First off is their martial skills. 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.
Now for their physical capabilities. Darth Bane was immensely strong physically, as a result of mining cortosis and training in Djem So. His strength was such that he was capable of ripping a durasteel door off it's hinges while drugged. He was no slouch in speed or agility however. In POD he was fast enough to appear to move invisibly to other Sith apprentices, and to land ten strikes per second against Kas'im. At the beginning of ROT he considers blocking torrents of rain to be an impossible task while using both his lightsaber and the force in a failed attempt to deflect the orbalisks falling from above. By DOE however he can capably deflect torrents of rain for ten minutes using only his lightsaber. This implies Bane's speed to have around tripled since POD, and such a speed is beyond the likes of what Grievous and Windu even have been shown to muster up. His agility was also boosted even further than what an Ataru master, such as Quinlan Vos, was capable of attempting without hurting themselves. This showed itself in the stone prison when Bane dodged Zannah's lightsaber blades (who is also insanely fast) while drugged and when he dodged the majority of her tendrils. His ability to take pain and injury was practically inhuman. He survived being trapped in a sphere of his own lightning that was capable of disintegrating people, while the orbalisks expanded and burrowed into his body before exploding and releasing an incredibly deadly toxin. He also maintained the mental composure after having his arm severed by a tendril (a mere touch from one was far more painful than anything he had ever experienced, including the previously mentioned feat) to evoke the ritual of essence transfer.
Darth Maul was strong enough to contend with the blows of Savage Opress and Darth Sidious, casually overcoming the former however being overwhelmed by the latter's supernatural strength from his force augmentation. I will however say that Maul's overpowering of Savage was more to do with his precision and skill in Teras Kasi than Maul actually being stronger than Savage. Maul was also very fast, being known to move faster than droids cameras can see without adjusting their settings and capable of blitzing a group of some of the deadliest beings of the galaxy in seconds. His agility and acrobatic ability were also very impressive and he was capable of using this to great extent in combat. His cybernetic legs supplement all of his physical capabilities I have just mentioned, as well as excellently complimenting his frequent use of kicks in combat. Maul was also known to be highly tolerant to pain, though Sidious's lightning was too much for him.
In terms of physical capability, Maul is in amazing physical condition, but he simply cannot measure up to the mountain of seemingly impossible physical feats known as Darth Bane. Bane gets the edge in physical capability.
Now for their force abilities. Darth Bane wielded great telekinetic power, being able to collapse the rakatan temple of the ancients, choke Qordis out, and move a boulder with a spell on it to keep it in place. Bane's aforementioned drastic increase in speed by the time of DOE is also indicative of superior force power, so he is likely capable of more than this level of telekinetic offense by this point. His telekinetic defense was also impressive as he was quickly able to throw up a shield (while drugged and caught off guard) against a powerful force push from Zannah, who has snapped the necks of Jedi, and blown up her cousin's arm. Maul has also demonstrated great telekinetic power, being able to ragdoll Obi-wan, twist a guy's neck all the way around, and pull a several ton Eta-class shuttle off of a cliff. I'd say Bane is more impressive telekinetically, as choking a force user out is clearly harder than ragdolling them, as well as the fact that he's demonstrated more of a defense against TK and has shown improvement since his telekinetic feats in POD and early ROT.
Bane also however had other powers at his disposal. He was also a powerful practitioner of force lightning, being able to kill people on contact as well as being more than capable of producing a powerful force storm. While Maul has been shown to shrug off lightning, it was the lightning of a nightsister and not lightning as strong as Bane's. Bane also had an ability at his disposal where he could cocoon himself in force lightning, so that when his opponent struck it would explode and blast them back with force lightning. This would prove more than handy if Maul tries to land a lightsaber blow or a kick. Bane was also a practitioner of force drain, though I'm pretty sure Maul can capably defend against force drain given his RoT lineage. What is well within Bane's limits in this fight however is his gorge ability similar to Scourge's. He was able to use this power to sustain himself after being poisoned by Githany.
For his greater power and versatility, I give Bane the edge in terms of force ability.
Overall I'd have to declare Darth Bane the winner. He is simply a more well rounded and unpredictable duelist than Maul as well as being more powerful both physically as well as in the force.
Sabers: Bane
Force: Bane
All-out: Bane
Respect Darth Bane
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Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:19 pm
