Hello everyone, guy that can't come up with a good username here. I've been dabbling in making VS content for a while now, and while I don't exactly think I'm all that good at it, I think I'm competent enough to finally tackle a match I always had in my head as a kid. That being Galen Marek, the secret apprentice known as Starkiller, versus Cole Macgrath, the lightning conduit nicknamed the demon of Empire City. Now I know I'm not the only one to compare these two shaved headed, lightning-wielding protagonists forced to choose whether their favorite color is blue or red, but to my knowledge I haven't found many people talking about it in depth, so I figured I might as well do it myself. First, I need to clarify a few things regarding these characters and how I'll be measuring them. For starters, I will be using the good ending versions for both characters since that's what's generally accepted as the canon incarnations. Maybe later I'll talk about Sith Stalker Starkiller vs Beast Cole, that sounds like a lot of fun to talk about. Secondly, in regards to Galen's scaling, I'm going to be focusing almost exclusively on the Force Unleashed games and tie-ins, as well as focusing on feats and scaling specific to Galen himself. That might sound obvious, but trust me, I could easily say he wins by scaling him to feats done by very different characters in entirely separate Star Wars stories. And while that wouldn't necessarily be wrong, that would make the match-up really boring and take some of the focus off of Starkiller. Now with that out of the way, let's begin with a short introduction to the characters and comparing their physical stats and attack potency.

****Stories, Stats, and AP****

***Starkiller***

For pretty much all of his life, Galen Marek has had to struggle to survive. As a child survivor of Order 66, Galen and his Jedi parents were forced to hide from the imperial forces looking to kill them. Young Galen had an unexplainably strong connection to the force, and the sith lord Darth Vader took note of this when invading the planet and killing his father. Galen's natural power intrigued Vader, who took the boy as his secret apprentice under the codename Starkiller, training him to one day kill the Emperor. However, after being betrayed and manipulated by Vader, Starkiller would eventually turn against the Empire, rallying together the rebel alliance that would stand against them and sacrificing himself to save his newly acquired friends. Some time later Vader would clone Starkiller to do his bidding again, but remembering bits and pieces of his previous life, the clone would break out and begin searching for answers to his past. By the end of his journey, the Starkiller clone was arguably one of the strongest force users of his time, even stronger than his original self. Given that he directly uses the force to amp his attacks and defense, his physical strikes and durability should scale at least somewhat to feats done using the force. Like how Starkiller can move and crush spaceships and AT-ST Walkers like tin cans, hold back the giant claws of a rancor, rip a large gorilla mech in half, and most famously, drag a humongous star destroyer out of the sky. Even more impressively, Starkiller used his force lightning to power a weapon that blasted another star destroyer in half. I've scoured the internet high and low with the power of google to try and find calcs for this feat, but the only guy I could find talking about it is the youtube channel CRISIS, who calculated the feat to be worth 43 teratons of energy. Galen also once used the force to block an attack from a monster called the Gorog that was described in the Force Unleashed 2 book as strong enough to crack a moon in two. Starkiller then proceeded to kill this moon busting beast while not even at his strongest. And of course, there are Starkiller's most famous feats, his victories against Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. However, I don't think Starkiller at any current point directly scales to either of the sith lords. His wins against Vader were largely circumstantial, Vader heavily underestimated his apprentice in their first fight, costing him a fight he should have won, and this is supported by their second fight, where Vader was definitively winning against the more powerful Starkiller clone until he used enhanced force lightning, the closest thing Vader has to kryptonite. Meanwhile Palpatine was really just playing with Galen, testing him because he saw the potential for a new apprentice to replace Vader. This is shown in the good ending where after what looks like a close fight, the Emperor point blank tanks a blast containing all of Galen's energy and comes out practically unharmed. And in the bad ending, after Galen immediately turns his blade on Palpatine, the Emperor effortlessly crushes the apprentice. Either way, the second Palpatine stops humoring Starkiller he easily defeats him. But still, the fact that Galen is able to fight the two final bosses of the verse back to back and do well AT ALL is impressive, and shows that Starkiller is at least near the top tiers in terms of raw power. His speed is no less insane, able to easily react to force lightning and deflect rapid fire blaster shots, which are described as moving at the speed of light.

***Cole***

He has been known by many names: the demon of Empire City, the patron saint of New Marais, and even the electric man, but before it all he was simply known as Cole Macgrath. Throughout most of his life, Cole didn't appear to be particularly special, dropping out of college, working as a bike courier, and routinely getting into trouble with his bad influence of a friend, Zeke. But unbeknownst to Cole, he was born with the rare Conduit gene, which changed his life forever when he was tricked into delivering a package which turned out to be the experimental ray sphere. With the ray sphere exploding in his face and taking out a chunk of the city, Cole would find himself not only alive but better than ever as the blast had awakened superhuman powers. As Cole worked to master his new abilities, he'd be forced to take on the numerous criminal gangs that ruled the now quarantined Empire City. Ultimately it all led to a man named Kessler, who was revealed to be Cole from the future and had set up everything to mold Cole into a savior who would destroy an impending threat called the Beast. However, even after killing Kessler, Cole wasn't ready for the Beast and had to retreat to New Marais in search of new power. Ultimately, Cole would have to sacrifice himself and most other conduits across the world to kill the Beast and cure humanity of a plague caused by the ray sphere, ultimately being remembered as a saint who saved New Marais and possibly the whole world. By the time of his death, Cole was one of the most powerful conduits to have ever lived being second only to the Beast. It's a common misconception that Cole's physical abilities aren't that much better than the average human, but this is simply not true. He's strong enough to casually hold open the mouth of a devourer several times his size, stronger than Kessler who was strong enough to cause earthquakes just by punching the ground, and with his amp, he can rip chunks of armor off of ice titans that can point blank tank RPGs and grenades with no visible damage. When it came to his actual powers though, his lightning strikes caused more visible damage to the Beast than a literal nuke to the face. Thankfully, inFamous 2 makes my job easy and tells us flat out in a dead drop that the nuke has a 51 kiloton payload, and while it did nothing more than knock the Beast over, Cole's ionic storm was ripping the Beast apart. And even before going to New Marais and becoming much more powerful, Cole could still accomplish this in his first fight with the Beast, proving a peak Cole scales FAR above the nuke. Under normal circumstances that would be where Cole peaks, but in truth, you could argue Cole was much stronger than this in the first game alone. See, in the original timeline that Kessler lived in, the Beast literally broke the moon in half, shown in the flashbacks Kessler projected into Cole's mind, and in the exact same scene we're told, "Kessler could've stopped it, but he ran". This implies Kessler was strong enough to potentially beat this moon busting Beast before Cole killed him, then went on to get significantly stronger. Even if you don't think Kessler literally could've solo-ed the original Beast, Cole should still scale to this moon breaking level by at least the end of inFamous 2 where Cole ultimately rivals a stronger version of the Beast. When it comes to how tough he is, Cole reaches similar levels given that he survived an all out assault from a bloodlusted and feral Beast. In fact, Cole's survivability is arguably his greatest attribute, as he's tanked explosions point blank, survived blasts that rip normal people apart on an atomic level, and toughed out getting facefulls of Sasha's toxin, which can melt people. Cole also possessed a healing factor, allowing him to survive even fatal wounds and heal from them quickly, and it can be accelerated by absorbing electricity from nearby sources. Lastly, speed is also an area where Cole shines. Cole has regularly dodged gunfire, reacted to lightning fired at him by Kessler, and can even dodge a beam of electromagnetic radiation from the RFI, a beam that would be moving at the speed of light.

***Verdict***

This was a pretty interesting category to call. For starters, let's talk about the most and least important part here, their raw power. The main comparison to make is Starkiller powering a 43 teraton blast and Cole dealing more damage to the Beast than a 51 kiloton nuke. At face value, it sounds like they might be close, but a single teraton of energy is worth 1,000,000,000 kilotons... I don't think I need to explain further, but if this was where their strength peaked, Galen would crush Cole into paste, being literally millions of times more powerful than the prime conduit. But luckily for the electric man, these two actually even out in terms of the higher scaling. They both vaguely upscale from monsters strong enough to break the moon in two, and can take hits from these same creatures while they're bloodlusted. What this came down to was Starkiller's greater speed versus Cole's better endurance. When it came to speed it was pretty clear cut: Cole's best speed feat is basically laser dodging while Starkiller regularly deflects dozens of lasers fired at him at once. Cole isn't getting blitzed, but he does fall behind. However, making up for this, Cole can take and come back from generally worse stuff. Sure, I consider their durability relative. But if you stab Starkiller through the chest it borderline cripples him, while Cole would heal from the same wound in moments and his performance would barely be affected. Overall, they balance each other out for me with no clear winner. They match each other in raw power and durability, and while Starkiller will land more hits with his better speed, Cole can take more hits with his better endurance and healing. So all in all, I'm calling this category a tie.

****Weapons****

***Starkiller***

In his crusade against the Empire he once served, Starkiller was armed with dual lightsabers given to him by Darth Vader personally. These iconic laser swords can cut through nearly anything, block lasers and electricity, and even conduct Galen's own force lightning for stronger attacks. I don't really know what else to say, they're lightsabers, they kind of explain themselves.

***Cole***

During his time in New Marais, Cole's main weapon for melee combat was the amp. The amp was an invention by Cole's best friend Zeke, acting as a cross between a baseball bat and a lightning rod. The amp would channel Cole's electric powers into physical attacks, letting Cole bash people over the head with the same power that's usually restricted to ranged attacks.

***Verdict***

Starkiller. Do I even need to explain myself? Probably not, but let's talk a bit more about it anyway. To be fair, the amp is an impressive weapon, and because it channel's Cole's power directly, I do think it could fend off a lightsaber for a bit, but in the end it's still a giant electric tuning fork vs a literal laser sword. Two in fact, let's not forget Starkiller has two! Look, I wanna have some big smart verdict, but this is easily the most obvious category and I genuinely can't think of much to explain here. The amp isn't worthless but Starkiller gets the clear edge in weapons.

****Powers****

***Starkiller***

Thanks to his Jedi heritage and training under Darth Vader, Galen Marek naturally had an incredibly strong connection to the Force, an ever-present energy that exists everywhere and flows through all living things. Galen's connection was so strong that even as a very young child, Vader mistook him for a Jedi master based on nothing but sensing his power. With the Force, Galen had access to a massive pool of useful and powerful abilities. For starters, the force grants him telekinesis, allowing him to lift, move, and throw all kinds of objects and enemies with his mind whether they're as small as a mouse droid or as big as a star destroyer. He can use force push to blow enemies off their feet with a shockwave, use force choke to strangle his enemies in the air, and use force lightning to fry enemies with torrents of electricity from his fingertips. The force grants him minor precognition to react to attacks the instant they happen, lets him sense his opponents thoughts and emotions, and he can sense things even if they're planets away. He can use the Jedi mind trick to make weaker minded enemies do what he wants, resist similar mind tricks from other force users, he can glimpse into the future with enough meditation, and he can use tutaminus to absorb energy based attacks like blaster fire or force lightning. And we've barely scratched the surface of his actual force attacks. Force repulse is a concussive omnidirectional blast of force energy powerful enough to completely obliterate stormtroopers, Detonate is an ability where he shocks an opponent then pushes them away to make them explode, Sith Scorcher is force lightning but more, Sith Seeker is a condensed ball of lightning that homes in on enemies and explodes, and Maelstrom creates a whirlwind of force energy, causing anything or anyone nearby to float helplessly around Galen before releasing an extra strong repel. Last but not least, Galen can also use Force Fury to drastically increase his own power through his anger, becoming much faster, tougher, and much more powerful, albeit for a short time.

***Cole***

Since becoming a Conduit, Cole has developed a large collection of both useful and deadly powers. Starting off simply, Cole's main power is electrokinesis, the ability to create and manipulate electricity. With this, Cole can shoot bolts of lightning from the palm of his hand, condense it into a sticky grenade made of lightning, throw rockets of electricity that home in on whatever he zaps next, create gigawatt blades on each arm for lethal melee fighting, use his static thrusters to hover in the air, use induction grind to quickly ride along power lines and train tracks, use Precision to slow his perception of time and snipe enemies from afar, he can create an energy shield to block projectiles and convert them into energy, and can use an electric tether to latch onto things and either pull them towards Cole or vice versa. In addition, while Cole's powers are limited by a finite energy supply, Cole can sense and absorb nearby sources of electricity to fuel his powers, heal wounds, and generally keep himself in top shape. He can drain electricity from anything that has it, whether that be a light post or the actual thunder clouds from the sky. His radar pulse also allows him to sense an enemy's location even if they're disguised and can sense whether they mean harm. Cole can also read minds and resist mind control, track people through the echo of their bioelectricity, and even manipulate the bioelectricity in a person's body with a touch, allowing him to restrain them with electric shackles, drain their life energy to rejuvenate himself and kill them, or even just fry them from the inside with it, negating typical durability for an instant kill. Not limited purely to lightning though, Cole also possessed electromagnetic powers, which he used to induce an anti gravity effect in some attacks and to almost telekinetically lift and throw objects and enemies, which would explode on impact. Cole could also send shockwaves from the palms of his hands to blast back enemies. And after a little power exchange with his friend Lucy Kuo, Cole also gained cryokinetic ice powers. With these, Cole could freeze enemies with ice grenades and frost rockets, conjure a salvo of ice spikes to send flying at enemies, and create a glacier beneath him for a higher jump. Last but certainly not least are Cole's strongest powers, the ionic attacks. Ionic Vortex creates a swirling tornado infused with electric power, ionic freeze sends a wave of non-lethal ice spikes to freeze whatever's in front of him, and ionic storm calls down an extremely powerful series of lightning strikes that even the Beast couldn't shrug off easily.

***Verdict***

This was perhaps the most interesting part to call. On a surface level Cole and Galen seem very closely matched with many similar abilities. They both essentially have telekinesis, can throw shockwaves and lightning bolts from their hands, read minds and sense an enemy's presence, create barriers and absorb certain attacks, mess with an enemy's vital organs for an easy kill, and can form their lightning into explosive homing projectiles. What this comes down to is one big advantage in each arsenal. On Cole's side he has generally greater versatility. I doubt anyone will argue when I say Cole is better at electrokinesis. Most of Galen's lightning power amounts to just zapping his enemies and a bit of construct creation, while Cole can mold it into explosives, absorb it to rejuvenate himself, and apply his other power types to it. Not to mention Cole's ice powers also give him an elemental edge. But while Cole generally has more powers, Starkiller's powers are generally better. This is especially apparent when comparing their similar powers. Cole can use electromagnetism to toss around cars and people, while Galen can use telekinesis to slam a star destroyer and crush space ships. Cole can scramble your insides with a touch, but Vader's apprentice can strangle you or crush your organs without having to touch you. Cole can read minds and generally sense your location, but Galen can sense your emotions and intent and can locate you across planets. Not to mention Starkiller is better at applying his powers mid combat, such as using his precognition and sensory powers to respond to attacks near instantly. However, there is one last power comparison to be had before calling a victor, and that's their trump cards of Force Fury and the Ionic Attacks. And while Cole's ultimate powers would definitely be dangerous to Starkiller, I'd go with Force Fury as the better trump card, given that it lets Galen go all out with his powers for a short time as opposed to just three extra strong attacks. And since I've already gone over how I put these two at similar levels of power, Galen should be able to defend himself from the ionic attacks with a force barrier, or dodge it with his superior speed, or counter with a Maelstrom or Force Fury assault. On one last note, Cole also relies on a limited supply of electricity to power his attacks, whereas Galen uses the force, which is everywhere and in endless supply. True, Cole can easily refill his energy, but that's still finite and it's not like Starkiller will just sit back and let him recharge every time. Overall, Cole certainly brings variety and creativity to the table here, but this ultimately amounts to a contest of quantity vs quality, and Galen is definitely bringing the quality. To be fair, Cole does resist some of Starkiller's abilities. Like how his resistance to Sasha's mind control proves he can resist the Jedi mind trick, his gigawatt blades may serve as a good answer to Starkiller's lightsabers, and surviving blasts that rip people apart on an atomic level proves he won't be turned to ash by force repulse and may even survive a hit or two from a lightsaber. But overall, while Cole is bringing a lot to the table, Starkiller has better versions of most of their shared powers and has answers to most of everything else. So with that, I give Starkiller the slight edge in powers.

****Smarts, skills, and strats****

***Starkiller***

As a force-sensitive assassin trained for most of his life by one of the best warriors in the verse, Starkiller was little short of a genius in a combative sense. Stated to be a master of saber combat, Galen took various elements from of the seven lightsaber fighting forms to make himself a nigh unstoppable fighting machine. For starters, he'd often fight using form 5, Shien. This saber style involved wielding one's saber in a reverse grip and was specifically meant for deflecting blaster fire, go figure for a guy that regularly has to fight dozens of soldiers armed with blasters. The form was also suited to defend from other sabers. (Interestingly enough, this is also a style favored by Ahsoka Tano, another former apprentice of Vader.) He's also shown applying a Jar'Kai style, dual wielding lightsabers in this reverse-grip fashion. He's also stated to use form 7 Juyo and form 3 Soresu. Starting with Soresu, this was an efficient defensive form, using skilled bladework and dodges to make ranged weapons all but worthless. Lastly was Juyo, the last and most vicious of the Saber forms. Drawing on Starkiller's emotions to empower him, Juyo is the most difficult of the forms demanding near mastery of lightsaber combat as a whole. Juyo is all about aggression and absolutely dominating an enemy with overwhelming power. Galen would generally apply this with a combination of vicious saber assaults and spamming his force powers to capitalize on any moments of weakness. In addition, Galen sharpened these skills with regular sparring matches against his droid PROXY, who would mimic the styles of various Jedi to try and kill him. By the time Vader started sending Galen on his errands, he could contend with much more experienced Jedi masters like general Rahm Kota and council member Shaak Ti. But for all his skill, power, and sheer tenacity, Starkiller suffered a major tactical weakness in my opinion. That being that all his incredible power and near unrivaled skill... has kind of allowed him to get away with not actually planning things out. He doesn't need to figure out how to get into an enemy base because he's strong enough to literally walk through the front door and take out everyone. This is also apparent in his fights with more skilled Jedi and Sith, where he often wins by overpowering his opponent with the force. Now, let me emphasize, I am by no means calling Galen unintelligent or bad at strategy. He is a master of combat, whether that be one on one or one versus one hundred. I'm just saying that Galen is a fighter before almost anything else and doesn't tend to plan ahead. He's more likely to go by the seat of his pants and improvise than he is to come up with multi-step plans mid-battle.

***Cole***

In the relatively short time he's had to go from everyday bike courier to superhuman savior, Cole became a clever tactician in battle. In an up close fight, Cole would prioritize wide swings with the amp to hit as many thugs as possible at once while also putting his full strength into every swing, and would use his superhuman physical abilities to outmaneuver a foe. He'll literally jump and swing all over whoever's fighting him to confuse them and open them up for a powerful finishing blow. But moreover, Cole became a bit of a schemer, using his powers to generally keep himself alive in a fight until he can sniff out a weakness, then abuse that weakness relentlessly. By the time he was fighting Kessler and the Beast, Cole was certainly powerful enough to decimate entire armies of soldiers, but opted not to use his powers recklessly and risk wasting his limited supply. Cole's early days of working with very limited powers taught him the value of being smart and precise, teaching him to use his powers creatively and plan ahead, and he's used this to best far more experienced and even more powerful conduits, like Kessler. Kessler had well over a hundred years of experience with his powers before Cole took him down. Cole has also taken down multiple superhuman mercenaries more experienced than him wielding weapons 100 years more advanced than the rest of the world's.

***Verdict***

This category was surprisingly hard to call. Despite all their similarities everywhere else, Cole and Starkiller are practically opposites here. On one hand, Starkiller is inarguably the better fighter. His years of training under one of the highest tier warriors in the series and mastery over highly complex bladed combat are, shock of all shocks, more impressive than Cole's self-taught, developed-in-a-week style of melee combat. Meanwhile, I'd say Cole is the better tactician, he's better at thinking ahead, planning out traps and finding opportunities to exploit. Cole generally fights smarter while Galen generally fights harder. So what we essentially have is a warrior versus a tactician. If Cole engages Starkiller in up close combat, he's going to get outdone and be unable to land any meaningful damage. So Cole will have to stay out of range and rely mainly on his powers... in which case, it sure is a good thing for Starkiller that his Shien and Soresu are both ideal for defending from projectiles. Sometimes the direct approach is the best approach, and in a close match like this, I doubt Starkiller will even give Cole the chance to set up any complex traps, he was trained to counter energy projectiles like Cole's lightning, and Galen's sensory abilities will let him react accordingly to practically anything else. Maybe Cole can figure out a clever way to get past Galen's defenses, I wouldn't be surprised if he can. But generally, the secret apprentice is going to be much more comfortable in the heat of battle while Cole is going to struggle to make up the skill gap. Some might argue that Cole would be fine, having already fought more experienced soldiers, dealing with weapons a hundred years more advanced, and his regular fights with conduits would prepare him to work around unpredictable powers, all valid points. But the thing is, Cole's experience there is against gun-toting soldiers much less powerful than him. He's never fought a dedicated swordsman who matches him like Galen and would be out of his depth up close. So with all that said, I give Starkiller the edge.

****The Fight****

Now, let's set this up. Let's say that, while exploring the galaxy, Starkiller receives intel that the Empire has suddenly become interested in a distant planet, a relatively unremarkable one that hasn't even been touched by the war yet. Unsure why Vader would want to waste his time on a less developed world, Starkiller sets a course for the planet and begins meditating to try and sense what's going on. He soon gets a vision that shows exactly why the Empire has a sudden interest in this world: a vision of people with no connection to the force being able to call on similar power, and a Beast powerful enough to burn that little blue ball of a planet to a crisp. He sees a hero, a conduit bathed in lightning as the only one on the planet with a chance at killing the Beast. The vision ends with Vader confronting this Beast and taking its power, becoming something far worse than either of them already were. Awakening from his vision with a jolt, the dark Jedi knows he can't let that pass. Deciding to beat them to it, Starkiller's ship would speed to Earth, arriving within minutes and beginning preparations to land in New Marais.

Cole simply couldn't believe it. He could barely make out Zeke's incoherent phone call, most of it was about aliens and how he "Totally called it!" Zeke tended to be a bit.... Eh, crazy, about his conspiracy theories, but this time he was right on the money. A UFO, hovering right over the local park, was drawing in a big crowd of people. Making his way through the crowd, Cole watched the spacecraft slowly descend, carefully landing before sliding out its runway, with Galen Marek calmly walking down to the city streets. Within seconds, Galen's eyes met Cole's, sensing the conduit from his vision mere feet away from him.

"So, you're the hero here then?" Galen began, "Good, then I won't have to look too hard."

Cautious but interested, Cole stepped forward, the two meeting each other face to face and looking each other up and down. "You know, I've seen a lot of weird shit this week." Cole began, semi-jokingly, "Ice freaks, filthy mole monsters, and even a fifty foot asshole made of lava... But the ONE thing I wasn't expecting at this point was aliens."

Raising a brow, Starkiller decided to get to the point, "I'm gonna need you to come with me. We have a lot to talk about."

"Uh huh..." Cole crossed his arms, raising a brow himself, "Well, as nice as that sounds, I think I'll have to pass. Mom always said not to get into space ships with strangers."

Galen frowned at this, and proceeded to wave his hand in front of Cole's face, "You want to get in the ship, no questions asked."

Feeling the attempt to alter his thoughts, Cole reacted on instinct, throwing Galen back with a shockwave that sent him flying into his ship, denting it. The crowd that had gotten thick with people was immediately thrown into chaos, running off in different directions. Cole figured that was for the best, less chance of people getting caught in the crossfires as Starkiller picked himself up with a growl.

"Alright... if that's how you want to play." Starkiller reached out his hand and suddenly Cole could feel an invisible energy lift him up and pull him closer. Thinking fast, Cole sent a lightning bolt at his adversary, making Starkiller stop his force grab to block with tutaminus. As Cole landed he quickly threw out three electric grenades and ducked behind a tree. With a scoff, Starkiller grabbed the explosives with the force and stuck them all to the tree, reducing it to splinters in the explosion. However as the smoke cleared, it was revealed Cole wasn't behind the tree anymore, leaving only a glacier where he stood. Using the force, Galen sensed Cole directly above him, bringing the amp down at Galen's head. Vader's apprentice dodged at the last second, his opponent gripping the amp tight. "Hmmph, cute." Starkiller scoffed before pulling out his lightsabers.

(An attempt at drawing their clash by me)

"Oh you gotta be kidding me..." Cole groaned at the sight of the laser swords before running forward and aiming a swipe. Galen easily blocked with his sabers, electricity and plasma sparking as they locked eyes. Galen then broke the stalemate, aiming multiple slashes that Cole narrowly defended himself from. Cole quickly threw out another shockwave, making Galen stumble back. Capitalizing, Cole ran up to Starkiller, jumped off his chest, spun in the air, and aimed a heavy blow at his head. However, Starkiller dodged the attack, landing a counter slash across Cole's chest before grabbing him with the force and throwing him out into the street. Cole groaned in pain as he got up, feeling his life draining from that slash as Galen slowly walked towards him. He needed energy, but he knew he couldn't just leave himself open. Thinking fast, Cole threw out several rockets directly at Starkiller. The dark Jedi easily avoided these missiles, running up to Cole with a stab. Cole felt the burning hot plasma pierce through his chest, sending waves of pain throughout his body, however, gritting his teeth he powered through it and sent a blast of lightning point blank into Starkiller's gut, knocking him a few feet back. Galen stumbled, shaking off the electricity, but soon caught his breath, relatively fine.

"Hmmph," Starkiller scoffed, "All that to land one attack?"

At that, Cole gave a light chuckle, "I didn't land just one." Sensing something wrong, Galen looked behind him to see the dozen or so missiles now homing on him. Thinking fast, Galen ran, darting around the streets to avoid being hit. As Galen was preoccupied, Cole reached out his hand, draining a lamp post to refill his energy and heal his wound. Now back in top shape, Cole turned his attention to Galen. The force user stopped and began holding back the rockets using the force with some difficulty. Seeing Galen holding his hands out to stop the missiles, Cole had an idea and threw an ice rocket that encased Galen's hands in ice. Before anything else, the rockets were freed and slammed into Galen, sending him flying through a building wall in a huge explosion. Cole waited, sensing his opponent was still conscious in there. With a frustrated shout, Galen flew out of the hole and tackled Cole before slamming him to the ground, and they both readied their weapons once more. Fueling his attacks with anger, Galen rushed Cole, throwing out countless saber strikes at Cole from all angles and leaving no chance for Cole to do anything but defend and take a few light hits from the assault. Breaking Cole's guard, Galen slashed the conduit into the air before grabbing him with the force and slamming him down hard, making Cole drop the amp. With no time to lose, Galen force pulled the improvised weapon to him and slashed it clean in half as Cole got up with a grunt. Then at the same time, Cole and Galen both threw out bolts of lightning, which collided. Their electric blasts struggled against each other, fighting for superiority. This continued for a bit before Cole used a glacier to jump in the air and sent a rain of ice spikes down on Galen. The apprentice blocked these shards with a force barrier as Cole used lightning tether to reach the ledge of a building. Hanging from there, Cole fired several Precision blasts at Galen, who was able to dodge and block each of them. Galen then threw one of his lightsabers at Cole, but Cole grabbed it with his electromagnetism and tossed it away before aiming a few more shots. Galen blocked, and getting tired of this, used the force to uproot a tree from the nearby park and threw it at Cole. Cole used a shockwave to push the tree out of the way, then jumped off the building, channeling his lightning into a descending strike that Galen managed to dodge. Galen then noticed Cole draining a nearby light for energy.

"So, that's what powers you huh?" Galen remarked, before reaching out with the force. Soon, the substation for the area was suddenly shut off, leaving the immediate area with no electricity. Feeling this disturbance, Cole gave his opponent a harsh stare. "So what now?" Galen remarked, "I took away your power supply and destroyed your weapon."

"Oh trust me..." Cole began, forming a pair of gigawatt blades on his arms, "You don't need a weapon when you are one.." In response, Starkiller called his second saber back to his hand, and the two charged at each other. Flashes of blue could be seen as the lightsabers and gigawatt blades clashed and twirled. Cole this time went on the full offense, forcing Galen to block as the dual electric blades were actually matching the sabers better than he'd expected. Cole then landed a slash along Galen's chest, stunning the apprentice for a second before uppercutting him hard. Galen fell on his back, and Cole ended his assault with an ionic freeze, encasing his opponent in ice. Cole panted, exhausted from the fight, but had enough left in him for one more remark, "I think you just need to chill..."

Suddenly, the ice was completely vaporized in a powerful force repulse that freed Galen and threw back anything near him, Cole included, as Starkiller entered Force Fury. Picking himself up, Cole sighed before holding up his hand. Thunder rumbled and a bolt of lightning from the sky came down as Cole absorbed natural lightning to empower him one more time. Cole used his electromagnetism to throw a car at Galen, but the force prodigy caught it, holding it and every other car in the area up before throwing them all at Cole. Thinking fast, Cole threw out an ionic vortex, sucking up the cars and speeding towards Starkiller. However, Galen would hold the swirling vortex with the force, then blow it away with a wave of enhanced force lightning. Cole was speechless, but before he could do anything else he was grabbed by the force. Galen then slammed Cole on the ground a couple times before holding him up. Starkiller then blasted Cole with force lightning that even he couldn't fully shake off. Finally, Galen began a Maelstrom, holding Cole in front of him before finishing it with a powerful blow, sending Cole flying before he crashed to the ground, barely alive. Managing to stay conscious, Cole soon noticed a lightsaber blade inches away from his throat as Starkiller had him pinned. For the first time since they began fighting, the two paused just to catch their breath.

"Now... are you ready to listen?" Galen asked, putting away his sabers and using the force to restore the power, "It's a long story, but I am here to help you deal with this Beast, it's gonna be a problem for me otherwise."

With a long drawn out groan, Cole picked himself up, absorbing some electricity to heal, "You know... you could have opened with that..."

****Final Results****

And with that it seems Starkiller takes the win. Now, I'm sure plenty of you saw this coming, but despite giving Galen most of the advantages, this fight was by no means one sided. Cole only slightly slacks behind Galen in everything but weapons and even then he still has an answer to the lightsabers. Given enough time, Cole certainly could have come up with a clever plan or creative use of his powers to take Vader's apprentice out. However, it's unlikely he'd be able to draw the fight out that long before Galen simply bests him. The two big things Cole has going for him in this fight are his better endurance and his more tactical approach to combat. Starting with endurance, Cole is an absolute tank. Not only can he take a beating, he can survive and immediately heal from wounds that would cripple or even kill Starkiller, and this kept him in the fight despite generally falling a little behind. Then there are his tactics, Cole is better at planning out an assault and using his powers creatively to throw off a stronger foe. So then how did he lose? Well, simply put, Galen has advantages where it matters. His better speed, much better training, and better weapon made an up close fight unwinnable for Cole, while his defensive fighting style specifically meant to counter blasters is a solid answer to most of Cole's ranged options. To defeat Galen, Cole would need to keep the fight at a distance and figure out creative ways to trip up his defenses with power combinations. But Galen's greater speed and highly aggressive Juyo style made him inclined to stay close and not give Cole a second to breathe. And once Galen realized the massive advantage he has up close, he would actively try to stay close. Normally Cole could create some space using a shockwave or something, but since Starkiller has access to nearly all the same powers with most of them even being better than Cole's versions, that won't be so easy. In the end, it came down to what was more likely: Cole being able to distance himself and come up with a strategy that can catch Galen slipping, or Starkiller realizing that he's at an advantage in an up close fight and staying close, eventually overwhelming Cole's regen and not giving him the chance to absorb electricity. And while I don't think either are unlikely at all, the latter would probably happen first.

And with that, a dub Galen Marek, the secret apprentice, the winner.

So, with all that said, I have an ending note for this match. I had a fucking blast making this, talking about two of my favorite video game series of all time and comparing them. So... yeah, I'm definitely doing Sith Stalker Starkiller vs Beast Cole sometime in the future. It's happening, you don't have a choice there anymore. Could be the next match, could be several months from now, I dunno. But the question is, what do you guys think I should do when I tackle the evil mode rematch: should I stick with this more grounded, "only the main games and tie-ins" scaling, roughly putting the characters in the same levels as here but with their evil powers and mindsets... or should I just go nuts with it? Include the more ridiculous and questionable sources like Playstation All-Stars for Cole and the more out there scaling across different Star Wars continuities for Starkiller, talk about Street Fighter x Tekken and Soul Calibur 4, and just generally composite them to get the most powerful versions of these more power-hungry takes on the characters to tear each other apart. Personally, I might just do that second one regardless since the evil versions being non canon is the perfect excuse to bring in non canon sources, but I'd like some input on it. So with all that said, I'll just leave off with the thumbnail image I made for the eventual rematch. Good day and God bless.