SS - Darth Caedus (EmperorCaedus / Prez) vs Anakin Skywalker (Vaelias)

SUSPECT SHOWDOWN 

Darth Caedus (EmperorCaedus / Prez) vs Anakin Skywalker (Vaelias) 

Kneel before the unquenchable might of... Anakin Skywalker, The Chosen One, The Son of Suns, and Unlimited Power

Nick Gillard - 2005 Press Tour wrote:"There’s up to eight levels. Yoda is an eight, Mace Windu is an eight, Obi is a seven, but if you miss a level, it’s a bit like taking drugs to get enlightenment.” Anakin is the perfect example of messing with the established system. “I’ve got him down as an eight or nine, which doesn’t really exist,” says Gillard, before explaining that by turning to the Dark Side, Anakin skipped some essential steps

Legacy of the Force wrote:Caedus tried to block Luke in the Force and suddenly got an idea of just how much power Luke could muster. His seat shot forward, sheared off the runners, tipped to one side, and he hit the console at an angle before he could buffer the collision with the Force. Something cracked in his chest.

- Maintainer via \"Kristel", SW Prequel Trilogy Mailing Lis wrote:

"Steven Sansweet said this at a convention in Australia: "In the canon debate, it is important to notice that LucasFilm and Lucas are different entities. The only canon source of Star Wars are the radio plays, the movie novels and the movies themselves - in Lucas' mind, nothing else exists, and no authorized LucasFilm novel will restrict his creativity in any way.""

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:

This is Anakin Skywalker:

(1) The most powerful Jedi of his generation. Perhaps of any generation. (2) The fastest. The strongest. An unbeatable pilot. An unstoppable warrior. On the ground, in the air or sea or space, (3) there is no one even close. He has not just power, not just skill, but dash: that rare, invaluable combination of boldness and grace.

(4) He is the best there is at what he does. The best there has ever been. And he knows it.

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:Every bone in his body ached with helplessness. Because he knew: 
that fragment of a ship was a death trap. No one could land such a 
hulk, not even Skywalker. Each second that passed before its final 
breakup and burn was a miracle in itself, a testament to the gifts of 
a pilot who was justly legendary— but when each second is a 
miracle, how many of them can be strung together in a row?

This is Anakin Skywalker's masterpiece
Many people say he is the best star pilot in the galaxy, but that's 
merely talk, born of the constant HoloNet references to his 
unmatched string of kills in starfighter combat. Blowing up vulture 
droids and tri-fighters is simply a matter of superior reflexes and 
trust in the Force; he has spent so many hours in the cockpit that he 
wears a Jedi starfighter like clothes. It's his own body, with thrusters 
for legs and cannons for fists.
What he is doing right now transcends mere flying the way Jedi 
combat transcends a schoolyard scuffle.
He sits in a blood-spattered, blaster-chopped chair behind a 
console he's never seen before, a console with controls designed for 
alien fingers. The ship he's in is not only bucking like a maddened 
dewback through brutal coils of clear-air turbulence, it's on fire and 
breaking up like a comet ripping apart as it crashes into a gas giant. 
He has only seconds to learn how to maneuver an alien craft that not 
only has no aft control cells, but has no aft at all.
This is, put simply, impossible. It can't be done.
He's going to do it anyway.
Because he is Anakin Skywalker, and he doesn't believe in 
impossible.
He extends his hands and for one long, long moment he 
merely strokes controls, feeling their shape under his fingers, lis-
tening to the shivers his soft touch brings to each remaining

control surface of the disintegrating ship, allowing their resonances to 
join inside his head until they resolve into harmony like a Ferroan 
joy-harp virtuoso checking the tuning of his instrument.
And at the same time, he draws power from the Force. He 
gathers perception, and luck, and sucks into himself the instinctive, 
preconscious what-will-happen-in-the-next-ten-seconds intuition that 
has always been the core of his talent. And then he begins.
On the downbeat, atmospheric drag fins deploy; as he tweaks 
their angles and cycles them in and out to slow the ship's descent 
without burning them off altogether, their contrabass roar takes 
on a punctuated rhythm like a heart that skips an occasional beat. 
The forward attitude thrusters, damaged in the ship-to-ship battle, 
now fire in random directions, but he can feel where they're 
raking him and he strokes them in sequence, making their song 
the theme of his impromptu concerto.
And the true inspiration, the sparkling grace note of genius 
that brings his masterpiece to life, is the soprano counterpoint: a 
syncopated sequence of exterior hatches in the outer hull sliding 
open and closed and open again, subtly altering the aerodynamics 
of the ship to give it just exactly the amount of sideslip or lift or 
yaw to bring the huge half cruiser into the approach cone of a 
pinpoint target an eighth of the planet away.
It is the Force that makes this possible, and more than the 
Force. Anakin has no interest in serene acceptance of what the 
Force will bring. Not here. Not now. Not with the lives of 
Palpatine and Obi-Wan at stake. It's just the opposite: he 
seizes upon the Force with a stark refusal to fail.
He will land this ship.
He will save his friends.
Between his will and the will of the Force, there is no contest

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:This is the death of Count Dooku:

A starburst of clarity blossoms within Anakin Skywalker's mind, when he says to himself Oh. I get it, now and discovers that the fear within his heart can be a weapon, too.

It is that simple, and that complex.

And it is final.

Dooku is dead already. The rest is mere detail.

The play is still on; the comedy of lightsabers flashes and snaps and hisses. Dooku & Skywalker, a one-time-only command performance, for an audience of one. Jedi and Sith and Sith and Jedi, spinning, whirling, crashing together, slashing and chopping, parrying, binding, slipping and whipping and ripping the air around them with snarls of power.

And all for nothing, because a nuclear flame has consumed Anakin Skywalker's Jedi restraint, and fear becomes fury without effort, and fury is a blade that makes his lightsaber into a toy.
 
The play goes on, but the suspense is over. It has become mere pantomime, as intricate and as meaningless as the space-time curves that guide galactic clusters through a measureless cosmos.

Databanks -  Darth Vader wrote:Skywalker was seduced by the dark side of the Force. His boundless abilities fueled a sense of pride that hastened his fall.

Darth Sidious - Databank wrote:”As Palpatine, he befriended Skywalker, becoming a close friend and a fatherly authority to a youthful warrior often confused by his seemingly boundless power and abilities he had at his disposal.”

Leland Chee, StarWars.com Forums (2005) wrote:Databank - The Movies descriptions are G; Expanded Universe descriptions are C.

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:I will become so powerful that I will keep you safe. Forever. I will.

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:The shining blue lightsaber whirled and spat and every overhand chop crashed against Dooku's defense with the unstoppable power of a meteor strike; the Sith Lord spent lavishly of his reserve of the Force merely to meet these attacks without being cut in half, and Skywalker-Skywalker was getting stronger.

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:Dooku felt himself blanch. Where had this come from? Skywalker came on, mechanically inexorable, impossibly powerful, a destroyer droid with a lightsaber: each step a blow and each blow a step. Dooku backed away as fast as he dared; Skywalker stayed right on top of him

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:Anakin had never felt so powerful. The Force was with him today in ways more potent than he had ever experienced.

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:If anyone can save Palpatine, Anakin will. Because he's already the best, and he's still getting better.

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:Anakin radiated excitement so powerfully in the Force that Obi-Wan could practically hear the thunder of his heartbeat.

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:He understood how Skywalker was getting stronger. Why he no longer spoke. How he had become a machine of battle. He understood why Sidious had been so interested in him for so long. Skywalker was a natural.

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:That, now-that simple unbearable fact-that was truth. Though it burned him like his own lightsaber, truth was some-thing he could hang on to. And somehow it made him feel a little better. A little stronger.

Mace Windu | Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith adult novelization wrote:
Skywalker is arguably the most powerful Jedi alive, and he is still getting stronger."

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:He could feel his power growing, indeed. He had the measure of his “Master” already; not long after Palpatine shared the secret of Darth Plagueis’s discovery, their relationship would undergo a sudden… transformation.

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:This is the true reason the Sith have always been more powerful than the Jedi. The Jedi fear the dark side so much they cut themselves off from the most important aspect of life: passion. Of any kind. They don't even allow themselves to love."

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:"Good . . . good . . . Together, we shall master every secret of the Force." The Sith Lord purred like a contented rancor. "You have done well, my new apprentice. Do you feel your power growing?"

"Yes, my Master."

"Lord Vader, your skills are unmatched by any Sith before you. Go forth, my boy. Go forth, and bring peace to our Empire."

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:As the shadow beside him spoke, its words became true. From a remote, frozen distance that was at the same time more extravagantly, hotly intimate than he could have ever dreamed, Anakin handled his emotions. He dissected them. He reassembled them and pulled them apart again. He still felt them-if anything, they burned hotter than before-but they no longer had the power to cloud his mind.

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:"Even a fraction of the dark side is more power than your Jedi arrogance can conceive; living in the light, you have never seen the depth of the darkness."

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:"Don't fear what you're feeling, Anakin, use it!" he barked in Palpatine's voice. "Call upon your fury. Focus it, and he cannot stand against you. Rage is your weapon. Strike now! Strike! Kill him!"

This is the death of Count Dooku: A starburst of clarity blossoms within Anakin Skywalker's mind, when he says to himself Oh. I get it, now and discovers that the fear within his heart can be a weapon, too. It is that simple, and that complex. And it is final. Dooku is dead already. The rest is mere detail. The play is still on; the comedy of lightsabers flashes and snaps and hisses. Dooku & Skywalker, a one-time-only command performance, for an audience of one. Jedi and Sith and Sith and Jedi, spinning, whirling, crashing together, slashing and chopping, parrying, binding, slipping and whipping and ripping the air around them with snarls of power.
And all for nothing, because a nuclear flame has consumed Anakin Skywalker's Jedi restraint, and fear becomes fury without effort, and fury is a blade that makes his lightsaber into a toy. The play goes on, but the suspense is over. It has become mere pantomime, as intricate and as meaningless as the space-time curves that guide galactic clusters through a measureless cosmos. Dooku's decades of combat experience are irrelevant. His mastery of swordplay is useless. His vast wealth, his political influence, impeccable breeding, immaculate manners, exquisite taste-the pursuits and points of pride to which he has devoted so much of his time and attention over the long, long years of his life-are now chains hung upon his spirit, bending his neck before the ax. Even his knowledge of the Force has become a joke. It is this knowledge that shows him his death, makes him handle it, turn it this way and that in his mind, examine it in detail like a black gemstone so cold it burns. Dooku's elegant farce has degenerated into bathetic melodrama, and not one shed tear will mark the passing of its hero. But for Anakin, in the fight there is only terror, and rage.
-
Palpatine's words rage is your weapon have given Anakin permission to unseal the shielding around his furnace heart, and all his fears and all his doubts shrivel in its flame.

Dooku: (Revenge of the Sith) wrote:you have hate you have anger, but you don't use them

Force Collection wrote:[Dooku's] skill with a lightsaber is matched only by Master Yoda.

Revenge of the Sith Novel wrote:The flame grew stronger now. Hotter. The numb fatigue that had dragged at his limbs began to burn away.

Revenge of the Sith Novel wrote:The Sith Lord who once had been a Jedi hero called Anakin Skywalker stood, drawing himself up to his full height, but he looked not outward upon his new Master, nor upon the planet-city beyond, nor out into the galaxy that they would soon rule. He instead turned his gaze inward: he unlocked the furnace gate within his heart and stepped forth to regard with new eyes the cold freezing dread of the dead-star dragon that had haunted his life. I am Darth Vader, he said within himself. The dragon tried again to whisper of failure, and weakness, and inevitable death, but with one hand the Sith Lord caught it, crushed away its voice; it tried to rise then, to coil and rear and strike, but the Sith Lord laid his other hand upon it and broke its power with a single effortless twist. I am Darth Vader, he repeated as he ground the dragon's corpse to dust beneath his mental heel, as he watched the dragon's dust and ashes scatter before the blast from his furnace heart, and you-You are nothing at all. He had become, finally, what they all called him. The Hero With No Fear.

iamthatguy wrote:

Rebuttals

Vaelias wrote:  
Gillard being a key member of the movie production department at the time of making this comment also allows for Gillard's word on its own to stand as G-Canon.

Leland Chee wrote:The dual universe question comes up often. I know George Lucas has mentioned it being two universes, but that’s not how I see it. His vision is definitely not beholden to ours, but ours is definitely beholden to his.

Leland Chee wrote:"And then there's the very top level of canon, the inviolable, infallible level of Truth, marked GWL—George Walton Lucas. It's the divine word of the Creator who stands outside his universe and is not subject to the rules that govern it".

Nick Gillard wrote:"There’s up to eight levels. Yoda is an eight, Mace Windu is an eight, Obi is a seven, but if you miss a level, it’s a bit like taking drugs to get enlightenment.” Anakin is the perfect example of messing with the established system. “I’ve got him down as an eight or nine, which doesn’t really exist,” says Gillard, before explaining that by turning to the Dark Side, Anakin skipped some essential steps.

Nick Gillard wrote:"Obi-Wan has gone up one level from Episode I to Episode III, but it’s a huge jump from one level to another. It’s not just about a style of fighting—it’s mental as well. Anakin has gone up probably four levels from Episode II to Episode III. So he’s gone beyond Obi-Wan, but he hasn’t gone beyond him mentally."

Nick Gillard wrote:"The level is not necessarily an indication of the performer's talent, but it takes a truly gifted and physically skilled actor to play a powerful Jedi combatant. 'Hayden Christensen is one of the best there is,' says Gillard. 'I've seen hundreds of sword fighters, people who do it for a living, and he leaves them all in his wake. His style has changed a bit since Episode II, when he was only a level seven. On this he's a level nine.' For the curious, Gillard does not reveal any Jedi who has achieved level ten. The highest is nine, occupied by a small number of capable sword masters, including Yoda and Darth Sidious. At so high a ranking, it comes down to individual fighting styles as well as the circumstances of the surroundings that make a difference."

Vaelias wrote:

Nick Gillard wrote:"There’s up to eight levels. Yoda is an eight, Mace Windu is an eight, Obi is a seven, but if you miss a level, it’s a bit like taking drugs to get enlightenment.” Anakin is the perfect example of messing with the established system. “I’ve got him down as an eight or nine, which doesn’t really exist,” says Gillard, before explaining that by turning to the Dark Side, Anakin skipped some essential steps

nothing changes here, this is merely a 'scaled down' version of the same tier system

Vaelias wrote:Anakin is a 9 on Mustafar while operating on a level below his state of extreme focus and perfection as we see Anakin operating in vs Dooku and then later during Operation Knightfall, it is these moments that Gillard is referring to when he notes Anakin as a Tier above everyone else, essentially a Tier 10

Vaelias wrote:Tier Theory is the idea that the Gillard Tier System is spanning the whole mythos and not just the films, given Anakin being the most powerful Jedi ever is established in G-Canon and the highest possible level of combat ability that exists noted to be a level 9 with Anakin somehow operating above that, because he is well... The Chosen One.

Vaelias wrote:Not only this but Lucas himself considers the Movie Novels part of his own canon, add that to the line edits and we have it pretty set in stone that the ROTS Novel is effectively G-Canon

- Maintainer via \"Kristel", SW Prequel Trilogy Mailing Lis wrote:"Steven Sansweet said this at a convention in Australia: "In the canon debate, it is important to notice that LucasFilm and Lucas are different entities. The only canon source of Star Wars are the radio plays, the movie novels and the movies themselves - in Lucas' mind, nothing else exists, and no authorized LucasFilm novel will restrict his creativity in any way.""

affirmed when Rostoni maintains that the hierarchy is... The Movies > The Movie Adaptations & Radio Drama's > Everything Else

So while the Novel by default is C-Canon it is still a higher C-Canon than everything else, the rest of the EU of course falling under 'everything else'

Vaelias wrote:Not only this but Lucas himself considers the Movie Novels part of his own canon, add that to the line edits and we have it pretty set in stone that the ROTS Novel is effectively G-Canon

George Lucas wrote:“There are two worlds here," explained Lucas. "There’s my world, which is the movies, and there’s this other world that has been created, which I say is the parallel universe—the licensing world of the books, games and comic books. They don’t intrude on my world, which is a select period of time, [but] they do intrude in between the movies. I don’t get too involved in the parallel universe.”

George Lucas wrote:"I don't read that stuff. I haven't read any of the novels. I don't know anything about that world. That's a different world than my world. But I do try to keep it consistent. The way I do it now is they have a Star Wars Encyclopedia. So if I come up with a name or something else, I look it up and see if it has already been used. When I said [other people] could make their own Star Wars stories, we decided that, like Star Trek, we would have two universes: My universe and then this other one. They try to make their universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions."

Stephen J. Sansweet wrote:When it comes to absolute canon, the real story of Star Wars, you must turn to the films themselves—and only the films. Even novelizations are interpretations of the film, and while they are largely true to George Lucas' vision (he works quite closely with the novel authors), the method in which they are written does allow for some minor differences ... The further one branches away from the movies, the more interpretation and speculation come into play. LucasBooks works diligently to keep the continuing Star Wars expanded universe cohesive and uniform, but stylistically, there is always room for variation.

Vaelias wrote:(People like to say 'oh well we don't know if Lucas Line edited this specific part of the novel' I hope this can clear up that silly speculation)  

- Matthew Stover, Author (Ep3 and EU) and EU Guerrilla, Mar 2005 - \"Inside Del Rey's Episode III Library" on StarWars.com wrote:(2) "Not only has Mr. Lucas succeeded in tying together the entire six-film cycle (and elegantly, too), but I've managed to weave in a significant amount of the Expanded Universe material in as well -- having started in the Star Wars realm as an EU author, after all. I was really trying to bring the whole Star Wars Universe together in this story, and while Mr. Lucas, in his line-edit, decided to excise a fair amount of the EU material, he also left a fair amount of it in... so I guess that makes whatever's left just a hair short of ”G canon,” for all the purists out there."

Vaelias wrote:So much so that Stover notes Lucas line edited the novel with more precision than Rostoni, Roffman and the rest of the LFL Crew, note that it is protocol for ALL novels to go through thorough LFL review before publication so the fact that Lucas' line edits changed more than the whole of LFL is incredible, Matthew Stover even notes that Lucas removed a lot of the EU tie ins in the ROTS Novel (2) ... not only this but character motivations are one of the specifics directly noted to have been worked on in conjunction with Lucas in the making of the Prequel Novelizations (1)

- Leland Chee, LLP continuity database admin, Aug. 2008 - post from the \"Holocron database continuity questions" thread at the StarWars.com forums wrote:(1) each of the authors met directly with George Lucas to discuss story points and character motivations.

Anakin's supremacy line provided above is one of the most crucial excerpts of Anakin's character motivation, here is the full passage, arguably one of the most important integral passages in the book especially pertaining to motivations of Anakin, the main character in ROTS, this means that this passage was specifically looked at with George and likely a main focus in the line edits, the whole of LFL including the president and George Lucas himself have read this passage and agreed with it, that's pretty much all there is to need to know

Vaelias wrote:The Novel is written from the IU Omniscient Narrator and everything we the people on earth read is what the Whills/Narrator has written in the Journal of the Whills

The Shaman of the Whills in TCW act as a voice for the Whills and their Influence, these all knowing creatures are essentially the voice of the narrator

The German source is talking about how the Journal of the Whills is written in the the New Republic and act as Historians

"Neue Republik" = "New Republic" "Holonachricht" = "Holo-message" "Quelle" = "source" "Thema" = "Topic" the topic being the "fall of the Old Republic" Halsyykh = the Historian

George Lucas wrote:"Originally, I was trying to have the story be told by somebody else; there was somebody watching this whole story and recording it, somebody probably wiser than the mortal players in the actual events. I eventually dropped this idea, and the concept behind the Whills turned into the Force. But the Whills became part of this massive amount of notes, quotes, background information that I used for the scripts; the stories were actually taken from the 'Journal of the Whills'."

Revenge of the Sith Novelization wrote:
This is Anakin Skywalker:

The most powerful Jedi of his generation. Perhaps of any generation. The fastest. The strongest. An unbeatable pilot. An unstoppable warrior. On the ground, in the air or sea or space,  there is no one even close. He has not just power, not just skill, but dash: that rare, invaluable combination of boldness and grace.

He is the best there is at what he does. The best there has ever been. And he knows it.

Vaelias wrote:CANONICITY OVERVIEW
- Movie adult adaptations by default are higher canonicity than everything else and are Gospel
- Lucas' involvement G-Canon or not only increases its canonicity
- Roffman and Rostoni and the rest of LFL involvement only increases continuity validity

Vaelias wrote:- George's thoughts, directives and internal drafts are G-Canon

Vaelias wrote:- Lucas considers the Movie adaptations part of his canon

Vaelias wrote:- Everything left in noted to by Stover to be G-Canon

Vaelias wrote:- George directly specifically noted to play a big role in character motivation
- The Anakin Supremacy passage is an integral part of the novel and Anakin's motivations meaning George will have specifically focused on that passage with Stover and in his edits

Vaelias wrote:- Line edits confirmed by Stover to be heavy
- Everyone in the company reading Anakin supremacy and nodding their heads

III. Rebuttals Conclusion

I. Power in the Force

Wizards of the Coast wrote:"The Star Wars universe has created some truly vile dark side villains. Have you ever wondered what would happen if the most powerful Sith Lords (Darth Sidious, Darth Caedus, and Darth Revan) duked it out for supremacy of the galaxy?"

II. Sabers

Legacy of the Force: Fury wrote:But he was still the best lightsaber swordsman around-excepting possibly Luke, perhaps the best there ever had been.

Legacy of the Force: Bloodlines wrote:Jacen knew exactly where he was now, and it scared him. He had a finely tuned sense of where he was in space. Had he rolled back time by fifty-nine years to this exact distance from the planet's core, this exact distance from the planet's north pole, this very point in three dimensions, he would have been walking with his grandfather Anakin Skywalker.

But I can walk back in time.

Jacen could time-drift. He was almost too afraid to. But he did, almost without thinking. As he projected himself into the past and merged with its reality, he saw a young blond Jedi with his lightsaber drawn, flanked by troops in white armor. Jacen was looking at him from behind. He could see the muscles in his jaw twitching as his head turned, seeking something: he could feel his dread and determination.

Nobody spoke. They were searching, all of them looking to one side then the other, aiming rifles and lowering them a little. Something terrible was happening.

Anakin.

Anakin Skywalker held his lightsaber two-handed, and for a moment Jacen was one with his grandfather's emotions. He was overwhelmed by a dread and reluctance-the same dread and reluctance he had felt himself when Lumiya told him his destiny. Jacen felt, too, a crushing sense of something terrible and deadly about to happen.

He hung back. He'd been spotted while time-drifting before and had been forced to withdraw. But he had to stay with this. He hardly dared think ahead.

I might be able to ask him. I might be able to ask Grandfather about his own fall to the Sith.

This would be his answer about his own path.

He touched Anakin's emotions again, comparing them with his own, and then he felt something that was not within him at all: it was desperate, terrified loss. For a second he couldn't identify it. Then it settled and became clear in the form of a tight sensation in his throat and the pressure of tears behind his eyes that stung and burned. It was very like the brief misery he had felt when he left Tenel Ka and his daughter. Anakin was facing separation from Padme, and was terrified by it.

But it wasn't a moment's emotion for his grandfather: it was the whole of him. Anakin had been driven to the dark side by agonized love. The revelation stunned Jacen because it was so narrow and so ... selfish. Relief flooded him.

This is different. That isn't what I feel, or what's driving me.

And right then he wanted to talk to his grandfather more than anything he could imagine. It was a burst of love for a man he had never known-a man who had helped bring balance to the Force.

You're insane. You're going too far. Don't even think about influencing the past

But he had absolutely no idea what the past really was, right up to the point where he saw the younglings approach Anakin, scared but clutching their lightsabers, telling him there were too many soldiers for them to drive off. Anakin stared down at them. Then he drew his own saber and Jacen tasted absolute grief and shame and duty.

He was hunting Jedi. He was killing them somehow for Padme's sake. His reasoning was vivid and focused. Jacen knew that Anakin had done this, but seeing it-feeling it-living it-was agonizingly new and shocking because the emotion was so desperately animal in its intensity.

No, I'm not feeling this. It's one of Lumiya's vile tricks. I'm not seeing this.

Then one of the armored troopers appeared, raising his rifle, and Jacen jerked himself out of time and back to the present, heart pounding.

Grandfather…

Dark Nest II: The Unseen Queen wrote:But R2-D2's acoustic signaler began to emit the tinnypew-pew of recorded blasterfire. Stray dashes of blue began to streak through the hologram, blowing fountains apart, burning holes in the walls, vanishing into the heights of the vaulted ceiling.

Dozens of children, dressed in simple Jedi robes and wearing a single braid on the sides of their heads, began to retreat into the room. The youngest, those under six or seven, simply tried to run or find a place to hide. The older ones were attempting to fight, using the Force to hurl benches and pieces of broken fountain at their attackers. Some were firing captured blaster rifles, while a few were trying to use their newly constructed lightsabers to ricochet bolts at the unseen enemy. For the most part, they failed miserably but bravely, deflecting half a dozen or a dozen attacks before one sneaked through and knocked them off their feet.

The teenagers came next, backing into the room with their lightsabers whirling, weaving a wall of flashing energy before a column of advancing infantry. Dressed in what appeared to be early stormtrooper armor, the soldiers assaulted ruthlessly, cutting down fleeing four-year-olds with the same brutal efficiency with which they slaughtered the Padawans.

Han had been just a boy in Garris Shrike's band of vagabonds when the Separatists tried to break away from the Old Republic, but he had seen enough of the war to recognize the finned helmets and independent joint covers on the white armor the soldiers wore.

"Clone troopers!"

R2-D2 gave a confirming tweet.

A huge Jedi with stooped shoulders and a gnarled face backed into view, anchoring the line of teenage defenders, his lightsaber sending bolt after bolt back at the attackers, lashing out to cut down one trooper after another. A pair of Padawans stepped in to support his flanks, and the entire line stopped falling back, the lightsabers of the young Jedi weaving an impenetrable wall of energy that-for a few short moments-allowed nothing past, not a blaster bolt, nor a clone trooper, nor even, it seemed to Han, a stray glance.

A blue lightsaber appeared at the edge of the holo, beating down the defense of the first Padawan and slashing through his torso, then slipping past the guard of the other one and cutting him down as well. The back of a blond head and a pair of caped shoulders appeared behind the blue blade and began to carry the attack to the stoop-shouldered Jedi.

The two stood battling toe-to-toe for only an instant before the caped figure slipped a strike and brought his own blade down on the defender's stooped shoulder, cleaving him deep into the torso. The Jedi's gnarled face paled with shock, and he collapsed in too much pain to scream.

The Padawans continued to battle on valiantly, but without the burly Jedi to anchor their line, they were no match for the sheer numbers assaulting them. Their defense collapsed, and the caped figure stepped aside, standing in seeming indifference as the clone troopers poured past to continue the slaughter of the children.

Han felt sickened and angered by what he was watching, but he also felt a little bit relieved. Mara would have been only a baby-and perhaps not even that-when the Jedi were slaughtered. Whatever Alema hoped to reveal with the code sequence, the scene they were watching could have nothing to do with Mara.

Finally, the last of the children had fallen, and the clones stopped firing. The caped figure studied the room for a moment, then gave a barely perceptible nod and turned back toward the entrance. The face that stared into the cam was clouded with anger, the eyes sunken and dark, the mouth set in a grim slash, but there was no mistaking who it belonged to.

Anakin Skywalker.

Star Wars: Force Collection wrote:Cin Drallig is honored with the mantle of both Chief of Security and Battlemaster for the Jedi Temple. His unparalleled skill with a lightsaber has benefited many a Jedi under his tutelage, including Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker

Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader wrote:Where Darth Sidious had gained everything, Vader had lost everything, including—for the moment, at least—the self-confidence and unbridled skill he had demonstrated as Anakin Skywalker.

Databank (old): Darth Vader wrote:Palpatine elevated himself to the position of Emperor, and dispatched Vader as his ultimate enforcer. With his unparalleled Force abilities, Vader swept through the Jedi Temple.

III. Esoteric abilities

Fate of the Jedi: Ascension wrote:They had learned much of what Jacen learned; skills that no other Jedi had known for centuries, if ever.

Dark Empire Endnotes wrote:Luke is, perhaps, learning more about the Dark Side than he wants to know. The more the Emperor reveals, the more Luke is repulsed. The sheer depravity of the man would shake the soul of the strongest Jedi.

But Luke must continually remind himself of his vow to conquer the Dark Side from within.

Luke's father understood these secrets, these powers, and willingly used them to crush and enslave multitudes of Galactic citizens.

--

Satisfied that his "young apprentice" has crossed the threshold from which there is no returning, the Emperor unveils his teaching, and Luke is given the knowledge that was bestowed on his father before him!

Legacy of the Force: Betrayal wrote:Frowning, Jacen cast out his senses like a net, sampling the present and the future. Pathways led in all directions, but in each of them one of the three people present fell dying. Jacen, head severed by a pliant whip of light. Lumiya, Nelani's lightsaber cutting her in half-lengthwise, so there was no chance of missing the organic parts. Nelani, her heart speared by Jacen's lightsaber. Jacen, stabbed from behind by Ben, the boy's uncomprehending features making it clear that he was seeing something very different from the reality before him. Lumiya, swept into a marble wall by Jacen's control of the Force, her skull shattered-Jacen shut his eyes against the parade of tragedy. He opened them to view reality. "You're right. I can't see a path that doesn't lead to death. Let's revise our circumstances and see if any more options open to us in a minute or two."

Legacy of the Force: Invincible wrote:Caedus felt a boot slam into his ribs-an instant before he saw it coming with his Aing-Tii fighting-sight-and the breath left his lungs.

Fate of the Jedi: Omen wrote:What he saw next he couldn't believe. A Ramoan whom he recognized as a Jedi Knight charged forward. He was suddenly slammed into by a fleeing pedestrian and, apparently caught unawares by the impact, stumbled several steps to the side.

And that was precisely where Jysella leapt even before he'd begun moving. Her lightsaber came down in a blur of motion, and Jysella shrieked, "It's not you!"

"Pause," Luke said. The recording stopped obediently. "Replay." Both Skywalkers watched the encounter again. Ben felt a shiver chase up and down his spine.

Flow-walking. This was more than Force anticipation.

The fight continued. Ben realized that Cilghal was right. At every turn, Jysella predicted exactly where Barv would be. Sometimes she seemed to be two steps ahead. Ben had never seen that kind of Force anticipation, not even from his father.

IV. Conclusion