VS
Sidious sense a disturbance in the force, and sends his apprentice to deal with it. All five guard are waiting with Snoke behind on the throne. Who would win?
Supreme Leader Snoke and his Praetorian Guard vs Count Dooku
I'm sorry, but they really are. He lost to an untrained girl in lightsaber combat and was wounded by Finn. Now, i know there were a lot of circumstances involved, but he still shouldn't have any business getting tagged by people who have never used a lightsaber before, especially considering lightsabers canonically require a lot of skill and practice to wield effectively.
He had "his spirit split to the bone" by his murder of Han, had just been hit by a weapon that should have killed him several times over (just take a look at this it kills two stormtroopers just from its shockwaves whereas Kylo tanked a direct hit),
raced through a forest so that Finn and Rey (both of them are extremely fast since they could avoid stormtrooper's aim, Finn's training as one of the best stormtroopers and Rey's force sensitivity) were both outpaced to the degree he caught up on a huge head start and was still waiting for them before both those fights. And when he was fighting against Finn he was intentionally toying with him to feed off Finn's frustration, his performance against Finn was mere child's play for him, he only took a most superficial blow that didn't even break the skin and he only took that blow due to underestimating Finn and Finn tricking him by mimicing weakness. So hardly a low showing. When Kylo got serious Finn was stomped and in the movie and comic he was disarmed in one move.
Despite his fear, Finn raised the beam to defend himself. Ren lunged, struck-and Finn parried. Shards of light flew, illuminating the snow and the surrounding vegetation. Drawing back slightly, Ren considered his unexpectedly determined opponent, then resumed his assault with a vengeance.
Finn blocked him again and again, once letting the other man's beam slide against his own and harmlessly off to one side. He counterattacked, to no avail. The longer the contest continued, the stronger Ren seemed to become. It was as if he was enjoying the challenge. Feeding upon it.
At least, it appeared so until Finn parried, swung, and unexpectedly stabbed, the tip of his lightsaber beam grazing Ren's arm. That made it more than a challenge. Taking a step back, Ren reconsidered his opponent. When he closed the distance between them anew, it was with a purpose that had been previously lacking. Expecting an execution, he had found a contest. Now he had been touched. It was time for play to end.
Advancing relentlessly, he was driven by something that Finn could not even sense, far less counter. Still the ex-trooper fought back, until Ren landed a blow that cut across Finn's chest and sent the lightsaber flying from his hand. It landed in the snow six meters distant.
It was over.
Finn blocked and parried the first flurry of Ren's attacks. Ground snow melted as the tips of their blades swooshed low. Finn could not find an opening in Ren's defenses, despite the man's injury. Ren drove Finn back, seeming to draw strength from Finn's frustration. Training had taught Finn to bait an opponent into thinking he had the advantage. Finn parried weakly, then disengaged and stabbed. His blade tip sheared Ren's arm. It didn't do much more than sizzle his opponent's skin. But Ren backpedaled, reassessing Finn.
Holding the blue blade in front of him, Finn stared at Kylo Ren, ready for anything.
But he was not ready for the fury of the attack Ren launched at him. It was as if the previous back and forth had been child's play. Ren's swings flew at Finn fast and strong, pushing him back.
Ren's blade gashed open Finn's chest. Finn fell back, and the momentum of his last swing threw the lightsaber of Luke Skywalker well away from him. He saw the blue blade dissolve back into the hilt, and then his universe turned dark.
Now for the Rey thing. It should be mentioned that he was holding back since he wanted her as an apprentice and had compassion for her (which Snoke accuses him of when Rey resists his interrogation), Rey was seemingly drawing power from her enhanced focus (kinda the Force Rage equivalent for Jedi, like Kenobi had when he fought Maul and Savage after his friend's death) or her rage (she was stated to have more anger than Kylo himself) though it is kinda ambiguous which and all the circumstances mentioned before. Anyway, Rey has shown to be a force prodigy due to her latter performance against Snoke's guards and her ability to impress Luke when practicing. She was also mentioned to have trained herself with a staff on Jaku which transferred over to lightsaber combat.
That feat wasn't half bad, but the Praetorian Guards are fearless fodder for now, so Kylo taking on 2, maximally 3 at a time with significant trouble doesnt really put him as anything above a low-mid 7.
Eh, I mean it depends. For all we know the Guards will be revealed to be ubber badasses equivalent to Jedi Masters but for now I guess they're really nothing more than decent fodder.
Magnaguards have far better feats, so no. Also, i really wouldn't try applying logic to these films, i mean, why did Palpatine still choose his royal guards when he could have had Magnaguards, or a new General Grievous to guard him?
Better feats, yes, but the Guards should be superior, I'll explain. First of all, Palpatine's Royal Guards were really only ceremonial, they weren't really a line of defense the Emperor was going to rely on. This is acknowledged by the director.
"The Emperor's guards were very formal, and you always got the sense that they could fight, but they didn't. They looked like they were more ceremonial, and you never really saw them in action. The Praetorians, my brief to Michael Kaplan was that those guys have to be more like samurai. They have to be built to move, and you have to believe that they could step forward and engage if they have to. They have to seem dangerous."―Rian Johnson[src]
Secondly, it is mentioned that Snoke is very physically frail, so he would need a martial defense if ever his Force powers failed him. I don't recall if Palpatine was ever stated to be physically weak like Snoke was (though he could well have been).
There's no way random guards are better than fully trained force sensitives, you'll need more and better proof than some baseless speculation about Snoke's efficiency.
Er, well I guess we'll need more info about them but since we know Snoke and the First Order employs force sensitives in the Knights of Ren and Luke's converted students I don't see why he wouldn't use some to guard him.
All of them. Rey was fodder who didn't know how to use a lightsaber back then.
Rey's clearly a freak. She was able to transfer her staff skills to the lightsaber, impressed Luke and was stated by Yoda to already have everything the Jedi's foundational texts could offer, which at least implies high level emotional mastery that has always been more important than formal training in the SW verse.
This is just further proof of their incompetence. They managed to loose to an untrained girl despite having the numbers advantage, with it even being 2 on 1 at times.
Considering Kylo's been training his whole life under Luke and Snoke and Rey kept up with him then it's a feat for them.
He realised that when he taught her how to sense the force and felt the potential within her when she managed it extremely quickly and with great success.
He actually was still closed off from the Force when he first started teaching her, she realizes what he had done because she couldn't sense him in the Force. Before that, I 95% sure, he didn't know she was someone special until her saw her train. That's what spiked his interest in her IIRC.
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