I commend you on your effort Myth, you have fought gallantly, worthy of recognition in the archives of the Jedi Order.
But now, time to an hero it is finished. 🙂
Originally posted by MythLordNo friend, you are wrong. ❌
Yeah, really. The entire fight, she was the one in the retreat, never fully stopping his advance.
For example here Ahsoka contends with Vader without losing any ground:
And that was when she was fatigued, the first half of the fight happens off panel, a full 50 seconds of it, in which Ahsoka is only driven a short distance from the entrance. Indicating that she was not on the back foot the entire time there either.
And Dooku wasn't consistently being driven back, there were indeed moment when he stood toe-to-toe with Skywalker, the best example being this:You've already raised this, and I addressed it, so I'll save what I have to say for your response to that point.
Now as for your overall assessment, a very impressive effort; and though I concede that Dooku was disadvantaged in that extract that I raised, the fact remains that fatigued or not, he still required vast amounts of power to parry Anakin's attacks and even more besides to block them. This aspect should remain constant no matter how much Force reserves Dooku possessed. All that would change is the extent to which it exhausted him, which in his present state was very much.
However, while Dooku was already fatigued, we should remember that Ahsoka simply isn't as powerful a Force user as Dooku, and therefore does not possess his reserves. So that mitigates Dooku's disadvantage somewhat. On top of that a) as a Djem So/Ataru duelist, she would have been meeting Vader's attacks largely head on (i.e. blocking them) as opposed to deflecting them in the style of Makashi b) did so against a considerably stronger opponent.
The point being? If we condense all these factors together, and stack them against Dooku being tired, and lacking in "composure", they more than balance one another out, and on that basis I would argue that this extract, and Ahsoka's duel with Vader, are yes, equivalent.
In which case we return to the question of who handle Vader/Anakin's attacks better, and I would again say it was undoubtedly Ahsoka, and by a considerable margin. If each blow she blocked of Vader's was aging her a proverbial decade, she wouldn't have survived the first 30 seconds, let alone almost two minutes, and as Joker rightly pointed out, that last attack should have cleaved her in half, she ****ing blocked it backhanded, then kept fighting.
Now to address these other instances in which Dooku wasn't on the back foot. All I'm seeing is the junior novelisation (besides the blade lock, which I will in a moment revisit) where "Down the long length of the room they fought, neither one able to gain an advantage", but that occurs only after Dooku gimps his powers through Dun Moch, whereas just previously he is described as expressly driving Dooku back.
Originally posted by MythLordFirst off, resize your ****ing images. 🙂
Except, everytime we visibly see Ahsoka's expression while she bladelocks with Vader, she seems to be experiencing some major difficulties:Meanwhile, I can give you a ton of examples of Dooku bladelocking with Skywalker and actually pushing him back with one hand without any evident issues:
^ Just two off the top of my mind above.
Moving on, your first example over a minute into the fight, by which point Ahsoka was suffering major fatigue.
And in the second instance has already been covered, as considering Ahsoka has just come out of a marathon engagement, in which she fell several stories, before throwing herself at Vader in an attack that almost cut off is head, the fact that she is able to block this attack at all, let alone with her back turned, is nothing but impressive.
Now in regards to your examples, the key word is leverage, something Dooku possessed in both instances, in the first because he had the high ground, and in the second because he was playing Anakin and Kenobi rather well. Without those advantages Dooku didn't perform so well, case in point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQATBFIZ13o&t=2m26s
Regardless, this was before Anakin grew vastly in power, and then grew even more as Vader, so using TCW as evidence is only a wasted effort on your part.
Originally posted by MythLordThat's not the point, quite the opposite. Instead in a blade lock, where momentum is less of a factor, Dooku is able to perform rather well, because he is at liberty to bring all his Force power to bear in strength. However in a more common exchange of blows momentum (which Dooku is ineffective at generating) is a much bigger factor, and he has to balance strength with speed, precision etc., he underperforms, and yes against an individual such as Skywalker, finds himself woefully outmatched, and at no point is he shown to hold his ground (without the use of Dun Moch).
What Dooku notes is that Makashi simply isn't a good style to generate momentum and meet Anakin's Djem So head on, especially when he has Kenobi for aid. This is true, but it doesn't mean Dooku will automatically be devastated whenever he attempts to bladelock with Anakin, as I've already shown above. In fact, against other extremely strong -- both physically and in the Force -- duelists like Yoda, Dooku did manage to meet their strength head-on with no issue:So Ahsoka certainly isn't beating the Count by way of strength, and he can contend with Vader, certainly.
Now as for your point regarding Yoda, while an impressive showing, there is little indication that he met Yoda's strength head on. Instead he's described (and seen) to be "parrying brilliantly", deflecting Yoda's attacks away from himself, something he struggles to do against a Djem So duelist, which Yoda is not.
Now is Yoda strong? Of course, even stronger than Anakin, but undoubtedly in combat he favours speed and agility over strength. Which considering his stature is really not something he can bring to bear in any meaningful way, he's a fraction of Dooku's size, and has absolutely no leverage at all, he literally has to leap just to reach him. So to a Djem So stylist like Anakin or Ahsoka, it's an apples and oranges comparison.
Well yes, Tano did do better, albeit not by an exponentional margin, but it should be noted Dooku had more circumstances against him than Ahsoka did in her duel with Vader.I disagree, but that's been covered.
So far, Vader's connection to the Dark Side has grown, but it doesn't automatically mean he's more powerful than Skywalker overall. And even if he subscribe to this idea, Vader's strength wouldn't have improved by a considerable margin.This seems like conjecture. Vader's connection to the dark side strengthening doesn't make him... stronger? I don't think so. And let's not ignore his cybernetic enhancements also, they too notably enhanced his physicals.That's about it. Looking forwards to your counter, Beni.
And considering only 8 years into his tenure as a Sith Lord, he's already overpowering a Lylek queen, again yes we have every reason to assume he's grown considerably stronger.