Alright, so this one one of my favorite match-ups for both franchises - let's see how they compare. Story-wise, Terra and Anakin are pretty similar, with the main difference being that Terra's descent into a puppet for the actual main villain was forced upon him after renouncing the darkness., while Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader came more willingly. I'm gonna use certain feats for Anakin as Darth Vader since, as mentioned above, Darth Vader is essentially just Anakin with a physical handicap. By the same thread, I'll also be looking at some feats for Terra using Terra-Xehanort and Lingering WIll, as the whole purpose of Terra-Xehanort was for Master Xehanort to use Terra's stronger body and Lingering Will possesses all combat capabilities of Terra.
Strength/Physical Attack Potency
This one is close, but I feel comfortable giving this category to Terra. Part of this is due to scaling Lingering Will to Sora - while Sora did defeat Lingering WIll, it's, at that point, the most difficult battle Sora had fought in the series. Sora's physical strength is great enough to cut through
several large structures, while Anakin has impressive feats himself, his best seems to be destroying a Trident-Class Assault Ship and this
trip-pod walker single-handedly. While neither are planet-busters, I'd say this puts Terra at least a bit over Anakin.
Another close one, but I think Anakin's Force-empowered super senses and reflexes give him the edge in this category. Anakin has
dodged laser fire on multiple occasions, as well as done those Jedi flippy maneuvers in combat proficiently in nearly every fight we see him in. Terra, while he does have one
Faster than the Eye can See strike, focuses more on raw power than speed and is significantly slower than every other keyblade wielder in the series. At best, he seems to be faster than sound, dodging this
sound-based attack from a music-themed unversed. Lasers are faster than sound, Anakin is faster and more agile than Terra.
Anakin gets burned almost to death by being in proximity to lava and
gets debilitated by force lightning. Terra's body shrugs off
this and is only fully defeated by the
single strongest spell recorded in Kingdom Hearts (or Final Fantasy). Comfortable saying that Terra takes this one.
This one again isn't much of a hard choice. While both Terra and Anakin have presumably roughly the same number of years of training, Anakin is a veteran of prolonged war and has been battle-tested in real life or death situations against powerful opponents. Notable victories include defeating a
replica of Darth Maul, overtaking
Count Dooku (considered a dueling prodigy in his own right) to the point that the latter had to rely on his superior Force Powers to not be defeated, and battling
Obi-Wan Kenobi to a stalemate, only losing due to hubris and a heightened emotional reaction. Terra, meanwhile, has spent the majority of his life within the walls of the Land of Departure, and his only true victories in the series are against
Master Eraquis (who may have let him strike the final blow), Braig (who just ran away) and... himself, when Terra-Xehanort and Lingering Will clashed. Terra-Xehanort did also manage to outclass Aqua and Ventus, however, while we can count on Terra-Xehanort being a good measure of Terra's physical capabilities, the combat prowess comes from Master Xehanort who has decades more experience. Anakin's simply more battle-tested and has defeated a more impressive range of foes.
Magic vs The Force
Terra's Magic/Misc Equipment | Anakin's Force Powers/Misc Skills |
Dark Volley
- Able to summon spheres of dark magic and fire them at opponents
Sonic Shadow
- Coats himself in a shield of dark magic and rams into opponents
Ultima Canon
- This gif from earlier, fires an energy beam capable of destroying hoards of weaker enemies. Only accessible while wearing his Keyblade Armor, which he can summon at will.
Earth Magic
- As his name implies, he has an affinity for geomancy, and is such able to cast the spells Quake and Meteor, which cause large boulders to erupt from the ground and a boulder-sized meteor to appear from the sky and crash into foes.
Dark Firaga
- Launches a slow-moving projectile at his opponent which continues to home in on than and burn them with dark magic.
General Magic
- Terra can learn standard spells from Kingdom Hearts, though his affinity for magic is nowhere near as great as that of his fellow apprentice Aqua, or even his younger brother figure Ventus, meaning most of his more powerful abilities are solely physical. That being said, he is able to cast Firaga (standard Fire magic), Blizzaga(Ice Magic), Thundaga(Lightning Magic), Curaga(Healing Magic), and some weak gravity magic with Magnega. However, he isn't ever shown using these techniques in cutscenes or in boss battle appearances as Lingering Will other than Blizzaga and Magnega.
Dark Sense
- Terra, like most keyblade wielders, can sense darkness and light when nearby strong sources of it.
Dark Impulse
- Terra can channel his inner darkness in order to give himself a boost in physical strength and speed as well as amplify his dark magic.
Has Access to Keyblade Armor and its world-hopping hoverbike, which grants him access to a keyblade form change that gives it far more range and whip-like properties.
Keyblade can open any lock, as well as create portals to other worlds | Telekenesis
Enhanced Senses
- Was able to track and kill a droid through a large metal door, meaning he can sense enemies.
Force Choke
Force Barrier
- Creates a wall of of Force Energy to ward off attacks. Seems to work against non-physical attacks as well as elemental forces such as water or poisonous gasses.
Jedi Mind Trick
- Has the ability to use the force to manipulate the mind and emotions of others
Energy Channeling
Expert Pilot, proficient in most vehicles such as hoverbikes and X-Wings, marksman with mounted vehicle weapons.
Hand-to-Hand Combat
Proficient with weaponry other than his lightsaber.
Not relevant to the fight but he's also an expert machinist, having built the droid C3PO from scrap. |
Personality Flaws
This section is incredibly easy because both Terra and Anakin share the same flaws: they're easy to manipulate under the right circumstances, they're brash, and they're quick to anger. The difference is that Anakin is much better at fighting that part of himself - it took years of manipulation for Darth Sideous to get Anakin on his side fully, whereas Terra was manipulated by the darkness and Master Xehanort's plotting over the course of a few days.
Conclusion
Taking everything into consideration, while I do think that this match-up is quite a close match, there is a clear victor. Terra's main advantages are his higher strength and much higher durability, while Anakin outclasses him in speed and overall combat experience. That being said, even a trained soldier can lose to someone less skilled if they can't land a killing blow. Terra's magic is much more diverse than Anakin's force abilities, but Anakin's training and proficiency with the relatively more subdued Force abilities is much greater than Terra's proficiency with magic. While Terra CAN certainly cast, he's nowhere near as proficient with it as fellow students Aqua and Ventus, or even future Keyblade warriors like Sora and Riku. This is especially evident in Terra's highest level abilities which are nearly entirely physical attacks, with the exceptions of his Geomancy abilities Meteor and Quake and his ability to case Dark Firaga. Aside from throwing rocks and using a flamethrower of darkness, he's all brute force with little finesse. Anakin's Force abilities have an answer for nearly every spell Terra can throw out thanks to Force Shield for elemental attacks and Telekinesis to deal with the geomancy (after all, half of what we see the Force DO is throw or stop big rocks!). Terra's also less experienced in fighting even-footed opponents than Anakin, and Anakin is no stranger to using mind tricks to best his opponents, which Terra has shown himself to be susceptible to. Combining that with his greater speed, the lightsaber's destructive capabilities, and direct attacks like Force Choke and Force Push, I'd say that the Force outshines the Light more times than not in this particular fight.
With that being said, in my personal opinion, the winner of this relatively close match is...