How valuable are feats?

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The Ellimist
So one of the common class of arguments in these rounds is comparing how impressive combatants' feats are to one another. To be clear, here I am referring to feats that involve manipulation of the environment or some other recipient acting independent of power scaling - so not Yoda matching Sidious but maybe Sidious lifting X object that weighs Y tons.

If we follow a Wong/Saxton model of suspension of disbelief, this is the most "real" way of doing the analysis. But it runs into a lot of flaws that basically reduce its predictive power to zero. Firstly, I don't think that people typically arrive at their conclusions from these feats - they mainly powerscale and go from their gut, adding a feats war on top as a meaningless exercise. Secondly, and more fundamentally, the authors don't even try to make feats consistent with one another. Whether a character can do X or Y at a particular rate depends more on the personal idiosyncrasies of the writer and their sort of stylistic conception for the Force is. It isn't really explained why Yoda struggles to lift a pillar while canonically weaker characters do so much more, but authors were not sifting through Yoda's teachings to figure out that he can actually do this instead of that.

I'm sort of playing devil's advocate here; I think feats can be useful to certain ends, particularly if they are a) well documented and replicated and b) if they establish an upper limit rather than a lower one.

Syndicate
The most valuable of all.

S_W_LeGenD
Feats are valuable for comparison in their own right but they do no tell us everything. We cannot determine how much raw power was involved in a particular action.

But we can make an informed judgement. For example: Revan - not struggling at performing action X - is an indication that he can do better. In the novel, we don't see Revan struggling with anything or in any situation until he battles Vitiate and is subjected to an incredibly potent Force Storm.

You got the 'personal idiosyncrasies of the writer' part right. This is why there are inconsistencies in the lore. Different authors perceive things differently.

Vitiate soundly defeated an entire Dark Council in a confrontation (revelation in the TOR Encyclopedia) yet he found Revan a challenging opponent and had to stop him with a charged attack (revelation in the TOR Revan novel). The TOR Encyclopedia is the newer source however and presents an alternative view of some revelations in the novel. Therefore, such difference of views at official capacity complicates things for the audience when they are discussing characters.

I attempt to make sense of all of it at times. But I have my share of limitations in justifying everything. Everybody have.

EmperorSidious2
They are good if the feat is consistent. If it's stand alone it's harder to judge.

ILS
Originally posted by Syndicate
The most valuable of all. lolno

Only to an extent. But they are the easiest to observe and in greater abundance than any other kind of evidence.

JKBart
20 dollars per kg

Beniboybling
Originally posted by The Ellimist
I'm sort of playing devil's advocate here; I think feats can be useful to certain ends, particularly if they are a) well documented and replicated and b) if they establish an upper limit rather than a lower one. I would agree with this tbh, and its how we've operated when comparing characters on SWTOR.

The Ellimist
Bump

Darth Abonis
Part of the message of the Force is that any Force-sensitive can accomplish anything, if they put their mind to it. That was Yoda's message in ESB. Feats are just the colorful wrappings, they can't be measured against each other

Zenwolf
Originally posted by Darth Abonis
Part of the message of the Force is that any Force-sensitive can accomplish anything, if they put their mind to it. That was Yoda's message in ESB. Feats are just the colorful wrappings, they can't be measured against each other

Vader also implied as such in ANH



However I wouldn't say any Force Sensitive could accomplish anything, because there have been times shown that Force Users do have limitations.

However I do find it odd, people ***** and moan about how ridiculous Force Users get in the EU(or at least people who have only seen the movies), when it's quite blatantly stated within 2 of them just how powerful The Force is, that there's essentially no limits to what it can do.

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