Cal Kestis runs the Gauntlet

Endgame Cal with Splitsaber
He is fully rested between each bout
In Character
Rounds take place in the Haxion Brood arena
Canon Only

Round 1: Early CW Ahsoka

Round 2: Nahdar Vebb

Round 3: Seventh Sister

Round 4: S4 Kanan Jarrus

Round 5: Pong Krell

BONUS: Cal & Jaro Tapal Vs. TPM Obi & Qui-Gon

Stops at Round 4.

Might stop at round 4, hard stop at round 5.

Not clearing bonus as well.

Stops at 5.

Stops at 4. When you consider S2 Kanan's performance against Maul (which tbh surpasses any of Cal's feats) as well as the power growth he went through from S2-S4. This should pretty clearly paint Prime Kanan as Cal's superior at this point.

As for the bonus round. Jaro Tapal is featless but from what we know, he's cleary intended to be Cal's superior as well as the fact that he is unbeatable in the combat challenges for Fallen Order, therefore placing him above every character who can participate in the combat challenge (Trilla, Ninth Sister, Malicos, Cal Kestis).  That being said Qui Gon has far more impressive acolades and actually has feats, so I'll say his team wins.

S2 Kanans performance against Maul is confirmed to be circumstantial.

The combat challenges in FO are just transplants of the campaign AI. In which Jaro is invincible for story reasons.

Even if you wanted to say the visions were in-universe. Why would Cal want to kill his own master?

Cal stops at 4.

He also loses the bonus round as well

Stops at 5.

HeartoftheForce wrote:S2 Kanans performance against Maul is confirmed to be circumstantial.

The combat challenges in FO are just transplants of the campaign AI. In which Jaro is invincible for story reasons.

Even if you wanted to say the visions were in-universe. Why would Cal want to kill his own master?

@HeartOfTheForce

Quote for his performance being circumstantial? IRCC, Freddie Prince Jr may have said something along the lines of this. But voice actor opinions are non canon anyway so we can easily dismiss this. Then we  have Ahsoka herself leaving Kanan on his own to fight Maul, to me implies that she was confident in Kanan's abilities.

The fact that the Developers delibrately made Jaro Tapal invincible to me indicates that he is supposed to be most powerful contender of the combat challenges. Though I must admit we don't have any affirmation of this, so this is going off gameplay mechanics.

Not sure where you are coming from with this point?

Stops hard at Kanan.

Hard stop at S4 Kanan tbh

I see Kanan beating R5 lol

^ I mean Kanan does have more showings than Krell.

I wouldn't put S4 Kanan above Krell. He has more showings, but Krell's few showings are still well beyond anything S4 Kanan has been depicted as being capable of. Krell's feat against the clones is one of the best (non-dueling) combat feats in all of Canon.

Underachiever599 wrote:I wouldn't put S4 Kanan above Krell. He has more showings, but Krell's few showings are still well beyond anything S4 Kanan has been depicted as being capable of. Krell's feat against the clones is one of the best (non-dueling) combat feats in all of Canon.

That is true. Especially since it's the 501st.

TheNuisanceBird wrote:

Underachiever599 wrote:I wouldn't put S4 Kanan above Krell. He has more showings, but Krell's few showings are still well beyond anything S4 Kanan has been depicted as being capable of. Krell's feat against the clones is one of the best (non-dueling) combat feats in all of Canon.

That is true. Especially since it's the 501st.

I've been (very slowly) compiling a list of all the combat feats in Star Wars canon for my own personal records, and so far, Krell is hands-down one of the most devastating combatants short of Darth Vader. His feat against the 501st is insane by canon standards. Krell killed at least 37 Clones, not accounting for the ones we heard dying off-screen (as there's no way to tally up the exact number). On top of that, he injured at least 16 with his grapples and Force pushes. That makes a total of 53 members of the 501st dispatched by Krell, who had no back-up.

The only three Jedi in The Clone Wars who come close to that feat are Anakin, Yoda, and Mace Windu.

Anakin, in Defenders of Peace, dispatched about 39 B1 Battle Droids (roughly 22 of them were dispatched off-screen, but it's still possible to take an accurate count of how many droids he was up against, and there were none standing when the camera cut back to him), as well as 2 AATs and the Defoliator. An inferior number of combatants to Krell, and B1s are far less impressive than any member of the 501st. The tanks offset this slightly, but honestly an AAT is just no match for a Jedi.

Yoda, in Ambush, takes out at least 21 B1 Battle Droids, 6 B2 Super Battle Droids (implied, off-screen), 4 AATs, and uses one of the tanks to dispatch an additional 7 B1s and 2 Bs, for a total of 28 and 8, respectively. Again, a far inferior number to what Krell dispatched, but once more, the tanks slightly off-set it.

Mace Windu, in Liberty on Ryloth, dispatches 20 B1 Battle Droids, 4 B2 Super Battle Droids, 2 Droideka, and an AAT. For what it's worth, Mace Windu has one of the singular best Force push feats in The Clone Wars, destroying 7 B1s, 2 B2s, and 2 Droideka with a single push. In this single Force push, Mace destroyed an arguably more formidable droid strike force than what was required to make Tarkin and Even Piell surrender (4 B2s and 3 Droideka). This is another inferior showing to Krell, but the fact that Mace dismissed two Droideka (notorious Jedi killing droids) with a single Force push can't be overlooked.

Just looking at The Clone Wars, Krell is probably the most capable battlefield Jedi we see in action. Of course, battlefield prowess doesn't necessarily translate to actual capabilities in a one-on-one duel, but it's impressive nonetheless.

Fair enough.

Things like this make me wish we got Krell fighting at least one other saber user. Like you can't just have a giant four armed alien with dual saberstaffs and not have him fight someone.

If he fought Kenobi it'd be interesting to see how he'd perform against him compared to Grievous and against Anakin it'd finally be another juggernaut type fighter that Anakin wouldn't be used to. I'd honestly be fine seeing Krell VS Grievous. It'd be very interesting considering the amount of blades.