Bump. Maul roflstomps hard. (Also sorry for the shit formatting in advance, first post).
Maul as of TPM is confirmed to be a peer of RotS Dooku and RotJ Vader in raw Force power by George Lucas:
"From then on, he wasn't as strong as the Emperor – he was like Darth Maul or Count Dooku. He wasn't what he was supposed to become. But the son could become that."
Source: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/george-lucas-and-the-cult-of-darth-vader-20050602
Keep in mind, this statement is only referring to raw Force power, TPM Maul should be far above Dooku as far as physicals are concerned given his youth, training, and Zabrak heritage. Basically he's the same as RotS Jedi Anakin: close in power to Dooku (Maul is actually stated to be above Dooku in Force power per
Beware the Sith) but vastly superior in physicals.
Dooku should have a skill/knowledge advantage over Anakin/Maul, but given how many accolades both of these young men have, it's nowhere near as large as their physical advantage.
So overall I would put TPM Maul>RotS Dooku. And we already know RotS Jedi Anakin is>RotS Dooku from the novel.
Lucas' statement is further supported by source material such as a TCW magazine which states that Darth Vader and Season 4 TCW Maul are evenly matched, despite Filoni confirming Season 4 Maul is weaker than TPM Maul:
It's a close call, and these two Sith are well-matched in terms of fighting skills.
Source: Star Wars Comic UK Volume 07 Issue 04
IGN: With Maul, I felt it was a bit like you approached Boba Fett. Maul got rebuilt, he got back his sanity and focus – but he still wasn't quite Phantom Menace Maul, flipping all over the place – and he didn't have a double-sided lightsaber. Was that something else where you thought, "He can't just instantly be that badass again"?
Filoni: Definitely. In my opinion, he did really well for being out of the business for about ten years. To come back in and take down Obi-Wan, leaping around on velociraptor legs, he did pretty good. It's an interesting dilemma having him on these weird legs, because he can't instantly fight in the style that you remember Maul fighting in. So Sam really had to bring it through voice and through expression of animation in the face. But there's some twists coming up for Maul, that's for sure. He's far more cunning and well-trained in how to be a Sith than people think. He's not just all about being an enforcer. He got a good education from his master, and we're going to put that into effect next season for sure.
Source: Star Wars The Clone Wars - Looking Back at Season 4
This alone proves that Maul beats Anakin, since TCW Maul>TPM Maul and TPM Maul>RotS Dooku and RotS Dooku>S6 Anakin. But I want to hammer this point home and show how much Maul grew from TPM to TCW.
Grievous during RotS is stated to be inferior to past villains by George Lucas, those past villains logically being Maul and Dooku:
“One of the big issues behind Grievous was that… I didn’t want a big powerful villain. I wanted a cunning, you know, almost cowardly villain who isn’t super-strong or super-powerful, but at the same time, you know, is a good fighter, but not- I didn’t wanna get somebody bigger and stronger and more powerful than the other villains that we’ve had, going to the next level."
Source: George Lucas, Revenge of the Sith DVD commentary
While Dooku and Maul are ahead of Grievous, they are not ahead by much, given Grievous is capable of stalemating LoE non-Vaapad Windu, hard pressing Dooku in spars, and overwhelming RotS Kenobi's Soresu prior to his amp:
Without pausing, Grievous drew two lightsabers from inside his billowing cloak. By the time they were ignited, Mace was already on and all over the cyborg, batting away at the two blades, swinging low at Grievous's artificial legs, thrusting at his skeletal face.
The lightsabers thrummed and hissed, meeting one another in bursts of dazzling light. In a corner of Mace's mind he wondered to which Jedi Grievous's blades had belonged. Just as the Force was keeping Mace from being blown from the mag-lev's roof, magnetism of some sort was keeping the general fastened in place. For the cyborg, though, the coherence hindered as much as it helped, whereas Mace never remained in one place for very long. Again and again the three blades joined, in snarling attacks and parries.
As Mace already knew from Ki-Adi-Mundi and Shaak Ti, Grievous was well trained in the Jedi arts. He could recognize the hand of Dooku in the general's training and technique. His strikes were as forceful as any Mace had ever had to counter, and his speed was astonishing.
But he didn't know Vaapad-the technique of dark flirtation in which Mace excelled.
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The loss of his confederates was noted by whatever computers were slaved to Grievous's organic brain, but the loss neither distracted nor slowed him. His sole setting was attack. Successful at analyzing Mace's lightsaber style, those same computers suggested that Grievous alter his stance and posture, along with the angle of his parries, ripostes, and thrusts.
The result wasn't Vaapad, but it was close enough, and Mace wasn't interested in prolonging the contest any longer than necessary.
Crouching low, he angled the blade downward and slashed, guiding it through the roof of the car, perpendicular to Grievous's stalwart advance.
Source: Labyrinth of Evil
Grievous had been a delight to train, as well. No need to coax him to release his anger and rage, as Dooku had been forced to do during the training of his so-called Dark Jedi disciples. The Geonosians had arranged for Grievous to be nothing but anger and rage. And as to the general’s combat skills, few, if any, Jedi would be capable of defeating him. There had been moments during the extensive combat sessions when even Dooku had been hard-pressed to outduel the cyborg.
But then, Dooku had kept some secrets to himself.
Just in case.
Source: Labyrinth of Evil
(Note: This is extremely impressive because this is only in a spar. A spar is a test of skill rather than physical ability, meaning both Dooku and Grievous are holding back there physicals, which logically would hinder Grievous much more than Dooku. Grievous basically hardpressed Dooku solely with his skill which is insane.)
Grievous, snarling fury, ramped up the intensity and velocity of his attacks - sixteen per second, eighteen - until finally, at twenty strikes per second, he overloaded Obi-Wan's defense.
Source: Revenge of the Sith Novelization
So Grievous is very much capable of putting up a fight vs TPM Maul/ROTS Dooku and is in the same tier, evidenced by his literal fight with Dooku, though he is slightly inferior.
However, Maul as of
Son of Dathomir, his strongest incarnation, is capable of
easily outdueling General Grievous:
Dooku was possessed by Talzin and fought Sidious, while Maul easily drove Grievous away.
Source: The Official Star Wars Fact File Remake #070
That means Maul grew from being slightly above Grievous in TPM, to being a stomp gap above him in his prime (SoD), which also means he would be a stomp gap above other characters in Grievous' tier such as RotS Dooku, RotS Jedi Anakin, RotS Kenobi, RotS non-Vaapad Windu, and his TPM self.
Here are statements for Maul's growth throughout TCW as well:
"Hatred is a hard thing to kill. Darth Maul is a being consumed by hatred. I imagine this hatred -- this rage -- fueled him and kept him alive... and somewhere, somehow, that rage grew. As hard as it is to comprehend, padawan, coming back from near death may have made the Sith Lord stronger... and even more dangerous.”
Source: Darth Maul - Death Sentence
Savage Opress: "You have grown so powerful.”
Source: The Clone Wars - Season 5 Episode 1 Revival & Darth Maul - Shadow Conspiracy
Savage was right. Maul’s power was growing, because he had a purpose again, and a vision.
Source: Darth Maul Shadow Conspiracy
Obi-Wan didn’t know where the Sith had spent the long years since he’d tumbled down the shaft of the Theed generator core, and he couldn’t imagine what Maul had been doing. But whatever it was, Maul was stronger with the Force than he’d been - stronger, but also colder and more determined.
Source: Darth Maul - Shadow Conspiracy
Maul had grown more powerful since the last time he'd been in Sidious's presence, before the Neimoidian invasion of Naboo had turned disastrous and Obi-Wan had bested him inside the Theed power core. His hermitage on Lotho Minor, his lessons on Umbara, his restoration by Mother Talzin, and his training of Savage had all strengthened him, made him a more worthy vessel for the dark side to fill with its power.
Source: Darth Maul Shadow Conspiracy
Since Anakin is stated to have grown vastly post season 6 (per starwars.com), and RotS Jedi Anakin is still a stomp gap below SoD Maul, Season 6 Anakin stands absolutely zero chance. The only version of Anakin that has a chance at winning (and does win since he's confirmed equal to Sidious) is RotS Vader, otherwise known as Knightfall Vader.
All of this information comes from my blog here:
Section 1: CIS, PIS, WISTPM Maul v TPM Obi-Wan KenobiThe first occurrence of PIS, and hopefully the most widely accepted one is of TPM Maul vs TPM Obi
comicvine.gamespot.com
EDIT: Didn't realize this was Canon and not Legends. Regardless, Maul still stomps via being capable of diminishing Vader during Rebels per Filoni:
"The nerd-tacular obsession with Vader vs. Maul. It’s hard to say – I mean, Vader is hard to top. Something George is pretty adamant of all the time was that Vader, you know… You never want to do anything to diminish him."
Source: https://www.christianpost.com/trend...ws-ep-talks-about-darth-maul-darth-vader.html
And Rebels Maul is also confirmed to be post-prime by Matt Martin:
And as everybody knows, Rebels Vader is far, far above Season 6 Anakin.
Basically, the scaling we get is:
SoD Maul>Rebels Maul~Rebels Vader>>>S6 Anakin.
