Statements are fine if they aren't directly compared.
So Vader being stated more powerful than Dooku and Maul stands, but Vader being stated more powerful than Anakin wouldn't.
Registered: Dec 2019
Location: Imperial Throne Room
I see. I mean you've got statements saying Vader is the most powerful Sith depends if you buy them or not. Most of the high tiers in the OT scale to Vader and KFV's a beast so I don't think you can get suited Vader that high w/o the LOTS statement or the Vader > Palpatine statements.
Last edited by Scizard on Feb 15th, 2021 at 01:36 AM
Registered: Dec 2018
Location: The Scarlet Mansion
I would say prime suit Vader.
From what I can recall it never stated Vader was weakened when he was put in his suit. On the contrary, Many materials seemingly suggesting prime suit vader > his previous self https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/St...-4?id=168733#52
Registered: Dec 2018
Location: The Scarlet Mansion
So just feats and non-directly statements then? If so, I still personally tend to suited vader. Knightfall Vader doesnt have enough feats and statements to put him above suited vader so far imo
Yeah, the way I’ve always seen it is that he lost some potential but he was still so far away from reaching full potential as of ROTS that he was still able to grow more powerful after being injured. Not saying that he wasn’t powerful as of ROTS, but his potential was so huge that he still had a lot more raw power to master.
Registered: Dec 2019
Location: Imperial Throne Room
Palpatine says in the junior novelization that he won't be as strong as he once thought but still more powerful than anyone else and there's the scan of him having 20,000+ midichlorians more than any Jedi or Sith.
So I would say he lost some but still has a significant amount.
Chee stated that grievous injuries(like those suffered by Maul and Vader) do not diminish their strength in the Force: https://ibb.co/n6P1Qbn
Aside from that, Vader's 20,000+ midi-chlorian count was still the highest among Jedi or Sith as of Rebels: https://ibb.co/BN756c3
Hence why Palpatine was still "wary" of Vader's potential, and wanted to ensure that he would stay a loyal dog: https://ibb.co/Cmr7D4V
tl;dr
There hasn't been any reference in canon that Vader's potential diminished after the events of RotS. What we do know is that Vader's connection to the Force was greater than ever once he acclimated to the armor:
*And that was still pre-prime Vader.
As for why Vader never transcended Palpatine, I'd say it's fairly obvious: Palpatine simply never allowed it to happen. He was only feeding Vader just enough knowledge/teachings to keep him subservient and wanting more, whilst incessantly hoarding all the Force-related knowledge that he could get his hands on.
Vader himself also believed that Palpatine was keeping knowledge to himself, and only giving him "busy work": https://ibb.co/t2q4W2L
The Star Wars Book states: "With his position as Emperor Palpatine secure, Sidious largely disappears from public view, leaving the running of his regime to underlings. This allows him to focus on Sith arcana..."
There are more examples, but I'm sure you get my point. Vader was essentially given the equivalent of a children's flip-book to read through, while Palpatine was studying an entire library.
And thanks to the ST (lol), the indication seems to be that the potential of the Palpatine bloodline is at least in the same ballpark as the Skywalker bloodline(*looks at Rey*.) So if Palpatine was hoarding/studying a vast amount of knowledge for decadeS, while Vader was only given a small trickle here and there, the gap between them could really never be bridged, imo. Palpatine already started off at a much higher level than Anakin/Vader, by all accounts had a similar (albeit slightly inferior) potential, and most importantly: had the means to retain that gap in power by way of incessant knowledge-hoarding, along with getting to pick and choose which tidbits he fed Vader.
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Feb 14th, 2021 03:00 PM
