When you think of your favorite lightsaber fight inStar Wars, odds are your mind goes straight to sorting through the many great battles that take place in the live-action movies. True, there are a lot of great fights in these movies, but going straight to live-action overlooks the many great duels that take place in theStar Warsanimated seriesThe Clone WarsandRebels.
Star Warsis about so many things: hope, good vs. evil, family, hubris, love, and so much more. All these themes are encased in packaging that makes for a very heightened experience. Some of the most important character moments often take place when characters are holding a lightsaber. And sometimes, these scenes don’t say quite as much, but just look really cool. The best lightsaber fights do both, and the animated series have plenty of those. Here are the 15 best lightsaber fights from theStar Warsanimated series.
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15 - Ahsoka and Luminara vs. Ventress, “Cloak of Darkness”
Once the dynamic between Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) and Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) was established, it made sense to pair her off with someone whose teaching style was so different from his. Luminara’s calm demeanor and hesitance to break the rules made her and Ahsoka likely foils for each other on their first mission together.
Asajj Ventress (Nika Futterman), meanwhile, was introduced in the first episode of the series as the apprentice of Count Dooku (Corey Burton). She’s shown to be dangerous, but sloppy - something Luminara points out to her during their battle. This is the first lightsaber fight inThe Clone Warsto really work well with the series’s animation style, and the end result is the high point of the episode as a whole. ForStar Warsanimation, it only got better from here.
14 - Dooku vs. Ventress and the Nightsisters, “Nightsisters”
Darth Sidious (Ian Abercrombie) orders Count Dooku to kill Asajj Ventress when it’s clear that she’s becoming quite powerful. Dooku betrays her, but she escapes to her homeworld. There, she is reunited with Mother Talzin (Barbara Goodson), a sort of den mother for the witches native to that planet. Talzin gives Ventress and two of the nightsisters the power to become nearly invisible so that they can kill Dooku.
The end result is unlike any lightsaber fightStar Warshas done before. Three lightsaber-wielding witches move in shadow to kill Dooku, but the three are not enough. This commitment to letting things get pretty weird and taking creative risks became a mark of whyThe Clone Warswas so great.
13 - Maul and Savage vs. Sidious, “The Lawless”
After being thought dead by his former master Darth Sidious, Maul (Sam Witwer) spent years in isolation and would have gone completely mad if it weren’t for his brother’s efforts to locate him. The two become a team, with Maul the master and his brother Savage Opress (Clancy Brown) the apprentice.
The fight between the two brothers and Sidious at the end of “The Lawless” marks the first time Maul and his old master have come face-to-face since the events ofThe Phantom Menace. The fight is one of many climactic moments in this episode, which marks the end of the arc following Maul’s takeover of Mandalore. The battle mainly serves to show Sidious’s cruelty, as he kills Maul’s brother right in front of him. It’s hard to not feel a little bad for him, despite him killing Satine Kryze (Anna Graves) right in front of Obi-wan earlier in the same episode. But with Sidious, it’s all about control, and punishment is one of his favorite means to this end.
12 - Dooku vs. Savage vs. Ventress, “Witches of the Mist”
You could call this fight “The Battle of the Pawns”; Savage is a pawn for Ventress’s revenge against Dooku, for whom she was formerly a pawn for doing his dirty work, and of course, Dooku is merely a pawn to do Palpatine’s dirty work while he waits for his chance to turn Anakin to the dark side. And yet, this fight is interesting not in spite of these roles, but because of them.
Dooku feels no remorse for ordering Ventress’s death, and Ventress is furious at her former master’s callous disregard for her life. Savage is just a pawn in the game between these two, but this isn’t a fight that ultimately matters. You can feel that even as you feel the frustration each character does as they turn on each other.
11 - Maul vs. Pre Vizsla, “Shades of Reason”
Maul’s plan to take power and exact revenge on Obi-Wan has many steps, but he plays each card carefully to ensure success. After working with Death Watch, he knows that their leader Pre Vizsla (Jon Favreau) won’t be able to resist a challenge with the leadership of Mandalore at stake. Maul beats Vizsla, making him the wielder of the Darksaber and the ruler of the planet. The fight feels like it goes on longer than most in the series due to the relative brutality of it. Of course, it’s still an animated series safe for kids to watch (or is it?), but nevertheless, things get brutal.
Maul slowly strips Vizsla of all of his extra weapons, leaving him with only the Darksaber. Once he loses his grip on that, it becomes a fistfight for the leadership of Mandalore. Maul defeats Vizsla and uses the Darksaber to kill him, and Vizsla is strangely (or, depending on how you look at it, not so strangely) accepting of his fate.
10 - Ahsoka, Kanan, and Maul vs. The Inquisitors, “Twilight of the Apprentice”
When Ahsoka andKanan(Freddie Prinze Jr.) take Ezra (Taylor Gray) to a Sith temple, they find Maul hiding out in disguise as an old man. Throughout the course of the first half of this two-parter, Maul slowly reveals his identity to Ezra. When Ezra brings him back with him to his mentors, they’re immediately distrustful (and with good reason).
Under different circumstances, Maul might not have minded making enemies of Ahsoka, Ezra, and Kanan. But in this case, he knows that he’ll need their help when Vader inevitably shows up. The four are faced with a group of Inquisitors, and Maul uses this as a chance to prove his temporary loyalty. He engages with the three Inquisitors on his own, until Ezra urges his companions to join in to help.
This development sets up a nice shot of Kanan, Maul, and Ahsoka fighting the Inquisitors side by side. The three lightsaber colors represent their philosophies: blue for Kanan, still a Jedi even after the fall of the Republic; red for Maul, whose power still comes from the dark side; and white for Ahsoka, who, after leaving the Jedi Order, exists in a sort of gray area. It’s a brief fight and the first of many in theRebelsSeason 2 finale, but it sets the tone for what’s to come.
9 - Ahsoka vs. Anakin and Obi Wan, “Altar of Mortis”
During the Mortis Arc, one of the more ambitious storylines the show produced, Ahsoka, Anakin, and Obi-Wan found themselves stranded on a planet unlike any other. The Son (Sam Witwer) is the embodiment of the dark side, and he senses darkness and power in Anakin. In order to tempt him to join him, he kidnaps Ahsoka and possesses her, forcing her to fight Anakin and Obi-Wan until Anakin agrees to join the son or dies. Anakin is of course desperate to save his padawan and at this point, dead-set against betraying the light. He and Obi-Wan fight Ahsoka, trying not to kill her. The end result is a bold scene in a bold episode that mostly works.
8 - Ahsoka and Ventress vs. the Clones, “To Catch a Jedi”
When Ahsoka is accused of bombing the Jedi temple, she’s forced to go on the run. It’s on the streets of Coruscant that she runs into Ventress, who’s become a bounty hunter since she was released from Dooku’s apprenticeship. These two ladies have never got along. They’ve fought multiple times and never have had any shortage of barbs to toss at each other out of their shared animosity. But when Ahsoka is on the run, she convinces Ventress to help her clear her name.
Soon after making this deal, the two are ambushed by a squadron of clones sent to capture Ahsoka. When it’s clear that they’ll have to fight their way out, Ahsoka tells the clones: “Listen to me! I don’t want to fight.” Ventress says “I do”, and whips out her lightsabers. Though most of the fight is done without lightsabers, Ventress’s use of hers is enough for us to include this satisfying union on the list.
7 - Anakin vs. Barriss, “The Wrong Jedi”
Anakin’s best quality is of course also his greatest weakness: he cares so passionately about the people he loves that he will do anything to keep them out of harm’s way. This is demonstrated yet again in his quest to free Ahsoka. His trail leads him to Barriss. It turns out she was the one who bombed the temple after becoming disillusioned with the Jedi Order. Shades of the Imperial March can be heard as Anakin unleashes his rage on Barriss. They fight as Padmé (Catherine Taber) does her best to defend Ahsoka’s innocence at her trial.
The fight is great, demonstrating early signs of Anakin’s alter ego Darth Vader. At one point, Barriss leaps at him only for him to catch her in mid-air using the Force before throwing her into a tree. Anakin’s anger is justified in this case but comes with a sense of foreboding for those of us who know what’s coming.
6 - Ezra and Kanan vs. The Grand Inquisitor, “Fire Across the Galaxy”
The first season ofRebelsculminates in the crew embarking on a dangerous mission to rescue Kanan from the Empire. The mission results in a fight between the Inquisitor and the master and apprentice duo. When it looks like Ezra may have died, Kanan bests the Inquisitor on his own. As he dangles from a very high ledge, the Inquisitor learns of Vader’s incoming arrival and opts to fall to his death, telling Kanan that “There are things I fear more than death.”
On a technical level, there are some fun touches to this fight. Of course, we have the Inquisitor’s spinning double-bladed lightsaber, but there’s also Ezra’s saber, which doubles as a blaster. While it isn’t one of our favorite saber hilts, it’s certainly inventive and unique.
