Samus Aran vs. Darth Vader

[ThePerson5]

They both start out at the opposite ends of a room. Samus is in her final form at the end of Metroid: Zero Mission, Vader is as we see him in Empire Strikes Back.

Who wins?

[Sarevok]

Probably Vader. Even without his lightsaber he is perfectly capable of deflecting anything Samus shoots at him.

Edit:

I am of course speaking of Vader with all his EU feats. Pure movie Vader does not stand a chance.

[ChosenOne54]

Probably Vader. Even without his lightsaber he is perfectly capable of deflecting anything Samus shoots at him.

Edit:

I am of course speaking of Vader with all his EU feats. Pure movie Vader does not stand a chance.

By the end of Metroid: Zero Mission, Samus' basic power beam has turned into a 6ft tall and wide wall of plasma which can be rapid fired like a machine gun. Have we seen lightsabers deflecting beams larger than a person?

That, and the fact that Vader's life support system can be severely damaged by electricity alone.

I'm not too familiar with the EU though, only the movie versions.

[DaveJB]

Samus had access to power bombs by the end of Zero Mission, didn't she? Considering that Other M established that a power bomb explosion can incinerate even an armoured human being, Vader could end up being burned to a crisp for the second time in his life, without Samus even having to go near him.

[ChosenOne54]

@OP: Why do you hate Darth Vader so much?

[Simon_Jester]

Samus is definitely a dangerous opponent, with high enough firepower that she may be able to simply overwhelm her opponent's defense by brute force. On the other hand, what factors does she have to worry about in turn? Being picked up and slammed into walls repeatedly by telekinesis? Psychic attacks? I don't know, but that's the other hidden variable.

[ChosenOne54]

Samus is definitely a dangerous opponent, with high enough firepower that she may be able to simply overwhelm her opponent's defense by brute force. On the other hand, what factors does she have to worry about in turn? Being picked up and slammed into walls repeatedly by telekinesis? Psychic attacks? I don't know, but that's the other hidden variable.

Simply being slammed into walls won't do much of anything as, if the games are any indication, Samus suffers no damage whatsoever from slamming face-first into solid walls at Mach speed.

[Simon_Jester]

A point. The only catch is that given the conventions of the gaming series, I'm not entirely sure how seriously to take some of the more exotic abilities she displays. What's game mechanic and what's essential to the character?

More generally, what I'm getting at is that Samus's vulnerability to mental attacks is probably higher than her vulnerability to physical attacks. Does she have to deal with telepathic influence, attempts at corruption, or anything like that during the games?

[ChosenOne54]

I don't remember any specific mental attacks, but she did keep her sanity through Phazon Corruption, as well as watching her mother die in front of her as a child (but that also happened to Vader).

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Samus is definitely a dangerous opponent, with high enough firepower that she may be able to simply overwhelm her opponent's defense by brute force. On the other hand, what factors does she have to worry about in turn? Being picked up and slammed into walls repeatedly by telekinesis? Psychic attacks? I don't know, but that's the other hidden variable.

Simply being slammed into walls won't do much of anything as, if the games are any indication, Samus suffers no damage whatsoever from slamming face-first into solid walls at Mach speed.

But is she immune to that classic expression of Darth Vader's hatred of the universe and everything in it: The Force Choke? Or the classic Jedi standby of the Mind Trick? Also, remaining unharmed from being smashed into things, and having giant objects thrown at her is not the same as being unfazed and able to shoot back with PEW PEW laser beams while being battered by telekinesis.

[ChosenOne54]

When she transforms into morph ball mode, her body in converted into energy, so I doubt Vader would be able to choke her in that form. And she is equally well armed in that form also with her bombs and power bombs.

[Metahive]

Short of a surprise attack from behind there's nothing that would stop Samus from blasting Vader's face away while he stands perfectly still and chokes her. A Metroid plugging on and sucking her life out, which I'd say presents an attack similar in kind to the Force Choke, only manages to slow her down after all. She could also turn into a ball to avoid the choke (but could then be TKed presumably). Of course, Vader could try to crush her a'la Harkov, but I think the power suit is a bit more resilient than Harkov's Mk.I flesh and blood was. Throwing crap at Samus also wouldn't be all that helpful because that too requires Vader to stand still and focus which isn't a good idea when the enemy has lots of ranged weaponry and a penchant to resist this sort of punishment.

I think the more interesting question is if Samus' weapons can be blocked and/or reflected with a lightsaber.

[ChosenOne54]

Her basic power beam maybe, but her stacked beam? Doubt it. In all of the Star Wars films/TV shows I've seen, I don't remember lightsabers blocking more tan singular bolts. Samus' stacked beam fires three, wave like blobs of energy larger than a person's head simultaneously.



Or, hell, take a look at this:
http://images.wikia.com/metroid/images/ ... ere_HD.jpg

[Norade]

People forget that sith can move quickly when they want to, like faster than the eye can see speeds. I'd be willing to bet that if they started on equal footing Vader may have the edge in both being aware that danger was coming before he was dropped into the room and pure reaction speed. What happens next is likely Samus getting her throat crushed by a force choke before she can do much. If he doesn't get the drop, unlikely, he could be toast depending on how much of the room Samus' largest shots cover, a larger room means a better chance of her losing.

[ChosenOne54]

If you are talking about running speed, Samus can dash at supersonic speeds.

Anyway, force choking isn't an instantaneous process, and you can bet Samus will be firing away with her arm cannon instead of standing still clutching at her throat. There's also a chance that the morph ball would allow her to escape the grip of Vader's choke, as I was talking about earlier.

[Tanasinn]

It comes down to how fast Vader can kill someone with the Force. The power armor won't matter - he contemptuously kills Ozzel across the vacuum of space and through meters of starship working with nothing but a viewscreen picture and without expressing any effort or fatigue whatsoever while doing so. If Vader and crush someone's windpipe or hemmorage their brain in an instant rather than torturing them for funsies (in the case of haughty Motti or incompetent Ozzel), then Samus will probably be dead before she knows what hit her. If not, odds seem to favor her.

Samus's character is probably too strong-minded for cheap garbage like mind tricks (Obi Wan specifically tells us that this works on the weak-minded, whatever that means), but she also has to contend with Vader's force-granted ability to read surface thoughts/feelings and to anticipate the future. I don't fancy Vader's odds in a battle of weapons, mind you, but these are still factors.

[inviz345]

samus can shoot a super missiles faster then vader can choke.

[DaveJB]

Missiles, super or otherwise, would actually be one of the worst things Samus could use against Vader. At the very least he could deflect them with his Force powers, and worst case for Samus he could probably cause them to explode right as they exited her missile launcher.

Like I said above, Power Bombs are probably Samus's best bet, since they're just a gigantic burst of thermal energy. We know from Anakin/Vader's experience on Mustafar that even he can't hold out against extremely high temperatures for very long.

[Havok]

If Samus gets game mechanics as indications of power, the so does Vader.

As a site, we pretty much disavow game mechanics unless they are realistic. How many missiles does Samus keep in her hand? Where is all the energy kept for these massively powerful hand weapons? In her back pack? Where does she keep all these power bombs in that skin tight suit? Should we get creative?

[Stark]

I don't think the bombs are physical bombs.

But then I don't see how Samus is going to defeat fucking mind powers either. The only question for me is if a lightsabre can easily penetrate the power suit, which seems unlikely since it's 'energy shielded'.

[Panzersharkcat]

If Samus gets game mechanics as indications of power, the so does Vader.

As a site, we pretty much disavow game mechanics unless they are realistic. How many missiles does Samus keep in her hand? Where is all the energy kept for these massively powerful hand weapons? In her back pack? Where does she keep all these power bombs in that skin tight suit? Should we get creative?

The same way Batman keeps all that shit in his belt.

[DaveJB]

If Samus gets game mechanics as indications of power, the so does Vader.

As a site, we pretty much disavow game mechanics unless they are realistic.

That's why I've been labouring the point about the power bombs, since they're (to my knowledge) the only weapon that the games have described in any detail in the dialogue. It doesn't describe their operational mechanism, true, but Other M makes it clear that they can incinerate even an armoured human being within the blast radius - which, in the same game, is shown to be about 5-10m.

Having said that, the OP didn't specify the size of the room, or what was in it, so that makes it harder to say what would happen. Assuming they're fairly close, then Samus just rolls into ball form immediately, sets a bomb, and hey presto, instant crispy fried Vader. On the other hand, if they're far apart and have things in between them then Vader would have a major advantage with his precognitive abilities, possibly enough to smash Samus to a bloody pulp, or at least immobilize her long enough for help to show up and deal with her.

How many missiles does Samus keep in her hand? Where is all the energy kept for these massively powerful hand weapons? In her back pack? Where does she keep all these power bombs in that skin tight suit? Should we get creative?

Compared to half of the shit that goes on in the Star Wars universe, Samus's physics violations are tame.

[ChosenOne54]

With her wave beam, Samus could effectively kill Vader from behind a wall, as the beam phases through solid object, and it doesn't move very slow either. Methinks Vader will have a hell of a time trying to dodge the rapid-fire plasma shots Samus is capable of putting out.

[Stark]

You need to put a bit more effort in than that. The wave beam is quite slow (much slower than a blaster), Vader is literally psychic and has a specifc skill for defeating slow attacks like that.

If Vader treats Samus like a droid, he'll just crush her gun arm, reducing her to screw attacks and ball mode. Samus has an advantage in that her own weapons reflected back at her don't do much damage (going by Evil Samus in the games, anyway), and that Vader can probably only match her agility for a short period.

[ChosenOne54]

...he'll just crush her gun arm

Hm, well good luck doing that.

And yes, he will be a pretty dangerous opponent if Samus doesn't proceed with caution. Then again, her visor has a scanning ability which right off the bat provides Samus with information on Vader's weaknesses, powers, and weaponry, which would definitely come in handy.