Wait you actually let him use those, the PC can drain and destroy them before Malak does. he grows in strength according to the checkpoint even if he doesn't use them.
sorry that's gameplay related
I'm just going to note the irony of you using gameplay mechanics as a justification for dismissing an argument for later.
Leaving that aside, him powering up through the starforge is part of a cutscene and direct statement, him
using the powerup from the beginning is directly stated, etc. Can't dismiss those as game mechanics.
Anyway Malak betrayed Revan after Revan tore out his jaw, but even if Revan was strong enough to kill Malak in the end of the game. It was closer then you seem to think. The Fluff had that they decided among themselves because Alex wasn't a leader. He was a follower, but he really wasn't that much weaker, Revan could have won by outhinking him, but in a fight he was a Guardian and Revan was a Counciler.
There is literally nothing in the whole game that suggests that Malak was on Revan's level, or even a close peer of the same. Everyone who compares the two - in anything - straight up puts Revan above him. Even
Malak tells Revan that he's beyond him in the end.
In my mind the starforge is awesome but it's not exactly quantifyable,
There is such a thing as qualitative assessment. And that tells us that - if Malak couldn't match Revan after powering himself up using over a dozen jedi in pods and the Starforge's unique feature of augmenting the influence and power of the dark side, then Malak and Revan are nowhere near equivalent to each other. Malak being a better fighter - as your original post stated - is very, very off. All indications are that he wasn't even a peer of Revan.
and Malak isn't the Exile, using life drain only restores HP normally so the final clash with Malak after he's drained everyone is his normal strength and not a boosted one. Since i'm not really a min maxer that was where I had to use my 30 some lifesupport packs that i'd been saving throughout the game to pull out a win. Game mechanics just decided that stages would be better and so had him grow stronger over time.
And here's where the irony comes in. You're using a gameplay mechanic literally to support your headcanon that Malak wasn't empowered by the Starforge, when his direct statement is to the contrary. Rather than, you know, treating a full refresh as the gameplay abstraction it is to portray Malak as an invincible juggernaut.
Also, your personal experience is just that - personal. You cannot use it as justification. Malak might have been tough for you, but he wasn't for a lot of other players - do we then use those experiences, and portray Malak as a weakling?
[ quote]the main reasoning for my beliefs was that if Malaks actions were killing Jedi for power like Darth _____, why in the world would the plot of the second game be a suprise to the Jedi.
gah I can't remember his name at all.[/QUOTE]
Thing is, Malak
wasn't killing Jedi for power. His powerup was
only possible because of the Starforge's unique ability to empower dark side users. The Jedi were merely fuel, and the same method would not have worked for anyone else without the Starforge to boost them up.
From what we've seen, Malak
was a high-level fighter - he casually freezes Bastilla and the rest on the Leviathan, he's clearly a Sith Lord in his own right. He just wasn't on Revan's level. Probably not on the Exile's level either, at the height of her power.
He was a Master, but not
the Master. Ki Ad Mundi, rather than Yoda or Windu.
