Every Lightsaber Fight In "Star Wars," Ranked Worst To Best

Here it is, folks. The throne room throwdown from "Return of the Jedi" tops the list. It's not the most epically choreographed fight in the saga, but it is the "Star Wars" scene. Everything that came before leads up to this moment, and everything that followed lives in its shadow.

Here, Luke comes into his own as a Jedi Knight, fully in control of his power. He initially refuses to fight his father, but Vader's threats against Leia force his hand. A tracking shot of Luke hammering away at Vader, set to John Williams' most hauntingly beautiful tune, is perhaps the most powerful in the entire saga. Luke comes perilously close to following his rage to the Dark side, but stops himself where his father couldn't. He then turns to Palpatine and says, in a perfect, triumphant, goosebump-inducing summation of his arc, "I am a Jedi, like my father before me."

We get to see Vader's redemption, too. Luke bet everything that his father was still in there somewhere, buried in metal and pain and monstrous cruelty but not fully gone. What happens next, when Vader realizes he can't help his master kill Luke and sacrifices himself to defeat Palpatine instead, vindicates his son's gamble and destroys the Sith as prophesied, bringing about the final victory of good over evil.

Ultimately, it's all about how the battles that matter most aren't always fought between fleets of starships, but within ourselves. What's more "Star Wars" than that?