Ranking the light saber duelists

[BB in Crazy!!!!]

Darth Vader doesn't even make the cut???

Anakin is Vader

 

[SiKnSiN]

I like this list, even mentioned Depa Billaba

I assume you watched Clone Wars, did you catch her and young Kanan in the new trailer?

Yeah, love TCW. Looking forward to it. I didn't even catch that though.

 

[GSP_37]

Obiwan has poor fight IQ in when he is fighting with a partner in 2 on 1 battles. It plagued him his entire fighting career. He almost always got either himself or his partner killed or fucked up in some way. Really it's his only weakness. Aside from when he threw the Vader 2 match so Luke could escape, I do not recall him losing a 1-1 battle.

With Qui Gon, Obi got separated by the weird on/off force fields. Against Dooku, Obi expected retard Anakin to actually follow the gameplan and fight him together, but big ego Anakin rushed Dooku on his own as if he's Neo from Matrix. I don't count those against Obi.

 

[Fedorgasm]

I can't believe how many of you are still ranking Windu above palps.

Even if Lucas says Windu won the fight, it doesn't matter. That's not what he portrayed onscreen.

If palps wasnt in complete control of the situation then why would he just tell Anakin he was a sith Lord? And why would he simply sit there and wait for windu to come arrest him?

Palps doesn't take those kinds of risks. He knew this was the time to turn Anakin. He knew he had to pretend to lose the fight in order to make Anakin choose a side.

There's no way he engages in that fight if there was even the slightest chance that windu could kill him.

Also, you guys can't separate force abilities from saber combat. It's the same. The only reason these dudes can move so fast is because they're using the force. Damn near every fight had at least a force push, lightning, or someone pulling a saber into they hand from across the room.

So whoever wins the fight wins the fight. Period. Doesn't matter if they used lightning.

 

[Lovestorm]

I could see prime Anakin being either #1 or #2. After his injuries and complete transformation into Darth Vader his swordmanship nose dived.

 

[YellowBanenoo]

Conor Mcgregor

 

[GSP_37]

I can't believe how many of you are still ranking Windu above palps.

Even if Lucas says Windu won the fight, it doesn't matter. That's not what he portrayed onscreen.

If palps wasnt in complete control of the situation then why would he just tell Anakin he was a sith Lord? And why would he simply sit there and wait for windu to come arrest him?

Palps doesn't take those kinds of risks. He knew this was the time to turn Anakin. He knew he had to pretend to lose the fight in order to make Anakin choose a side.

There's no way he engages in that fight if there was even the slightest chance that windu could kill him.

Also, you guys can't separate force abilities from saber combat. It's the same. The only reason these dudes can move so fast is because they're using the force. Damn near every fight had at least a force push, lightning, or someone pulling a saber into they hand from across the room.

So whoever wins the fight wins the fight. Period. Doesn't matter if they used lightning.

I agree about Palp pretending to be defenseless old man to turn Anakin, but using force lightning in saber duel is like groin shots. Uncivilized.

 

[Mike]

I can't believe how many of you are still ranking Windu above palps.

Even if Lucas says Windu won the fight, it doesn't matter. That's not what he portrayed onscreen.

If palps wasnt in complete control of the situation then why would he just tell Anakin he was a sith Lord? And why would he simply sit there and wait for windu to come arrest him?

Palps doesn't take those kinds of risks. He knew this was the time to turn Anakin. He knew he had to pretend to lose the fight in order to make Anakin choose a side.

There's no way he engages in that fight if there was even the slightest chance that windu could kill him.

Also, you guys can't separate force abilities from saber combat. It's the same. The only reason these dudes can move so fast is because they're using the force. Damn near every fight had at least a force push, lightning, or someone pulling a saber into they hand from across the room.

So whoever wins the fight wins the fight. Period. Doesn't matter if they used lightning.

Yeah the prequels are very poorly written so I wouldn't go down the "that isn't logical" rabbit hole.

There is no dialogue suggesting he let Windu win, and that isn't what's shown onscreen. It requires a lot of head canon that isn't backed up by anything.

 

[deviake]

Who's the best light saber duelist based only on Canon?

Tell me where I'm wrong


1. Palpatine - beat maul and Yoda. Some will say he lost to windu but that had to be part of his plan, because he couldn't have turned Anakin otherwise. So losing on purpose doesn't count.

2. Mace Windu - was said by many to be thet most powerful duelist. He killed hundreds of droids and one of those huge sand pounder tanks by himself. Killed jango Fett with ease. Murked general Greivous and gave him the cough. Ranked below palpatine because palps was so in control of that situation that he could time it perfectly with Anakin's arrival, as if mace windu was a plaything.

3. Yoda - beat dooku but allowed him to escape. Only had one loss on record, to palpatine. Some characters say Windu and Yoda were the two best, but other characters just mention Windu as being the number 1 jedi in saber combat.

4. Luke - Only lost to vader, but he later avenged that loss when he was better trained.

5. Anakin - A case could be made for him being the best, but his one downfall is his emotion and confusion. All the Masters say they sense much confusion in him and confusion makes you weaker on both the light and dark sides. Kills dooku, beats Ventress, wrecks hundreds of others, but loses to both Luke and Obi-Wan due to internal turmoil.

6. Dooku - I forget who said it, but I could swear I heard his skill rivalled Yoda's when he was a Jedi. He basically destroys everyone he ever fights including obi-wan with ease, with the only exception being Yoda and a prime Anakin.

7. Obi-Wan - Some think he should be higher because he beat prime Anakin. But if you take that win away his record is less impressive. Anakin was clearly more powerful, but because of his internal turmoil and the fact that obi wan could predict his moves, Anakin lost. Obi-Wan was still very powerful and defeated maul twice, grievous, ventress many times and a number of other characters during the clone wars.

8. Darth Maul - beat qui gon, savage, and Kanan, lost to obi wan and palps.

9. General Greivous - killed many can Jedi. Could be argued that he belongs above maul. They both lost to obi wan but I ranked Greivous lower because he ran away after obi-Wan cut off his arms pretty quickly, whereas maul damn near killed Obi-Wan in their first fight.

10. Ahsoka Tano
11. Savage Opress

12. Qui-Gon Jinn - love the character but we only saw him fight twice and he barely escaped maul with his life and got killed the second time.

13. Asaj Ventress
14. Kanan
15. Ezra Bridger
16. Sha-gi
17. Ben solo

Palpy woulda lost to Yoda if Yoda didn't have to bail because of Palpy's boys showing up. Palps got smoked by Mace Windu, your interpretation I think even goes against what Lucas said.

Based on what we see:

1. Windu - Beat Palpy without breaking a sweat. That's insane, plus he was metal as fuck in the cartoon

2. Yoda - Back and forth with Palpy, only lost on a technicality

3. Palpy - I'm including him b/c of what we saw on screen but his character should've never wielded a lightsaber, but that's a separate discussion

4. Luke - Might've turned out to be the best, but the disney fan fic trash didn't give us any idea of how powerful he became. Never the less, he beat the shit out of Vader who, while older, was still an absolute gangster

5. Vader - Power house destroyer

6. Anakin - Badass but still hadn't hit his prime and turmoil kept him from going Super Saiyan as a Jedi

7. Doku - Speaks for itself. Gandalf son'd him so he's a little lower but beats most

8. Obi-Wan - Not a powerful force user but hangs with or beats most in saber combat. Had Anakin/Vader's number like Rampage had Chuck's

9. Prime Ahsoka - Beast who hung in with Vader and I believe could take Maul. Didn't hit legendary status but upper echelon G

10. Maul - Weak force user but a G with a doble blade

11. Maybe Grievance, might be ahead of Ginny

Not commenting on the rest, I haven't read any of the books and we didn't see enough on screen to judge

Edit: Palpie could easily drop below Anakin

 

[deviake]

I can't believe how many of you are still ranking Windu above palps.

Even if Lucas says Windu won the fight, it doesn't matter. That's not what he portrayed onscreen.

If palps wasnt in complete control of the situation then why would he just tell Anakin he was a sith Lord? And why would he simply sit there and wait for windu to come arrest him?

Palps doesn't take those kinds of risks. He knew this was the time to turn Anakin. He knew he had to pretend to lose the fight in order to make Anakin choose a side.

There's no way he engages in that fight if there was even the slightest chance that windu could kill him.

Also, you guys can't separate force abilities from saber combat. It's the same. The only reason these dudes can move so fast is because they're using the force. Damn near every fight had at least a force push, lightning, or someone pulling a saber into they hand from across the room.

So whoever wins the fight wins the fight. Period. Doesn't matter if they used lightning.

Mace handled Palpie with ease. We could just as easily infer that Palpie thought he'd be able to take Windu due to his arrogance which is one of his character traits. He got lucky that Anakin showed up and it wasn't a foregone conclusion that Anakin would take his side nor that Windu would attempt to execute him, which was the only reason Anakin intervened.

 

[GSP_37]

After seeing Donnie Yen twirling the staff in kung fu movies, can't help wonder how cool he'd be with a lightsaber.

 

[skysolo]

 

[mmascene]

Tulak Hord in the old eu.

 

[greygoose]

Game pit

 

[Phlog]

Seeing the phantom menace yesterday I rate Maul higher than most itt. He lost to force trickery and tbh it wasn't believable from a tactical standpoint so I assume mental force bending was happening too.

Straight sabers I would put him in the top 3 no doubt.

 

[Phlog]

Game pit

/Thread

 

[Mike]

Mace handled Palpie with ease. We could just as easily infer that Palpie thought he'd be able to take Windu due to his arrogance which is one of his character traits. He got lucky that Anakin showed up and it wasn't a foregone conclusion that Anakin would take his side nor that Windu would attempt to execute him, which was the only reason Anakin intervened.

Honestly judging by just the onscreen stuff, Mace definitely seems like the strongest. Never struggles with anyone. Murks Jango, puts a beating on the emperor of all people. Saying that was some sort of trap by palps is NOT canon.

It's head canon, with as much value as fan speculation ever has. Lucas himself said Windu was the superior duelist.

 

[Mike]

Seeing the phantom menace yesterday I rate Maul higher than most itt. He lost to force trickery and tbh it wasn't believable from a tactical standpoint so I assume mental force bending was happening too.

Straight sabers I would put him in the top 3 no doubt.

The feeling I always got was that Maul wasn't all that strong in force abilities, because he put all his focus into saber combat. He came off like an extremely dangerous opponent.

As you said he was murking a high level jedi knight, and a padawan that was probably already as strong as a Jedi knight. He lost purely due to hack writing.

 

[Cole train]

The feeling I always got was that Maul wasn't all that strong in force abilities, because he put all his focus into saber combat. He came off like an extremely dangerous opponent.

As you said he was murking a high level jedi knight, and a padawan that was probably already as strong as a Jedi knight. He lost purely due to hack writing.

Maul wasnt even really a sith lord, more of a assasin trained in dark side

Palps took him in just to be his personal hitman if i remember correctly

 

[Mike]

Maul wasnt even really a sith lord, more of a assasin trained in dark side

Palps took him in just to be his personal hitman if i remember correctly

He definitely had some level of force ability. They only showed him using the telekinesis in TPM. Tbh they fucked up pretty bad by killing him off in TPM.

Can you imagine how much better episodes 2 and 3 would have been with Maul?