You all amuse me.
First, Luke's assessment of Gaalan's skills is just that: an assessment by a fallible third party. Not that it's wrong, but I'd say there should be a little more discussion for this thread.
Second, Luke smiling doesn't mean Gaalan wasn't his equal (not that he was), since Sidious smiled and laughed his ass of in his fight with Yoda in Revenge of the Sith. Does that mean Yoda isn't on Sidious's level? 🙂
Originally posted by Gideon
You all amuse me.First, Luke's assessment of Gaalan's skills is just that: an assessment by a fallible third party. Not that it's wrong, but I'd say there should be a little more discussion for this thread.
Second, Luke smiling doesn't mean Gaalan wasn't his equal (not that he was), since Sidious smiled and laughed his ass of in his fight with Yoda in Revenge of the Sith. Does that mean Yoda isn't on Sidious's level? 🙂
No, but Sidious' smile was promptly reduced to nothing. The author DID make it obvious that Luke was the superior fighter, which is why he was smiling.
It would be nice if the fool(s) who are taking issue with my assessment could at least provide a quote of the fight then. I've already explained that I'm getting my info from ****ing Wookiepedia, it's not as if I have the novel sprawled out on my lap and I'm just ****ing illiterate or something.
Douchebag(s).
book
The Sith leader's voice was cultured, surprisingly pleasant. "You are Grand Master Luke Skywalker."Luke nodded. "My son, Ben. Our friend Dyon Stadd."
"I am Lord Viun Gaalan, the last man you will ever meet. Much admiration will be accorded me for killing Luke Skywalker. Especially by the family of Lady Rhea, whom you slew."
Luke shook his head. "No, you aren't, and no, it won't."
Lord Gaalan ignited his lightsaber; the clover-like growth on the meadow glowed red in its light. The other three Sith and the Jedi ignited theirs a split second afterward. Dyon drew his twin blaster pistols.
Luke and Gaalan hurtled together, green lightsaber blade crashing on red, a blow that would have thrown any two lesser Force-users back half a dozen meters, but the two of them were unmoved. The female Sith beside Gaalan struck at Luke, but he merely adjusted the angle of his blade against Gaalan's to catch her attack. Luke kicked, forcing the woman back; she fell, rolling into a backward somersault and coming up on her feet.
Ben hurtled toward the other Sith male. Luke, in his peripheral vision, saw his son stop short and reverse direction. The Sith man, lunging toward him, slipped off-balance, and his lightsaber flew from his hand.
Blasterfire flashed from Dyon at the disarmed Sith. The Sith man caught the first bolt with his open hand, but, still off-balance, could not catch the second. It seared into his knee. The third took him in the shoulder; the fourth, in the throat.
The second Sith female leapt toward Dyon. He retreated, an expert dodge that caused her to miss his left arm with her lightsaber; the blow cleaved through his left-hand blaster instead.
The woman who'd supported Gaalan now ran at Ben.
Gaalan struck at Luke, high, low, a series of subtle and sophisticated blows that would have bewildered any lesser duelist. He was good; Luke gave him that. He might have been a match for an expert swordsmaster such as Kyp or Kyle Katarn. He would have been too much for a comparatively diffident duelist such as Cilghal, or even Luke as he had been back at Sinkhole Station, at low ebb in physical and mental strength.
But Luke, despite recent exertions, had had time to recover. He parried each of Gaalan's blows, and his ripostes-his blade skittering off Gaalan's and thrusting now at the Sith Lord's face, now at shoulder or knee or torso-came increasingly close to touching flesh.
Luke smiled at the man.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Vestara took her lightsaber in hand and ran, her speed boosted by the Force.
One Sith Saber was down, dead. This still should have been a lopsided match, Gaalan matching Luke, the first female Saber matching Ben, the second Saber overmatching Dyon and almost killing the Jedi washout instantly.
But Dyon was proving hard to kill. He bobbed and weaved, backflipped and somersaulted, keeping just above or below the Saber's blows, firing at his foe in the midst of his acrobatic maneuvers. His blaster shots went wild or were caught on the woman's lightsaber blade, but they had to be reckoned with, countered.
He dived for the dead Saber's lightsaber, the hand that had held his now severed blaster empty, reaching for the weapon. He hit the ground, rolled-and came up with nothing in his clenched fist, having missed the lightsaber hilt.
He looked stricken. The female Saber advancing on him smiled.
Dyon backflipped away from her, his free arm flailing in the air-
No, his clenched fist was not empty. It opened as he flailed and the handful of clover and dirt he held flew, spattering into the face of Ben's opponent. She staggered back, taken momentarily by surprise.
Ben cut her in half at the waist. Dyon landed, no longer looking stricken.
Vestara grimaced. That was Firen's ploy, used only semi-successfully in her last bout with Luke. Now it had changed the odds as intended, tilting them against the Sith.
Ben charged against Dyon's enemy. Dyon returned to the dropped lightsaber and picked it up with his free hand, all the while maintaining blasterfire against Ben's new opponent. That Saber used her lightsaber to bat his blasterfire toward Ben, but the boy, with reflexes like lightning, batted the bolt straight back at her. It caught her on her sword wrist. She staggered back, pain crossing her features. Dyon's next bolt and Ben's next strike, launched reflexively, before they could even assess her condition or offer her surrender, both caught her, the bolt in her gut and the lightsaber across her neck. Her head flew free, straight up into the air, as her body was propelled straight back into the side of the shuttle.
Vestara slowed, dropping the Force boost to her running speed.
The others sensed her presence. Luke shifted rightward, not abandoning his concentration on Gaalan but putting Vestara's angle of approach in his peripheral vision. Ben turned toward Vestara and-seeing Ben's shift-Dyon did as well.
Gaalan took that moment of adjustment to act. He backflipped straight through the open boarding hatch of the shuttle. The hatch rose. Luke hurtled forward, got his lightsaber blade into the hatchway before it entirely closed, and began burning a narrow furrow around the periphery of the hatch.
But the shuttle thrusters fired. Lord Gaalan could be seen in the cockpit, features beautiful and impassive as ever, in control of the vehicle. It skidded forward, leaving a meters-wide trench in the ground. Its nose lifted before it had traveled thirty meters, and it went airborne.