Search found 1 match for 114
- on May 3rd 2019, 11:42 pm
- Search in: Finished Suspect Showdowns (SS)
- Topic: SS - The Tyrannical Ten - Arcann (xSupremeSkillz) vs Darth Maul (ILS)
- Replies: 57
- Views: 12245
SS - The Tyrannical Ten - Arcann (xSupremeSkillz) vs Darth Maul (ILS)
Sidious and Maul returned to Mustafar. For fourteen days, Sidious put Maul through a series of grueling physical tests. Maul defended himself against lightsaber-wielding droids in the training room. Blindfolded, he threw daggers at robotic targets, which threw the daggers back at him. He was blindfolded again before he climbed into a starship flight simulator wired with disciplinary electrodes. He wore a sensory-deprivation suit when he ran through a maze that was lined with razor-edged walls, and also when he was deposited into a previously unexplored Mustafarian cove. In locked chambers, he was exposed to extreme temperatures and deprived of food. For each test, he drew strength from the dark side of the Force.
When the fourteen days were over, Maul was exhausted. His entire body ached as he stood before Sidious in the meeting room. Not only had he passed every test, he had destroyed every test. However, his Master always expected more from him, so he was not entirely surprised when Sidious said, "Because you have survived the preliminaries, you may proceed to the actual test to become a Sith Lord,"
Maul willed his body to remain standing.
'"I am sending you to a planet in the Outer Rim" Sidious continued. "It is made up of three kinds of terrain. Desert, swamp, and mountains. You will have at least three matches on each terrain. I have sent a fleet of assassin droids to attack you. Each is programmed with different strategies. Some will work together. Some will work alone. They are all programmed to kill."
Maul turned to face his Master. Although Maul remained silent, the fire in his eyes betrayed his surprise. And his excitement.
Sidious noticed Maul's reaction. "That is correct. I am prepared to lose what I most value. So must you be to become a Sith. You must be prepared to lose your own life in order to win."
Maul nodded. "I understand, my Master."
"You will have to survive for a month." Sidious added. "You will have only a survival pack."
Despite his exhaustion. Maul felt exhilarated. He was determined to prove he was the best apprentice in the history of the Sith.
[...]
The assassin droids were relentless. Programmed to fight to the death, they had blasters built into their chests and hands. No matter how hard Maul tried to conceal himself or his desperately improvised camps, the droids found him. They never slept, never allowed Maul to sleep for very long, never hesitated before they pounced. When Maul did manage to rest and recover, he fell asleep knowing he would be awakened by an attack.
The droid drove him into the frozen mountains and across the burning deserts. Maul's survival pack was torn from his back and lost in one battle. And after twenty days, Maul realized he was at risk of losing something else. His mind.
Because the attacks never stopped.
Maul was beyond paranoid. He had reason to believe that every sound, every shape, and every shadow on Hypori was a potential threat.
He grew thin and his strength began to ebb. He foraged for food when he could. Life was scarce on Hypori, but he found a few small animals, killed them, and ate them raw, because he dared not risk building a fire that would attract more droids.
It was while he was trying to eat a tough-skinned lizard at the base of a cliff that two droids attacked. Maul defeated both droids but sustained a blaster wound to his thigh. Limping into a ravine, he found a large cave and hauled his body into it. Maul knew he had to recover before he could fight again. But without his survival pack, he had no healing bacta or bandages.
The wound festered. The pain was blinding. He listened for approaching droids but heard none. The days blurred, but Maul was almost certain that a full month had passed since he had arrived on Hypori. As he fell into and out of restless sleep. Maul began to wonder if his Master had forgotten him.
His wound became worse. The pain was beyond excruciating. He had no doubt that death would come soon. He thought he was hallucinating when he saw a cloaked figure appear at the mount of the cave.
[...]
Sidious moved into the cave. He came to a stop near Maul. Smiling as he looked down at his apprentice, he said. "Now it is time for your final battle."
Maul wondered if he had heard correctly. He knew his Master must have been able to see plainly that he was not fit to stand. And yet he also knew his Master never tolerated weakness of any kind. Maul scrabbled at the cave's walls and pulled himself up. His balance was off. Searing pain shot through his leg as he lurched forward.
Sidious handed Maul a lightsaber. Maul fumbled with the weapon and activated it. The cave's walls shimmered with light.
Maul did not realize how parched his throat was until he rasped, "Where is the assassin droid, Master?"
Stepping back from Maul, Sidious drew his own lightsaber and ignited its red blade. "I will be your opponent."
Maul stared at his Master with disbelief. And then his disbelief changed to anger. He summoned up the dark side of the Force. He felt a burning sensation flicker and grow within him, a trickle of strength. He took a step toward his Master.
Sidious sneered. "You cannot be as pathetic as you look." He raised his lightsaber and attacked.
Maul parried the blow and reversed, coming at Sidious from the opposite side. But Sidious had already vanished, leaving Maul to hinge at empty air. As Maul lost his balance, his body fell against the cave's wall.
Sidious said from behind Maul. "You are that pathetic. You are weak. Not worthy of being a Sith Lord. I have misjudged you."
Maul's anger turned to rage. He spun fast and swung his lightsaber again, but again he failed to strike Sidious, who moved faster than he could follow. He fell against the opposite wall and gasped for breath.
Sidious howled with laughter. "I expected your failure. I saw your weaknesses long ago. Your doubts in your own abilities. Your lack of faith in my teaching. Your inability to embrace the dark side. And that is why, over these long years, I have secretly trained another apprentice."
Maul stared hard at Sidious.
"Oh, poor Maul. All he ever wanted was a friend. Does it please you to know I have another apprentice? Does it make you feel less alone?"
Still trying to catch his breath. Maul said. "More than one apprentice... is against the rules of the Sith."
"You are right," Sidious said with a grin. "A spark of intelligence, at last." He gestured to the mouth of the cave. "My second apprentice is on the other side of the planet. He conquered all the assassin droids sent after him. He only sustained a flesh wound. He is healthy. He is strong. Unlike the pathetic weakling I see before me."
Maul realized his opponents had not really been the assassin droids. He thought of all the punishment he had endured over the past month, and then of the unending punishments of his entire life. He thought of his true opponent, the unseen adversary, chosen by Sidious to become a Sith Lord. Maul felt robbed of his past and future. And then a rage unlike anything he had ever felt before swelled through him. The rage was so overwhelming that he thought it might consume him.
No. I can direct it. My rage will consume my enemy. It will consume my Master.
Glaring at Sidious, Maul saw the true face of his enemy.
Sidious snickered. "Can you understand? Focus. If there can be only one apprentice, then one of you must die. Who do you think I have chosen to die, Maul?"
Maul felt his rage flowing through his veins, pumping energy into every muscle. He felt so powerful that he believed he could accomplish anything. And more than anything else, he wanted his Master's blood.
Maul sprang at Sidious. Sidious barely missed the first blow from Maul's lightsaber, an upward swing that aimed to rip Sidious in half. Maul swung again but Sidious deflected the blow and retreated. As Maul moved across the rough cave floor, sweat stung his eyes, but he did not stumble. He somersaulted through the air, his lightsaber whirling in the darkness. Sidious raised his lightsaber to parry the next blow, which was so powerful it made him stagger backward. As Maul struck again, he thought, I'm going to kill him.
Sidious parried every blow, but Maul could tell his Master was working hard to keep him at bay. As Sidious backed up against the wall, he said, "You want to kill me? You want to kill your Master?"
Yes," Maul grunted.
"You hate me?"
"Yes!" Maul screamed through clenched teeth.
Sidious shifted like a liquid shadow, maneuvering around his apprentice. Maul was suddenly up against the wall, gasping for breath as his vision blurred. His strength was evaporating. He turned fast to see Sidious. Sidious lashed out with his lightsaber. Maul parried the blow, but then his lightsaber suddenly flew from his hand.
―The Wrath of Darth Maul
Sheev only fought defensively with a training saber and didn’t want to kill Maul - but it doesn’t change the fact Maul pushed Sheev back with blows he barely deflected, and came close to killing him.
Days later Maul recovered his strength and felt “stronger than ever before.”
"From this day forward." Sidious said," you are a Sith Lord. You have chosen a path of darkness, the path of power. You are Lord Maul. You are my instrument."
[...]
Sidious and Maul returned to Coruscant, where a medical droid tended to Maul’s injuries. Maul had felt drained by his trials on Hypori, but within several days he felt stronger than ever before. Now that he was a Sith Lord, he was empowered by a sense of purpose.
―The Wrath of Darth Maul
Also, in his journal, Maul states he was "only beginning to taste the dark power of a Sith" shortly after this fight (still at the age of 17).
My Master points to the entry. "This will be your weapon, Lord Maul. In order to serve me well, you must be invincible. "
He tells me I must build it myself so that I know it intimately. It shall be fitted to my hand, balanced for my stroke. I shall train with it until it is part of me. And then I will join him on the greatest mission of all.
"What is that, Master?" I dare to ask.
"The domination of the entire galaxy, " he tells me.
That day, I feel a savage exhilaration close to the joy I feel in battle. I am involved in great things. Domination. Control.
I am only beginning to taste the dark power of a Sith.
―Episode I Journal: Darth Maul
Maul spent any free time he had meditating and training, which always left him feeling stronger than before.
When Maul finished with the tree, he reluctantly returned the lightsaber lo his Master. Sidious said, "Now, it is time for you to meditate."
"Yes, Master." Maul turned and walked out of the grove, heading into the neighboring field. Sidious had trained him to relax his mind and body by closing his eyes and visualizing a dark, comfortable nothingness, leaving himself open to the power of the Force. Maul enjoyed meditating. It always left him feeling stronger.
―The Wrath of Darth Maul
"Take the Infiltrator and your combat droids and return to your former home. There, train and meditate until I recall you."
―Darth Sidious (Darth Plagueis)
Maul’s entire existence had consisted of training, of exercise and instruction.
―Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter
Maul also grew in strength in response to tribulation and injury.
“Jagannath,” he said. “You’re looking surprisingly well, all things considered.”
Maul said nothing. In the twelve hours since his last fight, he’d recovered almost completely from the wounds that the Wampa had inflicted on him. His face still bore the blood-encrusted slash marks from its claws, but he’d regained full use of his arm, and his strength actually seemed to have intensified in response to the attack, like an organism that had thrived from being pruned down close to the taproot.
―Maul: Lockdown
Sheev observed Maul’s power constantly growing because of his rage alone, “anger that was constantly sweltering inside his apprentice, fermenting as Maul’s power continued to intensify. Locked in unswerving allegiance to their cause, the Zabrak’s heart was a reactor of pure, distilled rage.”
The Sith Lord harbored no delusions about his apprentice’s ambition or pride, or how closely those elements were linked to the anger that was constantly sweltering inside his apprentice, fermenting as Maul’s power continued to intensify. Locked in unswerving allegiance to their cause, the Zabrak’s heart was a reactor of pure, distilled rage.
―Maul: Lockdown
Plagueis instructed Sheev to allow Maul’s anger and hatred to fester.
"I agree with you that he should bear witness to the Yinchorri attack on the Jedi Temple."
"I will tell him. He already thinks of the Jedi as abominations. The sight of their sanctuary being violated will quicken his blood."
"Even so, hold him back. Let his anger and hatred fester."
―Darth Plagueis
It’s stated that the Sith continued expanding their dark powers up until the point they revealed themselves to the Jedi.
"Never again would there be more than two Sith Lords at one time, but members of the order continued expanding their dark powers without the knowledge of the Jedi, waiting for the opportunity to seize control of the galaxy."
―The Official Star Wars Fact File #1
Maul in his fight with Jinn and Kenobi, up to that point, had never fought better. His particular hatred for the Jedi drove him further, but even without that, he was better than he ever was before.
Darth Maul was a warrior in his prime, never to be any better, his powers at their apex. In addition, he was driven by his messianic hatred for and disdain of the Jedi Knights, the enemies of the Sith for millennia. He had worked and trained all his life for this moment, for a chance to meet a Jedi Knight in combat. It was an added bonus that he was able to engage two. He had no fear for himself, no doubt that he would win. He was focused in a way that Qui-Gon recognized at once-a Jedi's focus, mindful of the present, locked in on what was needed in the here and now. Qui-Gon saw it in his mad eyes and in the set of his red and black tattooed features. The Sith Lord was a living example of what the Jedi Master was always telling Obi-Wan about how best to hear the will of the Force.
―The Phantom Menace
Even at the climax of the battle he seemed “fresh as ever” - Maul can summon more power in TPM, without tapping deeply into his reserves, than at any point prior including when he “nearly bested” 37BBY Sheev, back when he was “only beginning to taste the dark power of a Sith.”
The Sith Lord attacked Obi-Wan relentlessly, backing him around the melting pit. All Obi-Wan's efforts could not break through his guard. And Obi-Wan was tiring, while his opponent seemed as fresh as ever.
―The Phantom Menace Junior Novelisation
Circa TPM, Sheev casually twirling a lightsaber was fast enough to be untraceable to Maul’s senses.
"The lightsaber whirls in the air, twirling, held in my Master's hand. I can't track it, it moves so fast. But I know it's heading for me. Lord Sidious moves faster than my eye can follow. I smell heat and smoke. The laser traces the outline of my body, my face, my hands. The buzz is loud in my ear. One flinch, one involuntary twitch of a muscle, and I am dead."
―Episode 1 Journal: Darth Maul
Sheev’s power intensified between TPM and TCW because of his apotheosis after killing Plagueis, his study of the Force, his training of Dooku, and the growth of the dark side.
A tremor took hold of the planet.
Sprung from death, it unleashed itself in a powerful wave, at once burrowing deep into the world’s core and radiating through its saccharine atmosphere to shake the stars themselves. At the quake’s epicenter stood Sidious, one elegant hand vised on the burnished sill of an expansive translucency, a vessel filled suddenly to bursting, the Force so strong within him that he feared he might disappear into it, never to return. But the moment didn’t constitute an ending so much as a true beginning, long overdue; it was less a transformation than an intensification—a gravitic shift.
A welter of voices, near and far, present and from eons past, drowned his thoughts. Raised in praise, the voices proclaimed his reign and cheered the inauguration of a new order. Yellow eyes lifted to the night sky, he saw the trembling stars flare, and in the depth of his being he felt the power of the dark side anoint him.
Slowly, almost reluctantly, he came back to himself, his gaze settling on his manicured hands. Returned to the present, he took note of his rapid breathing, while behind him the room labored to restore order. Air scrubbers hummed—costly wall tapestries undulating in the summoned breeze. Prized carpets sealed their fibers against the spread of spilled fluids. The droid shuffled in obvious confliction. Sidious pivoted to take in the disarray: antique furniture overturned; framed artwork askew. As if a whirlwind had swept through. And facedown on the floor lay a statue of Yanjon, one of four law-giving sages of Dwartii.
A piece Sidious had secretly coveted.
Also sprawled there, Plagueis: his slender limbs splayed and elongated head turned to one side. Dressed in finery, as for a night on the town.
And now dead.
Or was he?
Uncertainty rippled through Sidious, rage returning to his eyes. A tremor of his own making, or one of forewarning? Was it possible that the wily Muun had deceived him? Had Plagueis unlocked the key to immortality, and survived after all? Never mind that it would constitute a petty move for one so wise—for one who had professed to place the Grand Plan above all else. Had Plagueis become ensnared in a self-spun web of jealousy and possessiveness, victim of his own engineering, his own foibles?
If he hadn’t been concerned for his own safety, Sidious might have pitied him. Wary of approaching the corpse of his former Master, he called on the Force to roll the aged Muun over onto his back. From that angle Plagueis looked almost as he had when Sidious first met him, decades earlier: smooth, hairless cranium; humped nose, with its bridge flattened as if from a shock-ball blow and its sharp tip pressed almost to his upper lip; jutting lower jaw; sunken eyes still brimming with menace—a physical characteristic rarely encountered in a Muun. But then Plagueis had never been an ordinary Muun, nor an ordinary being of any sort.
Sidious took care, still reaching out with the Force. On closer inspection, he saw that Plagueis’s already cyanotic flesh was smoothing out, his features relaxing.
Faintly aware of the whir of air scrubbers and sounds of the outside world infiltrating the luxurious suite, he continued the vigil; then, in relief, he pulled himself up to his full height and let out his breath. This was no Sith trick. Not an instance of feigning death, but one of succumbing to its cold embrace. The being who had guided him to power was gone.
Wry amusement narrowed his eyes.
The Muun might have lived another hundred years unchanged. He might have lived forever had he succeeded fully in his quest. But in the end—though he could save others from death—he had failed to save himself.
A sense of supreme accomplishment puffed Sidious’s chest, and his thoughts unreeled.
Well, then, that wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it might be...
Rarely did events play out as imagined, in any case. The order of future events was transient. In the same way that the past was reconfigured by selective memory, future events, too, were moving targets. One could only act on instinct, grab hold of an intuited perfect moment, and spring into action. One heartbeat late and the universe would have recomposed itself, no imposition of will sufficient to forestall the currents. One could only observe and react. Surprise was the element absent from any periodic table. A keystone element; a missing ingredient. The means by which the Force amused itself. A reminder to all sentient beings that some secrets could never be unlocked.
Confident that the will of the dark side had been done, he returned to the suite’s window wall. Two beings in a galaxy of countless trillions, but what had transpired in the suite would affect the lives of all of them. Already the galaxy had been shaped by the birth of one, and henceforth would be reshaped by the death of the other. But had the change been felt and recognized elsewhere? Were his sworn enemies aware that the Force had shifted irrevocably? Would it be enough to rouse them from self-righteousness? He hoped not. For now the work of vengeance could begin in earnest.
His eyes sought and found an ascending constellation of stars, one of power and consequence new to the sky, though soon to be overwhelmed by dawn’s first light. Low in the sky over the flatlands, visible only to those who knew where and how to look, it ushered in a bold future. To some the stars and planets might seem to be moving as ever, destined to align in configurations calculated long before their fiery births. But in fact the heavens had been perturbed, tugged by dark matter into novel alignments. In his mouth, Sidious tasted the tang of blood; in his chest, he felt the monster rising, emerging from shadowy depths and contorting his aspect into something fearsome just short of revealing itself to the world.
The dark side had made him its property, and now he made the dark side his.
Breathless, not from exertion but from the sudden inspiration of power, he let go of the sill and allowed the monster to writhe through his body like an unbroken beast of range or prairie.
Had the Force ever been so strong in anyone?
Sidious had never learned how Plagueis’s own Master had met his end. Had he died at Plagueis’s hand? Had Plagueis, too, experienced a similar exultation on becoming a sole Sith Lord? Had the beast of the end time risen then to peek at the world it was to inhabit, knowing its release was imminent?
―Darth Plagueis
Beyond the vision of the Jedi Knights, somewhere within the darkness, the greatest master of evil ever to use Sith power bides his time. As his strength grows, his plans begin to shape the course of the galaxy, and his snares await the unsuspecting.
―The Complete Visual Dictionary
Strong, this Sith Lord is, Yoda thought as their lightsabers whirled and clashed and whirled again. It should not have been a surprise. With the strength of the dark side growing, the Sith must, logically, have grown stronger, too.
―Revenge of the Sith junior novelization
To Mace's Force perception, the world crystallized around them, becoming a gem of reality shot through with flaws and fault lines of possibility. This was Mace's particular gift: to see how people and situations fit together in the Force, to find the shear planes that can cause them to break in useful ways, and to intuit what sort of strike would best make the cut. Though he could not consistently determine the significance of the structures he perceived—the darkening cloud upon the Force that had risen with the rebirth of the Sith made that harder and harder with each passing day—the presence of shatterpoints was always clear.
―Revenge of the Sith novelization
Only the Jedi were not surprised. For on Geonosis, Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, had learned that Count Dooku had turned to the dark side of the Force — and the power of the dark side had been growing for years. The Jedi knew that defeating the Separatists would be neither quick nor easy with a Dark Lord of the Sith aiding them.
―Revenge of the Sith junior novelization
"Never again would there be more than two Sith Lords at one time, but members of the order continued expanding their dark powers without the knowledge of the Jedi, waiting for the opportunity to seize control of the galaxy."
―The Official Star Wars Fact File #1
The Sith spent a thousand years evolving by studying all aspects of the Force, remaking themselves, whereas the Jedi spent a thousand years training to refight the last war against the Sith.
The Sith had changed. The Sith had grown, had adapted, had invested a thousand years' intensive study into every aspect of not only the Force but Jedi lore itself, in preparation for exactly this day. The Sith had remade themselves.
They had become new.
While the Jedi-
The Jedi had spent that same millennium training to refight the last war.
―Revenge of the Sith
In TCW, Sheev fought harder against Maul than ever before (“But Maul had never faced his Master when he was actually trying to kill him.”) Yet Maul is able to respond to his blows, and no mention is made of Sheev being too fast to follow or track at this stage.
Maul sprang to his feet and ignited his lightsaber. Savage did the same. The two Zabraks stared grimly at the hooded figure. Sidious retrieved a pair of elegant-looking lightsabers from within the depths of his robes and ignited them. The blades turned his pale face a hellish red.
Maul and Savage didn’t waste time seeking an advantageous position. They simply charged, blades shimmering, trying to overpower Sidious with the animal ferocity of their attack. Sidious caught their sabers on his, the weapons howling and crackling where they touched. Maul saw that Savage was startled by the seemingly frail man’s enormous strength. Maul stared at his Master’s face. He saw the strain as Sidious called upon the Force to keep the brothers at bay. But there was something else there, too—a terrible pleasure. Sidious began to grin.
[...]
The three-pronged duel between Sidious, and Maul and Savage had moved, like some deadly ballet, from the throne room to the steps of the palace. Sidious’s lightsabers twirled swiftly and elegantly, turning aside the furious blows Maul and Savage rained down upon him as the three Sith leapt and spun.
Maul had fought his Master many times, starting when he was little more than a child and continuing through his apprenticeship. His body bore innumerable scars from those duels—lessons in the peril of being too slow or two quick, too weak or too distracted. During Maul’s apprenticeship he had always known that Sidious had been willing to kill him. The Sith had not survived their centuries of exile by being sentimental, and a student who couldn’t stand against his Master in a mere training exercise was worse than useless—he was a waste of valuable resources better used elsewhere. But Maul had never faced his Master when he was actually trying to kill him.
Maul had grown more powerful since the last time he’d been in Sidious’s presence, before the Neimoidian invasion of Naboo had turned disastrous and Obi-Wan had bested him inside the Theed power core. His hermitage on Lotho Minor, his lessons on Unbara, his restoration by Mother Talzin, and his training of Savage had all strengthened him, made him a more worthy vessel for the dark side to fill with its power.
But strong as he had become, Maul found himself in awe of Sidious. The Sith Lord was astonishingly fast and efficient, and the Force flowed through him effortlessly. His sabers stabbed and slashed through the smallest hole in an opponent’s guard, his movements never carried him a millimeter out of position, and he could sense every attack Maul and Savage made before it developed.
Maul tried to slash past Sidious’s guard, only to find his Master had given ground, causing Maul to extend his arms too far and leave himself slightly unbalanced. It was the smallest stumble, easily corrected, but Sidious saw it—and pounced before Maul could draw himself back. Snarling, he reached out with the Force and slammed Maul against the wall, leaving him lying stunned in a heap.
Savage knew the dangers of facing the Sith Lord alone, and pressed his attack before Sidious draw his hand back from Force-shoving Maul into the wall. Teeth bared, Savage windmilled his double saber, hoping to disarm Sidious or force him to give ground. If he did, that would allow the yellow-and-black Zabrak to follow his initial attack with a lightning-quick thrust that would penetrate Sidious’s defenses and wound or even kill him.
Maul tried to shake off his attack, rocketing up from the floor. Sidious neatly side-stepped Savage’s assault, drawing back as the massive Zabrak raised his double-bladed saber high to try to pummel him with it. Savage didn’t think Sidious was fast enough to take advantage of the brief opening in his defenses, but he was wrong.
Sidious rammed one of his blades through Savage’s black armor, the glowing crimson tip of the saber appearing between his shoulder blades. Savage gasped, his saber tumbling from his grasp. Sidious yanked his weapon back and Savage seemed to hang suspended for a moment, as if he were being levitated by with the Force. Then he crashed to the ground.
―Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy
Sheev then ramps up his attack even further, “flying” at Maul. Sheev’s sabers only then became a “blur, a whirling cage of deadly plasma”. Maul countered some blows, danced away from one, avoided another, and then parried the final blows which “were too many to count, and then there were even more than that.” After meeting each of these strikes Maul was disarmed.
Sidious raised his saber and flew at Maul, who parried desperately, his mechanical legs whirring as he sought to counter his former Master’s blows. Sidious’s sabers were a blur, a whirling cage of deadly plasma. Maul danced away from one blow, then reversed his movement to avoid another, and then there were too many to count, and then there were even more than that.
Maul’s saber spun out of his hand, bouncing away across the floor.
―Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy
Maul fought better against a faster, more powerful Sheev with lethal intent. A decade prior he completely bewildered his perceptions with casual lightsaber movements and outclassed him in “mere training exercises.”
TCW Maul is quite noticeably faster than TPM Maul and should overall outclass his former self.
Sheev killed Saesee Tiin and Agen Kolar, two of the most celebrated Jedi duelists in history, before they could react.
A fountain of amethyst energy burst from Mace Windu's fist. "Don't try to resist."
The song of his blade was echoed by green fire from the hands of Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin. Kolar and Tiin closed on Palpatine, blocking the path to the door. Shadows dripped and oozed color, weaving and coiling up office walls slipping over chairs, spreading along the floor.
"Resist? How could I possibly resist?" Still seated at the desk Palpatine shook an empty fist helplessly, the perfect image of a tired, frightened old man. "This is murder, you Jedi traitors! How can I be any threat to you?"
He turned desperately to Saesee Tiin. "Master Tiin-you're the telepath. What am I thinking right now?"
Tiin frowned and cocked his head. His blade dipped. A smear of red-flashing darkness hurtled from behind the desk.
Saesee Tiin's head bounced when it hit the floor.
Smoke curled from the neck, and from the twin stumps of the horns, severed just below the chin.
Kit Fisto gasped, "Saesee!"
The headless corpse, still standing, twisted as its knees buckled, and a thin sigh escaped from its trachea as it folded to the floor.
"It doesn't . . ." Agen Kolar swayed.
His emerald blade shrank away, and the handgrip tumbled from his opening fingers. A small, neat hole in the middle of his forehead leaked smoke, showing light from the back of his head.
". . . hurt . . ."
He pitched forward onto his face, and lay still.
Palpatine stood at the doorway, but the door stayed shut. From his right hand extended a blade the color of fire.
―Revenge of the Sith
Which would leave Mace and Agen Kolar-both among the greatest bladesbeings the Jedi Order had ever produced-here on Coruscant in case Sidious did indeed take this opportunity to make a dramatic move.
―Revenge of the Sith
"I have chosen four of our best. Master Tiin, Master Kolar, and Master Fisto are all here, in the Temple. They are preparing already."
"What about Skywalker? The chosen one."
"Too much of a risk," Mace replied. "I am the fourth."
[...]
"Anakin, why? The Masters are the best of the Order. What can you possibly do?"
―Revenge of the Sith
Now Obi-Wan did face him. "Palpatine faced Mace and Agen and Kit and Saesee - four of the greatest swordsmen our Order has ever produced. By himself. Even both of us together wouldn't have a chance."
―Revenge of the Sith
Saesee's flying practise also helped to hone his Force abilities. By the time he arrived at the Jedi Temple, he was already adept at channeling his Force connection. As he progressed in the Order, he was acknowledged as having one of the strongest Force abilities of all the Jedi.
―The Official Star Wars Fact File #114
Yes, Sheev had the element of surprise to an extent over Tiin, but that only goes so far in explaining how he blitzed them. Sheev flew across the room and gutted them before they could react, despite them looking at him, knowing he is the Sith Lord and expecting a fight.
Sheev similarly "flew" at Maul immediately after he was finished holding his dying brother, so Maul wasn’t in a better position than Tiin to defend from Sheev.
In any case, SW.com has already confirmed that he killed them before they could react.
Before the Jedi could react, Palpatine sprang into action and killed all of them except Mace Windu.
―Taken from starwars.com, Palpatine Biography Gallery, Image 26 of 29
This also scales Maul much higher than Fisto, who died shortly after Kolar even with Face Windu aiding him.
Green fans, sheets of purple-And crimson flame.
He was too late.
The green fire faded and winked out; now the lightning was only purple and red.
―Revenge of the Sith
It is stated by Dave Filoni (and is self-evident) that Savage, who is Maul’s inferior, put up a better fight against Sheev than the Jedi trio combined.
"You know, getting taken out by Sidious is pretty good, ranks up there. He puts up a better fight than the Jedi Council did, I'll say that much for him"
―Dave Filoni from Wrath of the Sith, an installment of “Clone Wars Download” on starwars.com
https://www.starwars.com/video/wrath-of-the-sith
It’s stated Sheev “stabbed and slashed through the smallest hole in an opponent’s guard” and that upon creating an opening in Maul’s guard that “was the smallest stumble, easily corrected”, “Sidious saw it-and pounced before Maul could draw himself back.”, Indeed, Sheev “Snarling, he reached out with the Force and slammed Maul against the wall.”
The Sith had not survived their centuries of exile by being sentimental, and a student who couldn’t stand against his Master in a mere training exercise was worse than useless—he was a waste of valuable resources better used elsewhere. But Maul had never faced his Master when he was actually trying to kill him.
[...]
But strong as he had become, Maul found himself in awe of Sidious. The Sith Lord was astonishingly fast and efficient, and the Force flowed through him effortlessly. His sabers stabbed and slashed through the smallest hole in an opponent’s guard, his movements never carried him a millimeter out of position, and he could sense every attack Maul and Savage made before it developed.
Maul tried to slash past Sidious’s guard, only to find his Master had given ground, causing Maul to extend his arms too far and leave himself slightly unbalanced. It was the smallest stumble, easily corrected, but Sidious saw it—and pounced before Maul could draw himself back. Snarling, he reached out with the Force and slammed Maul against the wall, leaving him lying stunned in a heap.
—Shadow Conspiracy
Maul’s Force Defences cannot be ripped through even by Sheev without an opening. Sheev had to engineer the "smallest" chink in Maul’s armor, "pounce" on it and “snarl” as he blasted him.
Arcann is not doing shit with TK. He lacks the skill to create the necessary opening in Maul’s guard and he lacks the power to brute force Maul’s defences. Maul is more skilled and more powerful than Arcann, so he could even crush Arcann’s windpipe ala Obi-Wan if he doesn’t gut him first.
The fact skillz went as far as to suggest Arcann would
Arcann nor anyone he has beaten has a single strength, speed or TK feat that matches up to Maul - thus far all he really has is beating the HoT, which pales in comparison.
Skillz tacitly conceded depth and breadth of Force knowledge, training quality, lightsaber skill and accolades of any description to TPM Maul without resistance by ignoring my first post. He made his methodology clear:
Skillz wrote:Ultimately, however, it’s simply too loose a comparison to analyze characters in terms of an arbitrary force potential/knowledge/experience ratio, as this relationship is not consistent or static across all cases, but actually extremely inconsistent, volatile and dynamic (as shown by Kenobi, Anakin, Luke, and their relative potential to training ratios, along with incalculably many others). [b]It’s much more productive to analyze what Maul actually accomplished and compare it to what Arcann actually accomplished.[/b] Arcann gets no bonus points in the end results for inheriting Valk-Senya genes and training, and neither should Maul for possessing Talzin genes and Sidious training.
Maul also has better feats, which is the only leg Skillz has to stand on. Even if I use Skillz’ own methodology, Maul still wins.
Rebuttal
I am ignoring any "preemptive counters" Skillz made as I did not make any of those arguments. My 1st post only contains facts, so there is nothing to refute. I don’t want anyone to finish reading believing that Skillz made a single salient point which was not countered here - if it was not addressed it is because it was irrelevant.The above scans display Arcann using the force numerous times in conjunction with his lightsaber skills to overcome the HoTlander over the course of their fight, (the significance of which I will elaborate on shortly,) but I believe this is one of the primary reasons Arcann will actually win the fight beyond just a comparison of their sheer force power, in which Arcann is in vast excess of Maul, but because Arcann possesses a lightsaber and force defense so robust that, in conjunction with his offensive force usage, will keep Maul at bay indefinitely until he makes a mistake or Arcann simply overpowers him.
Prove it.
First and foremost, the Fact File quote you provided to indicate that Yoda and Windu are the most powerful jedi in history by TPM is in-universe, meaning it’s far more subject to scrutiny and interpretation than an out of universe quote
There is no reason to doubt the veracity of the "Fact" Files, which per the article I linked are said to contain "Facts" and "Information". So this argument without evidence is dismissed.
Regarding Dooku, I think it’s a bit misleading to imply that him growing more powerful under Sidious’ tutelage is indicative of how Maul must have achieved a similar level of superior growth and power. Dooku joined Sidious whilst already having been an immensely well-learned and old/wise Jedi Master, but he had never dabbled in the dark side to nearly the extent that the Banite archives had to offer, and [1]in possession of an aptitude of the force far superior to that of Maul, along with an enormous base of knowledge that had already been developed as a Jedi, [2]would allow him to rapidly develop his abilities upon being introduced to new dark side knowledge. [3]Maul doesn’t have an overall depth of knowledge even approaching that of Dooku given the latter’s decades upon decades of learning and training in the jedi arts, which easily could have supplemented his tutelage under Sidious.
1. It’s an assumption that Dooku had "an aptitude of the force far superior to that of Maul"
2. Dooku "rapidly developing his abilities" was attributed to what Sheev taught him, per earlier quotes. Dooku having prerequisite attributes which enhanced the rate at which he grew is conjecture.
3. The Banites delved into all aspects of the Force including the Jedi arts, and Maul was trained by Sheev to push his "Force abilities to the extreme.", to be "strong in every way", trained in "all forms of the Sith arts"/"all types of Sith ways"/"trained in [Sidious'] likeness" and as a legitimate Banite Sith who could temporarily break the Rule of Two. The idea Maul’s "depth of knowledge" is not "even approaching that of Dooku" then, is laughable.
To get a rough idea of the level Arcann is operating at circa mid-KOTFE, It’s important to note just how powerful the HoTlander is during this point in time. By the end of Act 1/start of Act 2 he (1) is already the most powerful jedi in the galaxy, above the likes of Barsen’thor and Satele Shan
Character opinions are fallible, so there is no proof HoT is superior to every Jedi, and you didn’t show feats for any of these Jedi.
and (2) from the end of Act 2 to the start of Act 3 goes from stalemating Lord Scourge (3)
Just because for a time they fought to a “standstill” does not mean they are equals, any more than this quote proves Jinn and Maul were equal:
Stroke for stroke, Qui-Gon and Darth Maul battled about the rim of the melting pit, locked in a combat that seemed endless and forever and could be won by neither.
Then the Sith Lord parried a downstroke, whirled swiftly to the right, and with his back to the Jedi Master, made a blind, reverse lunge. Too late, Qui-Gon recognized the danger. The blade of the Sith Lord's lightsaber caught him directly in the midsection, its brilliant length burning through clothing and flesh and bone.
―The Phantom Menace
Scourge taking a knee after the fight proves he lost.
to being too powerful for Vitiate to TP in the heart of the Dark Temple after fighting through swarms of elite Imperial Guards, (4) whereas Scourge “cannot resist [Vitiate’s] direct influence” per his own admission:
Keep in mind that Vitiate was “no match” for the Hero of Tython (despite being capable of mindraping Scourge with his direct influence) despite the fact that the Hero “dissipated his energy saving the weak”: in this case Vitiate is referring to the Hero giving him extra time to gather his energy while the Hero saved his apprentice in the midst of a monumentally powerful dark side nexus.
You gave zero feats for Scourge. This doesn’t stack up to Maul, not even close. Also, Vitiate’s skills as a fighter are woeful, which no doubt helped the HoT win the fight aside from a simple power comparison. HoT only needed to be strong enough to resist Vitiate’s powers and close the gap, which really says nothing about the HoT’s abilities outside of his ability to do just that. Vitiate was “no match” because he lost, that’s all.
Between the events of Act 2 and Act 3, Scourge marvels at the sheer power and potential that the Hero of Tython possesses, so much so that he believes had the Hero fully embraced and been trained in the dark side he would be the most powerful force user in Galactic History:
What is important about this quote is that it falls in line with Scourge’s aspirations that the HoT’s son would become an unprecedented power in the galaxy, he is synonymously equating their potential to wield a never-before seen level of power:
I do not give a shit about Scourge’s opinion on HoT’s potential, and you can’t prove how much of it is actualised. Nothing in my first post mentioned Maul’s potential and also you yourself disparaged the idea that potential is a worthwhile metric to use - everything you just said is meaningless per both our standards.
Even by the End of Act 3, we have indications that the Hero of Tython is implied to be every bit the prodigy that Darth Maul is and then some: a prophesied champion of light, wielding potential arguably unrivalled in Galactic History at that point, (at least for what is known by Scourge, which would include Revan, the Dread Masters, and hundreds of Dark Council members and other prodigies across centuries) destined to overcome the Galaxy-wiping threat that is Tenebrae.
I see no reason to think the HoT is "every bit the prodigy that Darth Maul is", your unsourced tangent noted. Darth Maul was selected and trained by Sheev to be an heir to the Banites, and unlike Scourge, Sheev had the ability to judge potential with more accuracy than the "crude" midichlorian tester which the Jedi used. He knew Maul was strong enough to inherit his mantle and trained him accordingly. Darth Bane and Darth Venamis, whose feats I can/have detailed at length, were said by Plagueis to be "anachronisms", so let’s just say that even if we want to play the "potential" game, which my argument is not reliant on, Maul would still win easily.
Among the ship's crew, the Togruta, Captain Lah, had been the strongest in the Force, but she was beyond his help by the time he reached her. Had it not been for sloppiness on his part, owing to fatigue and blood loss, and lightning-fast reflexes on hers, the lightsaber might simply have pierced her neck and cervical spinal cord. But she had spun at the moment of impact, and the crimson blade had all but decapitated her. The Zabrak, too, had a slightly higher-than-normal midi-chlorian count, but not high enough to make him Force-sensitive. How different it had been to observe the behavior of the Zabrak's midi-chlorians compared with those of Darth Tenebrous, only two days earlier!
The Jedi routinely performed blood tests to verify the midi-chlorian counts of prospective trainees, but Plagueis had passed beyond the need for such crude measurements. He could not only sense the strength of the Force in another but also perceive the midi-chlorians that individualized Forceful beings. It was that dark side ability that had allowed generations of Sith to locate and initiate recruits. The dispersal of midi-chlorians at the moment of physical death was, for lack of a better term, inexorable. Analogous to his fated confrontation with the Woebegone crew, the moment of death appeared to be somehow fixed in space and time. According to his Sith education, since Captain Lah and the others had been in some sense dead from the moment Plagueis's gaze had alighted on the freighter, it followed that the midi-chlorians that resided in alleged symbiosis with them must have been preparing to be subsumed into the reservoir of life energy that was the Force long before Plagueis had stowed away.
―Darth Plagueis
Blood analysis had revealed a high midi-chlorian count, which to Plagueis was further indication that a being could have great potential in the Force and yet still be inept. He wondered: was it Venamis he had felt through the Force after the murder of Tenebrous? A Jedi would have made for a more interesting experimental subject, but a Dark Side Adept was perhaps better suited to his purposes. And soon enough the adjacent bacta tank would contain a Force-resistant Yinchorri, as well.
Immediately following the contest on Sojourn, Plagueis had commanded members of the Sun Guard to locate the starship that had allowed Venamis to infiltrate the Hunters' Moon, then move it and the poisoned Bith to Aborah. Larsh Hill and the other Muuns had been apprised that an intruder had been captured and disposed of, but no more than that. An investigation of the ship had yielded data that might have surprised even Darth Tenebrous, who had provided the ship. It seemed that well before he had confronted Plagueis or learned of his Master's fate, Venamis himself had been scouting for potential apprentices. Plagueis could not help being impressed, though begrudgingly. The young Bith would have done well in Bane's era. Now, however, he was an anachronism, and by extension, Tenebrous also.
―Darth Plagueis
After this point, there is a comparable, if not greater time gap between the end of Act 3 and KOTFE Chapter 1 than the gap between Act 2 and Act 3, and as such the HoT experienced tremendous growth during this time, going toe to toe with galactic threats such as Soa, The Terror From Beyond, the Dread Masters, and Revan Reborn. After these events, he is named the Battlemaster of the Jedi Order
Time gaps do not indicate growth. You have not given a source for any on the HoT’s part. Him being a battlemaster is an accolade on par with titans such as Drallig, Katarn and Kas’im, so there’s that?
and performs his most impressive feat yet during the Civil War on Ziost: Defeating Emperor Vitiate while his spirit was focused/honed in on one vessel, as opposed to dividing his attention and energies across multiple:
We know that the Emperor was only inhabiting one body while fighting the Hero of Tython because it is stated that Vitiate “limited his direct involvement” to the area around the Hero: the city of New Adasta and its immediate surroundings. The Hero of Tython’s objective stated by Lana is to ”get all of [Vitiate’s] pawns --every last soldier, Jedi, and Sith -- to stop their slaughter and chase you into the Heart of New Adasta.” the Hero then essentially leads them all to the electrostatic weapon (set to non-lethal levels) in the center of New Adasta, knocking them all unconscious sans Master Surro, Vitiate’s primary host. We see this play out in the above link.
Your claim: “Emperor Vitiate focused all his power in one vessel, remotely, and this possessed host had a level of power worth giving a shit about”
Your evidence: Conjecture based on what Lana wanted HoT to do, the asinine idea that Vitiate focusing on an entire city somehow limits his attention to one host, and the implication that Vitiate had no other pawns to possess or objectives to split his attention other than the dozen or so soldiers that ran into the room with Surro? And the unsupported assumption that Vitiate was channelling a relevant amount of his undivided power into this vessel? Why is it not possible that Vitiate did not or could not manifest even close to his full power in this vessel? We do not know how powerful the Surro vessel was and you have no way to quantify its power.
Ziost Vitiate is operating at ludicrous levels of power, as even at the start of Ziost Vitiate is able to mind dominate and possess hundreds, if not thousands of Sith and Imperial troops, continuously feeding on their energy to grow more powerful, along with the Sixth line (recognized as “an elite cadre of militaristic Jedi” in the SWTOR codex) and the entire Republic Fleet Saresh sends to Ziost (which was large enough to incite planet-wide conflict). Shortly after Vitiate gains the power to conjure hordes of monoliths on the side, which are described as follows:
So Vitiate was powerful enough (while multitasking) to conjure hordes of dark side monstrosities that transcend the alchemical efforts of all prior force users, thus displaying a superiority of intellect, knowledge, fortitude, and power to all prior Sith Lords/alchemists. This is further corroborated by the codex making it clear that monoliths ”plainly illustrate the immeasurable power” of Vitiate, and he only grew stronger in the events leading up to his defeat at the hands of the Hero of Tython.
Anything here that isn’t sourced is dismissed. If Vitiate is conjuring hordes of monoliths, this hurts your conjecture that he gave undivided focus when fighting through Surro.
Shortly after these events and Vitiate’s consumption of Ziost, KOTFE rolls around and the Hero of Tython is dubbed Valkorion’s “most powerful opponent,” an emphatic accolade if applied to the most powerful opponents Valkorion has ever faced, including the likes of Revan Reborn, though this isn’t really necessary to cement the HoTlander’s status.
The syntax does not necessitate that the Outlander is Valk’s "most powerful opponent [ever]", it just says that he is his most powerful opponent. Also the Outlander can be a non-Force user, which begs the question what it means by "most powerful" - certainly not Force power.
The HoTlander undergoes an unquantifiable amount of growth between KOTFE Chapter 2 and 8, at which point he finally faces Arcann, Emperor of the Eternal Throne. As shown at the beginning of my post, Arcann completely overwhelms the Outlander, ragdolling him repeatedly and generally having the upper hand the entire fight. If the HoTlander rejects Valkorion’s assistance, Arcann casually force pulls the Outlander and impales him, as shown here:
Source for this growth? Also, Arcann chaining Force attacks into combat and finding openings is not the same as penetrating one’s Force defences outright, and by the end of a losing duel where one’s reserves are wearing thin it becomes easier to penetrate those defences. Arcann did not "casually" pull the Outlander onto his blade, he did so after wearing him down.
Even if HoTlander accepts Valkorion’s boon of power, Arcann is able to defend against the ensuing lightning tsunami for an extended period of time and is relatively unphased upon being struck by it and sent plummeting hundreds if not thousands of feet to the ground. As I mentioned in my introduction, a much more nuanced analysis of the impressiveness of this feat will take place in a later post.
It’s good that you plan to explain properly why we should care about Arcann, because from where I’m sitting, I don’t see how his skill with blocking lightning is going to help him survive against Maul, who never chooses to employ the ability.
1. Arcann’s fighting style is perfectly suited to counter Maul’s, as his ability to chain powerful force attacks in combat combined with his impenetrable defense will serve as a perfect counter to Maul’s aggressive assault, mainly because Arcann has a sizeable power edge over Maul.
Proof?
2. The HoTlander is an unprecedented prodigy with unrivalled force power in Scourge’s eyes, putting his potential on par with or above the likes of Revan, the Dread Masters, and any other force prodigy Scourge came across over the course of 3 centuries, and has feats and lines of scaling that arguably rival or exceed Maul’s to boot.
The former has been addressed, and the latter remains unproven.
3. Arcann in the middle of KOTFE is capable of completely outmaneuvering and overpowering the HoTlander, and is able to block the energies of HoTlanderkorion for an extended period of time and tank the impact of the attack and subsequent fall with no visible injury.
Not that beating the Outlander or surviving Valk’s lightning stream does anything to support your argument.