Rahm Kota vs Qui-Gon Jinn

i don't know about embarrassed, he just blocks the attacks. and laughs... which is kinda ironic, because he ends up getting played with by the force later in the duel... I'll post the fight i guess:

"He raised his left hand and with the power of the dark side unleashed a bolt of Sith lightning at the renegade Jedi.

Kota only laughed. Raising his left hand in a move that was a mirror image of the apprentice's own, he sent the lightning arcing back to its source. The energy struck both of them, hurling them apart.

The apprentice broke off the attempt, blinking smoke away from his eyes. His anger intensified. He was the first to his feet and running as soon as his boots touched the deck. He felt completely weightless, yet full of momentum, like a hurled spear. His red blade cut a blur through the air, aimed hard at Kota's throat.

The Jedi general ducked and swept his green lightsaber up and down in a lazy attempt to catch him as he went by. That was a move the apprentice had long ago learned to avoid by tucking his head down closer to his center of gravity and rolling in midair, then kicking himself back at his opponent off the nearest wall. This time he pushed telekinetically as he came, attempting to knock Kota's feet out from under him before bringing his blad to bear.

Again, however, Kota deflected his Force energies back at him. Again they were pushed apart.

More cautiously the apprentice circled him, slicing chairs to pieces as he walked and sending the glowing fragments at his enemy's head. Anger made him eager to attack, but he knew better than to give in to it. He hadn't been humiliated. He had successfully tested Kota's defenses. Now that he knew a direct attack would probably fail, he had to find another way to get closer to the man. Or to make the Jedi come to him.

I'll stop right there, and say i don't see the embarrassment of which you spoke. In fact, from the apprentices viewpoint, it was quoted as not being embarrassment. The rest of the fight goes downhill for Kota, so i'm thinking you were referring to that passage.

Suddenly Kota was moving, charging with astonishing speed behind a furious diversity of strokes. The apprentice retreated with lips pulled back over his teeth. This is more like it! Green and red energies clashed as he blocked blow after blow and still Kota kept coming, attempting to overwhelm him with sheer determination and speed. The apprentice went back four steps, then stopped. He drew his blade close around him, forming a tight defense in deliberate imitation of the Soresu style that Obi-Wan Kenobi had favored. Realizing he couldn't penetrate it, Kota backed off and tried a different style--slow, deliberate, with sudden and devastatingly quick strikes. These, too, the apprentice parried, and when the old man's guard looked to be slipping, he offered strikes of his own.

The duel raged all across the control center, which shook and rattled as teh facility around it broke apart. The apprentice ignored everything else--Junl's voice, the wildly fluctuating gravity, the never-ending explosions, the rising temperature of the floor beneath him--in order to concentrate solely on this one vital battle. Kota wouldn't beat him, but could he beat Kota? He had to. He would rather go down with the ship than break off and admit failure. Darth Vader's secret apprentice knew which fate would await him if he did.

The general was wily and strong and possessed some moves the apprentice had never seen before. But he was older and willfully ignorant of the dark side of the Force. He attempted his charge attack two more times, obviously hoping to force a mistake or wear out his opponent, but it was he whoe started to show the effects of the duel, he who took hits. Soon his cloak was a smoking rag and one of his shoulder pads was glowing red-hot.

The apprentice pressed harder, feeling victory and the attainment of his full power approaching. Soon the Jedi's lightsaber--and head--would be his. Then he truly would be worthy of his Master's praise!

He caught the general in a choke hold and maintained his grip even though it turned partially back on him. He had been ready for this; his lungs were full. The general, however clutched at his throat with one hand while barely managing to parry with the other. The apprentice let teh fire in his lungs fuel his lust for triumph. Even as darkness crowded around the edges of his vision, he sent objects hurtling at Kota's legs and face, battling him on all fronts.

Finally a gragment of smoking debris strruck the general's knees from behind. With a cry of frustration, the flailing Jedi went down, his face purple and eyes bulging. The apprentice relented slightly, letting them both have a little air, but before Kota could scramble to his feet he was on him, pressing down on their locked lightsabers, which sizzled just millimeters from their faces.

Kota strained but couldnt force the red blade away. In his blue eyes the apprentice saw not cleansing hatred, but regret. Even at the end, Kota clung to his weak Jedi ways.

"Vader thinks"--the old man gasped--"he's turned you. but i can sense your future--and Vader isn't part of it!"

The apprentice urged the lightsabers even closer to Kota's face.

Sweat beaded on the Jedi Master's forehead. "I sense--I sense only..." A look of shock and confusion passed over his face. "Me?"

The apprentice force Kota's own lightsaber down into his eyes.

[/fight]

I don't think that a fight the apprentice was that in control of really counts as a "hell of a fight"

besides, i repeat, Marek was at his weakest.

Are you kidding? That proves how long the duel was.

"How long" is not a translation of "Kota did good."

Actually, it kind of is. Usually a long duel means that it was pretty close.

Originally posted by Lucien A
"How long" is not a translation of "Kota did good."

Now, I make room for the possibility that I could be mistaken, but I cannot seem to think of an instance where a lengthly duel is not an indicator of the skills and talents of both combatants, unless one party is toying with the other (which Marek was not).

The narrative depicts General Kota casually deflecting Marek's lightning one handed, while laughing, which left the apprentice rather angry, due no doubt to the fact that it was unexpected and executed with ease. When they clash blades, Kota merely ducks and "lazily" attempts a counterattack; he's not taking Marek seriously initially. Marek then attempts to telekinetically hurl Kota aside, but the general deflects that as well, prompting Marek to regard and attack the general "more cautiously."

Initially, yes, Kota was handling himself better than Marek. That the apprentice muses "he hadn't been humiliated" may or may not be true; he wasn't decimated or knocked aside, but his attempts to subdue the general were handled rather casually, which -- by the narrative -- initially pissed Marek off and then prompted him to reevaluate his strategy. To quote Marek: "the general was wily and strong and possessed some moves the apprentice had never seen before." As is the case with certain individuals, Marek attributes much of Kota's inability to defeat him to age. Hell, even when Marek attempts to use a Vader-esque surprise choke hold on Kota, the general deflects that, and Marek only comes out with the better hand because he was expecting (but could not prevent) the deflection, his lungs "full" of air to expire.

Suffice it to say that Kota performed excellently and seemed to lose more or less due to stamina. His technique and defenses seemed much better than Marek's and initially was not only doing better in combat with the constant deflection of energy, but also in mindset. It was Marek, on the other hand, who was initially knocked aside and made to get very angry.

Kohta was never close to defeating the apprentice though. That's the problem. Plus, i'm going to call him neophyte Marek again.

And then ask this: Maybe the entire fight i posted is non-canon. WHy? because isn't the entire fight shown in cutscenes from TFU? if it is, that would be like a book contradicting a movie, so the book falls by the wayside. If there are breaks in the fight between cutscenes in TFU, the novel above would still be canon. I haven't played TFU myself, so i'm not sure. (watched the cutscenes, but i don't remember if it contains the entire fight or not)

I appreciate the lawyer's approach to subvert and remove the novelization as a credible source, but General Kota is a boss -- the first boss -- in the game. Fighting him consists of gameplay, and so it's rather obvious that the duel is not seen entirely in the cutscene. Only the end move.

okay, good deal, i actually prefer fights to be written out. I just had that thought the other day, that mebbe TFU novel was perhaps a poor source of canon.
thanks for answering that question.

I have only played the game, but I am going to get the novel this weekend. It didn't really show the fight except for the end, but kota was powerful with the force.

jinn wald smash kota man!

Nothing Rahm kota has demonstrated has impressed me in the least bit. Qui Gon Jinn wins this one.

Qui-Gon.