Darth Vader gets his feats only from his Canon showings, be they comics, novels after 2014, the Rebels TV show, or the movies. The Rangers get all of their comic feats, even from the non-Canon crossovers with the Justice League and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Darth Vader cannot use his Telekinesis directly on the Rangers to hold, freeze, or choke them.
Both sides have basic knowledge of the other.
Both sides have their standard gear.
In character and determined to win.
Fight takes place in a neutral, empty city setting.
Win by death or KO of one side.
For the Voters:
This is an official CaV debate, only StormShadow and I are debating.
If you want to vote at the end of the debate say "T4V, TAEP, etc".
Please do not derail the match with unnecessary and disrespectful comments.
Vote either for whom debated better, or who convinced you on the outcome, basically, just don't vote solely based on who you think would win this matchup.
We all know who Darth Vader is, I shouldn't have to go over and post a bio for him. I'll just get into the meat of the debate. I'll focus on laying out how skilled Vader is, how strong he is in the Force and how it's a game changer for him, and finish with a section devoted to his physicals.
Lightsaber and Combat Skill
Even since his days as Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader has been one of the most skilled combatants in the Star Wars universe. His fighting style underwent a major change after he became a Sith and donned his iconic suit, which forced him to rely more heavily on his strength rather than his speed. In one of his earliest showings after becoming Vader (which is probably his earliest as it takes place just days after his suit is put on at the end of Revenge of the Sith, Vader fights and defeats the Grand Inquisitor inside the old Jedi Temple library (Darth Vader Issue #06, 2017). This is the same day after Darth Vader had just rebuilt his own suit (he even tells the Grand Inquisitor that he was testing it out while they were fighting) and this is the first time he's fought against the peculiar double-bladed lightsaber that the Inquisitors use, which can spin around and act like a propeller.
I'll drop some accolades for the Grand Inquisitor here to show how skilled he is down below:
Second only to Darth Vader, the Grand Inquisitor was himself a Jedi expert.
So the Grand Inquisitor, who has learned how to use all seven forms of lightsaber combat, was called a Jedi expert, stated to have "considerable skill", personally chosen by Emperor Palpatine to lead the Inquisitors, and used a new type of lightsaber that Darth Vader hadn't seen before, couldn't do much of anything to Vader who had used the fight to test out the repairs he made to his suit.
For the last one one-on-one fight, I'm going to show Vader's fight against Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back. In this duel, Vader shows clear superiority over Luke from the beginning of the fight, and towards the end manages to pummel and overpower Luke until he disarms him and cuts off his hand:
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Now some of you might be thinking, "this Luke is still a n00b tho", and while yes, he's not as skilled as his Return of the Jedi self, he still has some good skill feats that make Vader basically fodderizing him a good feat of skill. (Refer to spoiler block)
This is very impressive because Magnaguards are stated to be tough opponents for Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars, so for a novice Luke to hold his own against two of them is a really good feat.
This last feat for Luke here is a doozy and a lot of reading, so just a little warning ahead of time.
After already practicing with the training droid remotes for 52 minutes without getting hit, each separated into three different rounds, Luke manages to go 3 hours against three training droids without getting tagged by them:
He sat in the grass until he was no longer short of breath and the sweat had stopped running down his face. He got to his feet and walked slowly to where his lightsaber lay, bending to pick it up. His legs ached, and the ancient weapon felt heavy in his hand.
"Master Luke, are you quite sure you're recovered?" Threepio asked. "I'd hate to see you damaged."
"I'm fine," Luke said, though he was pretty sure that wasn't true.
"Next you'll tell me you have to fight again without being able to see," Threepio said. "If you don't mind my saying so, that seemed terribly reckless."
Luke smiled, remembering standing in the hold of the Falcon and trying to track the remote by the hiss of its jets, with the blast shield of Han's old bucket of a flight helmet covering his eyes. He'd thought Ben was crazy----he could barely control a lightsaber, let alone use it without being able to see. Only his loyalty to the old Jedi kept him from protesting more vigorously in front of Han and Chewbacca.
But he'd done it. He'd stopped the remote, without being able to use his eyes. It had been his first lesson in how the Force could enhance one's senses.
Luke raised his lightsaber, and the remotes advanced immediately. He parried one strike, then another, listening for each hiss of a remote's changing direction, eyes tracking each tiny repositioning.
A laser beam caught him in the thigh.
"Twenty-six seconds, Master Luke."
I can't do this, Luke thought. Honestly, I'd be better off blind.
And then he realized.
The point of fighting with the blast shield covering his eyes hadn't been to enhance his other senses. It had been to give him no choice but to trust in the Force. He'd done it then----and again in the Death Star trench, when he'd shut off his targeting computer and let the Force tell him when to fire the proton torpedoes that had destroyed the battle station.
Let go, Ben's voice had said. That had been the key----the simple instruction that had saved the Alliance and his own life.
He hadn't understood his own training there at Eedit. He'd thought he'd been commanding the Force, using it to amplify his senses and speed up his reflexes. But that hadn't been it at all. When he'd succeeded, it was because he was letting the Force guide him----and when he'd failed, it was because he was trying to guide it. He'd thought that he was trying to make the Force obey his commands, but really it was the other way around.
Let go, Luke thought, breathing out.
He couldn't track three remotes at once----it was hard enough keeping up with one. And all the practice in the galaxy wouldn't help him. That wasn't the point of the exercise any more than whether or not he could see.
"Are you all right, Master Luke?" Threepio asked.
"I'm fine," Luke said. "Threepio, you're a genius."
"I like to think I'm programmed for insights," Threepio said, to which Artoo offered a disgusted blat.
Luke raised his blade to ready position, ignoring the ache in his shoulders and the sweat stinging his eyes.
The remotes streaked in. Luke couldn't say that he saw them, but the blade of his father's lightsaber was there to block their energy bolts. He couldn't say that he heard them, but he turned whenever one tried to get behind him, blocking its attack vector with his blade.
He was no longer aware of Threepio's encouragement, or Artoo's beeps. The chirping birds no longer registered in his ears, nor the chuffs and snorts of the pikhrons. He didn't notice the sweat running down his neck, or feel the growing heat of the day.
There was only the Force, its currents stretching into the past and future, and he was part of it, trusting it to take him where he needed to be. His muscles and nerves moved his arms and legs, shifting effortlessly among the four defensive postures that formed the foundation of lightsaber combat. But who was commanding those muscles and nerves?
The remotes broke off their attack and floated quietly in front of the pillar. Luke looked around the courtyard, faintly startled. The sun had passed directly overhead and was now descending from its zenith in the sky.
"How long . . . how long since I was last hit?" he asked.
"Three standard hours, eleven minutes, and forty-three seconds," Threepio said. "Perhaps you ought to rest, Master Luke. You must be perilously low on charge."
"I feel great," Luke said with a smile, wanting nothing more than to sink back into the Force and loose himself in it.
Source: The Weapon of a Jedi
I've shown how Vader has faced against a single skilled opponent, how about a decent sized group? This next feat is from the movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. At the end of the movie, the plans for the Death Star were beamed up to a Rebel ship. Vader boarded the ship in an attempt to bring back the plans so that the Rebellion couldn't use them to possibly discover a way to defeat the battle station. While in the ship, Vader slowly advanced down a corridor lined with a group of Rebels and although his space was limited without any sort of cover, none of the Rebels could hit him or slow him down and he soon walked through and killed all of them:
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In this video we can see how deadly Vader can be even to a large group of people. His lightsaber skills and speed are enough to block and deflect anything the Rangers would shoot at him and he displayed the use of the Force to not only catch a blaster bolt but fire it back at the shooter (something else he can do to the Rangers and their projectile weapons).
I'll stop the example right there because I believe I have everything I need for my opener on Vader's skill. With this, I've shown that Vader has not only dealt with but practically stomped very skilled single opponents but also has dealt with and knows how to deal with groups of enemies. The fights against the Grand Inquisitor and Luke prove that none of the Rangers individually would be able to pose much of a threat to him, the fight against the Rebels at the end of Rogue One prove that Vader can deal with their ranged attacks (from their Blade Blasters, to Zack's Power Axe blaster configuration, to Kimberly's Power Bow) and how to make those ranged attacks deadly for the people firing them, and his fight against the two bounty hunter groups shows that Vader has dealt with highly effective teams that A) came in with game plans on how to fight and defeat him, B) tried to use specific weapons to circumvent his lightsaber, and C) knew of his abilities beforehand and prepared their team specifically in order to combat him. The Rangers have none of those advantages, and although they're more organized and have better synergy than two groups of bounty hunters, the feats I've laid out here and will lay out below are more than enough to say Vader will be the victor here.
The Force
In the words of Darth Vader himself, "the power to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force." Darth Vader is one of the strongest Force users in all of Star Wars, and although the use of Telekinesis is banned in this battle, Vader is from from hindered or limited in how he can use it. Vader is ready and more than willing to use the Force whenever he wants and can and has done so in very destructive and even ingenious moments.
Offense
The main form of offense Force users employ is Force Push, using their Telekinetic powers to push opponents into something or just push them away. Although the use of the Force is prohibited directly on the Rangers in this CaV, Vader still has other means to damage or distract them. The main one being throwing a large object at the Rangers to either take them out, stun a few of them, or at the very least catch their attention. Throwing something like a car, a street light, or anything else he could find along the abandoned streets would be child;s play since he's:
This section will have more examples and more use in this fight because that's basically where Vader can mostly use it in this fight. The Force is a powerful weapon and a powerful defensive tool, allowing Vader to have greater defenses than the ones his own durability give him. With the Force, Vader has:
Vader can throw car-sized objects at the Rangers to distract or disrupt them, can use the Force to throw objects at them to disrupt their attacks or overload their defenses, can use the Force to help block blaster bolts with his lightsaber or with the Force, and has the ability to cancel out any surprise attacks from behind or ambushes thanks to the Force's precognitive abilities.
Physicals
I don't think I'll need to get into too many feats for Vader in this opener since he has the Force and a oneshot weapon in his lightsaber, but I'll post a few feats for his strength, his speed, and his durability.
Strength
Vader is a very strong individual and does often abuse that strength advantage in his fights. He was already an imposing figure as Anakin Skywalker but after his turn to the dark side of the Force and with the addition of his new robotic limbs, he's even stronger now. Vader has done things such as:
Contrary to what it may seem, Vader is indeed a very fast individual, be it reaction speed or combat speed. His speed is amped thanks to the Force, which allows him to both know things will happen before they do and increases his own physicals, which includes speed. He has quite a few different ones that I want to post and shed some light on in this opener that would help him deal with a team such as the Power Rangers.
Vader cuts down a repair crew faster than they can react:
Vader stepped from the lift and used the Force to augment his speed, sprinting through the smoky, crowded corridors. He saw a Twi’lek repair crew ahead, four men and a woman. They navigated an antigrav tool-and-parts pallet through the corridor, and nothing about them looked suspicious. He didn’t care. He ignited his lightsaber, and when he did, the Imperials in the corridor parted before him, wide-eyed, confused.
The Twi’leks had only a moment to register his approach before he cut them down in rapid succession. He left five corpses and a hall full of gawking troops behind him as he pelted onward.
Source: Lords of the Sith
Vader repels blaster fire and swings his blade fast enough to turn the air around him red:
Those V-wings are coming back around, Goll said, firing down into the quarry at Vader, who was sprinting across the quarry's floor, coming on so fast that Cham would not have believed it had he not seen it. Isval had both pistols out and aimed, firing red lines at Vader. Cham was shooting as fast as he could, too, but Vader's blade was faster, deflecting every shot, sending fully half of them back at Isval and Cham and Goll, causing them to duck and cover.
When Vader reached the steep-walled side of the quarry he bounded up, caught a hold on some protuberance or other, crouched, and bounded up again.
That's impossible, Goll muttered, but he kept firing.
Isval knew better. She'd seen what Vader could do. Nothing he did surprised her.
And now he was coming for them.
They kept firing, leaning out over the lip of the quarry to fire down the steep side, but Vader's lightsaber turned the air red before him and none of their shots so much as touched him. He leapt from one spot to the next, ascending, pausing only for a moment upon landing to tense before leaping again and ascending farther.
Source: Lords of the Sith
Some of the speeds feats that would help Vader in this battle are also in the Lightsaber Skill section above, such as deflecting blaster bolts in a corridor from about half a dozen shooters, deflecting shots from four different guns wielded by one shooter, dodge surprise melee attacks inside of a cloud of dust, and something not listed above is Vader easily holding an advantage over Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger in a duel even when Kanan has dodged blaster bolts after they've been fired before.
Durability
Vader is an absolute tank and has any kind of durability feat you can think of. For this battle, however, I'm going to focus on his feats against energy/blaster bolts, bladed weapons, and blunt force, since that's what the Rangers will be bringing to the fight.
For energy/blaster bolts, it's pretty straightforward. Vader has straight up tanked them beforehand and shrugged off others on more than one occasion. For feats against bladed weapons, he's only really gone and gotten hit by lightsabers, but he's been able to shrug these off on at least two different occasions against two different opponents. I shouldn't need to tell you that a lightsaber is a more dangerous weapon than Tommy's dagger, Jason's sword, Billy's lance, Trini's knives, or Zack's axe. I'm only going to list one blunt force durability feat because the only type of hits I believe Vader would take of this nature if physical strikes from the Rangers, but judging by the threat level Vader poses and his own unique defenses and weapons, I doubt they'd try for that at all and just use their own weapons. Nonetheless, a few days after the events of Revenge of the Sith that placed Vader in his new mechanical suit, the Sith Lord tracks down an old Jedi that survived Order 66 in hopes of taking his lightsaber for himself. During the fight, part of a dam opened on Vader and a large amount of water slams him into a wall with enough force to crack it. Vader simply stands up and blasts the water away, all but shrugging off the damage given to him.
Conclusion
Although he is outnumbered in this fight, Darth Vader is a beast who has taken down and humiliated skilled individuals, groups of trained fighters, and deadly mercenaries hired to hunt and kill him. The Rangers aren't anything he hasn't seen before, and even though they'll have better teamwork than the teams he has fought in the past, the other advantages I laid out in my opener will award Vader the victory. His use of the Force will allow him to keep the Rangers at bay, occupy their time with distractions or full blown attacks, help defend himself from their ranged attacks, and even disarm or return their fire back at them. He can use the Force to prevent any sort of teamwork that would split his attention, any sort of ambush, and has the defenses to take a few hits from the Rangers' weapons, if they manage to break his guard in the first place. Vader has the better speed feats between them, since none of the Rangers have moved FTE to an individual before, moved their weapons fast enough to paint the air in the color of their weapon, or even managed to stomp what is essentially a bullet timer. Vader has the tools he needs to win, he has the edge in experience, he has the edge in ruthlessness and brutality, he won't hold himself back, and he won't be surprised or be out of his element fighting a team of highly skilled individuals.
This opener is a little more RT-esque than I would like and I apologize for that. Started getting annoyed of how long this was taking towards the end. I look forward to your post whenever you get it up!
Many of the monsters power rangers face are planet destroyers far above any other in Star Wars, and if rangers beat one of those every week, Vader would be just another monster of the day.
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