Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things. But if there's one thing that they do crave, it's awesome laser swords! Even in a genre as rich and diverse as science fiction, no other weapon is nearly as iconic as the lightsaber. While most space-faring heroes and villains generally use some sort of blaster or plasma rifle, the chosen weapon of the Jedi and Sith has a simple elegance that's stood the test of time. However, despite being such an important part of the iconography of the Star Wars universe, lightsaber duels take up a surprisingly small amount of screen time across the franchise's eight theatrical films. In fact, if you compile every duel from Episodes I-VIII, it would take less than 45 minutes to watch them all.

Even so, the lightsaber has made an impact on popular culture in such a way that the concept of the laser sword has become almost ubiquitous with the sci-fi genre. As a result, countless movies, television shows, video games and comic books have had their characters pick up a lightsaber of their own. Whether it's a parody, homage or a straight up rip-off, today we're compiling 25 of the most unusual characters to ever lay their hands on a lightsaber.

25 MARIO

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Over the years, Mario "Jumpman" Mario has wielded all sorts of weapons in his fight against evil. Whether it's his iconic power ups like the Fire Flower and the Magic Mushroom or his more obscure weapons like the arm cannon he uses in Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, the Mushroom Kingdom's greatest hero always seems to have the right tool for the job. In the Super Mario Bros. Super Show episode "Star Koopa" it just so happens that the right tool was a lightsaber...er, rather a lightplunger?

Koopa Troopas became Stormtroopas, X-Wings became Mushroom Starfighters and of course Bowser became Darth Koopa!

The episode is an obvious parody of A New Hope that's chock full of quality puns like these mixing the sights and sounds of both the Mushroom Kingdom and a galaxy far, far away. Koopa Troopas became Stormtroopas, X-Wings became Mushroom Starfighters and of course Bowser became Darth Koopa. When the villain threatened to blow up a colony the Mushroom Kingdom had established on an alien planet it's up to Mario, Luigi, Peach and Toad to come to their rescue. When Mario finally comes face to face with Dark Koopa, he defeats his archenemy in true Star Wars fashion: by besting him in a lightplunger fight. Okay, maybe that's not exactly the Star Wars tradition, but it's close enough.

24 GEORGE W. BUSH

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In addition to serving as the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush also had a brief stint as a Jedi Knight thanks to an appearance on Adult Swim's Robot Chicken. During a routine checkup, the Jedi in Chief is told that his midichlorian count is extraordinarily high, making him surprisingly attuned to the force. Bush immediately starts using his newfound powers to cause trouble. He pantses his doctor, uses the Jedi mind trick on his wife Laura and flings Bill Clinton's car into a lake after getting cut off in a McDonald's parking lot.

However, Bush takes it one step too far when he uses his lightsaber to carve "W wuz hear" on the side of the Lincoln memorial and earns the ire of the former President. The statue lifts to reveal Abraham Lincoln awakening from a deep sleep to fight Bush in an epic lightsaber battle across the capital. Bush is ultimately able to best the $5 dollar man, but soon awakens to realize that it was all just a dream. That being said, he realizes he can still use his President's mind trick to order his aides to bring him a taco, so it all works out.

23 SPIDER-MAN VS. DOCTOR DOOM

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Taking things over to the wold of comics, Spider-Man and Doctor Doom had their own lightsaber fight on the pages of Spidey Super Stories #31. The two go head to head in a story titled "Star Jaws" by writer Kolfax Mingo and artists Win Mortimer and Mike Esposito. The issue was published all the way back in 1977, the same year as A New Hope hit theaters, making it one of the earliest Star Wars parodies ever released. The story finds Doctor Doom at the helm of a space station bearing a striking resemblance to the Death Star. But instead of using a laser to blow up unsuspecting worlds, the titular "Star Jaws" gets its power from opening up a cartoonish mouth to literally consume planets for power.

Spidey gets involved when the mad dictator kidnaps the character Moondragon and sets his station's sights on Earth. Teaming up with Marvel Boy, a random Gorilla and Moondragon's robot sidekick Sam, the group infiltrates the space station, Luke and Han, style to save Moondragon. The group is able to sneak onto the Star Jaws and save Moondragon by disguising themselves as Doctor Doom's robots, but not before Spidey fights Doom in an epic, albeit disappointingly brief, lightsaber battle.

22 BUGS BUNNY

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Our next entry comes from the 2003 live action/animated film Looney Tunes: Back in Action. The film finds Bugs and Daffy teaming up with random humans, played by Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman, to stop the evil head of the Acme Corporation, Mr. Chairman. The businessman has a wild plan to use an Acme satellite to turn mankind into a race of worker monkeys who can make Acme products for free only to be turned back into humans to buy those same products.

Mr. Chairman ends up enlisting the help of Marvin the Martian to complete his evil plans, which leads to, you guessed it, a space fight!

Bugs and Daffy manage to trick Marvin into getting sucked out of his own spaceship's airlock before he and Bugs duke it out on the Acme satellite. After Marvin shoots Bugs with his bubble gun, Bugs pulls out a carrot that turns into a green lightsaber, which he uses to take on the martian. Bugs holds his own for quite a while (even taking time to brush up on the Force by reading a book called The Force For Dummies), but eventually requires an assist from Daffy as Duck Dodgers to get the job done.

21 DOCTOR COX VS. DOCTOR KELSO

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Over Scrubs' eight season run (we don't talk about Scrubs: Med School) the sitcom became known for the often wacky and surrealist daydreaming of the show's main character Dr. John Dorian, aka J.D. There was no shortage of these daydream sequences that paid homage to movies and pop culture icons, but in the season one episode "My Two Dads," it was Star Wars that got the Scrubs treatment.

The episode finds J.D. struggling to choose either Dr. Kelso or Dr. Cox as his mentor. This struggle becomes all too real when J.D. has to choose between helping Dr. Cox make sure an uninsured patient gets the treatment he desperately needs or helping Dr. Kelso make sure that the hospital is following proper procedure and sticking to their budget. In typical J.D. fashion he explores these feelings through a daydream that sees him and the rest of the employees at Sacred Heart as Star Wars characters. In his dream, J.D. is Luke watching Obi-Wan (Dr. Cox) allow Darth Vader (Dr. Kelso) to strike him down for the greater good. Possibly the silliest part of the whole scene is that the hilts of their lightsabers are actually just the pens they were using to fill out medical forms.

20 KIRBY

Kirby walks down a path in Nintendo's Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

If there's one thing that Kirby is known for, it's the never-ending arsenal of weapons at his disposal. Though he's no stranger to using a blade in combat, it wasn't until 2000's Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards that Nintendo's little pink puffball got his hands on a lightsaber. Coming out just a year after The Phantom Menace, the development team was clearly inspired by the popularity of Darth Maul's iconic double-sided lightsaber and decided to include the weapon as one of Kirby's new abilities.

The game had the unique feature of allowing players to combine multiple abilities to create totally new powers for Kirby. When players combined the "Cutter" and "Spark" powers it resulted in Kirby getting a yellow, double sided lightsaber called the Double-Bladed Laser Sword. Aside from its ability to electrocute enemies instead of melting them, it more or less functioned exactly like any other lightsaber. Kirby could use it to reflect projectiles or even just protect his backside by holding the blade still. Nintendo's official magazine Nintendo Power even pointed out the obvious influence in their 134th issue saying, "To get all Darth Maul on enemies, press B to brandish and wield a double-edged lightsaber."

19 JAY and SILENT BOB

It should come as no surprise that the films set in writer/director Kevin Smith's View Askew universe are littered with Star Wars references when you consider that Smith has more or less become a professional geek over the last few... well, decades. Dante and Randall discuss the ethics of destroying the Death Star in Clerks. Silent Bob learns to use the force in Mallrats. 

And in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the dynamic duo have a lightsaber fight with Mark freaking Hamill!

Okay maybe they technically weren't lightsabers as much as they were "hit-sabers," but aside from their ability to let's say, lift you up, they were functionally exactly the same as the chosen weapon of the Jedi. This entry earns itself some bonus points since the villain the boys are going up against is none other than Luke Skywalker himself. Sure, Hamill is playing a B-Movie supervillain with a name so suggestive we don't dare reprint it here, but come on! How do you top a non-Star Wars lightsaber fight that involves the universe's most famous Jedi? The boys even manage to defeat him with a little teamwork (and by cutting off his hand again).

18 KID DEADPOOL

The Wade Wilson of Earth-10330, aka Kid Deadpool, made his debut in Prelude to Deadpool Corps #2 by writer Victor Gischler and artists Whilce Portacio, Jamie Mendoza and Thomas Mason. Before coming to the main Marvel continuity to join the Deadpool Corps, he was a student at his universe's version of the X-Mansion, Xavier's Orphanage for Troubled Boys. As you might expect, Kid Deadpool was a bit of a troublemaker and in his first appearance he's sent to the Danger Room for detention after giving Cyclops a wedgie.

While in the Danger Room, Cyclops uses his access to the console to activate the sparring room so the two can fight out their differences. After Cyclops turns on combat mode, Kid Deadpool immediately grabs a pair of lightsabers from a wall of weapons. The two briefly trade blows before Kid Deadpool realizes they can use Cyclops' access to the room's console to open the door and go to a dance being held that night for the younger X-Men. The pair of sabers became a trademark for the character and he continued to use them until his death in Deadpool Kills Deadpool #2 by writer Cullen Bunn and artists Salva Espin and Veronica Gandini.

17 OPTIMUS PRIME VS. MEGATRON

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It seems more or less inevitable that any long-running sci-fi franchise will eventually (excuse the pun) take a stab at the concept of a laser sword. In the Transformers universe, the trope was explored with the Star Saber. Granted, the Star Saber is much more powerful than your standard lightsaber, but that makes sense when you consider the fact that it's a giant laser sword being wielded by a 22 foot tall robot man. The legendary sword has made appearances in numerous incarnations of the Transformers, but for our purposes we're going to focus on the saber's appearances in the Daytime Emmy Award-winning series Transformers: Prime.

By the time of the series the Star Saber found its way to Earth only to be found encased in stone by Megatron and the Decepticons. Thankfully, Optimus Prime was able to claim the sword for himself before the Decepticons could retrieve it from the stone. In an effort to match the power of the Star Saber, Megatron tracked down the Forge of Solus Prime and forged his own Dark Star Saber. When the two finally faced off, Megatron's new blade proved the stronger weapon and shattered the original Star Saber. However, after Optimus reclaimed the Forge for himself, he was able to reform the blade and defeat Megatron.

16 FRYLOCK

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Our next entry comes from Adult Swim's longest-running animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force. In the season six episode "2-And-a-Half-Star Wars Out of Five," the Aqua Teens are being harassed by a hairless Wookie posing as a werewolf named Drewbacca. The Wookie starts hanging around the Aqua Teen's house because he wants the guys to help him with his plan to blow up the moon (and maybe to also crash on their couch).

He decides to try and manipulate the Aqua Teens into aiding him by making some strawberry pancakes.

When all of their attempts to get rid of "Drew" fail, Frylock finally agrees to help destroy the moon just so he can blindfold and shoot the Wookie in the chest. When it turns out the bullets were only rubber Drew takes them to the local pawn shop, but Frylock follows close behind with a "lightwaver" intending to try and kill him again. However, before Frylock can put Drew down he gets beamed up by a Wookie ship and escapes. Ironically enough, his dream to see the moon explode comes true when the Mooninites accidentally blow it up by placing Yoda (who for some reason they think is a bull frog) into a microwave.

15 SIGMA

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Few video game characters sport a rouges' gallery as robust and diverse as the Mega Man franchise and its spin-off Mega Man X. The original Mega Man X introduced us to beloved Robot Masters like Spark Mandrill and Chill Penguin, but none of them can hold a candle to the series' primary antagonist: Sigma. At one point considered the best reploid of his time, Sigma was the leader of the Maverick Hunters before Zero took over.

After being exposed to the Zero Virus during a battle with Zero (who was at that point infected) Sigma eventually lost his mind and went rogue. He went on to declare war on all humankind and became increasingly unstable and erratic as he was defeated and rebuilt again and again. In his original appearance in Mega Man X, he served as the game's final boss and one of his primary weapons is a green lightsaber that bears a striking resemblance to Luke Skywalker's. This is particularly interesting because even Zero's signature weapon the "Z Saber" looks far less like a traditional lightsaber than the weapon we see Sigma using. Maybe Mega Man co-creator/character artist Keiji Inafune wasn't a fan of Luke?

14 GOOFY

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Back in the Early 2000s, Walt Disney Television produced an animated series called House of Mouse, which saw Micky and friends running the hottest night club in all of Disneyville. While the show largely centered around the trials and tribulations of Mickey and the rest of the staff trying to keep the floor show running smoothly, the show also served as a framing device for short cartoons starring Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the rest of the gang.

One such short, titled "How to Be Groovy, Cool and Fly" found Goofy wielding a lightsaber over 10 years before Disney acquired Lucasfilm and Star Wars. The cartoon followed Goofy on a journey through the changing fashion trends of the last several decades. When he gets to the '70s, the short's narrator calls out the influence of pop culture (specifically the "sci-fi style") on how people dressed. We then see Goofy in complete Princess Leia cosplay with a green lightsaber in hand. Despite expressing that he has a "bad feeling about this," it doesn't take long for Goofy to clumsily take a swing with his new "accessory" only to destroy the space themed set behind him. Though Goofy has proved that he's pretty capable with a shield in the Kingdom Hearts series, he should probably leave the lightsabering to someone else.

13 BLACK KNIGHT

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When your average moviegoer hears "Avengers," their mind is immediately taken to Marvel's now A-list heroes like Iron Man and Captain America. However, any comic book fan can tell you that the organization (and its many offshoots) are comprised of dozens of other heroes you've almost certainly never heard of. One of these lesser-known Avengers is Dane Whitman, aka The Black Knight. Dane was the nephew of the previous Black Knight, a villain named Nathan Garret, who died shortly after a conflict with Iron Man. Garret called his nephew to his side and with his last breath asked Dane to take up the mantle and restore the Black Knight name to honor.

After ridding himself of the Ebony Blade, Dane used his scientific skills to build a new weapon, the Photon Sword.

Though the Avengers were initially distrustful of Dane because of his uncle's history as a supervillain, he eventually proved himself to be a powerful ally and took a spot on the team as a reserve member. For a time Dane used the cursed Ebony Blade as his primary weapon, but soon found himself being corrupted by its demonic influence. When the hero nearly killed two petty criminals, he knew it was time to destroy the blade. After ridding himself of the Ebony Blade, Dane used his scientific skills to build a new weapon, the Photon Sword. The "blade" emerges from a lightsaber-like hilt and functions in fairly a similar way. The main differences being how it interacts with living matter. Instead of cutting through living creatures, the Photon Sword acts as a neural disruptor which non-lethally incapacitates enemies.

12 BART SIMPSON

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Honestly, the fact that it took The Simpsons until the season 26 episode "The Musk Who Fell To Earth" to show Bart Simpson using a lightsaber is shocking. The Simpsons is no stranger to lampooning the all-time greats of pop culture (Star Wars included), but it wasn't until real life mad scientist Elon Musk came to Springfield that Bart was able to get his hands on a high powered laser weapon. The Simpson family first meets the brilliant inventor when he lands his spaceship in their backyard, and he and Homer quickly strike up a friendship.

Homer learns that Musk has come to Springfield hoping to find a spark of inspiration, which leads Homer to suggest Musk accompany him to his job at the nuclear plant. Musk quickly takes on the task of revolutionizing the plant, only to earn the ire of Homer's boss Mr. Burns when his innovations lead to massive layoffs at the plant. Mr. Burns then attempts to assassinate Musk, which causes Homer to end their friendship to protect him. Before leaving Springfield for his next adventure, Musk returns to the Simpsons' home to say his goodbyes where it's revealed he's gifted Bart with a functional lightsaber. Unsurprisingly, the infamous troublemaker immediately uses the gift to cut down a tree in the family's backyard.

11 STEPHEN COLBERT

The Late Show host Stephen Colbert is not someone you want to challenge to a nerd fight. Fans of his work on the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report will remember how often guests like James Franco would try to stump Colbert with trivia on topics like Lord of The Rings only to find themselves wholly unprepared for the bout. However, that doesn't mean that the self-proclaimed "original Star Wars fan" is invincible. Colbert finally met his match way back in 2006 when Star Wars creator George Lucas bested him in a lightsaber duel.

Unfortunately for Colbert, he ended up being no match for the father of the lightsaber and fell to Lucas' superior combat skills. Funnily enough, this event would seemingly haunt Colbert for nearly a decade until he addressed it on an episode of The Late Show in 2015. Apparently, before he appeared on the Report, a representative for Lucas' production company, Industrial Light & Magic, told the host that Lucas generally referred to lightsabers as "laser swords" just like he had in the first draft of the original Star Wars script. When Colbert used the term during a commercial break to ask Lucas if he would be open to the duel, the creator pointed out that most people called them lightsabers. Lucas left before Colbert could explain the misunderstanding and for nine years he had to suffer the embarrassment of looking like a casual to his hero.

10 RATCHET

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Ratchet, the fuzzy leading man of the Ratchet & Clack series, is another video game character well known for his impressive arsenal of weapons. Each entry in the franchise introduces a slew of new and exciting toys that allow Ratchet and his robot sidekick Clank to do everything from dropping a nuclear bomb to turning his enemies into sheep. However, in the third entry in the series, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Ratchet had access to a secret weapon straight out of The Phantom Menace.

Ratchet was able to get his own version of Darth Maul's double-sided lightsaber thanks to a cheat code. Remember those?

If fans played and beat the demo for Sly 2: Band of Thieves included on Up Your Arsenal's disc they were then given a code to enter at the game's pause menu. Upon inputting the code Ratchet's signature Omni-Wrench would be replaced with a purple version of the double lightsaber. Not only was the weapon supremely cool, it was actually much stronger too. The lightsaber was capable of dealing twice as much damage as the regular Omni-Wrench because both blades were able to hit enemies if you attacked them at a close enough range.

9 BATMAN

Batman might be opposed to guns (unless they're attached to a vehicle of course), but it seems like pretty much any other weapon is on the table. Couple that with the fact that we've seen Batman portrayed as everything from a caveman to a pirate and the idea of him picking up a lightsaber at some point doesn't seem out of the question. Surprisingly enough, it took until the 2008 animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold to finally see Bruce add a lightsaber style weapon to his arsenal. His collapsible laser sword fits snugly in the Caped Crusader's utility belt and even sports a sound similar to the original lightsaber.

However, the absolute coolest case of Bruce Wayne picking up a lightsaber has to be in his battle with Darth Vader on the YouTube show Super Power Beat Down. The video begins with Batman infiltrating the Death Star to rescue Superman. Before he's able to reach Superman's cell, Batman is confronted by the Dark Lord of the Sith. As one might expect, Batman comes prepared to throw down in a good old fashioned lightsaber duel. Unfortunately for Superman, Batman finally meets his match in Darth Vader. Batman seems to have the upper hand after he disables Vader's armor, requiring him to use the force to sustain himself. It all goes sideways though when Vader regains control of the force and easily snaps Batman's neck.

8 THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN

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Despite never achieving the same level of cultural relevance, the Saturday morning cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian was essentially He-Man before He-Man. Debuting in 1980, a full year before the original line of He-Man toys and comics were released, Thundarr sported a shockingly similar look to Prince Adam of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. However, instead of being set on an alien world, Thundarr took place in a post-apocalyptic Earth filled with magic and "super-science."

The show's lore and characters were further developed by legendary comic book writer/artist Jack Kirby, with additional contributions by writer/artist Alex Toth. For Thundarr's primary weapon, the team gave its hero a magical laser sword known as the Sunsword. Though it was capable of firing Legend of Zelda style beams of energy, reflecting magical attacks and disrupting spells it was very similar to lightsaber in design and use. The most obvious connection being the Sunsword's ability to be turned off so it was just an unassuming hilt. It also sported all of the standard powers you'd associate with a lightsaber. For example, the sword was able to reflect energy based attacks (like blasters) and was capable of cutting through pretty much anything it came in contact with.

7 CHEF

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When soul legend Isaac Hayes left South Park in 2005, he left a Chef-sized hole in the hearts of fans of the long-running animated series. When Hayes tragically died from a stroke a year later, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker decided to address their former friend and colleague's death in the season 10 episode, "The Return of Chef." The episode focused on Chef joining the Super Adventure Club, which was a thinly-veiled jab at the Church of Scientology, which Stone and Parker believed to be the cause of Hayes' sudden change of heart regarding his role on the show.

In addition to wearing full Darth Vader armor, Darth Chef was also shown to be wielding a lightspatula.

Chef dies a graphic and very final death when Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman attempt to rescue their friend from what turns out to be a cult that is brainwashing him. The people of South Park mourn the loss of their friend, and Kyle delivers a speech clearly intended to be about both Hayes and the character he played on the show. The episode ends with the reveal that the Super Adventure Club has retrieved Chef's body and turned him into a robotic shell of the man he once was: Darth Chef.

6 MASTER YI

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Riot Games' League of Legends is an absolute juggernaut in the world of video games, at least in part because of its always-expanding cast of champions. What other game exists where wizards, alien monsters and lighting-wielding bears can all exist on the same team? However, the art team at Riot really takes things to the next level when it comes to creating cosmetic "skins" (or alternate costumes) for their motley crew.

Many of League of Legends characters take heavy influence from characters across the pop culture lexicon, but when it comes to skins Riot doesn't shy away from a proper homage. When it came time to cook up some designs for the legendary "bladesman" Master Yi, the artists wasted little time in giving him a look heavily inspired by Star Wars. The original design for Master Yi's "Chosen" skin saw the character trade in his sword for a green lightsaber. The skin also featured lighter clothes with a brown cloak around his waist which were vaguely reminiscent of Jedi garb. When the skin was redesigned in 2013, the design took on a slightly darker look and made Yi's lightsaber change between green, blue and red depending on what abilities he has active at the time.