On Mortis... The ultimate universal Force nexus that was amping all of them(especially Anakin.) That is certainly not something that Anakin would have been able to do under normal circumstances.
For a point of reference, not even The Father could control his children off of Mortis.
After becoming accustomed to his armor, however, Vader's abilities were not hindered at all... To the contrary, he was more powerful than ever.
Right.
But the point is that even Palpatine didn't instantly ragdoll/own Ahsoka, despite wielding hyper-powerful Sith magics at the time(so powerful, in fact, that he literally ripped into TWBW without a proper gateway)... So I'm not sure why you would expect Vader to just waltz up and TK ragdoll her in a Filoni-created/produced show? We all know that's not going to happen, and certainly doesn't diminish Vader's standing.
Again, Palpatine's power certainly continued increasing in the 20+ years between RotS and RotJ as well, due to his incessant knowledge-hoarding.
However, this does not preclude the notion that Vader also grew tremendously over the same period, and could have very well surpassed the level of RotS Palpatine, due to reasons I have already detailed. He simply needed Luke's help to overthrow Palpatine at that point in time(ESB/RotJ-era.)
See above.
One more time:
-Vader didn't lose any of his potential.
-His injuries made his connection to the Force stronger than ever.
-His lightsaber skill was just as good, if not better, than ever before(a canon source puts him above Palpatine in sabers, for what it's worth.)
-He had 20+ years of near-constant battle to further hone his abilities.
-He was massively(ie. "light years") beyond the likes of Dooku.
-And a few sources imply that he was in Palpatine's tier from the get-go.
Vader not being able to fight random, Dooku-level foes all the time, doesn't change the abundance of information(and moreover logic) at hand. We have every reason to believe he did nothing but improve across the board after the events of RotS, and literally no legitimate reason to believe he capped at RotS level.
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Last edited by Galan007 on Mar 30th, 2020 at 02:23 AM
I never really got the whole Anakin > Vader thing in either Canonicity. Because it always just seems to be "Well Anakin has more raw power" and...that's kinda it. Raw power/potential is all well and good, but if it's not actually usable then it's not meaning anything.
Always felt like they were close due to their own advantages, but obviously there are differences between the two given one is in a life support armored suit.
I could at least follow the logic in Legends(even though it never made sense to me), because they made it a point to emphasize that Vader's injuries did reduce his power/potential, and the armor did inhibit him to some extent.
...But in canon it's the complete opposite. The injuries didn't gimp Vader's potential, and ultimately just increased his overall power/connection to the Force, and the armor didn't hinder him at all once he was accustomed to it.
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"I am tired of Earth. These people.
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It was the same with previous lore too, he got accustomed to his suit and all that, it's stated he grew in power, being a threat to Sidious, etc and so on. It just wasn't out the gate like the new canon.
I mean really, it seemed like it was the same for Anakin who would grow to be a threat to Sidious, his power grew and all that.
So I never really felt any huge gap between the pair.
Registered: Dec 2019
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Don't see how the databank makes sense, it says Sidious knew that Vader's broken body would make him *weaker* than before.
Whereas Lords of the Sith says that Vader's injuries strengthened his connection to the force and says he never felt more connected to the force then when his fury burned, which he always due to his hatrid remaining.
There's a source that also says Vader's suit enhanced his powers.
So if he's stronger in the force how can Sidious know that he is weaker than before. Makes no sense.
Last edited by Scizard on Mar 30th, 2020 at 10:33 AM
Per the corresponding picture, the databank quote is referring to Vader just coming off the operating table in RotS, when his armor and mangled body were still foreign to him. Perhaps that may have gimped his powers initially(or so Palpatine thought.)
Lords of the Sith(and all the other sources referenced), however, are referring to Vader's power after he became accustomed to the injuries/armor... And in so doing, his overall abilities became stronger than ever.
Then literally just a few days afterward, he was already fighting Kirak Infil'a, who scales above the likes of RotS Kenobi if the solicits for issue #3 are any indicator: "A Jedi more powerful than ANY Vader has faced before."
And when coupled with Giuseppe Camuncoli's statement regarding Vader's power in issue #3: "[Vader's] armor is just new to him, so of course you have to make him feel a little less confident then he is when he's in his older days [...] But somehow he is such a great fighter. He is a being of great power. He was a great Jedi before, and he's become maybe the most powerful Sith around."
...It paints a pretty telling picture of where he stood immediately after RotS.
Either way, the databank quote doesn't negate anything mentioned thus far in regard to Vader's power-creep between RotS and RotJ.
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"I am tired of Earth. These people.
I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."
Last edited by Galan007 on Mar 30th, 2020 at 03:25 PM
Make no mistake: the only, only reason Vader could fight competently in Legends at all was because Anakin was that good to begin with. Vader is disabled in almost every way imaginable.
He's half-blind, half-deaf, has so much weight and bulk he might as well be morbidly obese, his sensations and reflexes are patchy at best, he's chronically intubated and catheterized with machines taped to his chest and pelvis, he never sleeps, and his connection to the force is less than half as strong as it was previously
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Last edited by NewGuy01 on Mar 30th, 2020 at 08:03 PM
Still, it seemed like RotS Anakin was about to surpass Yoda and Sidious, if he hadn't already. Hell, there are some sources that state he was already the strongest Jedi. And him dominating Dooku kinda solidifies it. If he still got more powerful after Mustafar... how come he was always weaker than the Emperor?
^ Because Palpatine's power increased over that time as well.
But even if we assume that Vader's power already rivaled Palpatine's just after RotS, Vader certainly wouldn't have tried to challenge/kill him at that point, because he was still very subservient and felt there was much that Palpatine could teach him. He only became 'disgruntled' with Palpatine later in life.
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Last edited by Galan007 on Mar 31st, 2020 at 02:05 PM
Registered: Dec 2019
Location: Imperial Throne Room
In Lords of the Sith, IIRC, Vader theorizes that Palpatine was holding back his true strength during their little adventure. It's quite possible that Vader couldn't identify Palpatines true strength/limits and decided not to challenge him without Luke (insurance) for that reason. He could just generally be overestimating Palpatine.
Also it’s not like Vader was back to his pre-Mustafar strength immediately after being put in the suit. It took some time to get used to and to learn how to use the pain and anger to increase his connection to the force. Also like Galan007 said, Palpatine was probably growing more powerful as well. That would explain why he never reached Palpatine’s level
The way I look at it is like a football play who had a bad injury but came back and became even better than before. It would still take the football player a lot of time to recover and regain their old skills.
I was about to scoff at that, considering Anakin could just be weaker in the NuCanon, but then I realized this was Sheevwank. And since I am obligated to peddle and support all reasonable Sheevwank, this will be my main Sidious ranking from now on
But it's also a completely logical assertion based on the info at hand.
We know that Vader's injuries never really gimped his potential. We know that his armor never really hindered his power/skill. We know his connection to the Force was stronger than ever as a result of his injuries. We have every reason to believe that his overall abilities only increased over the years.
So in order for Palpatine to maintain supremacy over Vader, his own powers must have increased substantially as well... And given the knowledge-hoarding that Palpatine was doing, there's really no logical way for his power to not have increased over the course of 20+ years.
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"I am tired of Earth. These people.
I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."
Correct, though what I was getting at was Anakin's power. In Legends, he was godlike at the time of Knightfall, but only because he was about to be pushed back down to reasonable levels.
It was a little hard for me to believe that he would be that powerful in Canon, since that would scale RotJ Palpatine leagues beyond every other force user up to his time (aside from the Ones). Although this would lend some credence to Vader's claim that his master was more powerful than the Bendu.
But then Luke and Rey would be even crazier levels of powerful. I guess I can accept it for now, but this really changes things.
Probably because you're still thinking of Knightfall Anakin from Legends, who was mused(if not directly stated) to be the most powerful Jedi in the Order, and beyond even Yoda at the time. Then Mustafar happened and he diminished significantly across the board.
In canon, however, 'Knightfall' Anakin doesn't have the accolades of his Legends counterpart -- all we know is that he was obviously very powerful/skilled. Difference in canon is that after the events of RotS, Vader wasn't implied to have diminished at all. To the contrary, his power/skill was greater than ever. ie. if he was a 10 before Mustafar, he was still a 10 after... And only continued growing from there.
__________________
"I am tired of Earth. These people.
I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."
Last edited by Galan007 on Apr 1st, 2020 at 05:06 PM