Originally posted by Forschbewithu
Okay, so it's more your opinion then. Because when I watch the show, I see no indication of his saber skills declining.
So wait, in their respective saber fights against Kenobi, you actually saw Vader doing just as well as Anakin did? In the saber Only portion of the fight?
Its more than just an opinion when I can demonstrate it via clips.
Remember OWK is 10 years before the OT. It’s likely that Vader improved his lightsaber skills even more during that time.
Also I saw someone pointed this out already, but Kenobi was familiar with his fighting style and the Star Wars website confirms that Kenobi knew Vader’s strengths and weaknesses.
It’s also possible that Vader’s mindset hindered his dueling prowess.
There’s just a lot of context surrounding this fight, so I wouldn’t use it as an “anti feat” for Vader.
^ But Kenobi knew Anakins strengths and weaknesses as well. So just comparing Vaders performance against him to Anakins in ROTS.
Heck even in the flashback in that show, Anakin clearly was the stronger duellist, but Kenobi out manoeuvred him understanding his weaknesses. But never saw the part (in the final episode fight) where machine Vader was a stronger duellist than Obi-Wan.
Agreed that Vader would have improved by ANH (Rebels Vader seemed pretty strong against Ahsoka). But dont see any evidence he was ever > Anakin in Sabers.
Can become more powerful without increasing skill. Like Ben did in the finale. So I have no issue with that. Just saying as of OWK - Vader defo seems < ROTS Anakin in Sabers.
As for that list people generally dont accept Maul > Dooku, so cant pick and choose how we use that source.
We also know Palpatine tooled Vader in Sabers but that was closer to ROTS.
Both Thrawn and Tarkin were able to deduce that Vader was Anakin Skywalker, just by watching him fight with a lightsaber -- Tarkin was particularly awestruck by his performance, despite witnessing numerous Jedi engage in lightsaber combat during TCW. So based on that, it's logical to assume that Vader's skills never really diminished(once he fully acclimated to the armor, obviously.)
Granted, Vader had to create/adopt a different lightsaber style(one that better-suited the sheer bulk of his armor and cybernetics), but he was still an absolute top-tier duelist -- especially during the OT era.
Personally, I believe that his saber skills did increase between the events of RotS and the OT... Though not nearly as much as his power increased.
Well is it that hard to be a top tier duelist in the OT, when Vader's only had like what....6 duels? 1 of which was against Koth who gave up completely on being a Jedi, so I doubt he's any better than what he once had been and would probably be weaker.
Tbh, I would say Vader's skill neither increased nor decreased. Far as I can tell, in Canon he's not having many actual duels.
I mean let's see, the only notable Jedi Master who actually would more than likely be honing his skill would be Kirak. Since...that's what he's stated to be, his whole thing was just fighting.
Koth being the next guy, well as said, the guy basically gave up on being a Jedi, so at BEST his skill would be the same as it was in ROTS....though I really think he wouldn't be as skilled.
The Grand Inquisitor next, I gotta be honest here, I really don't see how skilled this guy actually is when all he's done is face rusty/learning/relearning Jedi Padawans. Like that shouldn't really do much to help Vader other than maintaining what he has.
Next is...Tano. Next to Kirak, she's probably the most skilled. Just on the basis that she didn't seem to give up fighting? I gotta be honest here, the Inquisitors in Canon are just garbage, that I don't see where anyone can see an increase in saber skill for....well anyone.
Then Obi-Wan, again the guy has been out of the game, I seriously doubt his lightsaber skill just magically increased beyond what it was in ROTS.
Reva? She's trash.
So I feel there's more evidence that Vader's skill just didn't go anywhere really, didn't increase, but didn't really deteriorate either. It just kinda remained stagnant.