Who's better: Maul or Vader? (merged)

[BenQuad]

No, no. Vader was beaten before he made that choice. Luke's amateurish hacking away with his lightsaber should have been a cakewalk for any half trained Jedi to fend off. Essentially the problem with that sequence is that the filmmakers did not choreograph a decent fight sequence that could equal or outdo the one in TPM. That's one of the problems with shooting a series out of order. Vader appears quite inept when he shouldn't be. In theory Vader probably could wipe Maul off the face of the galaxy, but in practice, as filmed, the evidence is to the contrary.

Ok heres my take... Vader was caught by surprise by Luke who, with temporary dark-side strength, overcame his father and brought him to the point of submission.
Although inelegant, that final part of the duel was a very powerful scene. It was just pure strength and willing (on Luke's part).

TPM was a little different (and visually superb)... but that was then and this is now - or whatever...............

As much I enjoyed the 3 way duel in TPM... Nothing can take away the sheer anger and power of Vader's defeat.

[Obi-Don]

I stand corrected about Vader being defeated by Luke,but you have to wonder if Vader's heart was in the fight.I mean this was his son he was fighting and he was having doubts about what he should do.I use the talk he and Luke had before Luke was taken to the Emperor.The conflict that Luke felt from his father.That had to have some effect on Vader's will to fight,not forgetting the raw power that Luke processes. Just something to think about.

[stillakid]

I see two problems. One is that Vader just got finished declaring that he would forget about turning Luke and concentrate on Leia. This wouldn't necessarily automatically preclude him from killing Luke outright. Those "doubts" didn't seem present. There just wasn't any time given to show any doubt of the sort.

The second is that ( and I knew that somebody would bring it up ) is the whole idea of Luke "growing strong with the Dark Side" and "his hate has made [him] powerful." Theoretically Luke might exhibit greater strength and become a better sword fighter (neither of which we see in that final thrashing about), but more importantly Luke becoming stronger doesn't suddenly make Vader an inept fighter.

So to conclude A) Vader had no instant motivation to preserve Luke's life and B) Vader is not made instantly inept at fighting by Luke sudden anger.

A+B=While Vader SHOULD have been an amazing swordsman, we never saw any evidence of it actually play out.

C) the final duel in TPM was amazing. The skill level shown by both Obi Wan and Maul outdid anything we ever saw from Old Ben, Vader, or Luke.

So A+B<C. Maul wins.

[El Chuxter]

I still stand by what I said on the old forums:

Maul: defeated by Obi-Wan
Vader: defeated Obi-Wan
Point: Vader

Maul: sucked up to Palpatine until his butt was sliced in two
Vader: sucked up to Palpatine, but then killed Palpy's wrinkly butt
Point: Vader

Maul: fought a total of four Jedi in his career, killed by the fourth
Vader: fought almost all the Jedi during his career, only left about four alive
Point: Vader

Vader: extremely tall Scottish chap who towers over Imperials
Maul: short British guy who looks comical next to those extremely tall (6') Neimoidians
Point: Vader

Maul: little-known actor for voice over
Vader: James Earl Jones for voice over
Point: Vader

Vader: scares people when he talks
Maul: too scared to talk
Point: Vader

Vader: walks around bottomless chasms on a regular basis
Maul: falls into the first bottomless chasm he encounters
Point: Vader

Maul: quickly dispatched by foe after defeating another foe
Vader: dies as results of injuries suffered while fighting two of the strongest Force users around
Point: Vader

Maul: falls apart when he falls
Vader: makes trampoline noise when he falls
Point: Vader

Maul: not a hit with girls
Vader: scored with Natalie Portman
Point: Vader

I'd like to also point out that only Vader has the brains to brush his teeth.

[stillakid]

Geesh, when you put it that way...


Maul might've scored with Portman but never really had the opportunity. That's a lesson for all of us.

[Darth Cruel]

El Chuxter, come on now. Most of the points you imported from the other thread aren't even serious, and the ones that are are easy to dispute.

As I mentioned before, the only reason Vader killed Obi-Wan is because Bbi-Wan let him to help the rebels escape.

And I have never read anywhere that Vader killed all the Jedi (or ANY of them other than Obi-Wan). He just helped track them down.

Maul is the indisputable Sith Champion to date.

[JediTricks]

Riiiight, Maul's so good that he stood there with activated lightsaber at his side, turned around, and watched as a Jedi padawan - whom had just flown completely OVER one side of him and down the other without any defense and was ripe for the cutting - sliced him in half. Yeah, that's a real talented fighter... Maul acts like Obi-Wan unplugged the Sith Lord's joystick while they were playing Mortal Kombat.

[Darth Cruel]

See what I mean? Darth Maul is so powerful...Obi-Wan had to have help from the scriptwriters to kill him!

[JediTricks]

Originally posted by Darth Cruel
See what I mean? Darth Maul is so powerful...Obi-Wan had to have help from the scriptwriters to kill him!

LOL!!! Ok, I'll give you that, but Qui-Gon did rightfully lay the smack down on Maul earlier in the battle and could have easily killed Maul at that scene but Lucas chose to not write it that way (Qui-Gon pimp-slaps Maul off the higher catwalk and then jumps down to join the stunned Sith who's just laying there, but Qui-Gon could have led his drop with his saber thrusting straight down and run the weakened, stunned Maul right through), so it goes both ways.

[ki-adi mundi's bro]

um, how about uh VADER! he is so cool and ruthless...