Yeah didn't think he was this powerful... then again Barriss has been stuck in a prison out of practice and out of shape for at least 1 year, so she is probably pretty rusty
^ Still defo makes him (and by extension Kanan) better than we thought.
A year isnt too long to be out of action. But if its her first fight or first time using the Force in over a year then that would be a reasonable excuse.
Cato Parasitti posed as Jocasta Nu during season 2 of TCW and had a brief encounter with Ahsoka. She didn't do too bad, landing a couple hits and only being caught when Ahsoka used the Force. At the end of the duel, Ahsoka mentions that Cato "May have Madame Jocasta's shape, but not her skills." To me, this implies Jocasta Nu was probably well above Ahsoka. And we know Ahsoka and Barriss are roughly equal.
Yes but in the Vader comic it was stated several times by Sidious and Vader that Jocasta's skills with a lightsaber and the Force were average, it was her knowledge that made her extremely dangerous. At best Jocasta is slightly above your average fodder jedi knight
^ One thing though, I think it's clear at this point that Filoni ignores everything outside of the animation and movies.
I mean heck he rewrote stuff he came up with and approved - Order 66 for Kanan in the Kanan comics and the Battle of Mandalore in the Ahsoka novel. We've yet to see if he outright contradicts Dark Disciple or gives an explanation for it, like Ventress has been resurrected. My guess would be he ignores it and leaves it to comics and novels to explain it.
"Average" from the perspective of Palpatine is very, very different from "average" from the perspective of a typical Jedi Knight. Palpatine also thought little of Mother Talzin's skills with a blade, and we know Mother Talzin could put up a fight against freaking Mace Windu. Palpatine's whole MO is constantly downplaying even high level adversaries because he's just that much better than them.
What's important for this conversation is that Ahsoka thought highly of Jocasta's lightsaber skill, implying Jocasta is well above S2 Ahsoka. By extension, this puts Jocasta above Barriss from S2 as well. Barriss and Ahsoka both obviously grow between S2 and their big duel in S5, but they're still both at a level that I'd consider a little above an "average Jedi Knight." Neither Barriss or Ahsoka are titans of the era like Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mace, or Yoda. Hell, Ahsoka was still getting hard-stomped by Grievous. It's very believable for me that Jocasta would still be in about the same ballpark as S5 Ahoska/Barriss. That still puts them leagues below Vader level, and definitely what Palpatine would consider "average" from his lofty viewpoint of being literally the strongest in the setting at the time. So, the Grand Inquisitor having a major edge over Barriss is perfectly consistent with the Grand Inquisitor having no real trouble with Jocasta Nu, the way I see it.
Apr 4th, 2024 06:10 PM
