PT Ranking Lightsaber Duelists

hahaha sorry, @Guidman I just had a lot of fun doing this lol. Erkan12 maybe an elitist but there was some truth to my sarcasm at the end. No animosity here lol.

 

Alright going by the PT trilogy only
Tier 1
Anakin
Yoda
Dooku
Mace
Obi-Wan

Tier 2
Qui-Gon
Maul
Sidious

Tier 3
General Grievous

all listed in order from best to worst
(and watching every duel multiple times)

 

...My brain hurts.

I need a banana.

 

I'm honestly not even going to try to make sense of everything that went on in the last page.
I will state that the circumstances of any given duel (ie: the mindset of the combatants and location where it is happening) should paramount when weighting its relevance in how it defines the skills of the people involved.

With that in mind, and building off of the OP, my ranking would probably be:
Tier 1: Palpatine, Yoda, Vader, Windu,
Tier 2: Jedi Knight Anakin, Luke, Dooku, Maul
Tier 3: Master Obi-Wan, Padawan Anakin, Kit Fisto, Adult Ahsoka, Grievous, Ventress
Tier 4: Quigon, Padawan Obi-Wan, Ki-Ad Mundi, Savage Opress, Season 7 Ahsoka, Kanan, Barriss Offee, and the Grand Inquisitor.
Tier 5: Season 3-5 Ahsoka, Cal Ketsis, Second Sister.
Tier 6: Season 1-3 Ahsoka, Ezra Bridger, Magna Guards
Tier 7: The TCW Younglings
Tier 8: All other younglings.

Note: With few exceptions, I did my best to put the list in order from who I thought was the top duelist of that tier, to the weakest duelist of that tier, from left to right.

There are obviously cases where duelists of a lower tier held their own or even defeated members of higher tiers, but as far as I am aware, I think most of those instances can be chalked up to circumstantial events: poor terrain, bad planning, knowledge of their opponents skills, overconfidence, mental distress or personal conflict.

(Example: Grievous is very prone to toying with his prey. There are several examples in TCW where he could have easily won if he would have just taken out all his lightsabers and went to town on his opponent, but he didn't. OOU because of plot armor, IU because he was overconfident and was going easy on them)

Of course this is just my opinion based on my own analysis of their respective duels, and in some instances they have very few duels to their name (Ki-Adi Mundi, I'm looking at you).

 

Alright, interested in hearing people's thoughts on why they rank Sidious so high on the movies alone.

On Screen:

McDiarmid was uncomfortable using a blade and it shows (the stunt double Michael Byrne was only in a few shots) he got disarmed,
and he got disarmed again by Yoda.

We can't say how he would have done against Agen, Kit and Saessee as they were caught off guard.

Sidious works best as a chess mastermind but with people, not a super duper duelist that could take on Leonardo from the ninja turtles

 

I think it might be fair to rank Palpatine a bit lower, I've always thought of him as more of a force using specialist as opposed to a professional duelist (Hence why he "lost" to Windu who is an expert duelist, but never was really out of control of the situation).

But as a practical matter, he did hold his own against Yoda and Mace Windu, two Jedi who are generally accepted to be the top tier of the top tier.
Plus if we are just working off of what we see on screen, his defeat of Kolar and Tiin can be chalked up to surprise but Fisto got in a couple good blocks before he was taken down so we know the dark lord is a good head and shoulders above him at least. Put TCW and other EU factors into context and that is more impressive consider Fisto's own feats (Master of Form I, holding his own against Grievous and his magna guards, etc.)

 

The way sidious fights in TCW series shows why he is top tier. Just in the movie it was difficult as Ian was not the best at swordsmanship. I guess taking Power level into account though he is top.

 

Agreed. Palpatines fight scenes in TCW were very epic as well, and should not be discounted.

 

I haven't the foggiest idea who is the best and who is the worst. I mean . . . what's the point? Even the best can be defeated on a bad day.

 

I think this is the most accurate tier list according to the official statements and portrayals.

Yeah sure. I just wanted to point out the inconsistencies when they quoted me. Anyways, I think I proved it by showing the more accurate official statements and sources.

 

well I do. Not too keen on TCW (think it took too many liberties with the movies myself)

I go by the live-action movies

From that alone, I still say Sidious is not top tier level,

I concede that he did last longer than most would have against Windu though, so that's a plus point.

 

Just a reminder to everyone that just because you include legends continuity that doesn't make it any less official or accurate. We all love star wars no matter the preference or else we wouldn't be here

https://boards.theforce.net/threads...rd-rules-please-read-before-posting.50051414/

 

I will humbly bow out of a PT thread hosted in the PREQUELTRILOGY forum for your convenience

*bows*

happy debating/ranking people

 

Do you have a link for that list?

 

@Dandelo lol who said I had any interest in your opinion? You're being passive-aggressive for no reason. I'm sorry my presence here makes you feel threatened.

 

you don't have to be interested in my opinion, you are free to ignore it or think it's a great one or absolutely silly.

nope, you're choosing to do a moderators job by quoting the rule book

your views, like everybody else in this thread, are totally fine and acceptable.

With that said. Others feel that legends, canon, tv shows and literature should be respected. I accepted this and thus bowed out of the conversation as I have no interest in it outside the movies. If you choose to read that as passive aggressive then I'm sorry.

 

@Dandelo I'm just encouraging love for the legends continuity. Sorry if that came off as tyrannical, I'm new here but you have to put yourself in my shoes. I already caught so much flak for using legends continuity (not to say I didn't enjoy defending my views). But don't worry I'm not really interested in debating anyone else's opinion rn. So you may carry on.

 

It's based on Nick Gillard's tier system, he directed the PT lightsaber duels alongside with Lucas. He only confirmed a couple of names; such as Sidious and Yoda are being in tier 9. Windu is tier 8 but bordering tier 9. RotS Anakin is physically tier 9 but mentally tier 8. Maul, Dooku and RotS Kenobi are tier 8. Kit Fisto, TPM/AotC Kenobi are tier 7. And AotC Anakin is tier 6.

The others are based on my estimations according to the other statements from the directors, Lucasfilm officials, canon feats and portrayals. Jedi council members get +1, and they are in tier 7 just like Kit Fisto, because the director of the Rebels TV show said the Grand Inquisitor would be hard pressed if he fought any member of the Jedi council, and we know the Grand Inquisitor was a former Jedi knight, as well as Prosset Dibs was a Jedi master, and turned out to be the Inquisitor Tenth Brother, and he isn't logically superior to ''Grand'' Inquisitor in the Inquisitor ranks. The rest of the list is also according to other similar statements like that and the feats and portrayals in the canon.

 

@Guidman, thats not the problem lol. @Dandelo clearly had a problem with my post, but they were too afraid to say it directly until I confronted them. I don't respect passive-aggressiveism I view it as cowardly and even more so to say that you weren't doing it at all lol. At least I can respect people like @Erkan12 who'll straight up oppose my views unappologetically and directly despite being a little hypocritical. TBH people like him are the most fun becausce at least at that point, you have an intellectual sparing partner instead of a coward.

 

What??!! Caught off guard???

They had their lightsaber drawns and ready to fight. How much heads up do you want???

Being caught off guard means they have their backs turned not having their lightsabers drawn.

But that’s not the case..if they would fight 100 more times, they would be obliterated in seconds again and again. Sidious is just way too fast for them.

That’s like saying I’m about to fight Pacquiao the boxer and I have my guard up ready to fight him but he was too fast and penetrated my defense and Knocked me out...so I say nah he didn’t beat me ...I was just caught off guard.

 

@Narancia I didn't have a problem with your posts, (you'd know if I did) nor was I passive-aggressive. Sorry again if you thought that way.

@Sidious69 the problem I have with all that is the execution of the scene rather than theory. IF Sidious was too fast for them it wasn't shown that way visually on screen, there was no blur, nor was the scene sped up in any fashion, they stood there looking gormless as if they had never held a lightsaber in their life let alone top swordmasters. OOU reasons for sure, the latex-rubber gloves and vision problems with masks aside, I have to think of an IU explanation: and thus caught off guard is the only explanation I can think of. It sure beats, 'I'm ready, but I'm suicidal today'

Plus if he was too fast for them, why was he suddenly not fast enough for Windu? and if they are both supposed to be so fast it's all a blur (like the novel suggests) it flies in the face of everything we see A) in the movie itself and B) what we know and expect from other saber duelists in the saga. It does not make sense that these two are god level duelists that can move at the speed of sound. Nor was it portrayed that way on the screen (in fact...it's the slowest duel in the whole PT)

 

You can go to the Palpatine vs Mace thread.

it’s because that whole scene was a SET UP.

Here’s from the novel:

Palpatine:
Resist? How could I possibly resist? THIS IS MURDER, You Jedi TRAITORS! How can I be a THREAT TO YOU??!! HELP!! Security!! HELP ME!! MURDER!! Treason!!

Yup that sounds like a guy who was planning to be the victim at the end.

But yeah the choreography is the poorest out of all the duel.