It would have been a rather boring debate if one side used only scaling/hype while the others was just accolades and showings. Which is why most shied away from really using Tenebrous in CAV-type settings from the start. So I'm gonna beat Tenebrous - or, at least try to - at his own game.
Registered: Jun 2016
Location: The Throne of the Sheevites
Opening statements:
As you know, Tenebrous is one of the latter members of the Banite line. Each Banite Sith, growing stronger with every generation, would get all the feats of the previous generations in greater magnitude. Tenebrous is no exception to this.
He also trained two apprentices of his own, so he’ll get all their feats as well. At least until Plagueis surpasses him. Also, the last Banite Master, Darth Sidious, has one of the most extensive skillsets when it comes to lightsaber dueling, which he got from his Master, who in turn got it from Tenebrous. So, to quickly list all the people whose feats he gets:
It should also be noted I will highball and blow out of proportion all the feats of the early Banite Sith, as Tenebrous would be capable of much more than they were.
With that out of the way, let’s begin:
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I’m not seeing how Vitiate having “supremely powerful” accolades and several unquantifiable power increases is going to prove his superiority to Darth Tenebrous. You can list all the hype and shit a character has, but unless you make a comparison, then that in itself does not prove a character’s superiority to another. You could have simply linked me to his respect thread and saved yourself a lot of effort.
As an example of a proper comparison:
Darth Tenebrous is powerful enough to alter a planet’s climate with his mere presence, while only being there for a short while:
Later it would be said by Naboo and Gungan alike that they couldn't recall a colder winter than the one that followed Hego Damask's autumnal visit to their world. The rivers and even the falls below Theed froze; the rolling plains and tall forests were blanketed three meters deep with snow; plasmic quakes rocked the Gallo Mountains and the Lake Country, the Holy Places and the undersea city of Otoh Gunga; and many of the egresses of the underwaterways that hollowed the planet were blocked by ice floes.
-Darth Plagueis
Vitiate required multiple rituals to do so, while the planet in question was already a dark side nexus. We have never seen him replicate this feat by way of his personal power in the Force, much less on neutral ground.
Power hungry, the Emperor spent great energy discovering and perfecting esoteric rites of darkness – rituals that wrecked the atmosphere of Dromund Kaas, transforming the ionosphere into a swirling electric storm.
-The Old Republic Holonet
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Darth Tenebrous is powerful enough to penetrate a Force bubble generated by the entire Jedi Order with his power. In other words, he is able to reduce the potency of a galaxy-wide light side nexus with his power:
Where an extremely low midi-chlorian count might have bolstered the odds of survival, nature had instead made the ysalimir species strong in the Force. So strong, in fact, that several of the creatures acting in concert could create a Force bubble encompassing kilometers rather than meters. In a sense, the Jedi Order had done the same on a galactic scale, Plagueis believed, by bathing the galaxy in the energy of the light side of the Force; or more accurately by fashioning a Force bubble that had prevented infiltration by the dark side, until Tenebrous's Master had succeeded in bursting the bubble, or at least shrinking it. How the Order's actions could be thought of as balancing the Force had baffled generations of Sith, who harbored no delusions regarding the Force's ability to self-regulate.
-Darth Plagueis
No incarnation of Vitiate has anything comparable.
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I haven’t seen Vitiate alter a planet’s climate without rituals, nor have I seen him use and influence the Force on a galactic scale without rituals. Tenebrous has access to all that power at his fingertips, which would point to him being the more powerful Force user of the two. Not that he necessarily needs that power to win, given Vitiate’s absolutely embarrassing lack of combat skills. For example:
1. Horrendous environmental awareness, as demonstrated when he crapped his pants at the sight of a lightsaber throw not even aimed at him, and if not for the morals of his adversary, would have died:
In desparation, she hurled her lightsaber with a wild side-arm throw. Guiding it with the Force, so that it spiraled end over end to intercept the descending blade, knocking it from the Emperor’s grasp, and sending it skittering across the floor.
Suddenly empty-handed, the Emperor took a quick step back. His attention had been focused solely on Revan; Meetra’s trick had caught him by surprise. Scourge realized that if she had aimed at the Emperor instead of the blade, she could’ve ended his life even as he ended Revan’s.
But her instincts to save her friend overrode her desire to kill her enemy, and Scourge could only lament the lost opportunity.
Meetra was still rushing forward, using the Force to return her lightsaber to her waiting hand.
Sensing hesitation and uncertainty in the Emperor as he tried to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of his new foe, Scourge rushed forward to join Meetra and Revan.
-The Old Republic: Revan
What makes this showing even more pathetic is the fact that the Emperor’s throne room is basically just a single walkway:
Revan would have been laying about where he is in the image, and Vitiate would have been in front of him. Meetra would have been at the doorway, directly in Vitiate’s line of sight, and the latter still did not see her saber throw coming.
Tenebrous could simply distract him with a Force Phantom or an illusion, and then kill him with a saber throw, because, unlike in his fight with the strike team, Vitiate doesn’t have a plot convenience preventing his foe from taking the kill.
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2. Inability to attack while on the defence, as demonstrated when he had to disrupt his Lightning Storm on Revan, in order to protect himself from a meager flame thrower:
Through the haze of indescribable pain, he saw T3-M4 rushing in to help him. The droid let loose with his flamethrower, bathing the Emperor in fire. at the last instant the Emperor cocooned himself in the Force to save himself from being incinerated, breaking his focus on Revan.
-The Old Republic: Revan
Tenebrous, with his Force Lightning possessing enough power to turn its victims to ash upon contact, could simply fire a continuous barrage, leaving Vitiate unable to retaliate, while he advances forward, and when he is in melee range, he will cut Vitiate down.
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3. Idiotic decision-making, as demonstrated when he literally, of his own free will, consciously knowing what he was doing, walked right into his opponent’s lightsaber:
I genuinely have no idea what was going through his head at that moment. Did he think that his lightning would increase in potency the closer he got to his enemy? If so, then Tenebrous simply has to wait while Vitiate willingly enters the killzone.
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4. Terrible reflexes, as demonstrated when he failed to react to his own Force Lightning:
He landed in a heap on the floor and Revan raced toward him. The Emperor rolled over, lifted himself up on one knee, and his hands flew forward as he hurtled a bolt of dark side lightning at his enemy. Revan intercepted the bolt with the blade of his lightsaber, though the impact stopped his charge dead in its tracks.
The Emperor unleashed three more bolts in quick succession. Revan batted the first aside with his lightsaber, ducked the second, then deflected the third in the direction of its source.
It struck the Emperor in the chest, sending him sliding several meters back on the floor. For the first time the Sith’s emotionless veneer cracked as he let out a primal hiss of hate. The sound sent shivers down Revan’s spine.
-The Old Republic: Revan
Tenebrous could simply deflect his attacks back at him and he wouldn’t be able to defend himself since he wouldn’t get a barrier up in time. This also makes me wonder whether he could react to Tenebrous’ lightning, or Tenebrous himself, as the latter moves faster than the speed of lightning:
The contest took them backward and forward through the trees, across narrow streams, and up onto piles of rocks that were the ruins of an ancient sentry post. Plagueis took a moment to wonder if anyone at the fort was observing the results of the contest, which, from afar, must have looked like lightning flashing through the forest's understory.
Jan 25th, 2017 01:53 PM
