I go with team 1 in scenario 1, and team 2 in scenario two.
Krayt unarmored is better than Bane unarmored, but Bane armored is better than Krayt armored. Krayt gains additional force powers and no endurance limit when unarmored, and he's more experienced. Bane, on the flip side, gains both additional powers and invulnerabilities when armored while Krayt's armor only provides some physical power and holds him back in the force.
Not pointing any fingers but people seem to have a habit of perceiving Bane to have been some kind of newb back in his PoD days before acquiring his orbalisk armor when to this day some of his best feats were performed in that book. There were even some people who had him as a potential top 5 Force User of all time soon after the book came out (a common list would have included DE Sidious, Darth Nihilus, Darth Bane, Exar Kun and NJO Luke Skywalker). Drew didn't do the best job of scaling up his power realistically in RoT, with the added advantages of the orbalisks and all his extra experience, though to be fair he probably would have become pretty overpowered if he had.
Originally posted by Mizukage Yoda
Galen Marek defeats Exar Kun imo.
But Krayt undoubtedly gets put down by Bane.
In armor, yes. Sans armor, it switches around.
Reminder of what Krayt does:
Makes himself felt across the galaxy with the force.
Rising himself from the dead.
Powerful illusions that's overcome a Sith who've killed sith of legendary power with his own illusions.
Kills people by pouring the force into the shatterpoints- if he gets his hand on a foe, they're dead.
Much more experience.
Was the vision that caused Jacen to fall to the darkside in order to gain the power to stop.
He did accomplish with Dark Transfer the kind of power over life and death that was what Palpatine and Anakin long sought, so he's even advanced force knowledge in an area beyond prior sith lords.
Krayt's overlooked around here but he's pretty beastly, on a level with other high-tier Sith.
Haven't read DoE but even PoD Bane is a good level beyond Krayt imo. Neither PoD or Legacy are super fresh in my mind so I might not be able to give you the most precise or comprehensive information, but from what I remember Bane's feats from PoD alone include:
Creating storms of lightning that engulfed a large training hall something like an hour after first learning it.
Creating a Force Wave that collapsed the Rakatan Temple.
Toying with and then annihilating Sirak, moving so quickly he was practically invisible for a brief moment.
Completely dominating Qordis with the Force, tearing through his defenses "as if they weren't even there".
Brushing off Kaan's attempts to influence him with laughable ease.
Having been winning against Kas'im in their lightsaber duel in quite dominating fashion until the bladesmaster switched to a weapon and style that Bane had never seen before.
Acting as a conduit for the Storm the Brotherhood of Darkness unleashed on Ruusan, containing and redirecting the energy across the entire planet.
Bare in mind that by the end of PoD he would likely be able to outperform a lot of those very feats seeing as most were performed early or midway through the book, and he doesn't stop growing in power throughout it.
Krayt's impressive in some ways but Bane, and again we're just talking about his PoD incarnation here, has imo displayed the superior feats that would directly lend itself to an encounter between the two of them - the Force Lightning, the Force Wave, his speed and lightsaber prowess, dominating other Force Users - and he's ultimately displayed greater overall power and mastery with the role he played in channeling the entire BoD's power across Ruusan.
A lot of Krayt's feats, such as rising from the dead, and making himself felt across the galaxy don't really directly relate to combat and stuff like pouring the Force into shatterpoints would require him to be able to grab a hold of Bane in the first place, and if this is purely a contest of who's ultimately displayed greater power and mastery, Bane containing and redirecting a storm that was destroying the entire planet of Ruusan takes the cake in pure scale.
A lot of Krayt's feats, such as rising from the dead, and making himself felt across the galaxy don't really directly relate to combat and stuff like pouring the Force into shatterpoints would require him to be able to grab a hold of Bane in the first place,
The illusions definitely do. He's also the most dominant lightsaber user in his era, of which there is precisely jack squat to indicate is any less powerful in sabers than most other eras, and much more experienced than Bane with saber. When he was a century and a half less skilled, weaker in the force, etc. he was only a bit below Obi-wan.
And shatterpoints, while only an auto-kill if he gets a hand on, also means that he has shatterpoints in general and can see them in combat, Bane doesn't.
Also he's good enough with force absorption to palm-block lightning.
The raising from the dead has the purpose that if he goes for a mutual kill strike, he gets back up, his foe doesn't.
but even PoD Bane is a good level beyond Krayt imo.
I really don't think that's what the feats say, he does a lot in the force that Bane never does, that heck, Palpatine and others wanted to do and never managed, and is the more experienced. Bane, we know is surpassable, he has been surpassed, that was the point of the RoT, and Krayt has better feats than those who've beaten Bane.
People largely seem to discount Krayt because he's in an era they're less familiar with.
Originally posted by Q99
The illusions definitely do.
To an extent but the rate at which battles between Force Users are decided by more conventional and overtly physical means, could suggest that greater significance and relevance lies in those areas. Of course it is something that has been shown to be used in combat to effect and that's why I agree that it is impressive and relevant but at the same time I don't think a strong case could be made that it could be effectively used against a significantly powerful Force User, just because he may not have shown an exact skill in that area. If we look specifically at Bane, he has shown a general level of tremendous power and mastery with the Force, he has demonstrated this through a variety of techniques, and while not exactly the same thing as an illusion if we look under the general umbrella of mental abilities, he shrugged off Kaan's attempts to mentally influence him with comical ease, a very powerful Sith Lord with a noted talent for mental influence that he exercised over every single other high level master in the order. The point being, Bane has not only shown himself a very capable Force User, but we have strong evidence to believe, both if we look at this literally or thematically, that he basically doesn't really have any holes in his game, and this would appear to extend to both physical and mental realms. Likewise, illusions are never really portrayed in any sense to be this rare, exotic and decisive ability to which you need specific, advanced defensive training for and I think ultimately you wouldn't really be able to make a case that this battle would be fought in such a realm, or that Krayt would be able to decisively emerge victorious in such a scenario.
He's also the most dominant lightsaber user in his era, of which there is precisely jack squat to indicate is any less powerful in sabers than most other eras, and much more experienced than Bane with saber. When he was a century and a half less skilled, weaker in the force, etc. he was only a bit below Obi-wan.
I'll need to refamiliarize myself with the Legacy era before I can really comment on this though I will say that the pre-Ruusan era would likely have been a high point for both the Jedi and the Sith when it comes to general Jedi-on-Sith combat simply because they had been at war with each other for approximately 1000 years, which not only would have shaped Jedi and Sith philosophy and methodology to meet the needs of the times, but both Jedi and Sith would probably have faced far tougher trials than most other eras and emerged from them with a relatively higher level of battle experience. So I think it's likely that generally speaking the Jedi and Sith of those times probably were more proficient with a lightsaber and other appropriate skills than other eras, and that isn't to say that the Legacy era isn't good, just that it's probably not as great.
That being said, I don't think it would necessarily be a comparison of eras when you specifically isolate Kas'im and Bane who in both cases appear to be talents of anomalous proportions. As far as documented skill with a lightsaber goes, Kas'im, on paper, as far as I know is easily the single most impressive lightsaber technician that we've come across and a strong Force User to boot, and Bane, an incredibly strong guy who's form was handpicked for him to make use of that great strength, has just about the greatest selection of speed feats I believe we've ever seen, so just as Kas'im stands out for his technical merits Bane stands out just as much for his physical gifts, and that's not touching upon what would appear to be an abnormally high learning rate with the weapon.
So it's not so much a case of one era being better than the other; both eras can be roughly even, with Kas'im and Bane both acting as statistical outliers, and in both cases they have proven far more than Krayt has with a lightsaber.
Sure, Krayt's more experienced, but Bane's learning ability - in general and specifically with a lightsaber - appears to be one of the greatest, possible the greatest, that we've ever seen demonstrated. The guy was able to perfectly memorize the millions of techniques that encompassed Kas'im's vast arsenal while progressing in his own style, all in the matter of months while balancing his lightsaber study with his Force practice. You refer to Krayt's earlier years, well by comparison I don't believe he was ever truly demonstrated to be a great talent or a prodigy or anything, nothing presented him as standing out in particular, and while Obi-Wan could be looked upon favorably from some angles I think in comparison to the likes of Bane and Kas'im he cannot, he is worlds away from the former in power and worlds away from the latter in technique. I don't think you can really say that Krayt was only a little below Obi-Wan from that encounter in the first place anyway.
I don't think it would be inaccurate at all to claim that Bane's prodigious learning ability renders Krayt's greater experience irrelevant, and physically speaking Krayt has not demonstrated himself to be in the same universe that Bane has. Also, a lot of that time was spent in stasis was it not?
And shatterpoints, while only an auto-kill if he gets a hand on, also means that he has shatterpoints in general and can see them in combat, Bane doesn't.
Can we really say that they are an auto-kill for certain? Is there something special about the technique that bypasses Bane's defenses against external physical influence?
Sure it's an advantage but the truth is that Bane may very well not possess a Shatterpoint in such an encounter, or at least one that Krayt would be able to detect, and then there is the question of whether or not he'll be able to exploit it if he does. I believe that in Shatterpoint even Mace Windu noted that he would find it difficult to detect shatterpoints in dynamic situations and in his fight against Palpatine in the RotS novelization it takes him a while to determine what his shatterpoint was and when he finally does it turns out to be entirely situational (his shatterpoint was Anakin, who was present at the time). You should also consider that if he does have a momentary hole in his defense it'll probably only be there for the briefest of moments and be very hard to exploit given his speed.
Basically, I think it's a technique that probably won't impact the fight and I think it's a poor substitute for being far quicker and stronger.
Also he's good enough with force absorption to palm-block lightning.
Impressive to an extent but does nothing to make him stand out in this comparison.
The raising from the dead has the purpose that if he goes for a mutual kill strike, he gets back up, his foe doesn't.
Sure but this again relies on an extremely unlikely scenario and I'm not even sure the rules of this thread would even take that into account.
I really don't think that's what the feats say, he does a lot in the force that Bane never does, that heck, Palpatine and others wanted to do and never managed,
There are large number of characters who perform things in an unprecedented manner and while it is often a demonstration of their general ability it usually has much more to do with them having a specific talent or specific knowledge for a specific technique, whether you look at Sion's ability to regenerate or Traya's precog, to the Halycon family's energy absorption. Bane himself demonstrates feats of speed that are unprecedented, and the same can be said about his performance during the Brotherhood's ritual on Ruusan.
I do agree that Krayt maybe deserves more credit but the truth is that Bane has demonstrated power and mastery on a greater scale, and he's demonstrated greater aptitude in specific areas that are more likely going to be of significance in a battle between the two of them.
and is the more experienced. Bane, we know is surpassable, he has been surpassed, that was the point of the RoT, and Krayt has better feats than those who've beaten Bane.
Practically anybody is surpassable and that absolutely applies to Krayt. The principles behind the RoT were hardly realistic but in fact largely idealistic and in any event the idea behind it was that the apprentice would kill the master using any means necessary, whether he kills his master in his sleep or openly challenges him to a fight to the death, and through whatever means that he managed to do it, he earned his place as master and proved that he was the stronger of the two and in turn made the order stronger. It was in no way or form about each successive generation becoming greater combatants.
People largely seem to discount Krayt because he's in an era they're less familiar with.
Possibly but the same can be said with regards to PoD Bane and people forgetting that a lot of the greatest feats from the trilogy came from that very first book.
To an extent but the rate at which battles between Force Users are decided by more conventional and overtly physical means, could suggest that greater significance and relevance lies in those areas.
Maybe, but the guy that he overcame with illusions? In turn killed Darth Andeddu purely with illusion, an ancient sith from the original Sith Empire that was so powerful the other ancient sith ganged up to take him down, due to his force power via such means.
And even Luke uses illusions to gain an advantage, so they're certainly still useful.
I'll need to refamiliarize myself with the Legacy era before I can really comment on this though I will say that the pre-Ruusan era would likely have been a high point for both the Jedi and the Sith when it comes to general Jedi-on-Sith combat simply because they had been at war with each other for approximately 1000 years, which not only would have shaped Jedi and Sith philosophy and methodology to meet the needs of the times, but both Jedi and Sith would probably have faced far tougher trials than most other eras and emerged from them with a relatively higher level of battle experience.
One of Bane's big complaints is the Sith were in decline and had been losing knowledge. Remember that before Kaan came along, they weren't even unified, there had been centuries of independent Sith warlords clashing with each other and doing little sharing or passing on of knowledge. So not even Bane would agree with you on that one.
Legacy, on the flip side, has an order that came from Luke and draws on the experience of their many battles (rebellion, Vong War, Lost Tribe, etc.), as well as the Sith and Jedi fighting for the last 8 years strait, with a third force user party tossed in for good measure.
Krayt himself was from the Clone Wars, an era specifically noted as producing many of the best saber users of all time, and he was in the top 10 of the Jedi duelists back then when he was nothing compared to what he'd become.
I don't think it would be inaccurate at all to claim that Bane's prodigious learning ability renders Krayt's greater experience irrelevant,
Krayt was a prodigy himself, he killed Aurra Sing back when he was a young padawan.
And he has gained abilities from experience that not even Sith at the end of the Rule of Two possessed, let alone those at the beginning.
Also, a lot of that time was spent in stasis was it not?
A chunk of it was, but before he event went into stasis for significant periods he did stuff like cleared out a Vong warship empty handed and fought the Abeloth alongside Luke.
Can we really say that they are an auto-kill for certain? Is there something special about the technique that bypasses Bane's defenses against external physical influence?
We're talking like the technique that Caedus used to crush Vong armor barehanded, physical shatterpoints in objects. Bane has those, as does everything. This move has been used by Cade to crumble a supposedly indestructible force protected amulet to dust.
Sure it's an advantage but the truth is that Bane may very well not possess a Shatterpoint in such an encounter, or at least one that Krayt would be able to detect, and then there is the question of whether or not he'll be able to exploit it if he does. I believe that in Shatterpoint even Mace Windu noted that he would find it difficult to detect shatterpoints in dynamic situations and in his fight against Palpatine in the RotS novelization it takes him a while to determine what his shatterpoint was and when he finally does it turns out to be entirely situational (his shatterpoint was Anakin, who was present at the time).
Even the top-tier force users leave shatterpoints, and it is still an advantage, that Krayt has and Bane does not.
Throw in Krayt's greater experience with a blade and it could very well be telling. He's a physically powerful and fast duelist himself, without the armors involved he's at no particular disadvantage.
Sure but this again relies on an extremely unlikely scenario and I'm not even sure the rules of this thread would even take that into account.
It's not that unlikely, mutual strikes happen in SW duels, and more to the point, he can aim for it. He can see a strike that he can make only if he is willing to take a hit, he can react to opponents counting on him to defend. Krayt can, at any time, decide to put offense over defense knowing he can heal and his foe cannot.
And it still produces a win, so it's well within the range of this thread.
Possibly but the same can be said with regards to PoD Bane and people forgetting that a lot of the greatest feats from the trilogy came from that very first book.
Not at all, the Bane era is pretty popular and well known around here.
The Legacy era has people two, three tiers below Krayt who have double-digit Jedi/Sith killcounts in single days and people still don't give it a fair shake.
Originally posted by Q99
[B]One of Bane's big complaints is the Sith were in decline and had been losing knowledge. Remember that before Kaan came along, they weren't even unified, there had been centuries of independent Sith warlords clashing with each other and doing little sharing or passing on of knowledge. So not even Bane would agree with you on that one.
Bane absolutely wouldn't but the truth is that Bane was an overly harsh critic in all matters concerning the BoD and most of the disagreements that he expressed were of a more philosophical nature and from a cosmic point of view then a simple assessment of their skills. He was of the opinion that the Sith shouldn't have united in large numbers and fought a war with the Jedi in the first place, that by their nature the Sith were not made to cooperate en masse whereas the Jedi were and that the darkside, literally as its own entity, had grown weaker by its misuse in a sort of cosmic manner as it concerns the balance between the light and the dark. Likewise with the knowledge, sure they had lost a lot but we're led to believe that this for the most part was more along the lines of big dangerous things like deadly rituals and such that you cannot really use effectively in one-on-one combat; Bane certainly for the most part didn't drastically adjust his move set following the new knowledge he gained, he still for the most part relies on the basics: Force Lightning, telekinesis, his lightsaber etc.
But if you look primarily at the combat prowess of their individual members, I believe that the Sith were probably at a relatively high level in comparison to other eras, as were the Jedi.
Legacy, on the flip side, has an order that came from Luke and draws on the experience of their many battles (rebellion, Vong War, Lost Tribe, etc.), as well as the Sith and Jedi fighting for the last 8 years strait, with a third force user party tossed in for good measure.Krayt himself was from the Clone Wars, an era specifically noted as producing many of the best saber users of all time, and he was in the top 10 of the Jedi duelists back then when he was nothing compared to what he'd become.
I'm not claiming that other eras didn't see their fair share of war but it was not as prevalent as it was during the pre-Ruusan era, it wasn't primarily fought between legions of Jedi and Sith, and it hadn't lasted anywhere nearly as long to the point that it would have molded both sides into the warlike entities that the pre-Ruusan era had.
Also I'm not claiming that A'Sharad Hett sucked or anything but I don't think we have the evidence to claim that he was top ten in that era, I just don't recall him doing anything overly impressive during those times.
Krayt was a prodigy himself, he killed Aurra Sing back when he was a young padawan.
Would you really say that was enough to make him a prodigy? Aurra Sing was a deadly bounty hunter but as a Force User I don't believe she had been properly trained or was particularly potent, and you'll have to fill me in on the details surrounding their battle but I don't think we can really call him a prodigy based on that alone.
Regardless of whether you want to call him a prodigy or not, the fact remains that Bane was truthfully a prodigy among prodigies and has demonstrated a learning rate drastically greater than A'Sharad, and really anybody, ever did. They are by no means comparable in this regard, and referring to them both as prodigies simply illustrates how great a variance that term allows.
We're talking like the technique that Caedus used to crush Vong armor barehanded, physical shatterpoints in objects. Bane has those, as does everything. This move has been used by Cade to crumble a supposedly indestructible force protected amulet to dust.
The issue isn't whether Krayt would be able to detect those shatterpoints in Bane's body, the issue is whether he would be able to do anything about them and whether whatever method he uses to apply pressure on the shatterpoints bypasses the defenses Bane would have put up against any form of physical influence over him.
Throw in Krayt's greater experience with a blade and it could very well be telling. He's a physically powerful and fast duelist himself, without the armors involved he's at no particular disadvantage.
Experience is simply a means to an end, and that end is technical proficiency and despite Krayt's greater experience I believe Bane may very well be the more technically proficient duelist of the two - he has the superior lightsaber feats and while that may be largely because of his power in the Force, given how documented his learning ability with a lightsaber is and the fact that he basically set out to perfect all of his abilities I think it likely that his technical ability played pretty heavily into his overall skill as well. He's proven a great natural grasp of acquiring skill with a lightsaber, he was a perfectionist and he has great lightsaber showings that imply great technical skill. His exact skill with his chosen style hasn't been too strongly detailed but we have every reason to believe it's at a very high level as it wouldn't make sense that he would have made incredible progress with his Force abilities, incredible progress with familiarizing himself with Kas'im's technique but little progress on his own.
You can refer to Krayt as a fast duelist but the truth is Bane has vastly superior speed feats to the point that by comparison, he is not. On paper, as far as what they have both demonstrated, Bane possesses an overwhelming speed advantage.
It's not that unlikely, mutual strikes happen in SW duels, and more to the point, he can aim for it. He can see a strike that he can make only if he is willing to take a hit, he can react to opponents counting on him to defend. Krayt can, at any time, decide to put offense over defense knowing he can heal and his foe cannot.
They happen, but pretty rarely, and sure he absolutely could look for it but the truth is that I don't think he'd likely find it; regardless of whether his opponent will be looking for a mutual strike or not, a good swordsman with good defense will ultimately aim to never leave himself open, whether he's simply defending or going for a killing hit, largely because you can almost never be certain that your killing hit is definitely going to land or decisively land in such a way that it immediately puts a stop to your opponent's actions. Krayt can attack with reckless abandon but chances are he'll leave himself open and that Bane may very well exploit such an opening but not in a manner that would leave him vulnerable in that same moment.
I'd also be interested to know if Krayt has truly been shown to fight with such an approach in the comics, and to what effect if so.
And it still produces a win, so it's well within the range of this thread.
I guess I'd have to know the exact nature of the skill before commenting further; if he simply rises back from the dead a short time after being killed I guess it makes sense that you could consider it but these threads usually act out a sort of arena style battle and if the process involves this long, complicated process that extends far beyond the scope of the arena I would imagine it probably wouldn't count, in a similar way to somebody coming back as a Force Ghost and potentially being able to harm their opponent in that form.
Not at all, the Bane era is pretty popular and well known around here.
No what I mean is that it seems some people have forgotten how impressive Bane was even in his PoD days, since the other books came out, and sometimes have the habit of overlooking that incarnation, when as I said earlier in the thread at the time the book came out people were ranking him in their top 5 greatest of all time lists along with Nihilus, Sidious, Exar Kun (poor guy seems to have been forgotten) and Luke.
You forget that Krayt can use Dark Transfer to heal himself too. And that unlike most Sith that rely on a combination of Telekinetic Assaults and FL, Krayt only rarely used TK attacks, and primarily focused his power into his FL, and thus it would be hard to believe for it not to be powerful considering how strong a Force User he is.
No what I mean is that it seems some people have forgotten how impressive Bane was even in his PoD days, since the other books came out, and sometimes have the habit of overlooking that incarnation, when as I said earlier in the thread at the time the book came out people were ranking him in their top 5 greatest of all time lists along with Nihilus, Sidious, Exar Kun (poor guy seems to have been forgotten) and Luke.
But he's still had a hay-day of popularity- and more to the point, knowledge- around here is my point. Krayt hasn't, despite being the most dominant force-user in his era (and being top of an era alone normally gets people major props). He's got much better saber feats than Kun, great force feats, accomplishes stuff that people who are definitely in the top-5 failed to accomplish even though they clearly wanted to, gets acknowledge by Luke after fighting alongside him, is a vision that drove Caedus to the dark side, and generally gets majorly underestimated for how powerful he is for it.
Sure I'd probably agree, I had actually argued for him in the past back when I was reading Legacy and he does seem to be at the very least overlooked, if not underrated. In fact with his armor I would give him a good chance against a lot of top guys in a pure lightsaber duel and the scene in one of the earlier comics where he strikes down around 5 Imperial Jedi in what almost seems to be unison had always impressed me.