I mean, I understand he is a terrible Gary Sue, but so is someone like, say, a Galen Marek --- but he doesn't get anywhere near the hate Bane receives.
I don't really hate anyone (fictional or otherwise), but Bane was meant to be the weakest of the Banite Sith. Until you acknowledge this, you're a fool (and, ironically, miss the point of his message). And people tend to wank him by focusing solely on his feats, ignoring the fact that he relied on dark side Force nexuses.
That being said, Sidious absolutely deserves to be considered the most powerful unamped dark-sider, and it would be nice to see another dark side organization follow the Rule of Two.
__________________ Rebel by doing what gives you peace.
The difference between Bane and Galen is that Galen at least remains true to his character - he is meant to be one of the most powerful Force users ever, in a game called "The Force Unleashed", and his main adversary is Vader, one of Star Wars premiere powerhouses.
Bane's Gary Stu character development and ridiculous feats, and the way he instantly takes to any activity he engages in without trial or tribulation, as well as his insatiable hunger for POOOOWWAAAAR is the main focus not only for Bane, but all three books. Not only is this near enough the only dynamic to the trilogy, and it's a shit dynamic, but it doesn't even make sense - Bane's era is the lowest piece of shit among pieces of shit, and Bane is meant to be the first stepping stone out of that shit. A character who has to go through meaningful challenges, has meaningful character development, and isn't insanely powerful but maybe just smarter than previous Sith, would have been much more interesting than Baney Stu.
Galen at least remains sort of interesting with the whole Juno thing, and his relationship with Vader.
__________________ “The galaxy must experience the pain of death and the rapture of rebirth as I have. I will bring chaos. It is time for war.”
The original Galen did have depth. He even pointed out Vader's hypocrisy in being afraid of rebelling against Sidious. And he's no Mary Sue; Sidious fried him with hardly any difficulty.
btw: he didn't "tear a Star Destroyer out of the sky"; all he did was push it backwards. It was already falling. It's the clone that was the fan-wanked narcissist.
"Master, we can defeat him [Sidious] together."
"Without me, you'll never be free."
"I don't need to hate you in order to beat you," [Galen] gasped. "That's something I will teach you now." [...] "I don't hate you. I pity you. You destroyed who I was and made me as I am now, but this wasn't your idea. It was the Emperor's, and it's what he's already done to you. You are his creature, just as I was yours - but you've never had the strength to rebel. That's why I pity you."
The Emperor appeared out of the settling smoke, glee on his face. He raised one hand as though to touch the apprentice. The apprentice felt a wave of hypnotic suggestion flow through him.
Yes! Kill him! He is weak, broken! Kill him and you can take your rightful place at my side!
The apprentice remained frozen, mesmerized by the Emperor's ghastly charisma. Why not? Wasn't this what he had considered on Raxus Prime? If he agreed to that plan, he would be free of one Master and slave to another - but what was to stop him from attacking that Master in turn, one day? He would not make the same mistake Darth Vader had.
Darth Vader - who had murdered his father, lied to and betrayed him, killed PROXY, branded Juno a traitor, and kidnapped Kota and the others. Didn't he deserve to die a thousand times over?
And power - he had become used to it in the service of his Master. When the dark side sang through him, others danced to his will. That would be hard to give up.
"No!" Kota's voice came through as though from a great distance. The apprentice noted, as though viewing the world in slow motion, the Jedi Master telekinetically snatching the Emperor's lightsaber from his waist and, with surely belying his physical blindness, using it to cut down the Imperial Guards watching the prisoners. Lunging forward, he struck next at the Emperor, who stood, apparently unarmed, with one hand still reaching out for the apprentice.
But the Emperor was never unarmed. Raising his other hand, he blasted Kota with lightinng before the blow came close to falling. Sith energy crackled between them and the Jedi Master fell back, caught in the Emperor's deadly grip.
"Help him!"
Bail Organa's voice snapped the apprentice out of his trance.
He shook his head, feeling the Emperor’s influence sliding off him like oil. What had he been thinking? He didn’t want to return to the dark side after everything he had been through. He had seen what it did, in Maris Brood, on Felucia, and in the eyes of Darth Vader. He didn’t even want to kill his Master, now that he saw him humbled and at his mercy. That was where it had all started, he now realized. When Darth Vader had killed Galen’s father and Galen had snatched the lightsaber from his hand, his intention had been solely to avenge his father’s death. That had been what Vader had seen in him all those years ago, not just that he was strong with the Force - and that was why Galen had blotted out the person he had once been. He had taken that first step down the path of the dark side all on his own, before he had been subjected to Vader’s cruel tutelage. He had to retract it now or submit to the dark side forever.
Murdering Darth Vader would accomplish nothing.
Saving his friends might change the course of history.
__________________ Rebel by doing what gives you peace.
I now wonder about the mental health of Geitsalt, lmao. Getting bested by Sidious doesn't disprove a Gary Stu claim, neither is pointing out hypocrisy much depth adding.
I fail to see how Galen qualifies as a Gary Stu. I recall him being trained with the utmost harshness and efficiency by Vader from childhood, and being stated as having one of the highest potentials in Star Wars.
Bane, with little to no training and what resources he could scavenge, was doing shit like making Lightning storms, destroying a temple (albeit with a nexus), slapping Kas'im around, purifying himself of some insta-death poison, etc. He just figured it out as he went, which is boring, and stupid.
__________________ “The galaxy must experience the pain of death and the rapture of rebirth as I have. I will bring chaos. It is time for war.”