Have Lightsaber Duels Dropped in Quality?
Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 11:30 pm
Lightsaber duels are weird in that every major Trilogy has its defenders and detractors. The Original Trilogy Duels are either better because they have more emotional impact or a poorly choreographed fights that lack any real sense of tension. The Prequels Trilogy is either greatly choreographed set pieces with interesting thematic ideas or an over choreographed that also lacks tension because how no one seems to get tired. And The Disney Sequel Trilogy is either the best choreographed fights in the series with deep personal investment with the characters or the worst choreographed fights with the most shallow characters in the series.
For me personally, I like the choreography of the Prequels but like the emotional investment of the Original and felt that both got better in both emotion and choreography as both Trilogies went on. My personal favorite duels in the series are Anakin vs. Vader in Revenge of the Sith as that is what the entire Trilogy is building up to and I felt it was a satisfying payoff and Luke vs. Vader in The Empire Strikes Back duel to it being a major turning point for both both Luke and Vader's characters and the series as a whole. The other duels are either good but lack the impact of these two fights.
I love Duel of the Fates' fight in the Phantom Menace and Obi-Wan vs. Vader in A New Hope is also interesting as a re-watch when you have more context with the Prequels but on its own I feel it's the weakest in terms of choreography. Return of the Jedi is more about the emotion with some rather obvious mistakes but the payoff of Luke refusing to fight his father is still makes it one of the most engaging scenes in the series.
Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda vs. Dooku is fun but hard to take seriously and 99% of the fights scenes in Revenge of the Sith are lightsaber duels so I'm not going to rate all of them but will say that I felt some were good, some were silly and others were solid and all pale in comparison to the climatic duel of the Trilogy.
And then we have the TDST duels and I'm going to be honest I felt these are rather weak. I felt the choreography is weak with the characters treating the Lightsabers more like bats then swords and, IMO, with the exception of Rey and Finn's fight fight with Kylo none of the duels have any reason to exist other then to have an action scene. The duels in The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker serve no real purpose and could be cut as they have no plot relevance and even less character relevance. I know that many feel that the duel in TLJ is one of the series bests but I'm sorry, I don't see it as it has no impact on anything and the duel in ROS is even worse because of how the climax of said duel is rendered pointless by the film not killing off Kylo and Ben being completely irrelevant in the climax thus making the duel just a flashy set piece with some of the series weakest choreography.
Even the duel between Ahsoka and Magistrate was rather in terms of choreography but do at least like how there is some actual relevance to it in terms of plot if not character. Honestly, I think the best duels of the series have been the animated ones like in Rebels, the 7th season of The Clone Wars the game Fallen Order.
I get what the films are trying to do, recreate the style of the Original Trilogy duels but those duels were done at the start of the series and, again, I feel the choreography of TOT was the weak part of that Trilogy while the Prequels had, IMO, much better choreography and that the series really should have tried to combine what worked about one instead of just trying to solely to recreate a style which is being done to just call back to the original.
Something like... This-
youtu.be/mClOxgyWLs8
For me personally, I like the choreography of the Prequels but like the emotional investment of the Original and felt that both got better in both emotion and choreography as both Trilogies went on. My personal favorite duels in the series are Anakin vs. Vader in Revenge of the Sith as that is what the entire Trilogy is building up to and I felt it was a satisfying payoff and Luke vs. Vader in The Empire Strikes Back duel to it being a major turning point for both both Luke and Vader's characters and the series as a whole. The other duels are either good but lack the impact of these two fights.
I love Duel of the Fates' fight in the Phantom Menace and Obi-Wan vs. Vader in A New Hope is also interesting as a re-watch when you have more context with the Prequels but on its own I feel it's the weakest in terms of choreography. Return of the Jedi is more about the emotion with some rather obvious mistakes but the payoff of Luke refusing to fight his father is still makes it one of the most engaging scenes in the series.
Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda vs. Dooku is fun but hard to take seriously and 99% of the fights scenes in Revenge of the Sith are lightsaber duels so I'm not going to rate all of them but will say that I felt some were good, some were silly and others were solid and all pale in comparison to the climatic duel of the Trilogy.
And then we have the TDST duels and I'm going to be honest I felt these are rather weak. I felt the choreography is weak with the characters treating the Lightsabers more like bats then swords and, IMO, with the exception of Rey and Finn's fight fight with Kylo none of the duels have any reason to exist other then to have an action scene. The duels in The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker serve no real purpose and could be cut as they have no plot relevance and even less character relevance. I know that many feel that the duel in TLJ is one of the series bests but I'm sorry, I don't see it as it has no impact on anything and the duel in ROS is even worse because of how the climax of said duel is rendered pointless by the film not killing off Kylo and Ben being completely irrelevant in the climax thus making the duel just a flashy set piece with some of the series weakest choreography.
Even the duel between Ahsoka and Magistrate was rather in terms of choreography but do at least like how there is some actual relevance to it in terms of plot if not character. Honestly, I think the best duels of the series have been the animated ones like in Rebels, the 7th season of The Clone Wars the game Fallen Order.
I get what the films are trying to do, recreate the style of the Original Trilogy duels but those duels were done at the start of the series and, again, I feel the choreography of TOT was the weak part of that Trilogy while the Prequels had, IMO, much better choreography and that the series really should have tried to combine what worked about one instead of just trying to solely to recreate a style which is being done to just call back to the original.
Something like... This-
youtu.be/mClOxgyWLs8
