmed.
