Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Caedus - fight analysis

• Luke had a chest injury from his fight with Lumiya that Jacen exploited.
  
• There's reason to believe that Luke wasn't in a good mental state during the fight. Mara Jade had died not long ago, and Luke is described both before and after this fight as having to deal with the emotional pain; he later let go of a large part of it and realized that he hadn't thought clearly in a long time. Had he been thinking clearly, he possibly could've just pinned Jacen the same way he casually did so in a chair with a milder element of surprise than what he'd have here. {Might insert quotes later} Also see:
  

Yoda had told Luke that electrical shocks, applied at different intensities and at irregular but frequent intervals, would prevent a Jedi from concentrating, from channeling the Force. They could render a Jedi helpless.

But Yoda had never told Luke that emotional shocks could do the same thing.

They could. And just as no amount of self-control would allow a Jedi to ignore the effects of electrical shocks on his body, neither could self-control keep Luke safely out of his memories. Every few moments a memory, freshly applied like a current-bearing wire on his skin, would yank him out of the here and now and propel him into the recent past.

Boarding the Anakin Solo. Finding Jacen torturing—torturing—Luke’s only child, his son Ben. The duel that followed, Luke against the nephew he’d once loved…

- LotF: Fury

• There is strong reason to believe that Luke virtually never uses his full power: 1) He notes in TUF, among other sources, that he is afraid to abuse his raw power out of fear of the dark side, 2) Jaina and Jacen, despite having seen him in TUF, consistently express astonishment at his abilities - Jaina says in Inferno that Luke "hadn't revealed half of what he could do", and later in Revelation when Jacen tries to counter Luke's TK, he "suddenly got an idea of just how much power Luke could muster", which sounds odd for someone who had fought Luke in a vicious lightsaber duel. 3) Luke Skywalker is described as opening himself fully to the Force twice in FotJ, both times against Abeloth. In context, it seems like they were conscious decisions rather than involuntary states:
  

Luke opened himself more fully to the Force, using his love for Ben and his lost wife and the entire Jedi Order to draw it into him. The foul miasma of dark side energy, still swirling into Abeloth, seeped into him, filling him with greasy nausea. But the light side rushed in, flowing in from all sides, pouring through him like fire. A golden glow began to rise from his skin- cells literally bursting with the power of the Force-and Luke felt them both start upward again. Abeloth countered, hissing in anger, and they hovered a hand span above the floor. - FotJ: Vortex

Luke had to stop the Korelei-thing-he could not bring himself to even think her true name-or the Jedi's last hope of breaching the Temple would be lost. He opened himself to the Force completely, and the energy came flooding in so fast it seemed to lift him, to carry him down the duct on a raging river of power. When he began to gain on his quarry, he fired again, this time pouring so many bolts into her legs that one actually erupted in flame. - FotJ: Apocalypse

• Caedus took advantage of several environmental traps during the fight that he would've had more knowledge of, this being his ship.
  

• Luke had the element of surprise, at least to some degree. Jacen didn't believe that Luke was alive and behind him, but he had still been warned by Ben (for some reason) repeatedly, and turned around in a defensive position before Luke finished leaping at him, so this is likely a mild factor.
  
• Luke was clearly really angry - he had just saw Jacen torturing Ben, and didn't even give Jacen a chance to surrender. He also feared during the fight that Jacen would try to take Ben hostage or kill him, so there's reason to think that he wouldn't be holding back. (I don't think he was using the dark side though - that would've been made into a much bigger deal)
  
• Jacen had a prior kidney wound, though with his pain-harnessing I'm not sure if this was even a hindrance rather than an amp.
  
• This was likely before Caedus's peak in Invincible. It was after his big breakthrough post-Mara death, but it's still likely that he continued to grow stronger.
  

But Luke was attacking low, striking for the kidney to disable in the most painful way possible. Jacen's eyes widened. He flipped his lightsaber down in the same moment Luke's met flesh.

The tip sank a few centimeters, drawing a pained hiss as it touched a kidney, then Jacen's blade made contact and knocked it aside. Even that small wound would have left most humans paralyzed with agony.

But Jacen thrived on pain, fed on it to make himself stronger and faster. He simply completed his pivot and landed a rib-crunching roundhouse.

Luke stumbled back, his chest filled with fire. Jacen had caught him on the barely healed scar from his first fight with Lumiya, and now his breath was coming in short painful gasps.

Good, Luke thought. This was supposed to hurt.

Jacen followed the kick with a high slash. Luke blocked and spun inside, landing an elbow smash to the temple that dropped Jacen to his knees. He brought his own knee up under Jacen's chin, hearing teeth crack-and relishing it.

He parried a weak slash at his thighs, then drew his blade up diagonally where his nephew's chest should have been.

Except Jacen was sliding backward, one hand extended behind him, using the Force to pull himself toward a tendril-draped rack in the far corner of the torture chamber.

Jacen stopped pulling and started to swing his free hand around. Luke was ready, had been expecting this since the fight started. Still flying through the air, he raised his own hand, palm outward, and pushed the Force out through his arm to form a protective shield.

The lightning never came. Instead, Luke was blindsided by something heavy and spiky, and his body exploded into pain as he slammed into a durasteel wall. He found himself pinned in place, trapped by a bed of thorns Jacen had hurled across the cabin. He felt the hot sting of the thorns pumping their venom into him. His hearing faded and his head began to spin, and he saw Jacen, one hand still raised to keep Luke pinned, sneering and taking his time rising.

Bad mistake.

Luke raised his lightsaber, slashing through the thorn bed as he sprang. Jacen scrambled to his feet, barely bringing his weapon up in time to block a vicious downstroke. Luke landed a snap-kick to the stomach that lifted Jacen a meter off the deck, then followed it with a slash to the neck-

-which Jacen ducked. He came up under Luke's guard, holding his weapon with one hand and driving a Force-enhanced punch into Luke's ribs with the other, striking for the same place he had kicked earlier. Luke's chest exploded into pain, and he found himself croaking instead of breathing.

Luke struck again with his lightsaber, using both hands and putting all his strength into the attack, beating his nephew's guard down so far that Jacen's emerald blade bit into his own shoulder.

Jacen kicked at Luke's legs, catching the side of a knee. Something popped and Luke felt himself going down.

On the way, he swept his blade horizontally.

Jacen screamed, and the smell of scorched bone and singed hair filled the air.

Knowing Jacen would strike despite the wound, Luke rolled over his throbbing knee and spun back to his feet with a clearing sweep.

His blade met Jacen's in a shower of brilliant sparks. Luke freed one hand and drove a finger-strike at Jacen's eyes.

Jacen turned his head, but Luke's little finger scratched across something soft and bulbous. Jacen roared and stumbled away, shaking his head.

Luke feinted a dash toward his nephew's blind side, then-as Jacen pivoted to protect his injured eye-Luke hit him with a Force wave.

Jacen went flying, and it required only a soft nudge to steer him into a tendril-draped rack in the far corner. He hit with so much cracking and crashing that Luke worried the rack had broken, but the thin tendrils quickly entwined Jacen in a net of pulsing green.

Luke was already throwing himself to the deck. A tremendous crash sounded from the illumination panel, and the chamber fell instantly dark. He rolled opposite the direction he had just been moving, but wasn't quick enough. The fixture smashed into his head and shoulders, slamming his face into the deck. He heard something crunch in his nose and was instantly choking on his own thick blood.

Jacen's lightsaber droned twice, filling that corner of the torture chamber with flickering green light. Luke Force-hurled the light fixture off his back, then hobbled to his feet.

Luke spat out a mouthful of blood and Force-leapt after his nephew, at the same time reaching out to drag him back. They came together in a blinding flurry of sparks, their blades colliding faster than the eye could follow, filling the dark chamber with flashing fans of color. Blows came out of nowhere. Luke caught another kick in his knee and found himself calling on the Force to keep his balance. He landed an elbow and felt a bone in Jacen's face shatter. 

Jacen stumbled back, groaning, the green light of his lightsaber briefly illuminating Ben's face as the boy struggled to cut himself free.

Luke Force-leapt after him, knowing that this Jacen- the Jacen he had caught torturing his son-would not hesitate to take Ben hostage... or to kill him. Luke landed half a meter in front of Jacen's lightsaber and quickly beat down his nephew's guard-too quickly. When he did not glimpse a face in the light of his own blade, Luke knew something was wrong and stopped.

Which was exactly what Jacen was waiting for, of course.

Luke had barely started to turn before a loop of thin tendril slipped over his head and tightened around his throat, oozing toxin and cutting deep into the flesh. The wound swelled and burned as if it were on fire. Luke whipped his lightsaber around, trying to cut Jacen off his back, but Jacen was already spinning away, tightening his garrote and placing Luke's body between himself and the deadly blade.

"Should have let me go when you had the chance, "Jacen snarled. "Now you're done."

Luke slammed an elbow into Jacen's ribs, but it was like hitting a permacrete wall. Instead of continuing to fight, he accelerated into the spin, using the Force to hurl them both into the nearest wall.

Jacen hit first, his skull clunking hard into the durasteel. The garrote loosened a little. Luke dropped his lightsaber, bracing one hand against the other so he could use the strength of both arms to hammer his elbow up under Jacen's chin.

The garrote went completely slack. Luke followed up with a palm-heel to the same target, using the impact to drive himself away from his attacker and buy some maneuvering room.

Then Jacen let out a bloodcurdling scream and stumbled away, a black silhouette vanishing into the darkness of the torture chamber.

In the next instant, Caedus found himself flying across the cabin toward his observation bubble. Luke had not gestured, had not flinched, had not even shifted his gaze; he had simply grabbed Caedus in the Force and hurled him five meters into his chair.

"Don't lie." Luke started across the cabin. "I'm getting tired of it."

Caedus sprang out of the chair... or attempted to. Instead, he found himself struggling against an invisible weight. He felt as if he were accelerating to lightspeed with a faulty inertial compensator.

"Luke, you've gone mad." Caedus reached for the controls on the arm of his chair and discovered he couldn't even do that much. "You can't do this. I know you're having trouble dealing with Mara's death, but..."

"This has nothing to do with Mara, "Luke said. "And you're lucky it doesn't. If she were here-if she had known what you were using Ben for-there'd be pieces of you scattered along the entire length of the Hydian Way."

The irony of the statement was far from lost on Caedus, but he was too astonished-and too frightened-to take any pleasure in it. While it was true that Luke had taken him by surprise, it was equally true that he had done so with no visible effort-and that he was continuing to hold him with no apparent exertion.

Keenly aware that all that stood between him and a quick death was Luke Skywalker's much-strained sense of decency, Caedus let a little of his very real fear seep into the Force, just enough to seem properly alarmed.

...

The door opened. Instead of stepping through, Luke faced Caedus and spoke in a very calm voice. "I'm sure you're not threatening the younglings."

He pointed at the base of Jacen's meditation chair and made a tapping motion with his finger. The pedestal gave a loud whumpf, and the seat dropped a quarter meter.

"Because you really don't want to see me angry." Luke made the tapping motion again. The pedestal emitted a metallic shriek, and the seat dropped another quarter meter. "And I think you're smart enough to know that."

Luke tapped a last time, and the pedestal collapsed with a low loud crump, depositing Caedus on the floor with his feet sticking out in front of him like a child.

"But if you want to try me, go ahead and make that threat."

Luke lowered his hand, and the weight vanished from Caedus's chest. He could have leapt up to attack-had he been that foolish-but Sith were not slaves to their emotions. Avenging his humiliation could wait until after he had saved the Alliance.

...

Krova acknowledged the order, and a moment later Caedus felt the Jedi moving away from the Anakin Solo. Realizing it would soon be time for him to coordinate their attack with Admiral Bwua'tu, Caedus grabbed his meditation chair in the Force and discovered that he could not turn it back toward the battle. No matter how hard he exerted himself, it would not budge.

Krova reported that the Hapans had sealed the Confederation's escape route and were now fully engaged.

Caedus gave up on the chair-he couldn't see anything useful through the bubble anyway-and dropped into the seat facing away from the battle. Instead of leaving his legs stretched out in front of him as they had been before, he drew his knees up to his chest and felt no less foolish.

- LotF: Inferno

Luke's StealthX nudged him again from behind-how? Caedus couldn't see. Force push? Something metallic inside the fuselage shrieked. He had a sense of someone rummag-ing furiously in the drives as if looking for a dropped hydrospanner, throwing fragments into the coils. He's ripping the thing apart...

Caedus tried to block Luke in the Force and suddenly got an idea of just how much power Luke could muster. His seat shot forward, sheared off the runners, tipped to one side, and he hit the console at an angle before he could buffer the collision with the Force. Something cracked in his chest. Pain flared, stopping his breathing. Then he was aware of brilliant white light coming right at him. In the moments before he managed to veer off to starboard, al-most blinded, he got a glimpse of a StealthX's uneven out-line with two grappling arms extended, and the sense of a Jedi other than Luke.

- LotF: Revelation

1. Luke wasn't at his best in his fight against Jacen, which is why Jacen was able to do anything at all (case in point: why not just replicate the chair-pin TK to Jacen at the start of the fight when he wasn't prepared, or do it when he hit him with the Force wave?).
   
2. The gap in Force power is far greater than the gap in sabers (so why did Luke engage in sabers? Maybe he wasn't thinking clearly, or it's a Jedi thing).
   
3. A prepared Jacen in a combat context can better defend from Force attacks than in the other situations.
   

HellfireUnit wrote:Reserved. Will read as soon as possible.

MasterCilghal wrote:Actually Luke was probably hindered during his fight with Caedus. It’s stated in fury than an emotional shock can hinder a jedi’s ability to use the force, which in that case had been Luke finding his son Ben being tortured by Caedus.

Also, I don’t think Luke can ragdoll Cadeus with ease when the latter has a chance to defend himself, at least not as of invincible.  Other than that, great blog.

The Ellimist wrote:Luke with minimal effort can hold a relatively near-prime Caedus in place if he gets the element of surprise; I'm not aware of many cases of a combatant being able to do this to another combatant without being massively superior. I suppose it doesn't necessarily go into "ragdoll" territory, at least not with "baseline" Luke. But the Luke that opens himself "fully" to the Force as we see in some of the Abeloth fights - and I think that's a voluntary action rather than an outlier state - probably could.

MasterCilghal wrote:

The Ellimist wrote:Luke with minimal effort can hold a relatively near-prime Caedus in place if he gets the element of surprise; I'm not aware of many cases of a combatant being able to do this to another combatant without being massively superior. I suppose it doesn't necessarily go into "ragdoll" territory, at least not with "baseline" Luke. But the Luke that opens himself "fully" to the Force as we see in some of the Abeloth fights - and I think that's a voluntary action rather than an outlier state - probably could.

That’s not what I meant. I do agree that Luke is vastly superior to his nephew, but I don’t think that, with preparation he can pin Caedus effortlessly. I have no doubt he could do it, but with a little bit more effort.

The Ellimist wrote:Did I say that somewhere in the blog? If so, that certainly was not my intention.

The thing is, if we really want to do this scaling thing, and we have peak Luke > Valkorion, then if LUke has to ragdoll Caedus with considerable effort he has to be above, say, Arcann by a good bit (which makes sense, though not if you focus on Caedus's low showings).

PeraltaEagle45 wrote:The gap between Luke and Caedus is similar to the gap between Sidious and Luminara Unduli.

but it's still likely the case that without that context the fight would've been over in seconds.