Post your favourite lightsaber battles below, from any Star Wars medium, (Film, cartoon, tv, comic book)
Darth Maul vs Obi Wan & Qui Gon (Part 1)
Post your favourite lightsaber battles below, from any Star Wars medium, (Film, cartoon, tv, comic book)
Darth Maul vs Obi Wan & Qui Gon (Part 1)
It's not strictly a lightsaber fight but this fight between Yoda and Count Dooku was one of the best things from AOTC imo.
This is the single most beautiful lightsaber "battle" Star Wars has ever produced, and it hardly involves the swords. Everything about this scene is perfect. In the sense of being truly flawless. In 3 minutes it beautifully conveys both characters, their strengths and their flaws. It builds from who they are and is utterly true to their personalities and place in their lives. It pays off a rivalry that goes all the way back to The Phantom Menace. And it manages to do it all while being tragic for BOTH characters in different ways AND in paying off the central theme of Maul's arc throughout Rebels. Plus it both honors the relative chronological past, builds towards the relative chronological future and is beautifully acted by both parties (and the animators while we're throwing around praise).
No bombast, no flash. Just story, character and theme. This is, for me, the absolute pinnacle of lightsaber combat on screen thus far.
I’ll be honest, I HATE that Rebels duel between Maul and Kenobi. Either they should have made a bigger, crazier fight, or pumped a hell of a lot more dialogue between the two in before their exchange.
It’s an example of restraint that sucks in my opinion.
For Maul, I’d submit this duel, which might be seen as a proof of concept Favreau and Filoni could point to for why Mandalorians should have their own show:
Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?
I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP
Either completely misses the point.
A bigger, crazier fight completely undermines the message. And there was nothing more to say. Maul only has the same platitudes to fall back on, his hate is as familiar as his pointless rhetoric by that point. That's the entire point of the meeting from his end, that he can't let go and move on. And Kenobi just doesn't want any part of the entire meeting. He would genuinely be thrilled if Maul would just go the heck away and leave things be. Right up until that moment when Maul twigs to the true reason for Kenobi's exile. At which point, Maul has to die. It's not about emotion or history for Obi-wan at that point, it's about necessity. It's a cold, clinical assassination. Why play with your food? Get the ugly thing over with and done as humanely as possible.
It's precisely that the scene can convey so much meaning with so little dialogue that it works so well. It's structured and executed with a minimalist perfection that nothing else in the franchise can really match.
I don’t give a damn about the point of the premise is wasted. The point can damn well be executed when the premise has been realized. The point won’t be missed for telling a better story; this is not some zero-sum game, this is escapist fiction.
This is Maul and Obi-Wan meeting after ROTs for the first and last time.
That’s what the Obi-Wan show should be about, or an Obi-Wan movie. Good writing can figure out how to wring that reprise for more than some house-cleaning in someone else’s show for five freakin’ minutes. Minimalism sucks ass when compared to expansion and depth.
Maul vs Pre was much better because, even though they could pull the trigger at almost any time, they took their damn time with it both as a character piece between the two and as an action scene.
Single stroke battles are overhyped and overvalued by pop-culture, largely because, as awesome as they can be, you see one and you’ve seen them all - it’s like the QuickDraw gun battle. You can keep it, but I better get a whole damn film’s worth of character stuff leading up to it rather than five minutes, or if you don’t want to do that, give me a damn fight.
Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?
I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP
One interesting thing about the Obi-Wan/Maul REBELS fight is his final move-he seems to be trying to stun Obi-Wan with the hilt, the same move he used on Qui-Gon before stabbing him. However Obi-Wan is ready for that....
Last edited by ChrisIII; 11-27-2021 at 03:35 PM.
chrism227.wordpress.com Info and opinions on a variety of interests.
https://twitter.com/chrisprtsmouth
I couldn't disagree more, the quiet, simple fight between Maul and Kenobi there couldn't have been more perfect if they tried. Less really is more, the way Kenobi defeated him so easily showed how far he's come as a jedi while Maul was stuck in the past and the simplicity of it transitioned well into how duels looked in the OT.
Looking for a friendly place to discuss comic books? Try The Classic Comics Forum!
Maybe it’s better for me to say that I think the story is crap for what it should be; I really don’t begrudge the duel as much as how it’s almost only the duel.
Beautiful simplicity can work great as part of a larger story… but because their final confirmation is the smallest story they have, I don’t care for it.
Hell, I still think the TFA duel should be considered great, if not an all time great, simply because it’s a culmination fo three separate character arcs all at once from a single film.
Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?
I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP
...it was the end of a larger story as Maul and Kenobi have clashed several times through their lives, and the way Kenobi caught Maul and held him while he died was a beautiful ending and said so much not just about the two characters but also Luke's destiny as well.
Looking for a friendly place to discuss comic books? Try The Classic Comics Forum!
And it still should have been a movie, rather than an all too brief epilogue. I get that a bunch of people love the simplicity, but more people would love a larger story. Everything about their situation has changed, and to put it bluntly, I hate subtraction when addition does more.
This is Star Wars. Escapism, awe, wonder. The final duel in Rebels is better than TLJ, yes, but it still falls to the same artsy-farts boring stuff as usual.
Like action, adventure, rogues, and outlaws? Like anti-heroes, femme fatales, mysteries and thrillers?
I wrote a book with them. Outlaw’s Shadow: A Sherwood Noir. Robin Hood’s evil counterpart, Guy of Gisbourne, is the main character. Feel free to give it a look: https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asi...E2PKBNJFH76GQP