Vader's Battles: The Kessel Conclave

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first post in my "Vader's Battles" series of blogs. The aim of these blogs is to go through each of Vader's most famous battles, one by one. In the process, I'll provide context, interpretations and other material that will hopefully shed some light on each.

In the past, Vader’s fight on Kessel was used to lowball him and critique him as a sub-par combatant. Thankfully, that is no longer the case due to the hard work of other debaters over the years. However, I don't think Vader's showings in this fight get enough recognition, most likely due to it being a fairly minor fight in terms of importance and a lack of consideration of the context (e.g. Vader's abilities at this point, the identities of the Jedi he fought, and so on).

This post aims to establish not only why this is not something that Vader should be mocked for, but also why it is actually an incredibly impressive feat for him.This blog will cover several areas: Vader's abilities, his mental state, the opponents he fought, the fight itself, and will conclude with some final statements. I hope you enjoy.

Part 1: Vader’s abilities at this point

To begin, it is important to stress for the purposes of this section that Purge #1 takes place around a month after Revenge of the Sith. With the declaration of Order 66 in 16:5, Purge takes place in 16:6:

This is particularly significant due to Vader’s physical state at this point. In The Rise of Darth Vader, Vader goes into considerable detail regarding his body at this point in time:

As you can see above, Vader at this point is little more than a barely moving carcass. From tall boots that were an “ill fit for his artificial feet” and which “canted him slightly forward, forcing him to move with exaggerated caution lest he stumble or topple over” to hearing that “registered (sounds) as if issuing from underwater” and made “distance and direction...difficult to determine”, Vader is incredibly hindered by his prosthetics at this point. While they offer him great strength and even greater durability, they are slow, uncomfortable, sluggish and foreign to a Vader who still thinks like Anakin to an extent at this point.

To give you an idea of how these prosthetics limited Vader even further: beyond having to “adapt his lightsaber technique to compensate”, Vader expresses frustration at how these cybernetics actually hinder him at this point, claiming that he’ll have to call on the Force even to walk from place to place”. At this point in time, Vader struggles to even move from one side of the room to another.

Now, why is this significant? Simple: Around this point in time (1 month post-ROTS), Vader attacked the conclave at Kessel with all of these limitations, hindrances, and physical ailments...and still performed incredibly well (more on that later).

Vader’s mental state

I’ve briefly covered that above, but I plan to elaborate on it here. First, Vader had almost no confidence left in his abilities:

After his humiliating defeat on Mustafar, Vader feels trapped, isolated and like a stranger in his own body. Unlike Anakin, who had boundless confidence that bordered on arrogance, Vader has completely lost that and is building himself back up from the lowest point he has ever reached.

What’s worse, is that Vader was even unsure about his place within the Force:

Interestingly is that Vader is consumed by self-doubt and uncertainty. Vader has, for all intents and purposes, cut himself off from accessing anything even remotely comparable to what he could wield as his Knightfall or Mustafar. As we’ve seen before, even small seeds of doubt can massively impact a Force user’s abilities:

The Hero of Tython: “Malgus’s lightsaber form was flawless, but he let anger and desperation cloud his fighting. He faltered, and I followed through.”

-

The Voidhound: “There I was, blaster in hand, sidestepping Force attacks, when Malgus lost his cool. But not me. I took the shot, and that’s all she wrote.”

In the case of Malgus, this doubt and uncertainty made him vulnerable to Force attacks and knockbacks, where before the strike team had been completely unable to phase him with them:

(Source: Youtube - https://youtu.be/2B8Nv_mZPtg?t=3858)

As both these examples show, doubt and uncertainty can massively impede a Force user as powerful and masterful as Malgus, giving the strike team the opening they needed just to knock him off the walkway.

As this suggests, Vader would have been emotionally hindered and unable to bring his full strength to bear at this point, feeling clumsy, cumbersome and like a cripple.

The Jedi

This section will be brief in order to give you a sense of the power and skill levels of the Jedi Vader faced at the mine.

First up is the leader, Shadday Potkin. A Jedi Master, she was responsible for gathering all of the Jedi and luring them to the mine in order to ambush Vader. She was shown to be knowledgeable and cunning, acquiring a cortosis blade to disrupt Vader’s lightsaber and believing that only all of the Jedi together could take down Vader.

Next is probably the most prominent of the Jedi: Master Tsui Choi. Choi was a prominent figure in the Order as early as the Yinchorri Uprising in 33 BBY, and was part of Adi Gallia and Eeth Koth’s team that broke into one of their bases and stole a ship. His most impressive accolade is that he was being considered for the Jedi Council:

(Source: Insider #87)

Third is Bultar Swan, a Jedi knight who not only fought in and survived Petranaki Arena (indicating a great amount of skill even before the Clone wars began and she grew and became more battle hardened, as out of the 212 Jedi who entered the arena, only around 30 survived and she had only been recently knighted) but also received additional training from Plo Koon himself:

(Source: Ibid).

She also apparently became a Jedi Master some time prior to the end of the War.

Next up is Koffi Arana. Another Jedi Master, he survived the first wave of the Purge and went underground.

Roblio Darté was another Jedi Master. A veteran of the Clone Wars, he constructed an unusual crossguard lightsaber and used it to great effect.

Jastus Farr, another Jedi Master and veteran of the Clone Wars.

Sia-Lan Wezz, a Jedi Knight. At the age of 13, she engaged and defeated several members of a terrorist organisation on Coruscant known as the Flail. She also joined the resistance group on Naboo to fight back against the Trade Federation’s control, and was part of a group that thwarted a Separatist assassination of Alastar Treen. This group was so effective, that they received orders directly from the Jedi Council and the Chancellor’s office, an accolade only a few individuals can boast of.

The final Jedi is the most impressive of them all. Master Ma’kis’shaalas, a Nikto Jedi from Kintan. Ma’kis’s is also a Morgukai, a culture where male warriors are trained from birth, who have even been stated to potentially be a match for Jedi knights:

(Source: Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds)

Even more interesting is that a Morgukai with the Force can become “unstoppable”, given time:

(Source: Ibid)

What is even more impressive is Ma’kis’shaalas’ string of accolades, which include being described as one of the most brutal combatants in the Jedi Order even at the start of the Clone Wars:

(Source: Ibid)

As if this wasn’t enough, he was also considered one of the greatest Morgukai warriors of all time, as well as the fastest, most perceptive and keenest hunter they’d trained:

(Source: Ibid)

To clarify, Ma’kis’shaalas benefits from a quote defining him as among the greatest of the Morgukai (a group of warriors where an average one could potentially match a Jedi Knight) before he even became a Jedi. He then became “one of the most brutal combatants of the Jedi Order” by the very beginning of the Clone Wars, and then had 3 years of constant warfare and battle to become even more lethal and powerful.

The fight

First, it’s important to establish that Shadday Potkin had been planning this ambush for quite some time, gathering as many masters and knights as she could and believing that Vader would be too powerful for any one of them individually, but together they could triumph:

Vader enters the room by blasting apart a mining door that is pressurised to keep in breathable air like it was made out of cardboard:

-

The first to attack is Sia-Lan Wezz, whose accolades are covered above. Despite all of her skills and abilities, Vader effortlessly kills her with a thrust through the chest, following it by cutting off her hand before the others can do anything more than shout in grief:

-

Immediately after, Vader crosses blades with Masters Darté and Ma’kis’shaalas, blocking strikes from both while simultaneously sending Master Arana flying with a Force push:

As Choi, Swan, Arana and Farr move to engage Vader, Vader strikes down Ma’kis’shaalas, whose accolades above speak for themselves. However, he’s struck from behind by Master Farr, and is forced to leap to avoid a strike from Arana. However, Choi moves to intercept and the two briefly cross blades, before Choi is forced to land below:

At this point, Potkin uses her cortosis blade to disable Vader’s lightsaber, gloating about how she planned very carefully for this meeting:

However, Vader quickly recovers from this and breaks through her defences with the Force, before effortlessly snapping her neck with one hand and taking her weapon:

-

Vader then moves to attack the others while trying to pressure them into revealing what they know about Obi-Wan’s location, disabling Darte, Farr and Arana’s lightsabers before Choi and Swan use the distraction (as he’s apparently about to strike down Arana, hence the raised hand) to cut off his hand and damage his servos respectively, to the point that his leg is making “fzzt” sounds (indicating damage) and sparking:

I want to highlight how Vader’s loss of his right hand massively hindered him past this point with Vader’s thoughts on his prosthetics from The Rise of Darth Vader, which you can read in full above:

Vader thinks his left arm feels foreign and unnatural, like it doesn’t compare to his former organic limb (at least at this point) and even his superior right arm is slow. His left hand, which he doesn’t even consider natural feeling, can’t compare to his right at this point in time, largely because he’s not even close to getting used to his suit yet. These limitations are only amplified by the other parts of his suit, which have forced him to adapt his fighting technique (a technique, I might add, that’s radically different from his style as Anakin and thus he’s not used in combat against a lightsaber user yet) and almost stopped him from moving his arms above his head:

Vader, trying to trick the masters into lowering their defences, then pretends to surrender, causing Arana and Swan to start arguing and Arana to kill Swan with her own blade, believing (correctly) that Vader is only pretending to be beaten:

Vader proves him right a few panels later, cheapshotting him by throwing the cortosis blade - which is still in his severed hand - into his chest:

A wounded Vader then once again offers to spare their lives if they tell him where Obi-Wan is, which they refuse and combine their powers to pelt him with debris, which he holds off for a time despite his wounds and having only hand:

The trio then coordinate their attacks with visible effort and concentration, hitting Vader with so much debris that he can’t stop it all, leaving him on the floor:

-

Vader is then saved by the intervention of the 501st, who kill Farr. Choi then tries to give Darte an opening to escape, but is held in a mid-air grip by Vader:

-

Unable to break free of Vader’s grip, and knowing he’ll die anyway, Choi tries to kill Vader with a lightsaber throw, one Vader, despite his wounds and clumsiness, manages to partially dodge:

All of the Jedi are dead at this point: 3 at the hands of the Clones (two with Vader’s help), 1 killed by her ally, and the other 4 by Vader in combat.

Summary

I think it’s safe to say that this fight was far from a low showing for Vader. Despite his physical impediments and his uncertainty in the dark side limiting his Force abilities, Vader still showed enough skill and speed to blitz a veteran Jedi before she can even get within striking distance. He then held off two veteran Jedi Masters - one of whom is most likely the greatest warrior the Morgukai had ever produced by this point and who has several accolades pegging him as one of the most brutal and effective fighters within the Jedi Order at its peak - while knocking away a third with a push that sent him flying.

While Vader does take several hits and is knocked to the ground by the end of the duel, it’s important to stress that this is the same Vader who at this point has to “call on the Force even to walk from place to place!” At least three of the strikes are a result of him being outnumbered and surrounded, from Farr striking him from behind while he’s distracted with dispatching Ma’kis’shaalas:

To Choi and Swan attacking him from behind and the sides when he’s focused on Arana:

A Vader using his far inferior left hand and reduced to raging at them with no technique or discipline is then brought down by a Force attack from three veteran masters (one of whom was a potential Jedi Council member), which he still held off for several seconds. Sidious further reinforces the idea that Vader had allowed his rage and doubt to interfere with his abilities and hinder him:

(Source: Dark Times)

Which reinforces what we know from The Rise of Darth Vader:

As we can deduce from these depictions of Vader, a month after Mustafar he was emotionally unstable and was fighting at a fraction of what he was capable of even at this point.

Despite this, Vader shows incredibly impressive skill showings here, from holding off two masters - a veteran, and the greatest Morgukai fighter ever trained - and striking down the latter during the exchange to blocking hits from Tsui Choi and stomping Wezz before cutting off her hand before the others could do anything other than scream her name.

His power feats are no less impressive, blasting through two masters’ defences - sending one flying and bringing another within range so he could snap her neck - holding off the combined and coordinated Force attacks of three masters for several seconds despite being heavily wounded and raging and slashing at the debris like an animal, and holding Tsui Choi in a midair Force grip so powerful that even when Vader was heavily wounded, Choi couldn’t break free and instead chose to throw his lightsaber to try and kill Vader.

Final thoughts

As this post has hopefully established, Kessel is far from a low showing for Vader. The underlying context and circumstances aside, Vader blitzed a highly respected Jedi knight, caught a potential Council member with a Force grip that he couldn’t quickly break free of despite Vader being heavily wounded at this point, blasted through another’s defences and sent him flying, blasted through another’s defences despite her extensive planning per her own admission and yanked her by her throat into his grip, and while heavily wounded held off the combined attacks of Tsui Choi and two other masters.

Please note that all of this is firmly before his Roan Shryne growth, and long before his other periods of growth, such as Ferus Olin’s death, TFU, ANH, or ESB or ROTJ.

Barely a month after Kessel, Starstone even notes that by this point, he’s noticeably faster, more agile, and has an answer to everything Forte and Kulka - two veteran Jedi knights who have studied Anakin and Obi-Wan’s tactics and techniques and try to copy them - try:

Vader toys with and stomps them all, being considerably faster, more agile, more practiced and more skilful than he was on Kessel, all within a month and even before he regained any measure of his former confidence in his own abilities after killing Roan Shryne.

In conclusion, even a month after Mustafar, when Vader was a fraction of what he was even by TFU or ANH, he could go toe to toe with some of the greatest swordsmen and swordswoman in the Jedi Order, including a veteran Jedi master who was being considered for the Jedi Council and another who was “one of the most brutal combatants in the Jedi Order” and was one of the greatest warriors ever produced by a culture that could produce average warriors with the potential to match a Jedi knight at times even before he came a Jedi and long before he was hardened by three years of warfare. Even at this point, he’s powerful and skilled enough to rival fully fledged and distinguished Jedi masters like Tsui Choi (who needed two other masters just to overwhelm him when he was badly injured and had one hand) and Ma’kis’shalaas, the latter of whom had enough veteran Jedi master to help him.

Many thanks for reading. If you have any questions or critiques, please feel free to drop them below.

Sources used

People who might be interested:

Interesting stuff, but I don't see how one can take how hindered Vader is described by Luceno in Dark Lord and apply it to the Vader in Purge. When Luceno pitted that version of Vader against a random Jedi Master, it was a competitive match:

If Luceno was tasked with writing a fight between that version of Vader and not one, but two prominent Jedi -- Makis & Roblio -- simultaneously, are we really going to say it would have turned out the same?

@breakofdawn: Didn't you already make a post about this? Or was that someone else? I know this instance was covered a couple of times.

But anyway nice job. You could also do more for those Jedi, by seeing what the average/standard Jedi Knights are able to do. As I recall also, those Jedi that survived Order 66 were made stronger for it. Can't recall the source however.

Interesting.

I'll read this over later. Looks interesting.

Excellent job time to bring the control to this site again especially with vader s supremacy >:)

Great post

Yeah I did but decided to move it over to CV along with the other blogs. And I'll definitely see what other stuff I can find out about the Jedi (Bultar Swan for example has some pretty good feats), thanks.

@lord_tenebrous: Vader has consistently struggled with his prosthetics across a number of media sources. Dark Lord was just the easiest avenue to compare them. There are others I could use to compare them but chose not to. Luceno's interpretation is consistent with other material from the time. I'll see about digging them out and adding them.

@breakofdawn:

I don't doubt that Vader immediately following ROTS was noticeably hampered by his new suit, but I fail to see why the extent to which Luceno details it in his novel would apply to the Purge comic.

@lord_tenebrous: Because Luceno's descriptions of the suit are simply an elaboration on what we already know about the suit and are informed by cast members who wore the suit and Lucasfilm reps. Purge was set more or less in the same month or so as these observations, with the fight you posted taking place after Purge, if I remember my timelines correctly. Just because it's not as explicit as Luceno's narration of the suit and its hindrances (which figures such as Lucas have confirmed in the past) doesn't mean we discard them. Instead, we note them as underlying context and remember them when understanding things about the characters when reading, watching or analysing them. It’s why George Lucas for example would use novels like the ROTS novel to include details he wasn’t able to put into the film due to time and visual limitations. A comic has similar limitations, so novels from the period are looked at and consolidated with the material we have to hand in continuity.

I must have had a deja vu but I swear I read this a few days before.

Yeah I did but decided to move it over to CV along with the other blogs. And I'll definitely see what other stuff I can find out about the Jedi (Bultar Swan for example has some pretty good feats), thanks.

@breakofdawn:

How Luceno describes the hindrances of Vader's suit are far and away more devastating than "what we already know", and that version of Vader struggles to overcome a single, relatively obscure Jedi Master, while the Vader in Purge can thrash high-level fighters such as the "legendary Jedi" Makis'shaalas -- who stalemated Tsyr, who could contend with Tholme & Quinlan Vos(though the latter was accomplished with the aid of his son) -- while dealing with another Master in Roblio Darte.

Massively hindered Vader duels that Master about four weeks after ROTS.

The Vader in Purge was aided by his rage, which gave him the strength and confidence to pull off these feats due to his belief that Obi-Wan would be at the meeting, and so he was operating at a higher level than he would otherwise have. However, the prosthetics and suit massively hampered his abilities as he still hadn't adjusted to them and are what caused him to take the damage he did during the duel. Vader's fight with Chatak precedes the Kessel Conclave by about a couple of weeks or so, so his performance against her (she landed a single blow on him before he beat her into submission) doesn't automatically mean that he didn't improve over the next couple of weeks (albeit clearly not by as much as he had during the ending of Dark Lord). This is again correlated by Dark Lord. Compare Vader's fight with Chatak to his later fight with multiple Jedi simultaneously, during which he's improved so much that he can toy with and stomp them. That's over the space of around two months. Now consider that there's about two weeks (give or take) between Chatak and Conclave, and it's very likely that a more enraged and motivated Vader was simply better by the time of the Conclave than he was at the start of Dark Lord. If anything, this just further proves how massively Vader grew even with the limitations and failings of the suit and his cybernetics.

Given the clear correlation between the events in the timeline and the mountains of evidence confirming that Vader's suit greatly hindered his abilities in his formative years, and there's no obvious contradiction beyond the slight discrepancies that exist between all writers of different techniques.

@breakofdawn:

The Vader in Purge was aided by his rage, which gave him the strength and confidence to pull off these feats due to his belief that Obi-Wan would be at the meeting, and so he was operating at a higher level than he would otherwise have.

Source for Vader being rage-amped?

However, the prosthetics and suit massively hampered his abilities as he still hadn't adjusted to them and are what caused him to take the damage he did during the duel.

They would have noticeably hindered him, but not to the extent that he's hindered in TRODV.

Vader's fight with Chatak precedes the Kessel Conclave by about a couple of weeks or so, so his performance against her (she landed a single blow on him before he beat her into submission) doesn't automatically mean that he didn't improve over the next couple of weeks (albeit clearly not by as much as he had during the ending of Dark Lord).

No, Purge takes place one month after ROTS, as does the duel with Chatak:

In his quarters aboard the capital ship now under his personal command, Darth Vader, gloved and artificial right hand clamped on the hilt of his new lightsaber, knelt before a larger-than-life hologram of Emperor Palpatine. Only four standard weeks had elapsed since the war had ended and Palpatine had proclaimed himself Emperor of the former Republic, to the adulation of the leaders of countless worlds that had been drawn into the protracted conflict, and to the sustained acclaim of nearly the entire Senate.

...

Shryne squinted against the golden wash of Murkhana’s primary, which had just climbed from behind the thickly forested hills that walled Murkhana City to the east. By his reckoning he had spent close to four weeks confined with hundreds of other captives to a windowless warehouse somewhere in the city. Hours earlier all of them had been marched through the dark to a red-clay landing field that had been notched into one of the hills and was currently swarming with Republic troops.

So this would be the exact same version of Vader. One is massively hindered and struggles against a random Master, and one can swiftly cut down (loosely) Quinlan Vos-level opponents while dealing with other Masters. So either Bo Chatak is massively OP, or the way Luceno has marked down this version of Vader isn't quite the same as how he's treated by other writers.

Now consider that there's about two weeks (give or take) between Chatak and Conclave, and it's very likely that a more enraged and motivated Vader was simply better by the time of the Conclave than he was at the start of Dark Lord.

Both showings occur approximately one month after ROTS. So, within days of each other, minimum.

@breakofdawn:

Also:

she landed a single blow on him before he beat her into submission

In dueling, forearm cuts are very dangerous, and she didn't know he wasn't organic in that area. Scoring a hit in that area is even more impressive than if she had cut his leg or torso. The duel was also of a respectable length, and in the end he defeated her through brute force rather than technique. It was a competitive match.

@breakofdawn:

You mentioned that this was the first of a number of blogs. What battle do you plan to do next? I would be interested in reading it.

@lord_tenebrous: Source for Vader being rage-amped?

He spends the entire fight raving and showing how powerful he is, as well as behaving like an angry thug. Sidious likewise confirms that he gave into his emotions which both amped and hindered him.

They would have noticeably hindered him, but not to the extent that he's hindered in TRODV.

Beginning of TRODV? No, not quite. To a comparable level, yes, but he improved. That much is obvious.

No, Purge takes place one month after ROTS, as does the duel with Chatak:

Purge takes place "approximately" one month after. It's set after the duel with Chatak and in between the beginning and end of TRODV. Between the fight and Purge, Vader chased after Shryne and Starstone, returned to Coruscant, went for repairs, researched Shryne, Chatak and Starstone, went to see Sidious, went to the Jedi Temple, then apparently was dispatched to Alderaan before returning to Coruscant and interrogating the Jedi that led him to Kessel (albeit that last one is questionable). At the very least that's a few days, probably more.

So this would be the exact same version of Vader. One is massively hindered and struggles against a random Master, and one can swiftly cut down (loosely) Quinlan Vos-level opponents while dealing with other Masters. So either Bo Chatak is massively OP, or the way Luceno has marked down this version of Vader isn't quite the same as how he's treated by other writers.

Or Vader improved, as he has a habit of doing over short periods of time. For example, in the space of a month he went from struggling with Chatak to effortlessly toying with and stomping 6 knights and padawans. Unless you have evidence suggesting that this growth didn't begin after the Chatak fight (which is unlikely, given Vader's habit of altering his fighting technique or adjusting for weaknesses a very short time after discovering them as he did against the likes of Starkiller as well as his determination to improve so it wouldn't happen again to soothe his own pride and ego), it's perfectly logical to conclude that he grew somewhat on top of his rage amp which amped and hindered him. He himself suggests that this happened:

He had much to do to make himself whole once more.

Both showings occur approximately one month after ROTS. So, within days of each other, minimum.

The key word is "approximately". It's a moot point anyway, since nothing stops Vader from improving considerably in those days and months. The one Chatak fought was still adjusting to his suit and hadn't started testing his combat abilities (e.g. he still tried to fight like Anakin, and was also using an unfamiliar lightsaber:)

But there was a problem. His new hands were too large to duplicate the loose grip Anakin had favored, right hand wrapped not on the grip but around the crystal-housing cylinder, close to the blade itself. Vader’s hands required that the grip be thicker and longer, and the result was an inelegant weapon, verging on ungainly. Another cause of the injury to his left arm.

After a few days (or even a week or two) of growth, Vader improved so drastically he performed as well as he did as of Kessel. By pointing that out, all you've done is help quantify just how drastically Vader grew in a very short span of time and thus how much better he was as of the end of TRODV as compared to Purge #1 even with the weaknesses of his suit and prosthetics and the limitations they forced upon him.

In dueling, forearm cuts are very dangerous, and she didn't know he wasn't organic in that area. Scoring a hit in that area is even more impressive than if she had cut his leg or torso. The duel was also of a respectable length, and in the end he defeated her through brute force rather than technique. It was a competitive match.

Against a Vader even less unsure and competent than the one on Kessel, who was trying to fight as Anakin and was using an unfamiliar and inelegant weapon. It's a moot point, in all honesty. The Vader at this point was trash in sabers, and improved considerably (though was still greatly hindered by) his prosthetics within days or weeks of it.

You mentioned that this was the first of a number of blogs. What battle do you plan to do next? I would be interested in reading it.

The next one is the Darth Maul vs Darth Vader fight from Resurrection. After that, it'll be ANH Ben Kenobi vs ANH Vader, and then after I might do a breakdown of the misconceptions about the ESB/ROTJ Luke vs Vader fights. Not sure yet.

@breakofdawn:

He spends the entire fight raving and showing how powerful he is, as well as behaving like an angry thug.

He doesn't. Vader enters in and shouts "where is Obi-Wan Kenobi", and in the end after most of the Jedi are dead he loses his cool. Beyond that, he behaves normally.

Sidious likewise confirms that he gave into his emotions which both amped and hindered him.

Sidious merely comments on Vader's hatred of Kenobi, on how it was used against him -- the Jedi baited Vader with Kenobi and were on the verge of killing him.

Beginning of TRODV? No, not quite. To a comparable level, yes, but he improved. That much is obvious.

Vader doesn't undergo growth until over a month after his duel with Chatak, following an enlightening conversation with Sidious.

Purge takes place "approximately" one month after. It's set after the duel with Chatak and in between the beginning and end of TRODV.

Source for the first story in Purge taking place after Vader's duel with Chatak? Both are set one month after ROTS.

Between the fight and Purge, Vader chased after Shryne and Starstone, returned to Coruscant, went for repairs, researched Shryne, Chatak and Starstone, went to see Sidious, went to the Jedi Temple, then apparently was dispatched to Alderaan before returning to Coruscant and interrogating the Jedi that led him to Kessel (albeit that last one is questionable). At the very least that's a few days, probably more.

No, there's a one month gap between the duel with Chatak and the Alderaan confrontation. The former takes place one month after ROTS:

In his quarters aboard the capital ship now under his personal command, Darth Vader, gloved and artificial right hand clamped on the hilt of his new lightsaber, knelt before a larger-than-life hologram of Emperor Palpatine. Only four standard weeks had elapsed since the war had ended and Palpatine had proclaimed himself Emperor of the former Republic, to the adulation of the leaders of countless worlds that had been drawn into the protracted conflict, and to the sustained acclaim of nearly the entire Senate.

...

Shryne squinted against the golden wash of Murkhana’s primary, which had just climbed from behind the thickly forested hills that walled Murkhana City to the east. By his reckoning he had spent close to four weeks confined with hundreds of other captives to a windowless warehouse somewhere in the city. Hours earlier all of them had been marched through the dark to a red-clay landing field that had been notched into one of the hills and was currently swarming with Republic troops.

...

Vader lifted his face. “In the same way you told me the truth about being able to save Padmé?”

Sidious was not taken aback. For the past month he had been expecting to hear just such an accusation from Vader. “I had nothing to do with Padmé Amidala’s death. She died as a result of your anger at her betrayal, my young apprentice."

Meanwhile the latter is dated two months after ROTS:

“No need to threaten us further,” C-3PO said. “I’m certain that Artoo isn’t attempting to mislead you. We don’t know the palace very well. You see, we’ve only been with our present master for two local months, and we’re not very well acquainted with the layout.”

“Where were you before two months ago?” Skeck asked.

C-3PO fell silent for a long moment. “Artoo, just where were we before that?”

Following these events, Vader has a meaningful conversation with Sidious, and after that, he spends weeks training himself and that's what he's come out of when confronted by the Jedi again:

The Star Destroyer Exactor and its older sibling, Executrix, drifted side by side, bow-to-stern, forming a parallelogram of armor and armament.

Vader’s black shuttle navigated the short distance between them.

He sat in the passenger hold’s forward row of seats, his cadre of stormtroopers behind him, and his thoughts focused on what awaited him on Kashyyyk, rather than on the imminent meeting, which he suspected was little more than a formality.

His last conversation with Sidious, weeks earlier but as if only yesterday, had made it clear that his Master was manipulating him now as much as he had before he had turned. Before and during the war Sidious’s intention had been to entice him into joining the Sith; since, the goal was to transform him into a Sith. That was, to impress upon Vader that the power of the dark side did not flow from understanding but from appetite, rivalry, avarice, and malice. The very qualities the Jedi considered base and corrupt.

As a means of keeping their plucked pupils from exploring the deeper sides of their nature; as a means of reining them, lest they discovered for themselves the real power of the Force.

Anger leads to fear; fear to hatred; hatred to the dark side...

Precisely, Vader thought.

At Sidious’s insistence, he had spent the recent weeks sharpening his ability to summon and make use of his rage, and felt poised at the edge of a significant increase in his abilities.

After a few days (or even a week or two) of growth, Vader improved so drastically he performed as well as he did as of Kessel. By pointing that out, all you've done is help quantify just how drastically Vader grew in a very short span of time and thus how much better he was as of the end of TRODV as compared to Purge #1 even with the weaknesses of his suit and prosthetics and the limitations they forced upon him.

The Vader in Purge and the Vader who fought Chatak are dated at the exact same point in time. It's likely they occurred within the same day as each other, or a day after. There's zero room for improvement, and in the novel Vader's breakthrough only comes much later.

So again, as to the versions of Vader portayed by different writers at this point in time, one is massively hindered and struggles against a random Master, and one can swiftly cut down (loosely) Quinlan Vos-level opponents while dealing with other Masters

The next one is the Darth Maul vs Darth Vader fight from Resurrection. After that, it'll be ANH Ben Kenobi vs ANH Vader, and then after I might do a breakdown of the misconceptions about the ESB/ROTJ Luke vs Vader fights. Not sure yet.

I expect I'll disagree with the next blog then, but it will be interesting to see the various arguments against Maul's feat laid out.

@lord_tenebrous I'm going to stop responding to these to avoid clogging up the thread for anyone with questions and because this discussion seems like it's not really contradicting anything I've said. Feel free to DM me or something if you want to discuss this further.

@breakofdawn:

Righto