Qui-Gon Jinn and Kit Fisto are 2 of my favorite characters from Star Wars and I was wondering which one of them is better at lightsaber combat.
I know that Kit Fisto is one of the three Jedi that Mace Windu chose to help him arrest Palpatine. Qui-Gon however was also a very powerful Jedi and was trained by Count Dooku, no doubt he learned some tricks from him.
Have they ever fought (or duelled) in any canon, and if so, who won?
As you can see from the attractive Star Wars Top Trumps I-III cards below, Kit Fisto's "battle skill" (which presumably includes his prowess with the lightsaber) is higher than Qui-Gon Jinn's.
Qui-Gon Jinn and Kit Fisto did not have any recorded sparring sessions known to us, so we do not know the results. The only alternative is to compare their performance against common opponents. Both went up against a Sith Lord knowing what they're up against. You can see they are both very dead.
We use three separate battles in our analysis:
We compare Maul to Fisto via Sidious, then compare Fisto to Qui-Gon via Maul. The points we can draw from the above fights are:
In conclusion: We do not know. As said, we compared Maul to Fisto via Sidious, then compared Fisto to Qui-Gon via Maul. However, it is likely Sidious has been holding back all along, so any observations made are unlikely to be accurate. We are pretty sure Sidious went all out against Yoda, but we have no available sources to do the same analysis with Yoda replacing Maul's place in the process.
Assuming Sidious wasn't holding back? Maul lasted longer alone against Sidious than Kit Fisto against Sidious when Sidious was focused on Mace Windu, while Qui-Gon Jinn lasted longer alone against Maul than Kit Fisto against Sidious when Sidious was focused on Mace Windu. I guess that suggests Qui-Gon Jinn is statistically better.
Fisto would win. Fisto was highly advanced in spirit, force and sabreskills and was also physically strong and had great fighting stamina- still young for a nautolan at 45. His tentacles can sense change in chemical signature, his style of fighting was jar'kai fencing, splashes of ataru movements but overwhelmingly an unexplored, unorthodox usage of shii cho- wild, blitzing, immersive and dangerous, chaotic, unpredictable and unfamiliar to all adversaries when fully mastered and pushed to the furthest degree.. not to mention fisto is cunning, a master of improvisation, by the time of his death, the jedi council member was a galactic hero and decorated, battle-hardened high general of the clone war. Though he didn't last long against sidious, it's important to note that sidious wanted him dead and out of the way immediately without having to have a long fight, and with maul vs obi and qui gon, that was a different fight in which maul was eager for a drawn out fight and to, for lack of a better expression, play with his food.. He was arrogant and wanted to show off his skills, so he kept qui gon alive until he got bored. This is all while maul is sidious's inferior and dooku's superior (contentious statement but one i believe nonetheless which is also backed by the trump cards). So what do we have, we have qui gon who is on the other side of 60, gets tired if he exerts himself too long and starts to lose his game with anything exceeding short bursts of action, his force abilities extending mainly to his surroundings.. While other jedi use the force to for themselves and try to harness and control it, qui gon lets the force use him in a very pacifist, spiritually connected way where he accepts that he's simply a small cog in a bigger plan. Qui gon sacrifices his potential to use the force in life to be powerful, so he can uncover hidden secrets and become powerful after death. In the meantime while alive, qui gon only knows the bare essentials like affect mind and object manipulation and some telekinesis, just enough to pass as satisfactory for success in jedi ranks while the rest is focused on letting the force guide him, recieve rather than transmit. Qui gon studied lightsaber style soresu to block blasterfire and have well rounded defensiveness against blasterfire and strikes, while incorporating bare elements from ataru as a more proactive approach against force sensitive, unique assailants. So i think force wise, natural gift wise, physicality wise and fighting wise, kit is the superior master.
Lightsaber combat does not only mean Physical one to one combat. It also includes other forms of combat, such as the power of the Force within a Jedi or a Sith, especially in lightsaber combats. Theoretically, a Jedi or a Sith may utilise the Force in order to "see" into the future and predict the opponent's move before he makes it. As Qui-Gon is much more trained in the the arts of the Force, but Kit Fisto is much better in terms of combat arts, when it comes to a one-to-one battle, there is a higher possibility that Kit may win the battle despite the fact that he is not as good as Qui-Gon in terms of the arts of the Force.
However, the result may differ if Qui-Gon manages to utilise the Force well in order to defeat Kit Fisto (not saying they will ever fight against each other). It also depends on what kind of environment they are fighting in.
Overall, I would say that we would never know as nobody here is a Jedi or a Sith (for Sith, it may also differ from Jedi's).
I think Qui-Gon would win. I've watched the movies over and over and it doesn't even look like Kit Fisto put up a fight, at least Qui-Gon did.
