Darth Bane's Speed

This is a subject of much controversy, so I think I'll make a topic devoted exclusively to Darth Bane's speed considering that now that I have finally found some good speed feats for him, the SWF guys are trying to write them off as completely meaningless.

Well then considering that a lot of speed is derivitave from his baseline speed in the first book, I thought I'd begin with his speed in Path of Destruction.

When fighting Sirak, he fights so fast, it seems as if time has stopped everywhere else, moving far faster than the other sith present can even see. He also implicitly fights at a speed of ten strikes per second.
“He channeled it through his muscles and limbs, moving so fast it seemed as if time had stopped for the rest of the world. In the blink of an eye he knocked the saber from Sirak's hand, sliced down to shatter his forearm, then spun through and brought his saber crashing into his opponent's lower leg. For an instant none of the spectators was even aware of what had happened; it took their minds a moment to catch up and register the blur of action that had occurred so much quicker than their eyes could see.”-POD
Bane strikes three times in the blink of an eye, which is around .3 seconds. Multiply this to one second, and you get ten strikes per second.

And again in his fight with Kas'im, they were clashing blades roughly 10 times per second.
“Kas'im lunged in again, and the room was filled with the hiss and hum of lightsabers striking each other half a dozen times in the space of two heartbeats.”-POD
It’s simple math here. The maximum heart rate for somebody of Bane’s age is around 200 per minute, which when divided by sixty to get you the heart rate per second leaves you with 3.333, then you multiply it by six (half a dozen) to get twenty, then divide this by two because it takes place in two heartbeats and you once again get ten strikes per second.

What we have here is that Darth Bane's speed in Path of Destruction is ten strikes per second as clearly supported by two quotes.

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Now with Bane's baseline speed in Path of Destruction determined, we can go on to determining his speed at the end of the trilogy, as much of his later speed is derived through comparison with his speed in Path of Destruction.

First off, we can go off of his ability to defend against a rainstorm.

At the beginning of Rule of Two, which is shortly after the events of Path of Destruction, Bane considers defending against the drops in a rainstorm to be an impossible task.
“As his hand closed around it, the colony of crustaceans broke free en masse and cascaded down on him in a chitinous swarm. With one hand clutching the Holocron, he swiped at them with his lightsaber and deflected others with the power of the Force. But there were too many to keep them all at bay; it was like trying to ward off raindrops in a storm.”-ROT

By Dynasty of Evil however he is perfectly capable of doing this.
"The wind rose to a howling gale, and the scattered drops quickly became a downpour. His body and mind united as one, he channeled the infinite power of the Force against the driving rain. Tiny clouds of hissing steam formed as his blade picked off the descending drops while Bane twisted, twirled, and contorted his body to evade those few that managed to slip through his defenses. For the next ten minutes he battled the pelting storm, reveling in the power of the dark side. And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the tempest was gone, the dark cloud scurrying away on the breeze. His skin was sheened in sweat, but not a single drop of rain had touched his bare flesh.”-DOE

From these quotes it is evident that Bane at a speed of ten strikes per second considered defending against all the drops in a storm to be an impossible task, even when using TK in conjunction with his lightsaber abilities. Bane by Dynasty of Evil however is sufficiently capable of such a task for ten minutes without faltering. This implies that Bane's speed as of DOE was at least three times greater than it was in Path of Destruction, which would place him at at least thirty strikes per second.

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One could also try to calculate Bane's speed near the end of the trilogy from the speed accolade given by Zannah

Going back to Path of Destruction, one can look at Bane and Kas'im fighting at ten strikes per second before Kas'im whipped out Jar'kai. After Kas'im whipped out Jar'kai, his speed increased to the point at which he was akin to wielding six lightsabers as per Drew Karpyshyn.
"The Blademaster was unrelenting in his pressure. He seemed to wield six blades rather than two"-POD

When looking at Bane's speed with the Orbalisks in Rule of Two however, Bane is akin to wielding twelve lightsabers as per Drew Karpyshyn.
"Giving in to his orbalisk-fueled bloodrage, he was like a wild animal, raining savage blows down on her from all angles, the strikes coming so fast it seemed as if he wielded a dozen blades at the same time."-ROT

And finally in Dynasty of Evil, you can see the standard at which she hold's Bane's speed.
“He was faster than she could ever have imagined”-DOE

From these quotes you can make a series of estimations. Kas'im's speed increased when he whipped out Jar'kai, but as he already had two blades that weren't separated, one could estimate on the low end that he had a fifty percent increase in speed from whipping out Jar'kai. This would put Kas'im's Jar'kai speed at roughly fifteen strikes per second. With the description of Bane's speed in Rule of Two being twice as impressive as this, one can infer that his speed in Rule of Two was about thirty strikes per second. Bane being faster than Zannah could've ever imagined implies that Bane was faster in Dynasty of Evil than she had ever seen before, and she fought him once while he was fueled by his orbalisk rage. At the very least, Bane's speed in his final fight with Zannah would be equal to his orbalisk fueled speed in Rule of Two. So from this Bane's speed would be at the very least thirty strikes per second.

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So in conclusion, Bane's speed in Path of Destruction has been consistently shown as ten strikes per second, while his speed in Rule of Two was about thirty strikes per second, and his speed in Dynasty of Evil was around thirty strikes per second when estimating on the low end.

POD: 10 strikes per second
ROT: 30 strikes per second
DOE: >30 strikes per second


Unless anyone has any actual evidence to dispute this, this is pretty much what he is capable of in terms of speed.

Very nice!  Post this baby on KMC!

When I have access to a computer I will.

Your basis for Bane being 10 strikes per second by PoD is plausible and well thought out, even if he was enhanced by a Dark Nexus on both accounts. 

My problem largely lies with the following assumption, that Bane's speed would have to have tripled to be able to achieve the storm feat--I think this is ridiculous.  Do you know how large the effects of doubling something like velocity or speed is?  Even if the feat were utterly beyond Bane at his 10-strikes-per-second point (Which it wasn't really, he was able to hold out for a bit before succumbing), double that and he should be more than fast enough to achieve it with some to spare.