By TripleCx3
Introductions
General Shao, the New Era, Traitorous Champion Of Outworld from Mortal Kombat
And Baylan Skol, the Fallen Jedi Knight turned Mercenary from Star Wars
Before We Begin…
Despite both these Characters coming from very well-established franchises they exist somewhat isolated from the main noteworthy feats of their verses, for the sake of this Star Wars Legends content is not applicable and this will be sticking to the canon movies, shows and supplemental material like novelizations and guidebooks. Both Characters are somewhat lacking in content due to being very new and to have a debate some logical liberties will be taken in terms of scaling.
Background
General Shao
Name: Shao
Age: Unknown, likely 1000’s of years old
Height: 218 cm
Weight: 181 kg
Insanely shredded
Not Shao Kahn
Konqueror of The Kytinn
Champion of Outworld
Trained Reiko but not that well
Baylan Skoll
Name: Baylan Skoll
Age: Unknown, presumably 55+
Height: 191 cm
Weight: Roughly 80 kg
Portrayed by the late Ray Stevenson
Master of Shin Hati (I can fix her fr)
Contentious lightsaber colour
Is carrying modern Star Wars
Intelligence / Experience / Skill
General Shao
“Shao became the perfect soldier. His brilliant tactic and relentless effort won Outworld many victories and him much fame.” Shao has led Outworld’s armies for many years to great success, according to his skins he has won battles at Sarna, Margova, Navala, Tervaria, The Makeba Cliffs, Zaterra, The Kuatan Plains, Lekoria, and the Chesna Fields, alongside having defeated the hivemind (at least in the previous era) bug species the Kytinn. The lack of context as to how these battles went means there’s not a lot that can be derived beyond his consistent ability to win. Shao is very proficient with his axe and while unarmed, he is host to an intricate fighting style that combines the two seamlessly. Despite his great military experience he is not often portrayed as the smartest character and was manipulated into committing treason with pretty much a conspiracy theory. As the champion of Outworld, it follows that he is one of the most skilled of all its combatants with the exceptions of Sindel and Jarrod who are ineligible for the position. Characters like Barraka have defeated mutated Tarkatens who should be decently stronger than himself and many characters including Shao himself have had no problems cleaving through multiple trained warriors at once. It is of note that the MK9 Sindel scaling that will be delved into later does not apply to skill as she one-shot everyone she fought with no effort.
Baylan Skoll
Baylan was one of many generals in the Clone Wars which means not only was he a solid military leader but he also would have had to take on dozens if not hundreds of armed battle droids at once as even padawans have been seen doing. Baylan is incredibly skilled in form V Djem, the same heavy-hitting style Anakin and Vader were masters of and it seems as though he has made some adjustments to his form to compensate for the unexplained extra weight his Lightsaber has. Despite minimal appearances, Baylan is an exceptional warrior and has defeated the likes of Ahsoka Tano with relative ease which gives him some great skill feats to build off of. Ahsoka has taken on some of her time's best warriors, she did strangely well in her fight against General Grievous while just a young padawan, defeated Darth Maul (who has killed several Jedi masters like Qui-Gon) during the Siege of Mandalor, and even defeated the spirit of Anakin Skywalker during her strange dream sequence. Ahsoka also has one of the more impressive skill feats of her era as she deflected blaster fire while encircled by her attackers
Equipment / Weapons
General Shao
Ornate Battle Axe
Shao sports a large battle axe which he uses to incredible effect, Shao has nigh complete control over the axe being able to telekinetically move the weapon and teleport it to his hand. In addition, the axe can be slammed onto the ground to create powerful shockwaves.
Baylan Skoll
Lightsaber
"But this one… In the last 500 years, I've only known one student who built a saber such as this. Baylan Skoll." ―Huyang
Baylan wields a single-bladed lightsaber, its blade is orange-red to signify his incomplete fall to the dark side, It seems to have extra weight and generate high amounts of heat.
Powers / Abilities
General Shao
Dark Energy
Shao can harness “Dark Energy” to increase damage from his axe by 20%
Death Quake/Axe Quake
Shao can strike his axe into the ground to create powerful shockwaves, these shockwaves can launch enemies high into the air allowing Shao to follow up.
Limited Telekinesis
Shao has shown an ability to telekinetically control his axe, Shao can perform simple movements such as recalling the axe, holding it mid-air and slamming it down to create shockwaves. Additionally, he can teleport it to his hand at will.
Baylan Skoll
Telekinesis
Baylan is a prolific user of Telekinesis, he can lift and throw things like boulders and even people, his apprentice was also shown capable of Force choking which means he could as well, and presumably target other organs beyond the throat and windpipe
Telepathy
Baylan can sense his opponent's feelings and thoughts which he has used to manipulate enemies for his gain, such as convincing Sabine to surrender.
Precognition
Like other Force Users, Baylan can access precognition through The Force and predict attacks, precognition is a part of Star Wars Canon as of 2015
Scaling
General Shao
AP and Durability
As Champion of Outworld and the final battle of the Mortal Kombat tournament it is completely reasonable to scale Shao to or above the characters that would be fought before him, such as Mileena. In MK1 Mileena defeats a version of Sindel with eerie similarities to the one we see wreak Havok in MK9. This Sindel should scale to Raiden’s temple feat which is nearly 2.3 kilotons of TNT.
Speed
Through the same logic as the AP and Durability, we can scale Shao to the various lightning-dodging feats and this statement that Raiden moves “as fast as lightning” which reaches speeds of just under Mach 1300. You can also be generous and scale him to the non-canon guest character Omni-Man who can perform this feat coming in at nearly a quarter the speed of light or Mach 206,000
Baylan Skoll
AP and Durability
Baylan is a tricky character to find feats for, most of the best feats in canon are courtesy of one Darth Vader who clearly overpowered Ahsoka and thus you cannot scale Baylan to Vader through Ahsoka. Some characters clearly weaker than Ahsoka and by extension Baylan are Kanan and Ezra. At the very start of Star Wars Rebels, they were able to move asteroids which at the low end requires a force of 135 kilotons of TNT. Baylan should massively upscale from this and his power should be several times greater
Speed
Despite an inability to scale Baylan to someone like Vader in terms of strength, it is not the case for speed. Non-Force-sensitives have been able to keep up with characters that are Anakin's equal such as Cad Bane’s fight with Kenobi and Quinlan, and Ahsoka was clearly on par with or faster than Vader in their Rebels fight (albeit weaker). Characters like Kenobi are capable of blocking Force Lightning which travels at Mach 1300 (There’s no substantial evidence that Force Lightning is unlike natural lightning and calculations treating it as such have been accepted by VS Wiki which is somewhat strict on the matter) as previously stated. Additionally, Count Dooku, who is a match for a character like Kenobi and weaker than pre-Vader Anakin was able to swing his Lightsaber faster than light.
By Sunmellows
Summary
General Shao
Advantages
Much older and more experienced against a greater variety of foes
Larger
Bigger weapon
Better unarmed fighter
Disadvantages
Weaker
Slower
Vulnerable to manipulation
Far more limited telekinesis
Can’t do much that Baylan Can’t do
Baylan
Advantages
Substantially stronger
Far faster
More diverse and useful abilities
Stronger Telekinesis
Better skill feats/scaling
Better weapon
Smarter
Disadvantages
Younger and less experienced
Smaller
Verdict
While at a glance you might assume the rebooted Shao Kahn would crush a no-name Dark Jedi that’s really not the case. From what has been seen of The General he’s kind of a jobber, having lost literally every one of his fights throughout MK1’s Story Mode. When compared to Baylan who has effectively done what The Rock wanted to do with the DCEU and plopped himself near the top of the Mandoverse. In just 8 episodes of television, Baylan established himself as Vader with a Philosophy Major. Characters leagues below Baylan are cranking out feats over 50 times as powerful as the temple feat. Dooku and Raiden’s movement speed statements are very similar in nature so to not buy one means you logically shouldn’t buy the other and that Omni-Man feat is sort of a Golden Tree here. At best for Shao, speed is equal, at worst he’s nearly 700 times slower, and neither is doing much to help Shao’s case. To rub salt in Shao’s wounds, his abilities are underwhelming compared to Baylan who can do them all bar the shockwaves but far better. Shao’s only real advantage was experience which might mean something in Rex’s books but doesn’t change much when Baylan beat Ahsoka who has vastly superior skill feats than anything we’ve seen from characters of Shao’s level.
In General, Baylan had everything he needed to Rieko in the Shwin
The Winner Is Baylan Skoll
“One Parting Lesson Shin, Impatience For Victory Guarantees Defeat”
A Special Thanks to Jolley and Mig for Helping
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