PoD Bane runs the gauntlet

Yeah but it's also been far more explored than the NSW era. A war between the Jedi and Sith that had been waged for a thousand years and consumed the galaxy would have molded the Jedi and Sith into their most Jedi-on-Sith combat oriented incarnations in history and their numbers would have consisted of individuals who had been tested in that type of warfare and who would have possessed more of that same type of experience than those of the orders of almost any other time period. The BoD existed during the height of that war.

Somebody like Qordis unfortunately hasn't demonstrated much but the fact that he was one of the higher ups of the order speaks volumes. Sith respect power (to the Sith of those times power meant combat prowess against Jedi specifically) and it's clear that they wouldn't put somebody who was anything remotely unexceptional in such a position.

Bane is described as tearing through his Force defences as if they weren't even there.

Originally posted by pencilcrayon
Full quote
He can even mimic Vaapad on the fly.
"
There is an understated elegance in Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber technique, one that is quite unlike the feel one might get from the other great swordsbeings of the Jedi Order. He lacks entirely the flash, the pure bold elan of an Anakin Skywalker; there is nowhere in him the penumbral ferocity of a Mace Windu or a Depa Billaba nor the stylish grace of a Shaak Ti or a Dooku, and he is nothing resembling the whirlwind of destruction that Yoda can become. He is simplicity itself. That is his power. Before Obi-Wan had left Coruscant, Mace Windu had told him of facing Grievous in single combat atop a mag-lev train during the general's daring raid to capture Palpatine. Mace had told him how the computers slaved to Grievous's brain had apparently analyzed even Mace's unconventionally lethal Vaapad and had been able to respond in kind after a single exchange. "He must have been trained by Count Dooku," Mace had said, "so you can expect Makashi as well; given the number of Jedi he has fought and slain, you must expect that he can attack in any style, or all of them. In fact,
Obi-Wan, I believe that of all living Jedi, you have the best chance to defeat him.
"

Yeah that's the quote. It's strongly implied that Dooku would have been in no position to effectively use the other forms.

Yeah, well unfortunately the exposure speaks louder to me that any of that. Plus Vitiates Empire has had a thousand years of pure preparation for the war and the Jedi have been seriously hardened by recent conflict, explicitly being termed as a 'Jedi Renaissance'. Its also the largest conflict between Jedi and Sith in terms of confirmed numbers, where there are millions of each Order at any one time.

Besides, couldn't a thousand years worth of conflict lead to stagnation as easily as it could to improvement?

You can prepare for something all you want without doing it but at best it will only influence you from a theoretical standpoint. The NSW saw the Sith and the Jedi influenced by the actual practise of fighting each other, not thinking about it. Though I will grant you that the sheer numbers on paper were clearly greater in the TOR era, but the war hadn't existed for long enough to even produce the kind of experienced veterans you would see at any given time in the NSW, let alone to shape the two orders in the way the NSW had.

I would assume that there would certainly be diminishing returns if not stagnation at some point during those thousand years but it would have come at a point where there wouldn't have been much more room for progression, if any. Stagnation isn't really a bad thing unless there's room for improvement (and even then it's simply unfulfilled potential, it isn't weakness). What you really don't want is reversion.

1. Green
2. Green
3. Green
4. Green
5. Green
6. Green
7. Yellow
8. Red

Legend:-

Green = Victory
Yellow = Tough situation
Red = Defeat

^ PoD Bane gets destroyed by Dooku, it's not merely "tough situation" for him. 😬

Originally posted by Intrepid37
Dies at Kolar.

I'm going to defend Bane for a moment and point out that, however overrated his PoD incarnation may be, he was still defeating Kas'im in the early part of their duel, the same Kas'im that Bane speculated to be "maybe the greatest swordsman ever", and who had mastered every movement of all seven forms. Kas'im's around RotS Obi Wan's level, IMO.

If this was RoT or DoE Bane, it would be whole different story...

Originally posted by Master Han
I'm going to defend Bane for a moment and point out that, however overrated his PoD incarnation may be, he was still defeating Kas'im in the early part of their duel, the same Kas'im that Bane speculated to be "maybe the greatest swordsman ever", and who had mastered every movement of all seven forms. Kas'im's around RotS Obi Wan's level, IMO.

Mastering forms is just one accolade. I can think of seven or eight accolades for Kolar.

Thats true. Though he does give his reasons for why he thinks thats a possibility: 'After years of study, he'd mastered all seven forms of the lightsaber. Then he'd honed his skill for decades, perfecting every move and sequence until he had become the perfect weapon and the greatest living swordsman in the galaxy.'

I mean, do we have anyone else who's done that prior to Bane-era? In terms of technical lightsaber skill who rivals him?

Other than Lord Scourge obviously.

They overpowered Bane in PoD, imo.

Bane's just that good brah. estahuh

Don't get me wrong, I think he's great. Sidious level by the end of RoT or DoE. I just think they made him too powerful too quick.

wait, you honestly think he becomes sidious level?

RoT would be pointless then

Yes.

He has some fantastic feats.

I'm not saying he'd beat Sidious, I'm saying he's at least pretty damn close to him at those stages.

Bane is supposed to be the weakest of the Banite sith, and palpatine the strongest. the idea of the RoT was so that the sith could grow more and more powerful over a span of 1000 years, while remaining hidden from the jedi. If bane was already almost as good as sidious, they wold have attacked the republic much, much earlier

Originally posted by XSUPREMEXSKILLZ
Bane is supposed to be the weakest of the Banite sith, and palpatine the strongest. the idea of the RoT was so that the sith could grow more and more powerful over a span of 1000 years, while remaining hidden from the jedi. If bane was already almost as good as sidious, they wold have attacked the republic much, much earlier

'The weakest of the Banite sith'? What does that even mean?

Whatever, it's wrong. Bane is very powerful.

And attacking the Republic depends on much more than just the individual power of the (two) Sith.

Banite sith= bane's rule of two sith line which culminated in palpatine. The basic idea is that the aprrentice learns what the master has to teach, and then kills the master when the apprentice has surpassed him or her. an example would be zannah killiing bane, then cognus killing zannah, etc.

Originally posted by XSUPREMEXSKILLZ
Banite sith= bane's rule of two sith line which culminated in palpatine. The basic idea is that the aprrentice learns what the master has to teach, and then kills the master when the apprentice has surpassed him or her. an example would be zannah killiing bane, then cognus killing zannah, etc.

lol I'm familiar with the Rule of Two concept. 'Banite sith' was a funny way of putting it.

But no, what makes you think Bane was the weakest? He wasn't, not by a long shot.

in bane's sith order, the only sith that wouldn't be stronger than bane would be the screw-ups or those who may have used cunning and deception to kill there masters, and that's still a maybe, due to the fact that they still have to learn their master's teachings, and become more powerful. most sith use deception to kill their masters only because they simply wish to avoid needless confrontation.