Lightsaber fights are key to the identity of Star Wars. Not just moments of spectacle, their intimate nature also makes them perfect places for characters to compare philosophy, reveal backstory, and show emotional growth. That’s why each Star Wars film centered on Jedi has at least one such confrontation, usually at the climax, and usually acting as more than a simple display of martial arts. With a decade’s worth of new films, animated content, and video games to explore, join us as we count down the many different approaches the franchise has recently taken to these confrontations in our list of the decade’s 5 best lightsaber duels.
5. Cal Kestis vs Darth Vader
The iconic mechanical breath. Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order’s main villain up to that point being Force choked from an unseen source. The objective marker simply lighting up with “Survive.” Less a duel outright and more an Uncharted-style action setpiece, Darth Vader’s cameo in the latest Star Wars game is still powerful enough to land it a spot on this list’s 5th place. First, it does everything a final boss should, challenging players to use every skill they’ve learned up to that point, from lightsaber combat to platforming to hacking, to escape the Dark Lord. Second, it is perhaps the most convincing interactive depiction of Darth Vader’s intimidating nature yet.
With the player taking on the comparatively less impressive recent Padawan Cal Kestis, as opposed to an established hero like Luke Skywalker, this duel gives the audience a chance to see what it’s like for most people on Vader’s hitlist. And without familial affection forcing the Sith Lord to hold back, he is more than a force to be reckoned with. Without jumping any sharks like the anime-style over-the-top action in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Darth Vader’s mere presence in this fight shapes the world around him. Similar to him bombarding Luke with debris in their Bespin duel, he effortlessly tears apart tiles from the wall and floor to chuck at the player, though at a much greater quantity, all while casually walking forward along a coldly lit path as if oblivious to the destruction around him. As Cal flees for his life, Vader crumbles his footing behind him. As Cal hides in an elevator, Vader’s lightsaber begins to slowly melt through the doors.
Less like a human and more like a Xenomorph, Vader in this duel comes across as a natural disaster, with the undirected destruction in his wake coming across like a simple consequence of his presence as opposed to any exerted effort. The prequels do much to build up Anakin’s power, yet due to the aging special effects of the original trilogy, some of that has always felt missing in our first introduction to the character. While fans have reasoned that Vader’s cybernetics hold him back during this era, this gap does raise the question of why Palpatine would care so much about having Vader at his side as opposed to Maul or Dooku. We hear of his strength, but we rarely see it on full display. Here, his brief encounter with Cal Kestis answers this question by showing us that Vader doesn’t need to be at his prime to be a threat. By taking Episode V’s ending duel, swapping out Vader’s opponent for someone less experienced, and extending Vader’s presence to the arena itself, this duel shows that Vader doesn’t need Force lightning or his old agility to murder most Jedi. He just needs to not hold back.
And now I want a slasher movie starring Darth Vader.
4. Kylo Ren vs Finn & Rey in The Force Awakens
Star Wars: The Force Awakens did much to swing the pendulum of Star Wars back from the prequels and closer to the original trilogy. No longer are almost all effects and sets CGI, but rather practical effects are back in force to bolster modern technology. The original cast of characters is back, this time in mentor roles. And lightsaber duels take a step back from the highly choreographed, wuxia-style flips of the prequel trilogy closer to the more grounded, intimate affairs of Episodes 4, 5, and 6.
During the climactic final confrontation of The Force Awakens, we see this shift in full effect as Kylo Ren chases down Finn and Rey in a snow-covered forest. What follows is more of a philosophical confrontation than anything else, as stunts take second place to Ren calling Finn a traitor and tempting Rey to accept him as her teacher. Grappling takes on a more prominent role as the choreography overall leans towards the more subdued, with only one jump throughout the whole fight. The idea seems to be to show the exertion these characters feel, as Ren beats his chest to massage wounds, and all three fighters stumble to the ground at some point. Meanwhile, Finn’s whole fight with Ren is unscored, leaving the dialogue and the simple sound effects of each character’s lightsaber to carry the confrontation.
It’s a refreshing change of pace from the three movies that came before, and evokes the nature of the original trilogy while still using modern camera techniques and somewhat flashier saber swings to prove more dynamic than the arguably poorly aged fight between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader in Episode IV. The snowy setting at Starkiller Base also gives fans a new type of arena for a lightsaber duel not seen in prior films, with the contrast between its calm scenery and its true nature as an exploding superweapon rendering it an eerie tone fitting for a climax.
3. Darth Sidious vs Darth Maul and Savage Opress
Despite being the main villain of all three Star Wars trilogies, Sheev Palpatine doesn’t get many chances to enter the battlefield himself. More of a schemer than a fighter, he prefers to send others to do his work for him, leading audiences and sometimes his own subordinates to question if he even is as powerful as he claims.
This comes to a head in Season 5 of The Clone Wars, as Palpatine embarks on a rare personal mission to capture and punish his former apprentice Darth Maul, who by this time in the television series is back, healed up, and currently creating a rival Sith order on Mandalore to oppose his former master. Although audiences had already seen Palpatine fight during his duels with Yoda and Mace Windu in Revenge of the Sith, this duel takes place earlier in the timeline than those fights, and with its 2013 airdate, it had been 8 years since audiences last saw him in action.
What results is the biggest mismatch in Star Wars history. While Maul prior to this duel goes above and beyond to establish a personality and motivation all his own as an intelligent manipulator and cunning warrior, essentially becoming the rightful ruler of the second-only-to-Jedi Mandalorians, his fight with Sidious instantly regresses him to the disposable and childlike pawn of Phantom Menace, as he fails to enact even the slightest bit of revenge on Palpatine for being used and discarded. Instead, Palpatine seems invincible as he dispatches Maul’s Mandalorian guards with a simple wave of his hand, kills his brother a little over a minute into the duel, and tosses Maul around like a ragdoll.
It’s at once heartbreaking to watch Maul, who has already lost so much, be thrown back into a persona he has been trying to escape the whole series, and thrilling to watch Palpatine temporarily cast aside all pretense to show the true strength behind his facade. Star Wars doesn’t have many villain vs villain fights, nor does it have many fights where one opponent drastically outclasses another. Though this fight only came about due to the original arc’s ending having to be rushed to meet temporary cancellation, it is clear the showrunners decided to have as much fun as possible in the little time they had left.
2. Ahsoka vs Darth Vader
When Star Wars first introduced Ahsoka Tano as Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice in the theatrical Clone Wars movie, it raised more than a handful of dangling questions for the series going forward. Where was Ahsoka during the original trilogy? Did Anakin kill her? If not, then how would she react to learning he was Vader, and how would he react to seeing her again? And, given their rapport, would he treat her with the same mercy he showed Luke in the original trilogy?
As Clone Wars struggled during its first season to find its voice, these questions seemed more like threats than promises. With the disappointing nature of the prequels, how could Star Wars retroactively add such an important character to its story arc in an organic way? But by the second season of Star Wars: Rebels, by which Ahsoka had been revealed to be alive and Vader had now entered the series, fans had turned around on the teams behind both shows, and were looking forward to these two characters’ inevitable confrontation.
What they got was a duel lasting from the end of season 2 until the finale of the show, set on Knights of the Old Republic 2’s Malachor V, hitting all the high notes of Luke’s fight with Darth Vader from The Empire Strikes Back. Here, we see Ahsoka Tano fully matured, from an ambitious, young, and naive Padawan to a wise, skillful, and measured Gray Jedi. Meanwhile, we see Vader look upon her with regret, pity, and pride, giving her several outs to leave the fight while still standing ready to kill her if need be.
While Vader had until this point effortlessly defeated all opponents in the show, Ahsoka is different, able to stand toe-to-toe with him in a duel that seamlessly mixes her prequel-style bombastic choreography with his more original trilogy-inspired slow strikes and heavy swings. As they fight, they trade philosophy, with Vader attacking her for not acting like a proper Jedi, as Ahsoka proudly retorts that she isn’t a Jedi at all.
In this, we see the similarities she bears to her master, both in skill and thought, and how she has developed it into her own unique philosophy. While Ahsoka rightfully abandons the Jedi by refusing to follow the conservative tradition that lead to the Empire, Vader abandons the Jedi by attempting to reject compassion. In this way, Ahsoka is like a mirror of what Anakin could have been, taking the best from both his willingness to reject tradition and the Jedi’s care for all living things and developing it into something new.
The fight culminates with Ahsoka sacrificing herself as she holds Vader off while the show’s main cast escapes with the key to Malachor’s superweapon. In her struggle to buy time, she slashes off part of his mask, and not only sees Anakin’s face, but hears his voice. As an audience member, you half expect to hear Vader call her by his old nickname for her- Snips. She promises not to leave him, partially blaming her departure from the Jedi for his turn to the dark side, and he takes a long pause. “Then you will die” says Vader, which while clearly not merciful, comes only after careful consideration and is delivered with the implication that he would let her live if she left.
Audiences don’t get to see the resolution to this fight until the series finale two seasons later. But in a simple 5 minutes of screen time, this duel not only answers all those questions raised by Ahsoka’s first appearance in the Clone Wars movie’s 2008 theatrical release, but also deftly handles a relationship arguably more complex than that of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. While a committed servant to the dark side, Star Wars also makes it clear that Darth Vader has a soft spot for his children. His duel with Ahsoka on Malachor V expertly handles his paternal-style relationship with Ahsoka in a way that makes sense for both characters while still not betraying his arc in the original trilogy, which has yet to take place by the time of this fight.
Were Ahsoka to duel Vader again, like Luke did in Return of the Jedi, one wonders if she could have been the one to redeem him instead. Although he seems to be more restrained in his affection for her than his affection for Luke, Ahsoka is easily the most likely candidate not named Skywalker to make him think twice about his commitment to the Sith.
1. Rey and Kylo Ren vs Snoke and Royal Guards
Supreme Leader Snoke is no Palpatine. You know it, J.J. Abrams knows it, Rian Johnson knows it. That’s why, in a surprise twist 2/3rds of the way through The Last Jedi, the film unceremoniously executes what had up to that point been its big bad with a single blow, ushering in a rare group fight where Rey and Kylo Ren temporarily join forces to escape Snoke’s royal guards.
What follows is a cinematic treat, as the Royal Guards display surprising loyalty and skill in handling the sudden assassination, wielding lightsaber-resistant axes, daggers, swords, staves, and whips in dispatching their new targets. Set against a striking red background, we see Rey and Kylo temporarily swap roles, as her untrained brutality contrasts his more restrained skill.
Both tactics prove effective, however, as each fighter takes on half the group in style, though not without taking some damage of their own. We also see some inventive lightsaber use here, as Kylo answers a long-burning question of my own by twice simply pointing an unlit lightsaber at his opponent and unexpectedly igniting it to take them out with ease. Meanwhile, Rey beats a late-fight stalemate by regaining her composure long enough to swap her saber hand mid-fight.
Even before the fight begins, Snoke’s taunting of Rey leads to a number of fun fake-outs, where he pretends to be in telekinetic struggles with Rey only to reveal he was in control the whole time. This comes to a head as he lets Rey temporarily wield Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, helping build her fury for the fight to come.
What really makes the fight special, however, is that it is not Kylo Ren’s moment of redemption. Though this is the implication at first, Kylo Ren is a Sith. Him murdering his master is the rule, not the exception. So, once fighting has died down and Rey assumes the two are friendly now, he quickly disappoints her by declaring he has no intentions of joining the resistance, attempting to recruit her to be his new apprentice, and in a twist on Darth Vader’s “I am your father” speech, telling Rey she comes from nothing and has “no place in this story.”
Rather than taking the easy opportunity for an ending this truce presents, the fight cleverly ends by examining the more complex motivations that lead to Rey and Kylo’s temporary alliance, and why it couldn’t last…before blowing up Luke/Anakin’s old lightsaber in one final stab at action (and heavy-handed metaphor).
Not only is this “red room” fight the most visually impressive of the sequel trilogy’s lightsaber confrontations, it also presents Star Wars with both clever twists on old conceits and new styles of fighting not seen in the films before, easily landing it at #1 on this list.
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