Greatest Star Wars Villian(s) (Legends/ New Canon Separate) No Sidious Allowed! [Archive]

russdm

2017-01-03, 01:57 AM

I was looking at an old thread about the Biggest BBEG and I was considering who would be considered this in Star Wars. Due to reasons, I am kicking Sidious out of the ranking.

Not Allowed) Sidious: Without the Clone Wars Cartoon, and due to how poor of a writer that Lucas happens to be, Sidious went from being threatening in Episodes 4-6 to a near total moron. Then add in Dark Empire, and Sidious might as well be replaced with Doctor Doom.

So, I think the slot for Greatest would be held by Vader, with Thrawn hitting up high. I am sure there are other possibilities, but I think a ranking of level of villainy ought to be used. So I would say that Vader would be top with Thrawn, followed by some others, who I am not sure, have not decided.

My Ranking)
1: Vader
2: Thrawn
3: Darth Revan
4: Kreia
5: Darth Maul
6: Darth Malak
7: Tarkin
8: Others (Undecided on others)

What is your rankings?

Aotrs Commander

2017-01-03, 01:09 PM

Thrawn.

One one else even comes close.

Thrawn is actually ranks as one of the best bad guys, period, nevermind about in Star Wars.

Peelee

2017-01-03, 01:19 PM

Thrawn trumps Vader, hands down.

The Glyphstone

2017-01-03, 01:22 PM

Peelee

2017-01-03, 01:41 PM

People should probably list why they pick who they do, as well. For example, Thrawn was a far superior antagonist in terms of being an active foil to the protagonists - he was hyper-competent, stylish, and didn't kick puppies for the hell of it. Vader, though, was far more menacing as a villain; through the entire original trilogy seeing that ominous black silhouette show up was instant proof that the crap had hit the fan.

I disagree that Vader was more menacing; the mere rumor of Thrawn coming back from the dead after more than a decade was enough to nearly plunge the galaxy back into a full-fledged civil war. If you were manning your station, something went wrong, and he came down, you still feared for your life, just like with Vader.

Sure, he couldn't just walk through a hallway of enemy combatants and toss them around like rag dolls, but dude was terrifying.

Edit, just to really reinforce that one thing... The galaxy is at relative peace. The Empire is barely a threat, the New Republic is fairly stable, and the war is effectively over. Then someone says, "hey, this leader that died ten years ago, I hear he's back." And everyone suddenly pulls guns on everyone else and starts yelling how they're not goin' down like that.

That is a pants-****ingly frightening man right there.

RandomLunatic

2017-01-03, 01:55 PM

Thrawn is good, so is Vader.

I'd like to nominate Ysanne Isaard. I'd pay money to watch Thrawn play chess with her.

I'd also like to mention Gallandro. He's only in two books, and only one of them really qualifies as a villainous appearance, but when one of the Heroes of Yavin is more afraid of you than Darth Vader, you're doing something right. An unlike some other alleged badasses I could name (*cough*Fett*cough*), Gallandro makes good on his reputation.

Peelee

2017-01-03, 02:14 PM

An unlike some other alleged badasses I could name (*cough*Fett*cough*), Gallandro makes good on his reputation.

Alleged?

Wheeeee!

RandomLunatic

2017-01-03, 02:29 PM

Yeah, I went there.:smallwink:

JNAProductions

2017-01-03, 02:39 PM

Admiral Daala was good. Guano crazy, but that meant she was willing to do anything.

But yeah, I definitely think Thrawn and Vader are numbers 1 and 2.

Nerd-o-rama

2017-01-03, 02:39 PM

Why would you open a thread where you know every response for either continuity is going to be or include "Thrawn"? You might as well have excluded him along with his pale, jowly human counterfeit. Likewise, Vader is one of film history's most iconic villains, regardless of how confused his motivations and origins wound up getting and how overplayed his archetype is now.

That said I'm also fond of Darth Traya from Legends, even if she's a little too on-point about being an evil mentor with an agenda sometimes.

Peelee

2017-01-03, 02:44 PM

Yeah, I went there.:smallwink:

Spaceship manages to avoid the best that the imperial Fleet has to offer, inlcuding a space wizard. Fett finds that ship within minutes, collects a bounty from the Empire for it, then collects a second bounty on that same work from Jabba.

I don't know what movie you were watching, dude proved he's pretty badass at what he does.

RandomLunatic

2017-01-03, 02:49 PM

Admiral Daala was good. Guano crazy, but that meant she was willing to do anything.

But yeah, I definitely think Thrawn and Vader are numbers 1 and 2.

Seriously? Nataasi "Where did all my ships go?" Daala? The woman who attacked a school with a fleet of Star Destroyers and lost?

JNAProductions

2017-01-03, 02:51 PM

Seriously? Nataasi "Where did all my ships go?" Daala? The woman who attacked a school with a fleet of Star Destroyers and lost?

Remind me about that? Because it's not coming to mind.

Peelee

2017-01-03, 03:00 PM

Remind me about that? Because it's not coming to mind.

Jedi Academy Trilogy. And in fairness to her, her ships got literally thrown across the galaxy by that school.

RandomLunatic

2017-01-03, 03:07 PM

It's the climax of Darksaber. Daala wants to eradicate the Jedi Praxeum on Yavin 4. The first wave is a squadron of Imperial-class SDs, about 20 in all. Luke's students use the Force to fling them into deep space, and one of them (the students) dies in the process. Then Daala herself shows up in her shiny new super Star Destroyer Knight Hammer, and for some reason*, rather than go for her usual MO of bombing **** into oblivion, deploys ground troops to search the jungle. Naturally, this takes so long that while she's waiting a combined Republic/Hapan task force, alerted to her activities because of her genius move of conducting "diversionary raids" on an enemy that didn't even know she existed, which is the same strategy that failed her so miserably in Jedi Academy Trilogy, show up and blow the Knight Hammer to pieces.

She survives and then, in the sole intelligent move of her career, realizes she totally fails at life and turns the reins over to Gilad Pallaeon.

*-the reason being "Anderson is a hack".

JNAProductions

2017-01-03, 03:11 PM

That sounds like Jedi cheating right there. :P

RandomLunatic

2017-01-03, 03:16 PM

In fairness, Pellaeon's squadron getting flung around wasn't her fault. But losing an Executor-class super star destroyer was 100% preventable if anybody except Daala had been giving the orders.

Peelee

2017-01-03, 03:27 PM

In fairness, Pellaeon's squadron getting flung around wasn't her fault. But losing an Executor-class super star destroyer was 100% preventable if anybody except Daala had been giving the orders.

Also, Daala would probably have been an awesome villain, if it hadn't been for Stackpole Anderson. Imean, Darksaber didn't even really need to exist as a book. The main plot literally takes care of itself.

Dienekes

2017-01-03, 03:36 PM

Well, my full post got eaten and I don't feel like rewriting everything. But here's the shortened list.

1) Thrawn.
1.5) Pellaeon, doesn't really count because I don't see him as a villain, but damn he's awesome.
2) Darth Bane
3) Darth Vader
4) Darth Malgus
5) Grand Moff Tarkin
6) Exar Kun. He probably doesn't hold up, but I enjoyed him as a child
7) Revan. He's a good story with no personality.
8) Sith Emperor. He'd be higher up if he was interesting and not just a vague villain with insane powers.

Dishonorable mentions.

Darth Caedus: He is an idiot

Daala: She is an idiot.

Boba Fett: Gets beaten by a blind guy with a stick

New Thrawn: He just lets the heroes go for no reason 4 times! Then I just stopped watching out of disappointment.

Peelee

2017-01-03, 03:47 PM

Well, my full post got eaten and I don't feel like rewriting everything. But here's the shortened list.
1.5) Pellaeon, doesn't really count because I don't see him as a villain, but damn he's awesome.
Honestly, I love Pellaeon more than Thrawn.

Dishonorable mentions.

Boba Fett: Gets beaten by a blind guy with a stick

As I already showed, dude proved himself to be an ultra-competent bounty hunter. Yeah, his death scene bugs me a lot too, because it was incredibly stupid, but dude was scary efficient aside from that.

russdm

2017-01-03, 08:31 PM

Incidentally, why is the Clone Wars cartoon disallowed, but the KOTOR video games permitted?

Not Allowing Sidious. Clone Wars Cartoon is allowed.

Nerd-o-rama

2017-01-03, 09:42 PM

Also, Daala would probably have been an awesome villain, if it hadn't been for Stackpole. Imean, Darksaber didn't even really need to exist as a book. The main plot literally takes care of itself.

Did Stackpole ever touch Daala? Darksaber was all Kevin J. Anderson. Which is why it was the way it was. He also managed to appropriate Pellaeon and Wedge Antilles, the pet characters of two competent Star Wars authors, for his shenanigans over the course of the Jedi Academy Trilogy and Darksaber, as well as being the first author to kill an actual movie character in a Legends work (Crix Madine, in the stupidest manner imaginable). This meant war in the most hilariously PA ways possible and made Stackpole's revenge in I, Jedi a hell of an amusing read despite not actually being very good either.

So yeah Daala could have been an awesome villain if she wasn't 100% the creation of one of the worst Legends authors. She did pull off the "gas all my potential allies and road blocks during a conference" gag like a decade before The Master did it, so she's got that going for her.

Peelee

2017-01-03, 10:04 PM

Whoops. Brainfart there, fixed. May Wedge have mercy on my soul.

Also, awwwww, I liked I, Jedi. Well, except for the first person perspective, but the "drunk, naked, and crashed a speeder bike" bit was hilarious enough to make up for it.

Also, wasn't that "kill all allies" bit from Goldfinger (and Goldfinger: Christopher Walken Edition)?

Also, i say "also" too much. I need a better word.

Ramza00

2017-01-03, 10:26 PM

So I stopped following Star Wars and Star Wars Legends long ago, but didn't they bring back Admiral Daala after the Yuuzhan Vong War?

Peelee

2017-01-03, 10:35 PM

So I stopped following Star Wars and Star Wars Legends long ago, but didn't they bring back Admiral Daala after the Yuuzhan Vong War?

Yep. After Pellaeon's death, she took over the Imperial Remnant, and eventually was voted as Chief of State of the Galactic Alliance.

Nerd-o-rama

2017-01-03, 10:39 PM

So I stopped following Star Wars and Star Wars Legends long ago, but didn't they bring back Admiral Daala after the Yuuzhan Vong War?

I dropped Legends like a moon on Chewbacca, when a moon was dropped on Chewbacca, but I do believe I heard that she was in charge of the merged Imperial Remnant-New Republic one galactic government for a while yes. That went about as well as could be expected. I think Corellia seceded and declared war almost immediately, although I think that was also down to Thracken Sal-Solo who for some Force-damned reason wasn't executed the last time he did that exact same thing.

Legends was a kriffing mess and I don't miss most of it. The 90's were okay, but still, on reflection as an adult, mostly stupid.

And Peelee is correct, I'd forgotten that bit of the movie, which I'm pretty sure was also in the novel. Big man loved his gas.

Aotrs Commander

2017-01-04, 06:06 AM

I dropped Legends like a moon on Chewbacca, when a moon was dropped on Chewbacca,

I made it two books further into that, because it was Stackpole, (my second favourite SW author), but concluded if HE couldn't make me like it, it was a bad job.

I much later tried the first books after NJO, got through the first Allston one and then got bored and gave up hallfway through the second one, which turned out later to be Karen Traviss. (Which explained a lot, including why Boba Fett was suddenly mysteriously involved).

Zhan - rather notably - wisely never did anything beyond pre-NJO. (And even Stackpole seemed less than pleased with how NJO turned out...)

So yes, bits of Legends were indeed utter crap that I'm not sorry to see burn.

Sadly, the good bits of Legends also were casulaties, and that category contained stuff that was the very best of Star Wars period (yes, including the OT movies et al).

Radix

2017-01-07, 10:07 PM

lt_murgen

2017-01-10, 12:04 PM

Vader as the best villain...maybe not. But as far as character development goes...I dunno. I think that the prequels had a ton of really excellent potential for Anakin's development, so if the writing had just been waaaaaay a little better, I would be inclined to say that Anakin/Vader's character complexity was the best.

Star Wars Rebels has done some tremendous things for Vader:

https://youtu.be/c-jQL-0oxTA

https://youtu.be/Nr7ufR7utEo

https://youtu.be/MCgjvI6VJeY

Aotrs Commander

2017-01-10, 01:05 PM

Dienekes

2017-01-10, 01:48 PM

Having just watched this clip, they do pretty magnificent things with Thrawn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEMh8ZZbZQM&feature=youtu.be#t=19.740895) too...!

I've never been a huge fan of Rebels (given that I really couldn't get past them forcing in not just one but two basically-Jedi-in-all-but-name), but... I have to tip my hat to them, they do have some moments!

Eh. To each their own I suppose. I am supremely disappointed with the Rebel's Thrawn. In that episode alone he had beat the rebels completely 3 times. And instead of finishing them like true Thrawn he just lets them go. Like an idiot.

hamishspence

2017-01-10, 02:16 PM

He wants the whole Rebel Fleet, not just Spectre Cell.

Dienekes

2017-01-10, 02:24 PM

He wants the whole Rebel Fleet, not just Spectre Cell.

He had the entire resistance leadership on Ryloth pinned in a corner and instead of killing them made a deal.

He then again had the entire Ryloth leadership in front of him. Ordered some flunky to kill them and when the flunky failed and he had them in his sights he just lets them go "Because they earned their victory."

He's an idiot. He was going to kill them but then decided not to because... the writers didn't want them to die. That's the only real reason that makes sense. Because it sure doesn't that Thrawn just lets them go.

Aotrs Commander

2017-01-10, 04:01 PM

Eh. To each their own I suppose. I am supremely disappointed with the Rebel's Thrawn. In that episode alone he had beat the rebels completely 3 times. And instead of finishing them like true Thrawn he just lets them go. Like an idiot.

I can only base my opinion on watching the clips, since they happened to be linked from the aforementioned Vader ones. From what I've seen there, at the very least, he's entirely in character.

Given the way Rebels rather dismissively treat the Imperials at the best of times (as basically An Hilarious Joke), there was really no way they would ever actually let, him, y'know, WIN or anything. Not having watched the whole series, I can't make any further comments on his grand plans.

But he exists in new canon and his characterisation is spot-on.

Frankly, that is the best I can expect out of Rebels really. And is a frack-ton more than I was thinking, so...

(And why I said "moments" and not "episodes...")

Hell, Thrawn EXISTING is the first real point in the entire nuCanon I am prepared to say "good job" on. (Yes, including TFA, I've not even been to see Rogue One, that's how bothered I am by it...)

He's an idiot. He was going to kill them but then decided not to because... the writers didn't want them to die. That's the only real reason that makes sense. Because it sure doesn't that Thrawn just lets them go.

That bit (which I have seen) sounded all very much like a series-writer-Plot Armour bollocks, yes. I can only postulate that Thrawn, having observed Spectre cell, is it? is working on a basis of devil-you-know, on the basis that as he now knows how this particular cell operates, he can accurately predict how they will conduct the next operation (when he can round them up, I dunno), as opposed to killing them and another cell using different tactics where he might not be able to net them all or something.

I freely admit that's streching it, but, as I say, Rebels only has its moments.

hamishspence

2017-01-10, 04:19 PM

Hell, Thrawn EXISTING is the first real point in the entire nuCanon I am prepared to say "good job" on. (Yes, including TFA, I've not even been to see Rogue One, that's how bothered I am by it...)

Most comments I've seen from EU fans that watched Rogue One - seemed to be that it was very EU-ish in a good way - capturing the feel of the EU at its best rather than its worst.

lt_murgen

2017-01-11, 09:02 AM

That bit (which I have seen) sounded all very much like a series-writer-Plot Armour bollocks, yes. I can only postulate that Thrawn, having observed Spectre cell, is it? is working on a basis of devil-you-know, on the basis that as he now knows how this particular cell operates, he can accurately predict how they will conduct the next operation (when he can round them up, I dunno), as opposed to killing them and another cell using different tactics where he might not be able to net them all or something.

I freely admit that's streching it, but, as I say, Rebels only has its moments.

Over the entire arc of the series, it is pretty clear what Thrawn is doing. And it makes all of his actions make sense. First, he has to separate the competent from the incompetent within the local imperial ranks. Thus, he gives them a chance to show how inept they are. Second, he has to determine how this rebel cell fits in with all the other cells. Thus, the Ryloth episode- it was a family issue and not connected to the larger rebellion. Lastly, he has to determine how the rebels are getting resources and personnel. His biggest find was determining their is a psy in their ranks.

Rebels has shown that Imperials who are interested only in their own promotion and power are easy to defeat. The true enemies- Vader, the Inquisitors, and Thrawn, are more deadly because they are as devoted to their cause as the rebels are to the rebellion.

khadgar567

2017-01-11, 10:26 AM

whole pre luke jedi council they basicly doom them selfs and created god damn self fulfilling prophecy about luke and his recreation of whole f ing order plus simple rule change will kill the whole setting but they scared sh*tless from changing tradition to suit the current age

lt_murgen

2017-01-13, 12:05 PM

khadgar567

2017-01-13, 12:25 PM

One more time, in english, please.
jedi council is the biggest villain in star wars universe.

Nerd-o-rama

2017-01-13, 01:07 PM

Dienekes

2017-01-13, 01:37 PM

They had several fatal flaws as an institution that allowed a skilled manipulator to play them like a fiddle.

If you go by Legends continuity, this happened like six times.

Basically they're just fond of lightsabering off their own noses to spite their various faces.

To be fair, this happened 6 times over the course of 25,000 years. As far as institutions go, they're pretty solid.

lt_murgen

2017-01-17, 03:26 PM

To be fair, this happened 6 times over the course of 25,000 years. As far as institutions go, they're pretty solid.

That's true.

Also, it isn't like they had one solid set of rules that lasted 25,000 years. In legends, they had time when marriage was permitted (Jolee Bindo and wife), children were permitted (ki-Adi-Mundi), families of jedi and non-jedi stayed together (the Sunriders). There were times when they were independent from the Republic Senate, and times when they literally ran it.

What you see in the movies and new canon is a particular organization of the Jedi Order which had a few exploitable faults. IMHO, only one of them was both self-inflicted and fatal- separating Jedi from their families. And even that wouldn't have been an issue if they had a better PR department.

Dr.Samurai

2017-01-17, 05:00 PM

I have not read much of the EU, but in my humble opinion...

The big two that jump to mind are Thrawn and Darth Bane.

Ramza00

2017-01-18, 01:05 AM

So what does everyone think about the KOTOR 1, KOTOR 2, and the KOTOR online game villains?

(I only played the first one, not the sequel, and not the loosely connected KOTOR mmorpg.)

khadgar567

2017-01-18, 06:58 AM

So what does everyone think about the KOTOR 1, KOTOR 2, and the KOTOR online game villains?

(I only played the first one, not the sequel, and not the loosely connected KOTOR mmorpg.)
if we add swtor stuff most dangerous ( to be precise most wacko ) one is vaylin from eternal empire lot of old sith and jedi are kinda predictable just start to mess with their minds and you some how beat them in few months. but the b*tch is to unstable that his own freaking father( who by the way most powerful sith lord in setting that can posses people) needs her to be killed just to secure his next body .

Dienekes

2017-01-18, 10:45 AM

So what does everyone think about the KOTOR 1, KOTOR 2, and the KOTOR online game villains?

(I only played the first one, not the sequel, and not the loosely connected KOTOR mmorpg.)

Well I have Malgus on my list. He seemed like Vader, but with an actually cool backstory and no whiny phase.

Sith Emperor I never got a real feel for. Maybe they changed it in the DLCs, but for the most part he was just a generic evil super villain. Vague, inscrutable, and full of BS super powers.

Nerd-o-rama

2017-01-19, 01:15 PM

So what does everyone think about the KOTOR 1, KOTOR 2, and the KOTOR online game villains?

(I only played the first one, not the sequel, and not the loosely connected KOTOR mmorpg.)

Revan was cool until Bioware massively, massively overplayed him. And gave him a completely garbage interquel that managed to make everyone from both KOTOR 1 and 2 look awful. Malak was a garbage villain but he made a good punching bag.

Darth Traya is amazing, and if you start reading into them so were Sion, Nihilus, and even Atris. KOTOR2 was arguably trying a little too hard, but if you can tolerate some serious Edginess, all the major bad guys are deeply interesting and cool to watch in action. The HK-51s are amusing too, but I wouldn't rate them as top villains.

TOR...well, the Sith Emperor is just an overpowered engine of destruction with no personality whatsoever, and I've already covered how sick to death I am of Revan. Several of the storyline antagonists are fun, like Darth Baras, Darth Jadus, and indeed the real final boss of Vanilla, Darth Malgus. I couldn't even argue with the man, he was doing exactly what the Sith Empire needed to do, morally and practically.

Peelee

2017-01-19, 03:14 PM

Revan was cool until Bioware massively, massively overplayed him. And gave him a completely garbage interquel that managed to make everyone from both KOTOR 1 and 2 look awful. Malak was a garbage villain but he made a good punching bag.

Darth Traya is amazing, and if you start reading into them so were Sion, Nihilus, and even Atris. KOTOR2 was arguably trying a little too hard, but if you can tolerate some serious Edginess, all the major bad guys are deeply interesting and cool to watch in action. The HK-51s are amusing too, but I wouldn't rate them as top villains.

Malak wasn't really garbage, he was just in way over his head. He couldn't command like Revan, and was handed Revan's command. That's enough to make anyone falter.

As for KOTOR 2, they didn't try too hard to be edgy so much as they tried too hard to be mysterious. In the end, you just don't really know the point of it all, because they never told you.

Nerd-o-rama

2017-01-19, 04:35 PM

Or because they ran out of time and Lucasfilm wouldn't let them patch the rest of the story in.

Peelee

2017-01-19, 04:59 PM

Or because they ran out of time and Lucasfilm wouldn't let them patch the rest of the story in.

Imean, I realize why it happened, but that doesn't change the game. They shouldn't have been force to rush it, because the story suffered. Which was a shame, since the gameplay was even better than the first.

Flickerdart

2017-01-19, 05:02 PM

Or because they ran out of time and Lucasfilm wouldn't let them patch the rest of the story in.

What was the rest of the story supposed to be? Wasn't it just "Traya got backstabbed by Sith, this surprised her for some reason, so she got salty and wanted to destroy the Force" or something like that?

Keltest

2017-01-19, 09:11 PM

What was the rest of the story supposed to be? Wasn't it just "Traya got backstabbed by Sith, this surprised her for some reason, so she got salty and wanted to destroy the Force" or something like that?

Well, there wasn't a "the rest" of the story, exactly, they just fleshed it out more. And yes, its pretty much "Traya is super mad at the force and wants to kill it". Which to be fair is a fairly plausible motivation for anybody who values free will, until you get to the idea that youre trying to defeat something that controls your actions.

Also, theres a huge disconnect between 1 and 2, in terms of setting. 2 makes it seem like all the jedi everywhere got wiped out, but there are very definitely jedi left at the end of KOTOR 1. The jedi go into hiding because... reasons, I guess, and then it turns out that when they disappear, things Get Worse.

Nerd-o-rama

2017-01-19, 09:20 PM

Well, there wasn't a "the rest" of the story, exactly, they just fleshed it out more. And yes, its pretty much "Traya is super mad at the force and wants to kill it". Which to be fair is a fairly plausible motivation for anybody who values free will, until you get to the idea that youre trying to defeat something that controls your actions.

Also, theres a huge disconnect between 1 and 2, in terms of setting. 2 makes it seem like all the jedi everywhere got wiped out, but there are very definitely jedi left at the end of KOTOR 1. The jedi go into hiding because... reasons, I guess, and then it turns out that when they disappear, things Get Worse.

The Jedi were wiped out (by and large went into hiding, actually, to make later works make sense) because Atris betrayed them and led Nihilus to a big conclave where they all got Force Eaten, because she wanted to be Grandmaster or had a plan to kill Nihilus that didn't work or something. After that the Jedi pretty much went to ground and the Republic pretty much abandoned the Outer Rim to let them get picked off by the Triumvirate's Sith.

This happened between the two games, after Revan departed for the Unknown Regious to continue being a huge tool, as later discussed in the execrable Revan novel.

Basically Obsidian wanted a more Original Trilogy feel compared to KOTOR's prequely sense of heroic Jedi adventuring bands. Except you're playing as Obi-wan Kenobi instead of Luke, and your mentor is Palpatine. It's weird.

Really, the main plot holes are where absurdly powerful Sith like Traya, Sion, and Nihilus came from out of Revan's cobbled-together Empire of defected soldiers and 3D-printed warships, and why is Revan that much of a tool. Also, the Ubese bounty hunters. Timeline doesn't match up.

Keltest

2017-01-19, 09:44 PM

Really, the main plot holes are where absurdly powerful Sith like Traya, Sion, and Nihilus came from out of Revan's cobbled-together Empire of defected soldiers and 3D-printed warships, and why is Revan that much of a tool. Also, the Ubese bounty hunters. Timeline doesn't match up.

Well, Traya was a jedi master and one of Revan's mentors. Nihilus ate that jedi conclave you mentioned, and Sion doesn't seem to be all that powerful, just hard to keep down. I think its implied, at least, that Traya gathered the other two as the first variation of her plan to off the force, since Nihilus at least definitely seems to be a parasitic wound in the same way the Exile is supposed to be. They also definitely got ubercharged by all the pain and stuff around Malachor.