Lit Best Lightsaber duel of all time (so far)?

Just curious as to what everybody thinks is the greatest duel of all time, be it in the movies or the books. My personal favorite is Kenobi and Jinn vs. Maul. Thoughts?

 

It's hard to compare film vs literature in this sort of case, but it think Obi-Wan vs Vader in Episode III is hard to beat

 

Counting the film, the game, and the novel's interpretations, and rolling them into one, Darth Vader vs Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar is the best duel in the series. The film gives you the visual depiction and the epic soundtrack. The game gives you extra scenes of what goes on between the two. The novel gives you everything that goes unsaid in the others. You really get a sense of just how awful this is for these two people (Master and Apprentice, Father and Son, Brother and Brother) to be fighting each other and the damage its causing at that moment, and the damage they've done to each other over the years. There are moments you simply can't fit into a movie that you can fit into a game (Obi-Wan: I wasn't ready to train someone like you!) and a novel (Obi-Wan: Its for the man you were. For the man you should've been.) With novels you just can't get the music, and music is such an important element. To find that right track that not only fits the moment but the characters, must truly be hard. I've always said that its only by watching, playing, and reading Revenge of the Sith that you can truly understand it, and I feel the same way about Vader and Kenobi's duel.

 

Anakin and Obi-Wan vs Dooku in RotS wasn't bad either.

 

I was going to say that Vader vs. Kenobi on Mustafar would be right up there. I definitely enjoyed the RotS novelization version of it. I really wish that we could have seen more from Master Windu, other than just the one duel with Palpatine.

 

In the novel yes, in the movie it wasn't awful, but didn't come anywhere near the novel.

 

Not a big fan of Obi-Wan vs. Anakin. As much as I like the RotS novelization, I don't particularly care for anything that happens between Mace going out the window and the last chapter. Everything else is gold, but that one little section feels comparatively flat. It still has Stover's great prose and descriptive language, but it doesn't offer the same level of narrative depth or character insight that the rest of the book does; it's just like a well-written description of what we see happen in the movie. Unfortunately that's some of the most important stuff in the novel, but nobody's perfect.

As far as the RotS novelization goes, I like Anakin/Obi-Wan vs. Dooku and Mace/Whoever vs. Palpatine a lot more. For the movies, either Luke vs. Vader on the Death Star II or Luke vs. Vader on Cloud City.

 

Luke and Lumiya's wordless duel in the opening pages of Marvel 96. Breathtaking stuff. And they waited until it concluded before they featured the kriffin' credits page, which was normally on PAGE ONE. Put that in your fife and smoke it.

 

i am going to interject an actual eu lightsaber contest. How about Bane versus Kas'im the blademaster. thought that was cool. Obviously Jacen versus Luke was good. in the movies i would agree that Kenobi and Qui Gon versus Maul was great

 

Bane vs. Kas'im is the best EU lightsaber battle I can remember.
Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan vs. Maul, Anakin Skywalker vs. Obi-Wan, Yoda vs. the Emperor, Obi-Wan vs. Darth Vader and both fights between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker are the best movie fights.

 

Luke and his father on the Death Star will always be my favourite movie moment.

I've always had a soft spot for Luke and Palpatine's duel on the Eclipse at the end of Dark Empire.

There were some really moving ones in Legacy too. Audiobooks definitely help many of the novel ones, as you then get the music on top of the pure hack-and-slash.

 

Cloud City all the way. Second place would probably go to the Trayus Core showdown. Third would, IMO, be the Stover version of Anakin vs. Obi-wan. Honorable mention goes to Luke turning on god mode out of nowhere and taking down Shimmra.

 

The second part of the Obi-wan/Qui-gon vs Maul (after Qui-gon goes down) is by far my favorite lightsaber scene in all the movies. It is just all unbridled, no-nonsense awesome stuff.

 

Though I wasn't a huge fan of the Bane books, I must admit the duel between Bane, Zannah, and those Jedi in Rule of Two was quite entertaining.

Kar Vastor vs Mace was enthralling, even if it wasn't a lightsaber match. Paul Kemp did a good job of painting the portrait of a truly brutal lightsaber match between Malgus and the main character in Deception (though again, I wasn't a huge fan of that book, as evidenced by me not being able to remember the main characters name). Yoda vs Dooku in Dark Rendezvous was done well.

And my imagination makes Luke vs Palpatine in DE incredible.

 

With Luke defeating Palpatine in a younger body while still quite young himself, it would go without saying that he was greater than Yoda by that time, correct? At least as a swordsman?

 

Likely, especially given what we know of ROTS now.

 

Luke vs. Vader on the Death Star has always been my favorite.

 

Maul vs. Kenobi & Jinn.

 

Filmwise, I really like the Cloud City Duel, for obvious reasons.

EU? Luke vs Jacen in Inferno. The only thing that stops this from being equal with the Cloud City fight is the ending. Luke doesn't kill Jacen. Everything else had them fighting to the death, going all out against each other, only for both of them to puss out at the last second so we could drag out the LOTF trainwreck further.

 

Luke easily owned Jacen, correct? I mean, Jacen put up a good fight, but Luke could have easily ended it.

 

What was revealed in ROTS? Yoda was quite beastly.

 

My impressions of the fight between Sidious and Yoda in ROTS (the film version, at least) was that Yoda was overall a more experienced swordsman (forced Sidious to back off and throw stuff at him), and could defeat him in a contest of brute power (Sidious was not able to block the Senate dais that Yoda deflected, Yoda successfully blocked his Force lightning), but Yoda didn't have the stamina to keep up with him for long, and he would have died if they had continued.

By DE, I imagine Palpatine was quite a bit better than he was in ROTS.

 

Cloud City. Period.

 

I wouldn't say he owned Jacen, because as you said Jacen put up a fight, got some hits in. (I don't consider that owning. Owning is what Dooku did to Anakin and Obi-Wan on Geonosis), but yes I felt Luke could've ended it at anytime. Hell, considering Caedus () didn't ever know Luke was there Luke could've pinned him to the floor like he did earlier in the novel, walked up and decapitated him. I think it was still an interesting confrontation though. Felt more like a brawl than a traditional duel.

 

Palpatine vs Yoda.

The most epic duel of the entire saga and the greatest demonstration of Force power we see in all six films.

Starts out with Yoda casually dismissing Sidious's guards and the Sith Lord replies with a blast of lightning that puts Yoda out of commission.

Ramps up with Sith and Jedi duelling at lightning speeds, the fastest we ever see in the films.

Reaches a climax with Palpatine tossing Senate pods around like they're tennis balls.

The end comes with the mightiest display of Force lightning yet, as Sidious blasts Yoda's lightsaber right out of his hands.

The failure of the Jedi is summed up in that moment, where the lightning ball explodes, and the Sith is able to cling to the high ground, whereas the Jedi falls and hits rock bottom.

Obi-Wan vs Anakin may have been the ultimate clash of brother vs brother, but the Duel in the Senate was the final culmination of the Revenge of the Sith, where the mightiest Sith Lord prevailed against the Master of the Jedi.