Darth Zannah's illusions

Started by Emperordmb1 pages

Darth Zannah's illusions

I think Zannah's illusions are being severely underrated here. What you have to consider is that Bane is the only one who has successfully overcome Zannah's illusions, and he has some of the best mental feats in all of Star Wars.

Bane was easily capable of brushing off Kaan's mind tricks, which were capable of controlling the rest of the order.

He forcibly removed the greatest secret in Andeddu’s holocron keeping up an intense focus backed by a lot of willpower for several hours. Andeddu’s holocron as revealed in Legacy, also contains his spirit, so Bane was essentially dominating Andeddu’s spirit for hours while keeping up an intense mental focus and performing a delicate complex procedure.

Bane still maintained the mental composure after having his arm severed by a tendril to evoke the complex and difficult ritual of essence transfer. To put this into context, the slight touch of a tendril was far beyond any pain Bane had ever felt before, and Bane was once trapped in a bubble of his own lightning, which was capable of reducing people to ash, meanwhile the orbalisks were burrowing deeper into his body with their teeth while expanding and eventually exploding, releasing a toxin that began to break him down on a molecular level.

Keep in mind the whole "Jedi have no fear" argument doesn't hold up either, as Zannah's illusions easily and instantly brought a Jedi Knight to his knees before she reached her peak with this power. If anything, Jedi deal with their emotion by suppressing it, so when their fears are all drawn out in front of them and applied offensively, they'll have a hard time dealing with it.

All in all, there is only a small handful people who can overcome Zannah's illusions.

The youtubers played a big role in making people think her illusions are under powered, the whole "If a character has dealt with their inner demons, they can resist Zannahs illusions" is complete b.s. Darth Bane who knew off her illusions and even tried to learn especially how to resist them was brought to his knees and then through an effort of pure will power did he struggle to overcome the illusions and prevent himself from going insane. And Bane is one of the biggest mental hard asses in the starwars mythos.

And then there is the jedi she brought to there knees via illusions. She did not drive him insane but she undoubtable could have. Keep in mind she was in a pitched battle with several other jedi and he was already defenseless so driving him insane would have served no purpose and would have only wasted time.

Pretty much the only people who could resist her illusions are people who studied magic themselves, more particularly, mental illusions and studied how to resist them. Or people who have an ungodly will power. This means most characters could in fact NOT resist her illusions and she is wielding one of the most deadly powers in the starwars mythos

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You say only Bane has resisted her mental assaults, but no one else but thugs and cowardly Dark-Jedi have been hit by them.

And before her prime she one-shotted a Jedi who was apparently deemed as being fit to accompany the strike team to take down the last surviving Sith.

Set Harth apparently had an exceptionally strong will, as Zannah notes that he never would've recovered from his coma had he not been strong willed.

Zannah also never really charged up her sorcery against anyone else and the spell she used on Harth was not only uncharged but one of her weaker spells.

The thing that makes only Bane resisting it impressive is the amount of difficulty he had with it. Bane struggled with it, implying that you have to be very close to Bane's level willpower to overcome her illusions. And from the text apparently Bane does consider her illusions a viable threat as does Zannah consider them a viable weapon in their final confrontation.

Yes, Bane had difficulty resisting it, but that's only because Zannah hadn't simply charged and casted the spell, but she also had to continue focusing to keep him in it, and that failed as well. When facing the stronger willed opponents, she needs to keep the pressure and thus can't move in for a killing blow.

Very few people even come close to Banes's levels of will power though. That won't be necessary for 90% of forum fights.

Originally posted by Nephthys
Very few people even come close to Banes's levels of will power though.

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Right, Zannah was aware of Bane's extreme mental strength, and that's why she didn't let go of the illusion.

She wouldn't know anything about any of her opponents, and thus she'd probably simply cast the charged spell without continuous focus and go in for the killing blow, which would work in most situations--But not against opponents with high mental fortitude like Krayt.

Originally posted by NewGuy01
Right, Zannah was aware of Bane's extreme mental strength, and that's why she didn't let go of the illusion.

She wouldn't know anything about any of her opponents, and thus she'd probably simply cast the charged spell without continuous focus and go in for the killing blow, which would work in most situations--But not against opponents with high mental fortitude like Krayt.

even if she doesn't hold it on them, the initial spell brought Bane to his knees. It was described as tiny knives piercing his skull

Emperordmb

All in all, there is only a small handful people who can overcome Zannah's illusions.

I agree. Illusions in general are, I think, underrated, and there's a tiny handful of people who take them to great extremes that make them way more dangerous than even the basic use (Memory Walk users and such).

Heck, Andeddu was considered to be, "Sith Lords- Do Not Approach Alone! Subject is considered Extremely Dangerous! Only Approach if Accompanied by a Group of Sith Lords!" dangerous due to his illusions, and he is below Wyyrlok and Zannah.

Originally posted by Emperordmb
And before her prime she one-shotted a Jedi who was apparently deemed as being fit to accompany the strike team to take down the last surviving Sith.

Sarro Xaj was selected for the team only because of his fighting prowess. Like his master he had focused entirely on lightsabre combat and had ignored everything else. Presumably they were counting on Worrer's Battle Meditation to shield them from mental powers. Remember Zannah nailed Sarro while Worrer's focus was broken.

Zannah herself notes that this single-minded devotion left him open to "other forms of attack." That suggests that a more well-rounded Jedi would have better defenses against a psychic attack. Not that they'd shrug it off completely but I don't think they'd be as helpless as Sarro was either.

That being said I do agree that Zannah's illusions are highly potent and people do severely underrate them.

Originally posted by Emperordmb
If anything, Jedi deal with their emotion by suppressing it, so when their fears are all drawn out in front of them and applied offensively, they'll have a hard time dealing with it.

This part I certainly agree with, is one of my main gripes with prequelisation and why I feel Luke's Order were far better in their approach.

Honestly the best feat zannah's spells have is still lingering on ambria after an entire decade, which is really impressive

intresting but why do people hate Darth Zannah so much and just call her out as a bad sith in general i see this alot.