Yoda disarms Sidious. This is obvious. For you to interpret the script's description as Sidious dropping his lightsaber on purpose is flat out ridiculous. It didn't say Sidious put his lightsaber down. He dropped it. As in "oh shit, I just lost my lightsaber because Yoda is beating the shit out of me." Hence the qualifer; "...but recovers with a BLAST OF ENERGY..."This is similar to how a football player drops/fumbles the ball after being drilled. Please cease with the desperate interpretation.
That's not interpretation that's what text says. Yoda caused him to almost fall from platform and Sidious dropped lightsaber as result. That wouldn't happen, if it was on even ground.
Similarly Kenobi dropped his lightsaber to grab onto something, when Maul Force pushed him.
In either case losing lightsaber is a matter of circumstance rather than saber skill difference.
To be honest I'm not sure I buy into him being disadvantaged, since it was his choice to move the fight there. And Yoda having to jump around edge of the senate pod isn't exactly ideal for him.
Yoda jumps around just like in AotC, while Sidious stays statically in one place. In all other fights Sidious relied on foot work and acrobatics.
And yes, it was his choice and it gave him edge in Force fight.
Originally posted by Vorpal Ruin
Caedus couldn't beat Luke in a fair fight either.
They never had fair fight. First fight happened through illusions and Jacen was at disadvantage because of lack of gravity in his place.
And this fight wasn't fair either. Jacen wasn't prepared not physically, nor mentally, when Luke suddenly attacked him from behind and as result scored a lightsaber gash in kidney, which gave him even more advantage. It could be argued that the wound gave Luke no advantage because Jacen draws on pain but I have evidence that it isn't so:
"A sudden infliction of pain could surprise him, surely. But it couldn't keep him down.
He let the pain flow through him as though it were the Force. He internalized it, experiencing it as an old friend-albeit an old friend he didn't necessarily want visiting him too often.
He stood and moved forward. His first few steps were awkward and slow, his later ones sure, and once he was in full mastery of his body and the pain that suffused it, he put on a burst of speed in traditional Jedi fashion, outracing the blaster bolts that tailed him."
This proves that Jacen cannot overcome pain instantly and explains why fight with Luke at the beginning was onesided. Jacen used wines to get some time to regain his composure and after that he is able to seriously batter Luke in return.
Also I just wanted to add that just because anger made Luke stronger in a fight 40 years ago doesn't mean the same holds true for an older more mature Luke. He's usually most lethal when he has a clear head is focussed and almost cockey. Luke actually comments on it right after his fight with jacen when he says to Ben "you can't surrender to your rage Ben. I did that with lumiya, and all it did was make me weak."
Luke wasn't refering to combat. After he killed Lumya, he found out that she wasn't the murderer, which put Luke only into farther depression. As of actual fight with Lumya on opposite Luke performed better against her than before:
"He'd relied on the shoto as an extra weapon in the past to counter the whip's twin elements of matter and energy, but he was flooded with a new confidence that he could take her with just the lightsaber that had always stood between him and darkness."
And how you define "most lethal performance"? I define it as fighting much more aggressively than usually. Fight against Jacen was the most aggressive and he utilized far more dirty techniques than ever before.
Maybe you meant best perfrormance? If yes, then there is absolutely no way to prove, if Luke's past performances were any better than this one.
One of Luke's best performances was against Slayers. Yet, Jacen and Jaina fought them too. Yes, Luke killed more than them but that's rather small difference in performance. But keep in mind that both twins weren't as skilled at the time. Jacen in one of the NJO books stated that he is not particularly good in sabers and never trained as much as Anakin.
Also, I will put accent on Jaina's performance:
"The quartets began to square off with Luke and Jacen, while the larger group formed up opposite Jaina. Seeing that Luke and Jacen were the stronger fighters, the slayers had decided to reserve most of their might for the Jedi they perceived as being the weakest, guessing that Luke and Jacen would always go to Jaina's aid before attempting to reach Shimrra." - this proves that Jaina was hardpressed more than Luke and Jacen, so logically she would kill less as she had to fight more defensively to survive. Moreover, she withdrew from fight right in the middle. Nevertheless, this feat shows that all three are very close in combat skill.
Continue with Jaina. Despite her already demonstrating close to Luke saber performance in YV war, she improved even more. She kept drilling saber skill with Zekk and undergone Mandalorian training in order to confront Jacen. Yet, in final battle she barely won and even with only one hand Jacen still had apper hand in saber fight for the most part:
"A black boot heel came shooting under Jaina's guard, driving hard into her sore ribs. She stifled a cry and circled into the shadows, trying to acclimate her eyes to the darkness because it was impossible to sense Caedus in the Force. He fought to keep his advantage, dancing back and forth behind his crimson blade, anticipating her every move-and making her pay for each step with a painful kick or elbow strike".
Finally this:
"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".
Both Jacen and Jaina proved to be far superior to Kyp. He lost fight against single Alpha infected Slayer, while they engaged multiple healthy Slayers and even killed some. Jaina specifically had around 7 Slayers attacking her at the beginning. And Jacen demonstrated more impressive performance against Katarn aided by three JK than Luke against this Sith:
"In one sense, it was a beautiful and brilliant thing to see. The five combatants moved as though they'd been choreographing this event for years and had planned, all along, that the two sides would somehow be even
...
Caedus rolled out of Katarn's kick to his head, catching a scrape along his cheek, and swung at the Master's leg, but Kolir's blade intercepted his before it bit into flesh. His strength batted her weapon away, but she had deflected his blow and spared Katarn an amputation.
They're coordinating. Good for them. Bad for me". - only because of coordinated team work Katarn lasted as long as he did.
As you see all direct and indirect performance comparison implies that Caedus is on level with Luke.