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The lesson of lightsaber fights
Star Wars Rebels, Season 2, episode 22, “Twilight of the Apprentice”
Writers: Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, & Steven Melching
Director: Dave Filoni
Who doesn’t love a good lightsaber duel? Clashing blades, good versus evil, Sith versus Jedi, and the fate of the galaxy at stake. There’s a reason lightsaber battles are near the top of every fan’s reasons to love Star Wars. We connect with the intimacy of the battle. There are no ships or blasters here. These fights are personal. Primal, even. One of the most anticipated lightsaber duels became one of the best when the second season of Star Wars Rebels closed with the showdown that had been years in the making. Ahsoka Tano finally squared off against her former master Darth Vader. At the outset, it was about revenge and power, but like so many moments before, this lightsaber duel was about something much more important.
Ahsoka enters this fight with revenge in mind, which is refreshing in its own right. Revenge is often unexplored in Star Wars. At least, from this side. The Sith wanted revenge so much that they get their own movie title about it, but it always seems surface level. “We hate the Jedi and want revenge!” Got it, you’re upset and wear dark robes. But for Ahsoka to seek revenge from the vantage point of someone so steeped in the light side of the dance, is interesting. Will it affect her? Take over her? Lead her to the dark side? Of course, revenge is something she can seek because she’s no longer a Jedi. Gone are those restrictions. She’s fighting for Anakin. This monster before her isn’t just something Anakin became, it’s something that seemingly defeated him. So, if Vader destroyed Anakin, what she’s after seems right.
Vader, though, is fighting for power. He conceals that behind his mask of hate and anger, but he wants power. He’s here for the Sith Holocron that Ezra Bridger and an injured Kanan Jarrus are trying to leave with. Vader wants it for the power it can bring his Emperor, his Empire, and himself. He needs to have power over his past. If the side effect of that is being able to kill Ahsoka, one of the more potent memories from his personal history, even better.
It’s enough drama and stakes to build from, but at the peak of this fight, with a Sith Temple trembling around them, Darth Vader suffers a blow to the head at the hands of Ahsoka. Everything this fight is about before vanishes in an instant. Ahsoka has a chance to leave. She can follow Ezra and Kanan to safety and leave Vader to his fate. But, then, she hears her name called out in a voice that is no longer the mechanical rumble that terrorizes the galaxy. It’s Anakin. It’s her mentor and friend. She turns to see the eye of Anakin Skywalker now staring out of the broken mask of Darth Vader. All of the revenge leaves her heart. What is exposed is not just the face of who Vader once was. The anger and hate have been cracked away and Ahsoka is seeing the fear of a trapped soul. Anakin hasn’t been defeated. Anakin is in a prison.
Revenge and power have given way to compassion and it changes them both.
Ahsoka sees the suffering on that face, so she decides to stay. No longer to fight, but to stay with Anakin even if the cost is her own life. She’s not going to leave him as she had previously done during her departure from the Jedi Order. Her decision to stay at this moment speaks to her love and compassion for the man he once was. That’s stronger than fulfilled revenge. Vader senses this. It scares him. He has been at war with himself since, perhaps, the first moment he left Tatooine. Now, Vader is looking into the face of someone who still believes in Anakin’s redemption. The past and future of this conflicted man hang over the moment.
Right here, right now, Ahsoka might be the only one who can save him. Obi-Wan failed. Padmé died. Yet Ahsoka can do it. She can forgive him and try to pull him out of this prison. And that, to the part of him that is still Vader, is more powerful of a weapon than any lightsaber she could wield. Vader senses defeat and won’t allow it. Not this time. Not now. He will not give up his power. With a flash of anger, the Dark Lord returns and Ahsoka knows she has lost. The fight goes on. Darth Vader goes on. Yet, the next time he is shown this much compassion, he accepts it and finds redemption, sacrificing himself like Ahsoka was prepared to do here.
The most impactful moment in this fight contains not one crossing of the blades. We do love a good lightsaber fight. They are a key ingredient to Star Wars, but not for the furious action. It’s the lessons they teach us and the truths they reveal. When Darth Vader clashed with Ahsoka Tano, we didn’t just see a brilliant display of fighting forms and skills, we didn’t just see the light side collide with dark, we learned about the strength of compassion, the false comfort of revenge, and the dark addiction of power and what it all does to both sides of the fight.