Originally posted by Gideon
No, I prefer Nebaris's attorney-esque attempts to cast doubt onto such statements;
Well, considering that you, and I quote, "would wager that [I'd] make a pretty decent lawyer," can I take this to mean that you give my doubt casting skills mad ratingz? (For future reference, kissing my ass on the constant when we're on good terms and then bitching about me when we're not only makes you look extremely idiotic, and I'd suggest having better control over your lips in the future for just that reason.)
"most devastatingly powerful foe the darkness had ever known" = based on the accumulated amount of time that Yoda had spent fighting it as opposed to innate strength. WTF?
All I said was that it was a factor that may have been taken into consideration, actually, which makes perfect sense.
For instance, let's pretend that there just magically happened to be someone with an even higher super genius level intellect than myself (impossible, I know, but let's just pretend for the sake of the analogy), and like me, would rigorously attack the position that Sidious is the most powerful Sith Lord there's ever been. Being more intelligent (and let's say more knowledgeable and experienced as well), he would be better equipped to attack the stance, but let's add another twist to the scenario. Let's say, after his very first debate on the matter, Darth Sexy, being the evil bastard he is, were to hunt him down, permanently disable his fingers, and thereby take away his ability to post on these forums ever again.
While being better equipped (and not necessarily by that much) to attack the stance, he would have only been able to do so for one debate, and one debate alone. In comparison to my years of debates of attacking the stance, as more gifted as he may have been, he simply wouldn't have been in a position to be as devastating to the position as myself, and thus, I would be better labelled the more devastatingly powerful foe [of the ridiculously stupid stance].
Yoda, having been a many-century old Jedi Master, and having fought against the dark side to such an extent that his victories over it were labelled a "legion," would simply be in a better position than say, a Jedi with the average human lifespan, to be more devastating to such an everlasting enemy. However, that doesn't deny the idea that there may have been Jedi before him (Hoth being a possible contender), who would have been better equipped, at a certain given time, at fighting against "the darkness," which is exactly why the quote proves nothing.
Please note that I'm not saying, definitively, that Yoda wasn't the most powerful Jedi up until that point in time (in fact, based on existing evidence, I would say that he is definitely the top contender), I'm just saying that the quote in question doesn't directly translate into that, and even then, as I was saying to Styles, there's still the question of the canonicity of the entire scene that frames the statement, which vastly differs from the movie's version of events.
"[the Galactic Emperor] succeeded where all others failed in taming the dark side" = To tame is to make weaker, ego Sidious made the dark side weaker. WTF?
No, that's not what I was saying at all (and I certainly wouldn't have ever misspelled "ergo"😉; what I was saying, was that "taming the dark side" could just as easily translate into toning down its destructive nature as it could dark side mastery (which is what you and Lightsnake were trying to definitively pass off the statement as at the time in question), and the burden of proof being on you and not me means that it was up to you to definitively prove such an interpretation wrong, and not up to me to do the opposite.
"Yoda could not defeat the most powerful Sith Lord in history" = wrong, because it was said by a fallible third party.
No, I was saying that it wasn't necessarily right (there's a difference) because of that, which I'm exactly correct in saying.
"Ancient Sith pwnz all!!1!" = factual, because the fallible third party who mentioned it is not fallible, or if she is, she is somehow a superior source than the historical council of a galactic superpower with resources and investigative reach that tool the shit out of anything Traya has. The list goes on and on and on.
I can only assume that you've been out drinking, Gideon, because I haven't so much as even made a reference to that... ever.
Don't be fooled, younglings, simply declaring that a certain quote can be portrayed multiple ways without providing the basis of evidence does not cut it.
I provide the basis of evidence every single time; you can deny it all you want, but you're only lying to yourself Gideon. I mean honestly, you say the same thing virtually all the time, yet, and when I can be bothered, as soon as I copy and paste previous arguments that prove that you're lying out of your ass, you run off, only to be talking the same bullshit in another one of your rants. It's childish.
And no, given how the burden of proof has always been on you in these situations, it's not only fully up to you to provide these quotes, but it's also fully up to you to establish how they definitively fit the interpretation that your argument relies on.
You've never been able to do so, and you still quite clearly can't.