Top 10/15/20 - time travel edition

One day you wake up to find a time machine at your backyard. You make several trips to the following years:

1. 2010
   
2. 2004
   
3. 1998
   

During your travels, you decide to rank the most powerful characters in Star Wars, but only using the material that was available during the respective years you are visiting, not anything that would come in the future.

For reference, the works that have influenced debating the most were published in the following years:

• The Original Trilogy: 1977 - 1983
  
• Dark Empire: 1991 - 1995
  
• Tales of the Jedi: 1993 - 1997
  
• The Phantom Menace: 1999
  
• The New Jedi Order: 1999 - 2003
  
• Knights of the Old Republic: 2003 - 2004
  
• The Clone Wars multimedia project: 2003 - 2005
  
• Revenge of the Sith: 2005
  
• Dark Nest: 2005
  
• Legacy of the Force: 2006 - 2008
  
• The Darth Bane trilogy: 2006 - 2009
  
• Legacy: 2006 - 2011
  
• The Force Unleashed: 2008 - 2010
  
• The Clone Wars: 2008 - 2014
  
• Fate of the Jedi: 2009 - 2012
  
• The Old Republic: 2011+
  
• Darth Plagueis: 2012
  

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1998 first, cuz its the oldest-

IF i were to only have the stuff from back then it be like:

Luke 
Exar kun (spirit)
Sheev in DE
Vader/Yoda (he was old, and was weak, but he had some hype to him, we just didnt know how strong he was)
Ood bnar (with the planet's power)
Sedriss 
Ulic / Freedon nadd
Old kenobi / marka ragnos 
Odan Urr / naga sadow
Siosk baas/ ludo kressh
some jedi from tales of the jedi
mandalore the indomitable / Boba fett (also back and forth with the above mentioned jedi)

explanations- DE had already come i believe, so luke already surpassed DE sheev (much stronger than ROTJ sheev, who was the strongest being in the galaxy). Spirit Kun, fighting Luke post DE is very impressive, and better than what DE sheev has done. DE sheev, leagues above the next contender. vader was the second strongest, and a league or two above the second strongest acolyte, who couldve given luke a good fight according to his own IMO, which usually is reflective of the author's opinion in some way or another. yoda is semi self explanatory. Ood bnar, he one shot sedriss. sedriss couldve supposedly given DE luke a good fight, but we know that he was weaker than vader, and Ood. Ulic matched kun's power, pre prime, and is likely around, or stronger than nadd imo. nadd was much stronger than sadow, even at his prime, which makes me think that he mightve been the strongest sith around until kun came along. Old ben kenobi was not weak whatsoever, even if he was pre prime, and could fight vader. Ragnos was stronger than sadow, and could impress pre prime ulic and kun, so this is a good place imo. prime odan urr couldve been higher, but he gave kun a good push there lol. we dont know where sadow stands, but this is by no means a low end imo, as odan was the order's strongest jedi after all. baas could give kun another good fight, but was weaker than odan. ludo was the second strongest sith lord after marka died, so i think he warrants this place imo. by jedi, i mean the strong ones, and not the basic knights, but more like thon and shit like that, whom i place above boba/mandalore.

2004-

Luke 
Spirit Kun
Sheev in DE
Vader/Yoda
Ood bnar (with the planet's power) 
Sedriss / dooku / mace windu
Revan
Ulic / Freedon nadd / Forge malak / nihilus
Old kenobi / marka ragnos / traya (in the mega nexus) 
Odan Urr / naga sadow / meetra / bastila
Siosk baas/ ludo kressh 
Sion 
some jedi from tales of the jedi / AOTC anakin / AOTC kenobi / PT era jedi (we didnt much about them by this point, i believe, but i could be wrong) / Maul / Qui Gon / ventress
Grievous
mandalore the indomitable / Boba fett (also back and forth with the above mentioned jedi) / jango fett 

explanation: Dooku was getting statements about being one of the strongest force users ever, but we knew almost nothing about him. Windu was getting statements about being the second strongest jedi ever, or some such by this point, even though he had almost no feats by this point, and the ones he did have were replicated, or overdone. revan had some hype to him even back then, but he personally didnt get his mega hype just yet at this point, imo, but he did beat malak more than once i believe. malak was the strongest sith or something like that, and i think he got a statement about being above kun as well, was also waaay above bastila's league. nihilus was a mosnter and semi unbeatable, and had some good ass hax. traya was intelligent, experienced, learned, skilled, cunning, and hax as well, and got even stronger with the nexus. meetra was strong, stronger than sion by idk how much, could beat him more than once, and was pretty damn powerful. bastila- idk much about her either, but she gets this place cuz she does. sion was powerful, more powerful than a lot of council members, but consistently getting beaten by meetra brings him down in my eyes. anakin was a strong promising padawan, and could fight ventress. kenobi was considered his superior most of the time. council members, so get here by default. maul could fight a two jedis, a knight lvl one, and a council member lvl one, so he gets here by default. ventress could fight anakin, who had some of the best feats of power by this point, and could also destroy clone troopers. GG was fast, skilled, tough, strong, and overall powerful as shit, but not enough power to match the force. pretty much the same for jango, but below dooku

2010-

Luke / krayt / nyax
Spirit Kun
Sheev in DE
Vader/Yoda/ mace windu at his best/ Dark side anakin/ ceadus
Ood bnar (with the planet's power) 
Revan / galen marek / vjun dooku
Sedriss / Kenobi at his best / likely prime zannah / wyyrlok
Ulic / Freedon nadd / Forge malak / nihilus / darth bane / Cade at his best
Old kenobi / marka ragnos / traya (in the mega nexus) 
Odan Urr / naga sadow / meetra / bastila
Siosk baas/ ludo kressh 
Sion 
some jedi from tales of the jedi / PT era jedi (we didnt much about them by this point, i believe, but i could be wrong) / Maul / Qui Gon / ventress
Grievous
mandalore the indomitable / Boba fett (also back and forth with the above mentioned jedi) / jango fett 

explanation: krayt has an obvious intent to have been luke's equal, no matter how u look at it lol thats obvious to me, imo. we saw mace use his max power against sheev, and he pretty much matched him, so he gets that position by default. nyax had huge power, and luke admitted to it more than once before, leia also said that his powers were exar kun lvl. Dark side anakin was said to have gotten close, or power equal to sheev's, so he gets here by default. caedus has another obvious intent to have been vader's semi reincarnation is more ways than one. he gets this high cuz of that imo revan- why below sedriss? he has yet to demonstrate power enough to one shot someone stronger than dooku. Galen marek normally, by matching vader, even if he was 6 years pre prime, has good ass feats too. vjun dooku- matching yoda and being the only person to hit him with a saber while yoda himself stopped holding back and is going for the kill is about as impressive as it gets, makes him like, twice as good as he was in AOTC imo, yoda also said that not even mace windu could beat him, even though he had already invented vaapad by this point. obi wan- why this high? matching anakin's blasts is impressive no matter how u look at it, as by this point he had much, much more power than the anakin who was already above dooku in base without the dark side. prime zannah would have her's, and bane's power, so pretty much double her base power. wyyrlok did well against krayt, was also a tier or two above the guy below him in his sith order. Darth bane- strongest sith in centuries, leagues above a shitton of high end sith, like skere kaan, and could easily fight two council members at the same time, who were were pretty much the best of the best, clearly above zannah, while getting weakened, iirc. Cade showed obvious power, and some good feats too, completely overpowered darth nihl, and gave krayt some good fights, ish. 

mostly it for now, at least

Lorenzo, would you be interested in a formal debate between three Darth Vaders vs Revan?

oh sure. albeit, i might suck, but sure, i love a good debate.

Top 8 in 1998:
1. Luke
2. Exar Kun
3. Sheev
4. Yoda
5. Ood Bnar
6. Freedon Nadd
7. Uliq Qel Droma
8. Naga Sadow

Top 8 in 2004:
1. Luke
2. Sheev
3. Yoda
4. Revan
5. Darth Malak
6. Exar Kun
7. Dooku
8. Mace

Top 8 in 2010
1. Luke
2. Sheev
3. Nyax
4. Revan
5. Krayt
6. Anakin
7. Caedus
8. Mace