1 review of Harry Potter vs Luke Skywalker by Epic Rap Battles of History

There are a lot of great quality entertainment channels on YouTube, but to me none of them is comparable to Epic Rap Battles of History.
Nice Peter (Peter Schukoff) and EpicLLOYD (Lloyd Ahlquist) have been creating new funny and creative rap battles since 2010.
Harry Potter vs Luke Skywalker is the newest episode in the series, it was officially released on December 5, 2020 (you can watch the video here).

This episode features two young heroes from extremely popular franchises, one involving space adventures and the other involving wizardry, facing off in a rap battle. Nice Peter plays Luke Skywalker while Boyinaband, a newcomer for the series, raps as Harry Potter. In the Behind the Scenes video it is revealed that he took the role because Pete and Lloyd were aware they couldn’t nail a good english accent.

Both characters are physically played by LEGO mini figures. This is in fact the second battle to feature LEGO brickmen as rappers after the 2014 episode Zeus vs Thor. Both battles were directed by the very talented Forrest Whaley (aka ForrestFire101): a young stop motion director who has been making LEGO animated adventures since he was a child.

His role as a director for this battle was actually teased back in Spring of 2020 when during an ERB livestreams Pete hinted at “Smokey the Bear” being “in the house”.
Forrest himself announced the battle back in August during a video update on his channel and started building LEGO Hogwarts for a “mysterious client” a month later.
Then two short clips from Luke Skywalker vs Harry Potter were hidden in the ending credits of Donald Trump vs Joe Biden (read our Italian review here) in October 2020.

Now let’s talk about the battle.
First thing to say, I’m not a great fan of LEGO battles. In fact, Zeus vs Thor wasn’t exactly my favorite episode, but Harry Potter vs Luke Skywalker kinda made me change my mind.
I’m also not a huge fan of either franchises, Harry Potter and Star Wars, but I actually managed to get some of the jokes.

Lyrically the battle is great. Each character got three verses each filled with jokes and references from both franchises, a true heaven for the fans.
There are people all over ERB communities already saying that this battle is among their top three or five of season 6, and even if I disagree, I can still understand why some people may like this battle that much, especially the Harry Potter and Star Wars fans.

My favorite lyrics are: “But I bet you’re just distracted, you’ve got a lot on your plate / On one hand the rebellion, on the other hand – oh wait!” from Harry and “I’ll pop you where Poppy Pomfrey can’t be healing you / Unlike a great disturbance in the Force I’m not feeling you” from Luke.
Harry’s wordplay “You’re acting is flat and your raps are 2D too” (“R2D2”) is also just so clever it deserves to be mentioned, just like the short bits of Luke talking with R2D2 and Yoda saying a couple of words.
I’m also convinced that I spotted a reference to Fantastic Beasts and where to find Them from Harry, just another clever wordplay.

Visual-wise the battle is absolutely astounding. Just an overflowing of characters, places and cameos that make me wish I knew more about both franchises to recognize everything.
One of the characters i spotted and recognized immediately is Shaggy Rogers in the Quidditch crowd. I have no idea why he’s there since he’s not from either franchises but I really hope it’s an hint for a future battle.
While watching the video it was impossible for me not to think of how much time and effort Forrest and the crew had to put into this work. The result, as I’ve already said, is amazing.

The beat is Obsession by Epistra and it’s very enjoyable. Somebody on Reddit actually predicted that this could end up being one of the beats used for the episode a couple of days before the audio of the battle got released.
There are certain parts of the beat where it turns darker with and industrial-like feeling attached to it, kinda reminded me of the track Factory Inspection from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.
Hearing the characters rapping on this aggressive parts of the beat is a joy for my ears.

As for the winner, I think Luke Skywalker takes the cake. His jokes are better and the whole part where he describes how his story was copy-and-pasted by the Harry Potter franchise is just winner material. He basically explains the matchup to us, adding that he has the cooler stick.
His third verse overall was the best in the entire battle, the flow and delivery on “Far more than your goofy little scar wars” really is something else.
His closing joke, although very simple, is also good enough to deserve a mention.

In conclusion, to me Harry Potter vs Luke Skywalker is not the best ERB of this season, but is still a great memorable battle. The lyrics are great even for a non-fan of both franchises like me. The episode itself is just a great example of creativity and talent and with all those colorful characters and places it is just good to look at.

In the Behind the Scenes video they confirmed that Harry Potter vs Luke Skywalker will be the season finale for season 6. Even though I find this disappointing, I understand that Pete and Lloyd were forced to wrap things up because of Covid-19.
Season 6 has been the best in the whole series. Even if it is the shortest (with only 11 episodes) it gave us masterpieces like George Carlin vs Richard Pryor, Jacques Cousteau vs Steve Irwin and The Joker vs Pennywise.

I’m so curious to know what the ERB guys will have in store for us for 2021.

Thanks so much for reading, keep following us and, of course, keep following ERB too!