Top 5 Live Action Star Wars Lightsaber Duels
Welcome back. This week, it's my list of my favorite lightsaber duels from the main six Star Wars films. Even after taking out the animated ones, this was still a difficult list to make. With that said, on with the countdown.
5. Anakin and Obi-Wan vs Count Dooku (Revenge of the Sith)
Say what you want about the prequel trilogy, but hardly anyone is going to deny that they had awesome lightsaber duels. There was a bunch of fights that could have taken this spot but I chose to showcase the opening lightsaber fight from Episode 3. I like the fighting, the location and how it shows Anakin going into the dark side in order to beat Dooku. I also like how Palpatine encourages Anakin to kill Dooku right in front of his face, saying, "You have fulfilled your purpose, goodbye."
Funny thing too, I saw a comment before saying that Anakin kills everybody in this room at some point.
4. Luke Skywalker vs Darth Vader (Return of the Jedi)
Sure, from a technical standpoint this fight isn't really that special. However, it's the emotion and passion of this fight that puts it on this list. It's father vs son, the fate of the galaxy rests on this duel. I love how at first Luke doesn't want to fight his father but absoluely goes berserk after Vader threatens Leia. I also love how at the end he chooses to avoid the dark side by not killing his father. Plus, this duel leads to my favorite scene in the movie in which Vader sacrificies himself to save his son.
3. Luke Skywalker vs Darth Vader (The Empire Strikes Back)
Yes, I put the same participants two spots in a row. Big whoop, want to fight about it? All joking aside, the most famous duel of the original trilogy had to be on the list. There are so many iconic moments from this duel. Vader's entrance, the slow buildup, the duel in the freezing chamber, to Luke getting his hand cut off, to that one famous line that is said at the end, I forget, how did it go again?
2. Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan vs Darth Maul (The Phantom Menace)
What, this duel is number 1? You put that duel above this one? How could you? Let me explain. This duel is awesome. For many people, this was the highlight of the movie. The music is incredible, the fighting is cool, especially the one-on-one with Obi-Wan and Maul. Why is this only number two? Well, after watching this duel many times, I noticed that this duel seems a bit chereograpghed than the rest. I know what you are thinking, every lightsaber duel is chereographed. But this one seems a little bit more staged to me than my number one spot. Don't take it the wrong way, I still love this duel and is still certainly one of the series' best fights.
1. Anakin vs Obi-Wan (Revenge of the Sith)
Now I know in recent years this duel has been more divided among fans by saying this duel is too long and overly chereographed for its own good. Well, I'm sorry, I think this duel is more natural looking than the Phantom Menace fight, that is just my honest opinion. Now, I can see where people are coming from by saying th duel is too long. Personally, I didn't mind the length of the fight.
Now that is out of the way, this duel is amazing. Great fighting, incredible music once again, and the scale and set-pieces are insane. It is clear that Lucas and his team put everything they had into this duel and it shows. Plus, this duel has more emotion and build-up than the previous fight because it was mentioned before in A New Hope and is former teacher and student and former friends against each other. That is why I think that this battle is the best live-action battle.
