KMC Forums - Darth Maul TCW vs. Darth Bane DOE (sabers only)

I'm going with Bane on this one. Darth Bane was a primarily a master of Djem So, though he also maintained mastery over Juyo and Soresu, and maintained knowledge of how to defend against the other four forms. His skill was such that in POD he held an advantage over Kas'im, a master of all seven forms, in a lightsaber duel (until he whipped out Jar'kai that is). In ROT he caught the greatest duelist in the Jedi Order who was battle amped off guard with a maneuver that knocked her off of her feet. In DOE he was capable of besting Zannah in a lightsaber duel, who has more skill as a duelist than she is given credit for. Zannah casually outdueled Set Harth, who was believed to be the most dangerous man in the galaxy by a Jedi Master who was prominent on the Council of First Knowledge. His level of precision even impressed Zannah at one point. The fact that she could've easily exploited various openings in his technique marks her as an excellent duelist and makes Bane all the more impressive for beating her. His advantage and control over her in a duel is even more impressive considering her study of the defensive form, and them being familiar with eachother's fighting styles would've prolonged the fight. His lightsaber had a curved hilt that fit better into his palm and provided him with such unique angles to strike from that it was worthy of three battle meditation amped master duelists' wary and he even managed to almost kill the implied Makashi master (they base themselves on precision) based purely on the angle of his blade provided by the curved hilt. As a form V practitioner, he was known to make use of overpowering power blows, and this coupled with his weapon makes him a deadly weapon in combat. Power blows coming from unfamiliar angles would be more difficult to defend against and would thus make Bane's offense even more deadly. His unpredictability and ferocity was also backed up by his mastery of Juyo, which also allowed him to take full advantage of his emotions. His mastery of Soresu allowed him to capably defend against Kas'im when he initially fought faster than Bane expected until masterfully transitioning into an offensive position. He was also known to be familiar enough with unarmed combat that an armed Zannah was cautious of an unarmed Bane.

Darth Maul was primarily a master of Juyo, as well as being a master of Jar'kai and Niman. His skill in Juyo was enough to take down some of the Jedi Order's best duelists, such as Qui-gon and Bondara. He was also skilled enough to beat Kenobi after his return, however I attribute Maul's victory in the duel over Raydonia to be largely a result of Kenobi's beat up condition and emotional unbalance. His proficiency in Jar'kai was enough to combat Darth Sidious for half a minute before being defeated, which is impressive considering many of the legendary duelists of his time would've lasted less than 5 seconds against the dark lord. He also supplemented his talent with the lightsaber with training in the martial art of Teras Kasi, leading to his infamous preference for kicking things and remarkable skill in hand to hand combat. Darth Maul is very skilled and versatile on the offensive. His defense is rooted mainly in Niman for it's lack of weakness property, though he uses aggressive attacks from Juyo and acrobatics from Teras Kasi to keep his opponents at a distance. It's worth noting that Maul's double bladed lightsaber was a large part of what made his defense effective, and he lacks it here, however despite this Maul still maintains a viable defense.

Both are highly skilled in martial combat. Both have very lethal offensive techniques, though Bane is the more unpredictable of the two, and thus the more difficult to defend against. Bane also boasts a much greater defensive technique than Maul does. Bane's defensive technique is based on a style optimally specced for defense, and he wields it as an impenetrable wall of defense until he has the chance to transition back to his more offensive forms and reclaim the advantage. Maul's defensive technique on the other hand is rather improvised from his offensive techniques and is considerably less effective without his double bladed lightsaber. For this reason I'd have to give Bane the edge in terms of martial ability.

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